Name:
In Search of Shakespeare, The Duty of Poets, Episode Three
1)The movie begins with the pursuit of the
Jesuit poet, Robert Southwell. Who was he
to Shakespeare? What did he consider the
“duty of poets”?
2) What did Shakespeare consider his poetic
duty, and what interfered with that duty in
1593? What did he do instead?
3) To whom did Shakespeare address his
poems, and why?
4) After he apprehended Southwell, why did
Topcliffe bring him home?
5) What did Southwell’s friends give Queen
Elizabeth? What was her reaction?
6) In August 1596, what happened? Where
was Shakespeare?
7) In 1596, Shakespeare bought New Place,
the biggest house in Stratford. He also filed
an application. What was it for, and what did
it mean?
8) Describe Shakespeare’s crest and motto:
9) What poems did Shakespeare write in
Wilton in 1597? To whom were they
addressed?
10) Why were the theaters closed this
winter? Why did Shakespeare hide in
Southwark, and what was that area like?
11) What do we know about the woman to
whom Shakespeare addressed his last
sonnets? Who does the film suggest she was?
12) Who was Simon Foreman?
13) What plays did Shakespeare write in this
year?
14) Who was the “best carpenter in London”?
What did he and Shakespeare’s company do
over Christmas 1598?
15) What date did the Globe Theater open?
How did the company choose the date? How
was the player’s stake in the theater different
from that of players in the past?
16) In 1601, a disaffected favorite of
Elizabeth’s approached Shakespeare’s Lord
Chamberlain’s men about performing a
particular play with a “banned” scene
restored. What was the play, and what was
its significance?
17) What did the favorite hope to accomplish
with this performance? What went wrong?
18) What was the players excuse for doing
the performance? How did this performance
affect Shakespeare personally?
19) What was the “war of the poets”? Who
were Shakespeare’s biggest rivals, and who
wrote for them?
20) In which play, compared by the film to
Rebel Without a Cause, did Shakespeare
comment on those rivals?
21) What did Jonson consider the “duty of
poets”? (His Isle of Dogs had caused theaters
to be closed in 1597 and resulted in his own
imprisonment).
22) What were the Inns of Court?
23) The play, Othello, was timed to respond
to what Elizabethan social controversy?
24) What is the King Lear quote that ends this
episode entitled The Duty of Poets?