24 April, Julius Caesar Day 1

Late papers, folders, PowerPoint handouts, and note cards were turned in.

Students identified qualities of
- a good leader
- a bad leader
- a good friend
- a bad friend

Practice with Shakespeare's Language: Paraphrasing

• Students then read and paraphrased Puck's speech from the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream. They then watched a youtube video of the Animaniacs performing the speech. (see below or click here for link)
• Students read Hamlet's "Alas, Poor Yorick" speech, paraphrased it, and watched the Animaniac's performance. (see below or click here for link)

Act I Vocabulary definitions:
1.Construe: interpret
2.Cogitations: thoughts
3.Accoutered: dressed for battle, in armor
4.Entreat: to ask earnestly; beg; implore
5.Fain: gladly
6.Mettle: courage, fortitude; quality of character; disposition
7.Prodigies: portentous sign or event; omens
8.Portentous: evil, ominous; foreshadowing something evil

Act I Notes (students filled in blanks on a handout)

• Anachronism – historically, something is out of chronological order (ex: in the play, a clock strikes. The play is set more than 2000 years ago when clocks didn’t exist)
• Lupercalia - A fertility festival in ancient Rome, celebrated on February 15 in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus.
  - Julius Caesar begins on this day.
  - But the next day is the Ides of March. This is why we don’t read the play as a history. Shakespeare squeezes months into days.
• Themes in Julius Caesar (copied into notes)
  -Friendship
  -Leadership
  -Betrayal
  -Ambition
  -Superstition & fate

Students received handouts for Act I. These included detailed study questions for all scened and separate handouts for each scene.

• Act I, Scene i handout: read the definition of "pun" and identify which of the 7 sentences at the bottom are puns.
• Basic background for scene i:
  **The play opens as Julius Caesar is returning to Rome after defeating Pompey.
  **He used to be friends with Pompey. They used to rule together with Crassus, the first triumvirate. ***First triumvirate = Caesar, Pompey, Crassus
  **Marullus and Flavius are tribunes (police officers). They are angry with the people for cheering for Caesar.

Students read Act I, scenes 1 and most of scene 2 aloud in class. Students were given instructions on where to go online to read the rest of scene 2. On this blog page, there are links on the left to the full text and to individual acts. These individual acts include the original version on the left and a modern version next to the original on the right. Students should click on the link "Act I Original, Modern" and read scene 2 lines 215 to the end (page 17-23 on the pdf file)

Animaniacs A Midsummer Night's Dream

Animaniacs Hamlet