I INTRODUCTION x9k19ki
English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest
of all dramatists. Shakespeare’s plays communicate a profound knowledge
of the wellsprings of human behavior, revealed through portrayals of a wide
variety of characters. His use of poetic and dramatic means to create a unified
aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity of vocal expressions and actions is recognized
as a singular achievement, and his use of poetry within his plays to express
the deepest levels of human motivation in individual, social, and universal
situations is considered one of the greatest accomplishments in literary history.
II LIFE
A complete, authoritative account of Shakespeare’s life is lacking, and
thus much supposition surrounds relatively few facts. It is commonly accepted
that he was born in 1564, and it is known that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire. The third of eight children, he was probably educated at the local
grammar school. As the eldest son, Shakespeare ordinarily would have been apprenticed
to his father’s shop so that he could learn and eventually take over the
business, but according to one account he was apprenticed to a butcher because
of declines in his father’s financial situation. According to another
account, he became a schoolmaster. In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway,
the daughter of a farmer. He is supposed to have left Stratford after he was
caught poaching in the deer park of Sir Thomas Lucy, a local justice of the
peace. Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had a daughter in 1583 and twins—a
boy and a girl—in 1585. The boy did not survive.
Shakespeare apparently arrived in London about 1588 and by 1592 had attained
success as an actor and a playwright. Shortly thereafter he secured the patronage
of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The publication of Shakespeare’s
two fashionably erotic narrative poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape
of Lucrece (1594) and of his Sonnets (published 1609, but circulated previously
in manuscript form) established his reputation as a gifted and popular poet
of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). The Sonnets describe the
devotion of a character, often identified as the poet himself, to a young man
whose beauty and virtue he praises and to a mysterious and faithless dark lady
with whom the poet is infatuated. The ensuing triangular situation, resulting
from the attraction of the poet’s friend to the dark lady, is treated
with passionate intensity and psychological insight. Shakespeare’s modern
reputation, however, is based primarily on the 38 plays that he apparently wrote,
modified, or collaborated on. Although generally popular in his time, these
plays were frequently little esteemed by his educated contemporaries, who considered
English plays of their own day to be only vulgar entertainment.
Shakespeare’s professional life in London was marked by a number of financially
advantageous arrangements that permitted him to share in the profits of his
acting company, the Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men,
and its two theaters, the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars. His plays were
given special presentation at the courts of Queen Elizabeth I and King James
I more frequently than those of any other contemporary dramatist. It is known
that
he risked losing royal favor only once, in 1599, when his company performed
“the play of the deposing and killing of King Richard II“ at the
request of a group of conspirators against Elizabeth. In the subsequent inquiry,
Shakespeare’s company was absolved of complicity in the conspiracy.
III WORKS
Although the precise date of many of Shakespeare’s plays is in doubt,
his dramatic career is generally divided into four periods: (1) the period up
to 1594, (2) the years from 1594 to 1600, (3) the years from 1600 to 1608, and
(4) the period after 1608. Because of the difficulty of dating Shakespeare’s
plays and the lack of conclusive facts about his writings, these dates are approximate
and can be used only as a convenient framework in which to discuss his development.
In all periods, the plots of his plays were frequently drawn from chronicles,
histories, or earlier fiction, as were the plays of other contemporary dramatists.
A First Period
Shakespeare’s first period was one of experimentation. His early plays,
unlike his more mature work, are characterized to a degree by formal and rather
obvious construction and by stylized verse.
Chronicle history plays were a popular genre of the time, and four plays dramatizing
the English civil strife of the 15th century are possibly Shakespeare’s
earliest dramatic works (see England: The Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings). These
plays, Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (1590?-1592?) and Richard III (1592-1593?),
deal with evil resulting from weak leadership and from national disunity fostered
for selfish ends. The four-play cycle closes with the death of Richard III and
the ascent to the throne of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, to
which Elizabeth belonged. In style and structure, these plays are related partly
to medieval drama and partly to the works of earlier Elizabethan dramatists,
especially Christopher Marlowe. Either indirectly (through such dramatists)
or directly, the influence of the classical Roman dramatist Seneca is also reflected
in the organization of these four plays, especially in the bloodiness of many
of their scenes and in their highly colored, bombastic language. The influence
of Seneca, exerted by way of the earlier English dramatist Thomas Kyd, is particularly
obvious in Titus Andronicus (1594?), a tragedy of righteous revenge for heinous
and bloody acts, which are staged in sensational detail.
B Second Period
Shakespeare’s second period includes his most important plays concerned
with English history, his so-called joyous comedies, and two of his major tragedies.
In this period, his style and approach became highly individualized. The second-period
historical plays include Richard II (1595?), Henry IV, Parts I and II (1597?),
and Henry V (1598?). They encompass the years immediately before those portrayed
in the Henry VI plays. Richard II is a study of a weak, sensitive, self-dramatizing
but sympathetic monarch who loses his kingdom to his forceful
successor, Henry IV. In the two parts of Henry IV, Henry recognizes his own
guilt. His fears for his own son, later Henry V, prove unfounded, as the young
prince displays a responsible attitude toward the duties of kingship. In an alternation of masterful comic
and serious scenes, the fat knight Falstaff and the rebel Hotspur reveal contrasting
excesses between which the prince finds his proper position. The mingling of
the tragic and the comic to suggest a broad range of humanity subsequently became
one of Shakespeare’s favorite devices.
C Third Period
Shakespeare’s third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called
dark or bitter comedies. The tragedies of this period are considered the most
profound of his works. In them he used his poetic idiom as an extremely supple
dramatic instrument, capable of recording human thought and the many dimensions
of given dramatic situations. Hamlet (1601?), perhaps his most famous play,
exceeds by far most other tragedies of revenge in picturing the mingled sordidness
and glory of the human condition. Hamlet feels that he is living in a world
of horror. Confirmed in this feeling by the murder of his father and the sensuality
of his mother, he exhibits tendencies toward both crippling indecision and precipitous
action. Interpretation of his motivation and ambivalence continues to be a subject
of considerable controversy.
D Fourth Period
The fourth period of Shakespeare’s work includes his principal romantic
tragicomedies. Toward the end of his career, Shakespeare created several plays
that, through the intervention of magic, art, compassion, or grace, often suggest
redemptive hope for the human condition. These plays are written with a grave
quality differing considerably from Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, but
they end happily with reunions or final reconciliations. The tragicomedies depend
for part of their appeal upon the lure of a distant time or place, and all seem
more obviously symbolic than most of Shakespeare’s earlier works. To many
critics, the tragicomedies signify a final ripeness in Shakespeare’s own
outlook, but other authorities believe that the change reflects only a change
in fashion in the drama of the period.
The romantic tragicomedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608?) concerns the painful
loss of the title character’s wife and the persecution of his daughter.
After many exotic adventures, Pericles is reunited with his loved ones. In Cymbeline
(1610?) and The Winter’s Tale (1610?), characters suffer great loss and
pain but are reunited. Perhaps the most successful product of this particular
vein of creativity, however, is what may be Shakespeare’s last complete
play, The Tempest (1611?), in which the resolution suggests the beneficial effects
of the union of wisdom and power. In this play a duke, deprived of his dukedom
and banished to an island, confounds his usurping brother by employing magical
powers and furthering a love match between his daughter and the usurper’s
son. Shakespeare’s poetic power reached great heights in this beautiful,
lyrical play.
Two final plays, sometimes ascribed to Shakespeare, presumably are the products
of collaboration. A historical drama, Henry VIII (1613?) was probably written
with English dramatist John Fletcher (see Beaumont and Fletcher), as was The
Two Noble Kinsmen (1613?; published 1634), a story of the love of two friends
for one woman.
William Shakespeare - Quick Facts English dramatist, poet, and actor
Date Baptized April 26, 1564
Death April 23, 1616
Place of Birth Stratford-upon-Avon
Known for Producing perhaps the most varied and powerful body of work any author
has ever written
Exploring elemental themes of power, justice, love, and death in his tragedies,
comedies, histories, romances, and sonnets
Creating realistic stage characters whose appeal comes in their truly human
motives, actions, and flaws
Achieving widespread and lasting recognition for his work, which continues to
be taught and performed worldwide
Adding innumerable phrases and quotations to the English language
Milestones 1593 Published the poem Venus and Adonis
1594 Published the poem The Rape of Lucrece
1594 Joined the Chamberlain's Men theatrical company as an actor and playwright
Early 1590s Shakespeare's early plays, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the
Shrew, Richard III, and Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, were performed for the
first time.
Mid 1590s Shakespeare's plays Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, and Richard II were first performed.
Late 1590s Shakespeare's comedic plays The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado
About Nothing, and As You Like It were first performed. His tragic play Julius
Caesar was performed about 1599.
1600-1606 Shakespeare's great tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth
were first performed.
1606-1613 Shakespeare's later plays, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Winter's
Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII were first performed.
1609 Published Sonnets
1623 First Folio, a compilation of all of Shakespeare's plays, was posthumously
published.
Did You Know During a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII at London's Globe
Theatre in 1613, a cannon set the roof on fire and the theater was destroyed.
At 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter, Susanna,
and twins, Hamnet and Judith.
In the mid-19th century, some scholars believed that Shakespeare’s plays
were authored instead by Sir Francis Bacon.
