|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
William
Shakespeare |
 |
William Shakespeare's life is known only in outline.
and some
have thought the plays were written by others,
but William
Shakespeare (1564-1616) can be documented as a real
person. Born the son of a prominent businessman in Stratford-upon-Avon,
Shakespeare received the usual grammar school education,
which included Latin and a little Greek. At 18 he married
the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, had three children and then
took himself off to London, where he largely stayed, becoming
actor, successful playwright and part theatre-owner.
The plays
were written between 1590 and 1614. Within two years of
retirement at Stratford, Shakespeare was dead, and his will
does not mention the plays, most
of which of which were collected in the 1623 First Folio,
a decisive step in his slow rise to deification.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shakespeare's art |
 |
Shakespeare
was preeminent in three areas: his exuberance in and
command of the English language, his stagecraft, and his
rich gallery of characters. He is the most quoted of English
writers. and theatre productions continue to reinterpret
his themes, sometimes in ways that would astound their author.
Shakespeare's plays transcend their period, but gain
immeasurably by being also seen in their social,
intellectual
and
political
contexts. Shakespeare's language constantly evolves —
from the Italianate Venus
and Adonis, through the sugared Sonnets,
the felicitous phrasing of Midsummer
Night's Dream, supple blank verse of Hamlet,
the tangled darkness of Lear,
and the free rhythmic verse of Macbeth
and Antony
and Cleopatra, to the supreme accomplishment of
The
Tempest. F.E. Halliday's The Poetry of Shakespeare's
Plays (1954) and G.T. Wright's Shakespeare's Metrical
Art (1988) are two of many detailed examinations of
Shakespeare's art that repay study by anyone using verse
dramatically.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shakespeare as this or that |
 |
No one can encompass all that's to be read about (or
into) Shakespeare, even on the Internet.
Shakespeare can be seen as the world's
most discussed writer, the
spokesman of his age, an exemplar of Tudor
law or the
moral law, a supreme creator
of character, a
plagiarist, a creature
of the literary establishment, a perceptive
student of human nature, a social
commentator, a humanist,
a male
chauvinist, an idealist
or supporter of political
reality, a believer
or not in Catholicism,
freemasonry
and the occult.
His work has been praised and condemned by dramatists,
critics,
teachers, actors,
directors,
and by social
commentators. Some plays are lauded for their humanity,
but Measure
for Measure and
The Taming of the Shrew have been hard to take
for feminists.
Shakespeare the man, his true beliefs and opinions, remains
an enigma, though one which each
age seems obliged
to penetrate. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shakespeare resources |
 |
Shakespeare demands to be seen and heard,
perhaps with contemporary music.
Attend productions and
films
of his plays, therefore, or put
on your own. Try these sites for VCR,
cassette,
videos,
CD
and real
audio recordings. For more scholarly material see:
Early Modern Literary Studies, Literary
Resources: Renaissance, Renaissance:
Elizabethan World, Renaissance
Forum, Renaissance
Texts, Sixteenth
Century English Texts, World
Shakespeare Bibliography and Voice
of the Shuttle. Books on Shakespeare can be found in any
decent library, but these are popular introductions: G.B.
Harrison's Introducing Shakespeare (1991), F.E. Halliday's
A Shakespeare Companion (1964) and M.C. Bradbrook's
Shakespeare and Elizabethan Poetry (1951). E. Pearson's
Elizabethans at Home (1957) puts the plays in their
social setting, and Dobson and Wells's The Oxford Companion
to Shakespeare (2001) is the latest of comprehensive surveys.
Online bibliographies include: World
Shakespeare Bibliography Online, Shakespeare
on Television, Absolute
Shakespeare, and CD
Rom database. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
