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Which plays belong to Shakespeare's earliest period?
Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period.
Where was William Shakespeare born?
He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564.
How did Shakespeare die?
Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."
How did Shakespeare influence the world?
Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."
Why are some Shakespeare plays bad quartos?
Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre-1623 versions as " bad quartos " because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.
How many copies of Shakespeare's plays have been sold?
According to Guinness Book of World Records Shakespeare remains the world’s best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.
What was the indoor setting in Shakespeare's Cymbeline?
The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees.".
How did Shakespeare become an actor?
We have his plays and think of him first and foremost as a writer: we have no information about his acting life but he would have considered himself first as an actor, acting work being the bread and butter of his career. We know he didn’t become one of the big stars of the stage, like Edward Alleyne and Richard Burbage but we do think that he performed before the Queen.
How old was Shakespeare when he built the first theatre?
William Shakespeare was nine years old when the first theatre in England was opened. The idea of a dedicated building for the performance of plays was conceived as late as 1576, when James Burbage, the father of Shakespeare’s future acting colleague, Richard Burbage, built a theatre in Shoreditch, London, which he called ‘The Theatre.’
What is the life of an Elizabethan actor?
The Life Of An Elizabethan Actor. The acting ‘profession’ is one of the oldest. We refer to it as a profession these days but paid actors are men and women who practice a trade and they’ve always worked alongside other tradespeople. Those working in theatre, television and film in our era have a high status but in Shakespeare’s time, ...
What was the act of 1572?
In 1572, Parliament passed two acts which were devastating for the acting profession . In the first one, the Queen, wanting to curb the power of local grandees, forbade “the unlawful retaining of multitudes of unordinary servants by liveries, badges, and other signs and tokens.” The result was that hundreds of actors around the country were dismissed. The other act “for the punishment of vagabondes,” allowed for the arrest and imprisonment of the unemployed, including actors, often actors who had work but were caught wandering about the streets of London.
Why are actors so famous?
Some of our actors are very famous, normally because they attract attention as a result of the films they act in, and if they become popular the viewing public shows an interest in them as people.
How many theatres were there in London during Shakespeare's time?
During Shakespeare’s time watching plays was the main entertainment in London. There were twenty-two theatres for a population of about twenty thousand, and the theatres were full every day. The theatres were in murderous competition with each other and the audiences expected new plays every day.
What is Shakespeare's interest in acting?
One interesting idea that could account for Shakespeare’s interest in acting is that he may have performed in one of the cycles of Mystery plays mounted as Whitsun pastimes in Stratford. One of them, in 1583, was presented by one Davi Jones, a relative by marriage of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne.
Who is William Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon), English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.
How many plays did Shakespeare write?
There is some dispute about how many plays Shakespeare wrote. The general consensus is 37.
What are the qualities of Shakespeare?
It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity, perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeare’s merits can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of Elizabethan England.
How many children did Shakespeare have?
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, when he was 18. They had three children: Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet died at the age of 11.
What caused Shakespeare to die?
However, the vicar of the local church wrote in his journal some fifty years later that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard; for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.".
Why is Shakespeare important?
Shakespeare remains vital because his plays present people and situations that we recognize today. His characters have an emotional reality that transcends time, and his plays depict familiar experiences, ranging from family squabbles to falling in love to war. The fact that his plays are performed and adapted around the world underscores ...
What is the title page of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays?
Title page of the First Folio, the first published edition (1623) of the collected works of William Shakespeare; it was originally titled Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies. Photos.com/Thinkstock.
When was Shakespeare first mentioned?
The first reference to Shakespeare in the literary world of London comes in 1592, when a fellow dramatist, Robert Greene, declared in a pamphlet written on his deathbed:
Who was the best actor in Shakespeare's Globe?
They had the best actor, Richard Burbage; they had the best theatre, the Globe (finished by the autumn of 1599); they had the best dramatist, Shakespeare. It is no wonder that the company prospered. Shakespeare became a full-time professional man of his own theatre, sharing in a cooperative enterprise and intimately concerned with ...
What was Shakespeare's will?
Shakespeare’s will (made on March 25, 1616) is a long and detailed document. It entailed his quite ample property on the male heirs of his elder daughter, Susanna. (Both his daughters were then married, one to the aforementioned Thomas Quiney and the other to John Hall, a respected physician of Stratford.) As an afterthought, he bequeathed his “second-best bed” to his wife; no one can be certain what this notorious legacy means. The testator’s signatures to the will are apparently in a shaky hand. Perhaps Shakespeare was already ill. He died on April 23, 1616. No name was inscribed on his gravestone in the chancel of the parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon. Instead these lines, possibly his own, appeared:
How long did Shakespeare devote himself to his art?
All that can be deduced is that for 20 years Shakespeare devoted himself assiduously to his art, writing more than a million words of poetic drama of the highest quality.
What was Shakespeare's private life?
Private life. Shakespeare had little contact with officialdom, apart from walking—dressed in the royal livery as a member of the King’s Men —at the coronation of King James I in 1604. He continued to look after his financial interests. He bought properties in London and in Stratford.
Where did Shakespeare live in 1612?
Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Where is Shakespeare's house?
Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare's house, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. © Bettmann/Corbis. No letters written by Shakespeare have survived, but a private letter to him happened to get caught up with some official transactions of the town of Stratford and so has been preserved in the borough archives.
What are some of the most interesting facts about William Shakespeare's life?
Names from some plays can be found on gravestones near Stratford-upon-Avon. In the wake of his only son’s death, he wrote a play centered around the loss of a family member and a sense of existential grief/madness in its wake, i.e. Hamlet. Towards the end of his career a theme of a seemingly unworthy suitor to a young woman but who marries her anyway pops up in The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, etc. Shakespeare’s own daughter, Judith, became engaged to a Puritan, a man who openly opposed the theatre even existing and who had an illigitimate child. Likewise Shakespeare had no heirs save his daughters, like King Lear. Then there’s the name of his mother’s family, used in As You Like It.
Why did Shakespeare become wealthy?
When the theaters shut down due to plague, Shakespeare became a grain merchant, which ended up leaving him very wealthy. He was by far the richest man in Stratford, owning the most property and the largest house in town.
Did Shakespeare retire?
So we can see through the printing history of Shakespeare's plays how he became increasingly famous, his name was increasingly worthwhile to the literate masses, but not famous enough for anyone to notice he retired until almost a decade later, and no one in London aware of his death except for his friends.
Is Hamlet on the page in 1604?
Now in 1604, we have a copy of Hamlet (actually the second time this was printed). Shakespeare's name is now much higher on the page, but still smaller than the title. Notice here we don't even have the company, just the name of the play and the playwright.
Was Shakespeare known for his plays?
He wasn't what you'd call incredibly famous, but he wasn't unknown either. You can actually see some textual record of his growing fame in the printing of his plays. Most of Shakespeare's plays were printed after his death, but those printed during his lifetime were sporadic. Early in his career, a few plays were printed when one of his early companies went kaput. These plays identified the playing company that did them, but didn't identify Shakespeare. There was no copyright then, so printers had no obligation to put anything on the title page of a book that wouldn't help them sell the play.
Was Shakespeare a son?
Yes. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare and his wife Mary (nee Arden) from Stratford-upon-Avon. There are plenty of legal records showing he existed. There are plenty of references to his life, which show (among other things) he is the same man who was a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in London. Many records during and immediately after his death refer to him as a poet and playwright, including his name on the title pages of the folios and quartos. The question of his existence and his credit in writing the plays and poems attributed to him did not occur to anyone for ce
Overview
Life
Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can …
Plays
Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.
The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of th…
Poems
In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is r…
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 rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeche…
Influence
Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shak…
Critical reputation
Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower, and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakes…
Works
Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakesp…