Shakespeare: His Work’s Role in Programs -both Charlotte Mason & A Mind in the Light

William Shakespeare, also known as “Bard of Avon”, is so well known to us that we often refer to him by his last name only. Adding new phrases and words to the English language, using soliloquies to give us insight into character thought and expanding ideas of character and plot within plays, he made dramatic changes to theatre and the literary world. This effect went on to influence authors, poets, artists and composers who followed. Even today, his words and craft still impact us.

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire and became an English playwright, poet and actor. He married Anne Hathaway and had three children. While his family lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare primarily worked and stayed in London.

Shakespeare’s works include many plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night. His plays are usually divided into three main categories: tragedy, comedy and history. Some of his later plays, such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest crossed comedy with tragedy and were known as romances. He was a well-regarded poet, creating what we know as the Shakespearean sonnet.

Aware of his significant effect on literature, poetry and drama, Charlotte Mason included a study of his works in her PNEU programs. This study began in Form II [Year Four] and continued throughout, although sometimes the programs for Form VI students included other forms of drama instead. Each year focused on one play per term, so three plays each year. A 1913 article from The Parents’ Review affirms this when Ms. Daphne Chaplin writes:

In Class II., the children range from nine to twelve years old, and their literature lessons are re-animated for them by the interest and pleasure of reading aloud. Thus, even when so young, they come to know and enjoy Shakespeare; there are not many people who do both. Each term they read a play, attending only to the swing and beauty of the lines, the simpler points of characterization (528-532, 546-547).

After rereading a number of the retellings from Tales from Shakespeare, I wondered again, if Charlotte Mason actually included all of Shakespeare’s plays, especially with intending for students as young as 9 to be reading and listening to them. Some seemed particularly inappropriate for children this young. And, of course, his plays are written with more complexity than is normally read by children who have usually only just begun to gain reading fluency. After some research, I found that not all plays were covered and Form II students included even fewer options. From a large study of PNEU programs for Form II and above, here is a list of some of these plays:

Form II

Henry V, Henry VIII, The Tempest, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Merchant of Venice, King John, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear and As You Like It, with the first six listed showing up more than once. A Parent’s Review article: “Art and Literature in the Parents’ Union School” also listed Cymbeline for Form II, but I was not able to access all of the PNEU programs, so it could have been included in another program.

Form III +

All of above but with these added: Hamlet, Richard II, Othello, Richard III, Much Ado about Nothing, The Winter's Tale, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo & Juliet. It seems that even Mason was strategic about which plays were included for children as young as 9.

As far as how the plays were incorporated into a typical week, the programs show that students would choose some lines from the play of the term for transcribing as well as for recitation. In two scenarios, the correlated reading from Plutarch would also be read: Julius Caesar and Coriolanus, with the latter happening on just some occasions.

It seems that students would read the plays and many times act them out. In narration, they would sometimes create verses for characters and scenes from the plays or write scenes for the plays. In “The Work and Aims of the PNEU”, another article from The Parents’ Review, Mrs. Conyers Alston writes: “One play of Shakespeare’s is read each term, not analytically, but for the joy of the thing. Children are also encouraged to write verses on given subjects and to make little plays and scenes from something read in the history, geography or literature lessons” (Alston, 1925, pp. 305-313). Even Ms. Mason refers to how students write verses inspired by their Shakespeare plays in Towards a Philosophy of Education (Vol. 6) with the following:

The children write with perfect understanding as far as they go and there is rarely a ‘howler’ [glaring mistake] in hundreds of sets of papers. They have an enviable power of getting at the gist of a book or subject. Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way… (242)

If there are concerns about much younger children reading Shakespearean plays in their original form, then Ms. Mason addresses this in Volume 6. She writes:

In IIB they read their own geography, history, poetry, but perhaps Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, say, Scott's Rob Roy, Gulliver's Travels, should be read to them and narrated by them until they are well in their tenth year. Their power to understand, visualise, and ‘tell’ a play of Shakespeare from nine years old and onwards is very surprising. They put in nothing which is not there, but they miss nothing and display a passage or a scene in a sort of curious relief (182).

Charlotte Mason assures us that they will enjoy the stories, the acting out of them, the characters, plots and dialogue exchanges. It seems they are to enjoy the general frameworks of the stories until, as they grow older and with repeated exposure, they then take more and more from the plays. From In Formation of Character (Vol. 5), she writes:

And Shakespeare? He, indeed, is not to be classed, and timed, and treated as one amongst others, ––he, who might well be the daily bread of the intellectual life; Shakespeare is not to be studied in a year; he is to be read continuously throughout life, from ten years old and onwards. But a child of ten cannot understand Shakespeare. No; but can a man of fifty? Is not our great poet rather an ample feast of which every one takes according to his needs, and leaves what he has no stomach for? A little girl of nine said to me the other day that she had only read one play of Shakespeare's through, and that was A Midsummer Night's Dream. She did not understand the play, of course, but she must have found enough to amuse and interest her. How would it be to have a monthly reading of Shakespeare––a play, to be read in character, and continued for two or three evenings until it is finished? The Shakespeare evening would come to be looked on as a family festa; and the plays, read again and again, year after year, would yield more at each reading, and would leave behind in the end rich deposits of wisdom (226).

Ms. Mason indicates that Shakespeare offers the students a unique view into characters and the choices they make. These choices then go on to affect the outcome of the story. From Ourselves (Vol. 4), Ms. Mason tells us:

We probably read Shakespeare in the first place for his stories, afterwards for his characters, the multitude of delightful persons with whom he makes us so intimate that afterwards, in fiction or in fact, we say, ‘She is another Jessica,’ and ‘That dear girl is a Miranda’; ‘She is a Cordelia to her father,’ and, such a figure in history, ‘a base lago.’ To become intimate with Shakespeare in this way is a great enrichment of mind and instruction of conscience. Then, by degrees, as we go on reading this world-teacher, lines of insight and beauty take possession of us, and unconsciously mould our judgments of men and things and of the great issues of life (72).

While Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb are mentioned a number of times as worthy literature for much younger children in Parents’ Review articles, it is not used specifically in the programs as literature. The Shakespeare Storybook by Mary Macleod is mentioned in the Parents’ Review as a good alternative for a slightly more grown-up version of Lamb’s tales.

A Mind in the Light has chosen to approach Shakespeare a little differently. It will not be introduced until Year Six, which is still in Form II but at the end of it. In this year, students will be introduced to Shakespeare with a specially designed introductory guide which will focus on the plays which Charlotte Mason actually included in her PNEU programs, including some of the missing histories. Largely based on Mary Macleod’s The Shakespeare Storybook as well as some retellings from Harrison S. Morris, specifically the history plays, this guide will provide students and teachers with pre-reading notes, narration prompts and other helpful resources. The selections needed for study will be included in the guide.

Students will begin reading Shakespeare’s plays in their original form in Year Seven and will continue reading them through Year Twelve. Students aged 12 and older will read the plays -acting them out as desired, select verses for recitation and their commonplace book, write responses and papers and have Great Ideas Discussions. Attending live productions of plays when possible are always highly recommended, but movie options can also be enjoyed. Optionally, students may add lectures from The Great Courses.

Recommended Resources include:

Note: Free coloring pages are linked at the website.

Forms II, III & IV

o Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley

o William Shakespeare & the Globe by Aliki

o Great Characters from Shakespeare [Paper Dolls] from Dover

o Great Scenes from Shakespeare’s Plays [Coloring Book] by Dover

o Will’s Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe and John Shelley

o A Shakespeare Coloring Book [Bellerophon Books]

Form V+

Note: As with any books and resources for older students, please preview; mature content is to be expected with Shakespeare.

o Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garner