| Term | Definition |
| Stratford-upon-Avon | city in which Shakespeare was born |
| April 16, 1564 | Shakespeare's date of birth |
| April 16, 1616 | Shakespeare's date of death |
| Anne Hathaway | Shakespeare's wife |
| 18 | Shakespeare's age at his marriage |
| 26 | Age of Shakespeare's wife at their marriage |
| 3 | Number of children Shakespeare fathered |
| 1588 | Year in which Shakespeare moved to London |
| Lord Chamberlain's Men | Name of Shakespeare's first acting troupe |
| King's Men | Name of Shakespeare's acting troupe after King James came to power |
| Globe Theater | name of Shakespeare's theater |
| King James | King durring his life |
| Queen Elizabeth | Queen durring his life |
| ambivalence | n. the state of having contradictory or conflicting emotional atitudes |
| alienate | v. make hostile; separate |
| momentous | adj. very important |
| morose | adj. ill-humored; sullen |
| motley | adj. multi-colored; mixed/varied |
| mutable | adj. liable to change, fickle |
| naivete | n. quality of being unsophisticated |
| nonentity | n. non-existense; person of no importance |
| negligence | n. neglecting something (not taking care to do it) |
| novelty | n. something new; newness |
| notorious | adj. outstandingly bad; unfavorably known |
| omniscient | adj. all-knowing |
| opiate | n. sleep prodUcer; deadener of pain |
| ordinance | n. decree |
| ostensible | adj. apparent or professed, but not necessarily true; pretended |
| ostracize | v. exclude from public favor; ban |
| irreconcilable | adj. incompatable; not able to be resolved |
| iota | n. very small quantity |
| jargon | n. language used by special group; gibberish |
| kindred | adj. related; belonging to the same family |
| fatalism | n. belief that events are determined by forces beyond ones control |
| fawning | adj. courting by favor; cringing; flattering |
| fickle | adj. changable; faithless |
| flagrant | adj. conspicuously wicked |
| foreboding | n. premonition of (evil) |
| forte | n. strong point or special talent |
| fracas | n. brawl; melee |
| frugality | n. thrift |
| furtive | adj. stealthy; sneaky |
| gauche | adj. clumsy; boorish; not socially polished |
| gaunt | adj. lean and angular; barren |
| generic | adj. charasteristic of a class or species |
| gait | n. manner of walking or running; speed |
| Prospero | Duke of Milan, exiled to an island |
| Miranda | Prospero's Daughter, falls in love w/ ferdinand |
| Antonio | Prospero's Brother, persuades Sebastian to kill Alonso |
| Alonso | King of Naples, aided Antonio in unseating Prospero |
| Sebastian | Alonso's Brother |
| Ferdinand | Alonso's son, falls in love w/ miranda |
| Gonzalo | Counsellor of Naples, honest; helped Prospero escape to the island |
| Ariel | An airy spirit attendant upon Prospero; gender ambiguous; used to be Sycorax's servant |
| Caliban | A Savage and deformed native on the island, Prospero's slave |
| Trinculo | Alonso's jester |
| Stefano | Alonso's drunken butler |
| Boatswain | only appears in first and last scenes of the play |
| Claribel | Daughter of Alonso, gets married |
| Sycorax | Caliban's mother |
| Setebos | Caliban's god |
| Imagery | Use of words to create vivid pictures in one's mind |
| Enjambment | One line/verse to the next w/o punctuation |
| Diction | Word choice to change sentence power |
| Repetition | repeating of a theme or phrase throughout a piece of literature |
| Conceit | extended simile/metaphor |
| Anecdote | Brief story told by a character in a piece of literature, usually with a moral component |
| Tone | Authors attitude toward reader |
| Mood | authors attitude toward subject |
| Metaphor | comparison usually using an abstract idea to better explain the main idea |
| Simile | a metaphor using like/ as |
| Symbol | similar to metaphor, but essential to poem's story, and it is up for interpretation |
| Theme | Main idea/ moral running through a piece of literature |
| Apostrophe | Poetic Device in which an imaginary or absent person in being directly addressed |
| Allusions | reference to a person, place, or thing from literary or cultural history |
| Contrast | a semi- opposite idea use to strengthen the main idea of a piece of literature |
| Personification | A Figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to non-human things. |
| Paradox | A statement or idea that at first seems self- contradictory or nonsensical, but nonetheless reveals itself to be true. |
| Shakespeare wrote | Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories |
| Shakespeare's works were compiled into the | First Folio |