Lit

Front 1

alliteration

Back 1

the use of words that begin with the same sound near one another (as in wild and woolly or a babbling brook )

Front 2

allusion

Back 2

a statement that refers to something without mentioning it directly

Front 3

atmosphere

Back 3

a surrounding influence or environment

Front 4

bad quarto

Back 4

In Shakespearean scholarship, a bad quarto is a quarto-sized publication of one of Shakespeare's plays that is considered spurious, that was pirated from a theatre without permission by someone in the audience writing it down as it was spoken.

Front 5

blank verse

Back 5

A blank verse is a poem with no rhyme but does have iambic pentameter. This means it consists of lines of five feet, each foot being iambic, meaning two syllables long, one unstressed followed by a stressed syllable.

Front 6

comic relief

Back 6

an amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements, as in a play, in order to provide temporary relief from tension, or to intensify the dramatic action.

Front 7

denouement

Back 7

the final part of something (such as a book, a play, or a series of events)

Front 8

dramatis personae

Back 8

1 : the characters or actors in a drama. 2 singular in construction : a list of the characters or actors in a drama.

Front 9

Elizabethan

Back 9

relating to Queen Elizabeth I of England or the time when she ruled (1558 to 1603)

Front 10

fair copy

Back 10

written or printed matter transcribed or reproduced after final correction.

Front 11

foil

Back 11

a : to prevent from attaining an end : defeat b : to bring to naught : thwart : someone or something that serves as a contrast to another

Front 12

folio

Back 12

a : a leaf especially of a manuscript or bookb : a leaf numberc : a page numberd : an identifying reference in accounting used in posting

Front 13

foreshadowing

Back 13

to give a suggestion of (something that has not yet happened)

Front 14

foul papers

Back 14

author's working drafts. The term is most often used in the study of the plays of Shakespeare and other dramatists of English Renaissance drama. Once the composition of a play was finished, a transcript or "fair copy" of the foul papers was prepared, by the author or by a scribe.

Front 15

good quarto

Back 15

considered to be a text that is authorized; one that may have been printed from the author’s manuscript, or a scribal copy or prompt copy based on the author’s manuscript.[

Front 16

iambic pentameter

Back 16

commonly used type of metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in that line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of foot that is used, known as the iamb, which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".

Front 17

imagery

Back 17

language that causes people to imagine pictures in their mind

Front 18

irony

Back 18

the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny

Front 19

metaphor

Back 19

a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar

Front 20

monologue

Back 20

a long speech given by a character in a story, movie, play, etc., or by a performer (such as a comedian)

Front 21

motif

Back 21

something (such as an important idea or subject) that is repeated throughout a book, story, etc.

Front 22

oxymoron

Back 22

a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings

Front 23

personification

Back 23

: a person who has a lot of a particular quality and who is the perfect example of someone who has that quality: an imaginary person that represents a thing or idea: the practice of representing a thing or idea as a person in art, literature, etc.

Front 24

props

Back 24

something that is said to publicly thank and give special attention to someone for doing something : credit or recognition

Front 25

quarto

Back 25

the size of a piece of paper cut four from a sheet; also : paper or a page of this size2: a book printed on quarto pages

Front 26

scene

Back 26

a division of an act in a play during which the action takes place in a single place without a break in time: a part of a play, movie, story, etc., in which a particular action or activity occurs

Front 27

simile

Back 27

a phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar

Front 28

soliloquy

Back 28

a long, usually serious speech that a character in a play makes to an audience and that reveals the character's thoughts

Front 29

stage directions

Back 29

an instruction in the text of a play, especially one indicating the movement, position, or tone of an actor, or the sound effects and lighting.

Front 30

tragedy

Back 30

a play, movie, etc., that is serious and has a sad ending (such as the death of the main character)

Front 31

verse

Back 31

writing in which words are arranged in a rhythmic pattern: a part of a poem or song

Front 32

prose

Back 32

writing that is not poetry : ordinary writing

Front 33

synesthesia

Back 33

the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

Front 34

Shakespearean sonnet

Back 34

The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. The couplet has the rhyme scheme gg. This sonnet structure is commonly called the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet

Front 35

rhyme scheme

Back 35

the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.

Front 36

Baconians

Back 36

Of, relating to, or characteristic of the works or thought of the philosopher Francis Bacon.

Front 37

Oxfordians

Back 37

The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare.

Front 38

The Globe

Back 38

The theater in London where many of the great plays of William Shakespeare were first performed. Shakespeare himself acted at the Globe. It burned and was rebuilt shortly before Shakespeare's death and was finally pulled down in the middle of the seventeenth century.

Front 39

The Lost Years

Back 39

We know very little about Shakespeare's life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the "lost years": 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school, until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582. The second period covers the seven years of Shakespeare's life in which he must have been perfecting his dramatic skills and collecting sources for the plots of his plays.

Front 40

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Back 40

known as the birth place of Shakespeare

Front 41

Anne Hathaway

Back 41

was the wife of William Shakespeare

Front 42

Holy Trinity Church

Back 42

It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shakespeare's Church, due to its fame as the place of baptism and burial of William Shakespeare.

Front 43

candles/intermission

Back 43

Jack knows this one

Front 44

Groundlings

Back 44

a spectator or reader of inferior taste, such as a member of a theater audience who traditionally stood in the pit below the stage.

Front 45

Shakespeare's birth

Back 45

April 23, 1564

Front 46

Shakespeare's death

Back 46

23 April 1616

Front 47

publication of First Folio

Back 47

1623

Front 48

Approx. date for AMND

Back 48

1600