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    William Shakespeare

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    Elisa Sirghi
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote about 38 plays and 154 sonnets throughout his career. His works have been translated into every major living language and are performed more than any other playwright. Shakespeare influenced later dramatists and other artists with his use of character depth, complex plots, innovative language, and expansion of literary genres. Though not always revered during his lifetime, Shakespeare's works are now considered among the greatest in the English language and he is regarded as one of the most important writers in history.

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    William Shakespeare

    Uploaded by

    Elisa Sirghi
    148 views8 pages
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote about 38 plays and 154 sonnets throughout his career. His works have been translated into every major living language and are performed more than any other playwright. Shakespeare influenced later dramatists and other artists with his use of character depth, complex plots, innovative language, and expansion of literary genres. Though not always revered during his lifetime, Shakespeare's works are now considered among the greatest in the English language and he is regarded as one of the most important writers in history.

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    William Shakespeare (2)

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    William Shakespeare (2)

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    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote about 38 plays and 154 sonnets throughout his career. His works have been translated into every major living language and are performed more than any other playwright. Shakespeare influenced later dramatists and other artists with his use of character depth, complex plots, innovative language, and expansion of literary genres. Though not always revered during his lifetime, Shakespeare's works are now considered among the greatest in the English language and he is regarded as one of the most important writers in history.

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    148 views8 pages

    William Shakespeare

    Uploaded by

    Elisa Sirghi
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote about 38 plays and 154 sonnets throughout his career. His works have been translated into every major living language and are performed more than any other playwright. Shakespeare influenced later dramatists and other artists with his use of character depth, complex plots, innovative language, and expansion of literary genres. Though not always revered during his lifetime, Shakespeare's works are now considered among the greatest in the English language and he is regarded as one of the most important writers in history.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 8

    William Shakespeare

    Barbu Mihai

    Introduction

    William Shakespeare26 April 1564 23 April 1616)was an


    Englishpoet,playwrightand actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in
    theEnglish languageand the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often
    called England's national poetand the "Bard of Avon".His extant works,
    including somecollaborations, consist of about38 plays,154 sonnets, two
    longnarrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of
    which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every majorliving
    languageand are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
    Shakespeare was born and brought up inStratford-upon-Avon. At the age of
    18, he marriedAnne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:Susanna,
    and twinsHamnetandJudith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a
    successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of aplaying
    companycalled theLord Chamberlain's Men, later known as theKing's Men.
    He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he
    died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and
    there has been considerable speculation about such matters ashis physical
    appearance,sexuality,religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to
    him werewritten by others

    Early life
    William Shakespeare was the son ofJohn Shakespeare, analdermanand
    a successful glover originally fromSnitterfield, andMary Arden, the
    daughter of an affluent landowning farmer.He was born inStratfordupon-Avonand baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth
    remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April,Saint
    George's Day.This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century
    scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since
    Shakespeare died 23 April 1616.He was the third child of eight and the
    eldest surviving son.
    Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers
    agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at theKing's New
    Schoolin Stratford,a free school chartered in 1553,about a quarter-mile
    from his home.Grammar schoolsvaried in quality during the Elizabethan
    era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar, the
    basicLatintext was standardised by royal decree,and the school would
    have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon
    Latinclassicalauthors.

    Plays
    Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, and critics
    agree that Shakespeare did the same, mostly early and late in his career.Some
    attributions, such asTitus Andronicusand the early history plays, remain controversial,
    whileThe Two Noble Kinsmenand the lostCardeniohave well-attested contemporary
    documentation. Textual evidence also supports the view that several of the plays were
    revised by other writers after their original composition.
    The first recorded works of Shakespeare areRichard IIIand the three parts ofHenry VI,
    written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are
    difficult to date, however,and studies of the texts suggest thatTitus Andronicus,The
    Comedy of Errors,The Taming of the ShrewandThe Two Gentlemen of Veronamay also
    belong to Shakespeare's earliest period.His firsthistories, which draw heavily on the 1587
    edition ofRaphael Holinshed'sChronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the
    destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for
    the origins of theTudor dynasty.The early plays were influenced by the works of other
    Elizabethan dramatists, especiallyThomas KydandChristopher Marlowe, by the traditions
    of medieval drama, and by the plays ofSeneca.The Comedy of Errorswas also based on
    classical models, but no source forThe Taming of the Shrewhas been found, though it is
    related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk
    story.LikeThe Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of
    rape,theShrew'sstory of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man
    sometimes troubles modern critics and directors.

    Style

    Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He
    wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from
    the needs of the characters or the drama.The poetry depends on extended,
    sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often
    rhetoricalwritten for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand
    speeches inTitus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the
    action, for example; and the verse inThe Two Gentlemen of Veronahas been
    described as stilted.
    Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own
    purposes. The openingsoliloquyofRichard IIIhas its roots in the selfdeclaration ofVicein medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid selfawareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays.No
    single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare
    combined the two throughout his career, withRomeo and Julietperhaps the
    best example of the mixing of the styles.By the time ofRomeo and
    Juliet,Richard II, andA Midsummer Night's Dreamin the mid-1590s,
    Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned
    his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

    Influence

    Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre


    and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential
    ofcharacterisation, plot,language, andgenre.UntilRomeo and Juliet,
    for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for
    tragedy.Soliloquieshad been used mainly to convey information
    about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore
    characters' minds.His work heavily influenced later poetry.
    TheRomantic poetsattempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama,
    though with little success. CriticGeorge Steinerdescribed all English
    verse dramas fromColeridgetoTennysonas "feeble variations on
    Shakespearean themes."
    Shakespeare influenced novelists such asThomas Hardy,William
    Faulkner, andCharles Dickens. The American novelistHerman
    Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab
    inMoby-Dickis a classictragic hero, inspired byKing Lear.Scholars
    have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works.

    Religion

    Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family


    were Catholics, at a time when Catholic practice was against
    the law.Shakespeare's mother,Mary Arden, certainly came
    from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a
    Catholic statement of faith signed byJohn Shakespeare, found
    in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. The
    document is now lost, however, and scholars differ as to its
    authenticity.In 1591 the authorities reported that John
    Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a
    common Catholic excuse.In 1606 the name of William's
    daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to
    attend Eastercommunionin Stratford.Some scholars find
    evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism in his
    plays,while others also find protestant rhetoric ofreligious
    tolerancein his writings.

    Critical Reputation
    Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large
    amount of praise.In 1598, the cleric and authorFrancis Meres
    singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most
    excellent" in both comedy and tragedy.The authors of
    theParnassusplays atSt John's College, Cambridgenumbered him
    withChaucer,GowerandSpenser.In theFirst Folio,Ben
    Jonsoncalled Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause,
    delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had remarked
    elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art".
    Betweenthe Restorationof the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the
    17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the
    time mostly rated Shakespeare belowJohn Fletcherand Ben
    Jonson.Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for
    mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and criticJohn
    Drydenrated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him,
    but I love Shakespeare".

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