THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare is one of the most mysterious figures in English literature. His life seems to have been so uneventful that only the broadest outline of it has been handed down to us. It has even been denied the actor .William Shakespeare. Was the author of the plays supposed to have been written by him. People have attributed them to sure Walter Raleigh or sir Francis bacon. Or even to a group of writers. On the assumption that no single man could have written works which express the whole of humanity so fully. But these people are few in number, and it is generally considered to be true that the plays were written by Williams Shakespeare’s, of Stratford –on –Avon .
He was born in April 1564, probably on April 23rd .we known little about his youth except that probably went to the grammar school of Stratford, where he must have received a good general education. We then find him at the age of eighteen marrying Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a prosperous farmer of shottery . amille from Stratford .
In 1587 we hear of him in London . where he had a troupe of vactors of his theatrical career we know little or nothing. Finally we find him coming back to Stratford in 1611. where he passed the last o few years of his life, visited by Ben Johnson and others. He died on his birthday. April 23 rd. 1616 and was buried in Stratford church. Where a bust has been erected to his memory. Stratford has become now a day almost a place of pilgrimage : the house of Shakespeare’s has been preserved and now contains a Shakespeare museum, where the public may see relics connected with the poet : and the cottage of Anne hathway in the delightful country village of shottery has also been kept in good condition, and is visited by thousands of interested tourists. Shakespeare was the man who of all modern , and perhaps ancient poets , had the largest and the most comprehensive soul.
William Shakespeare was the third child , and eldest son. Of john Shakespeare and Mary Arden. His father was one of the most prosperous men of Stratford, who held in turn the chief offices in the town. His mother was of the gentle birth. The daughter of a Robert Arden of wilmcote. In December 1582. Shakespeare married ann. hathway. Daughter of a farmer of shottery. Near Stratford : their first child Susanna was baptized on May 6 1583, and twins. Hamlet and Judith. On February 22,1585. little is known of Shakespeare’s early life : but it is un likely that a writer who dramatized such an incomparable range and variety of human.
Kinds and experiences should have his early manhood entirely in placid pursuits in a country town .There is one tradition ,not universally accepted ,that he fled from Stratford because he was in trouble for deer stealing ,and had fallen foul of sir Thomas Lucy ,the local magnate :another that he was for some time a schoolmaster.
In April 1593 , Shakespeare published his poem "Venus and Adonis" which was dedicated to young Earl of south Hampton : it was a great and lasting success, and was reprinted nine times in the next few years .In May 1594, his second poem , "the rape of Lucrece" was also dadicated to Southampton.
There was little playing in 1593 , for the theatre were shut during aserver outbresk of the plague : but in the autumn of 1594, when the plague ceased , the playing companies were reorganized, and Shakespeare became a sharer in the lord Chamerlain 's company who went to play in the theatre in Shoreditch.During these months Marlomr and Kid (who were among the great tragedians)has died .Shakespeare was thus for a time without a rival .He had already written thr three parts of Henry IV.introducing Falstaff, the most popular of all his comic characters, were written.
In1597-1598 the company left the theatre in 1597 owning to disputes over a renewal of the ground lease and went to play at the certain in the same reighbourhood.The disputes continued throughout1598,and at Christmas the plays settled the matter by demolishing the old theatre and re-erecting a new-play house on the south bank of the Thames near south-work cathedral .This play house was named the globe .The expenses of course Shakespeare ,who was now a man of some mean. In 1596 he had bought new place .a large house in the center of Strafford .for £60.and through his father purchased a coar of arms from the heralds, which was the official recognition that he had his family were gentle fold.
By the summer of 1598 Shakespeare was recognized as the greatest of English dramatists. Booksellers were printing his more plays, at times even in pirated or stolen versions. And received a remarkable terabyte from a young writer named (Francis merss). In his book (palladis tamia). In a long caralogue of English authors meres gave
Shakespeare more prominence than any other writer. And mentioned by name twelve of his plays.
Shortly before the globe was opened, Shakespeare had completed the cycle of plays dealing with the whole story of the wars of the roses with Henry V. it was followed by as you like it. And Julius casae. The first one of the maturer tragedies. In the next three years he wrote troylus and Cressida. The merry wives of Windsor. Hamlet and twelfth night. On March 24th, 1603, Queen Elizabeth i died. The company had often performed before her, but they found her successor a far
More enthuniastric patron .one of the first acts of king James was to take over the company and to promote them to be his own servants, so that hence forward they where known as the king’s men. They acted now very frequently at court, and prospered accordingly. In the early years of the reign Shakespeare wrote the more sombre comedies, all’s well and measure for mearn, which were followed by Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Then he returned to roman thems with Antony, and Cleopatra and Coriolanus.
Since 1601 Shakespeare had been written less, and there were now a number of rival dramatists who were introducing new stills of drama, particularly Ben Jonson (whose first successful comedy, every man in his hunour, was acted by Shakespeare’s company in 1598), Chapman, Decker, marston, and Beaumont and Fletcher who began to write in 1607.
In 1608 the king’s men acquired a second play house, an indoor private theatre in the fashionable quarter of the black friars. At private theatres, plays were performed indoors:
The prices charged were higer than in the public play house. And the audience consequently was more select. Shakespeare seems to have retuned from the stage about this time: his name does not occur in the varous lists of players after 1607. Ilencfor ward he lived for the most important citizens, he still wrote a few plays and he tried his hand at the new form of tragi-comedy a play with tragic incident but a happy ending which Beaumont and flecher had popularized, he wrote four of these perieles, Cymbeline, the winter’s tale, and the tempest, which was acted at court in 1611, for the last four years of his life he lived in retirement. His son’s hamlet had died in 1596: his two daughters were now married.
Shakespeare died at upon Avon on April 23, 1616, and was buried in the chancel of the church .before the high altar. Shortly after words a memorial which still exist with portrait bust, was setup on the north wall. His wife survived him.
When Shakespeare died fourteen of his plays had been separately published in quarto booklets. In 1623 his surviving fellow actors. John Hemming, and Henry condell. With the co-operation of a number of printers, published a collected edition of thirty- six plays in one folio volume, with an engraved portrait, memorial verses by Ben Jonson and others, and an Epistle, to the reader in which Hemming and condell make the interesting not that Shakespeare’s hand and mind went together, and what he thought, he uttered with that easiness that we have scars received from him a blot in his paper’s.
The plays as printed in the quartous of the folio differ considerably from the usual modern text. They are often not divided into scenes, and sometimes not even into acts. Nor are there plays-headings at the beginning of each scene, because in the Elizabeth theatre there was no scenery. They are carelexley printed and the spelling is erratic.
The poet in Shakespeare:
The early work of Shakespeare dramaticien form, was lyrical in character. At the time of the composition of his first plays (which are immature, imitative and experimental), he was already mature and finished poet. In 1593 he published his long narrative poem “Venus and Adonis” , followed in the next year by the poem: “ The rape of lucrece” . At this date, he had probably already written some of his “Sonnets”, but he continued writing them during the next ten years or so, and they were finally published until 1609.
The sonnets are dedicated, by Shakespeare or by his publisher, to a certain W,H, and friend of Shakespeare. They treat of friend ship, and of the Author’s love for a dark beauty, whose identity is also uncertain. In form they are Shakespeare’s own arrangement of the original sonnet form, and consist of twelve lines, rhymed according to the post’s fancy and a final rhyming couplet, the sense is very often carried over from the eight line to the ninth, thus differing greatly from the Italian sooner.
The sonners are often built around a rather far fetched conceit in the vein of lily which, by sheer mastery of words, the poet turns into a poem of great human interest, they often reveal too, certain interest in nature, which though it is sometimes conventional, is nevertheless more movingly expressed than by any other Elizabethan poet. All the images of nature were still present to Shakespeare, and he drew, not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing you more than see it you feel it too. Shakespeare was naturally learned, he learned poety very naturally, he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature.
The Actor and the play Wright:
It was perhaps his material circumstances that induced Shakespeare to prefer the drama to lyrical beauty poety as a means of expression. Being an actor himself, he would often be engaged in arranging or re-touching old plays with a vient, to performance, and would thus be led to writing plays himself. Although he had more success as an actor than Ben Jonson (who had none at all!) he apparently only played minor parts in his own plays, such as the ghost in “Hamlet”. But it is important to remember that this (His) plays were written for the stage, to be acted and not read. Even to-day these plays are quite popular with English audience, and often to be seen acted in London at popular Theatres, such as the Old Vic (were seat may be had for a few pence), or in the provinces by travelling troupes of actors who play nothing but Shakespeare. At Strafford, a memorial theatre has been built on the Bank of the river Avon, and each Summer along season of Shakespeare performance attracts thousands of visitors.
Thus the population of the plays was of less importance than there their performance. Nowadays, we knew the date of the first performance of each play, but we are uncertain about the date of publication of most of them, and even less certain about the date of composition. Many of the plays were published during Shakespeare’s life time: they appeared separtly, and each play was known as a Quarto. Some of these Quartos were published without. The Authors consent, and the other were probably taken down in a kind of shorthand at an actual performance. On the other hand, several plays which were acted during the poet’s life time, such as the tempest, Macbeth, etc: were not published until 1623, eight years after his death, in the first collected edition of his dramatic works, known as the first Folio. Some of the plays which had been published in Quartos were revised for this collected edition. So that it is difficult for use nowadays to knew exactly which is the most reliable of there various texts, all of which are slightly different.
Three main periods in his plays:
If we leave a side immature works, and those which are not completely by Shakespeare, we can fairly easily divide the plays into groups, corresponding to three periods in the poet’s outlook on life.
The first period is one youthful romance and energetic lyricism. The plays are fresh .carefree comedies or poetical and romantic tragedies .As you like it in (1599),marks the end of this period, which also includes Romeo and Juliet (1594), a midsummer night's dream (1595), the merchant of Venice (1596) and the merry wives of Windsor (1600), besides most of the historical plays, such as Richard II 1595, Henry IV (1597-1598) and Henry V 1599.
The second period shows us Shakespeare concentrating on the gloomy side of life . it is the period of the great tragedies. And of comedies such as Measure for Measure(1604).which is Scarely a comedy at all .so gruesome it is .It also contains two Roman tragedies .Julius Cesar (1600) and Anthony and Cleopatra (1607).In many ways ,Macbeth (1606) is representative of this period which includes hamlet (1601) Othello (1604) king Lear (1606) and the comedy Twelfth Night (1602) which would seem .strangely enough .to belong entirely to the first period . were it not for a certain irony latent in it. It is these tragedies which make Shakespeare the world's greatest dramatic poet. It has been suggested that he had been thought some terrific personal experience .which impelled him during those few years to give expression to a pessimistic outlook on life .It is certain that after "king Lear" the poet becomes calmer and accepts life more easily than in stormy period of the tragedies .Coriolanus 1607 is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies. but it contains little bitterness and points the way go the third period. in which Shakespeare everts to his original romantic attitude. But with a mind made more nature understanding by the experience of the great tragedies.
The Tempest (1611) is typical of this period. It is romantic comedy ,taking place in a magic isle, but instead of the youthful exuberance and formlessness of as you like it. There is a kind of nature enchantment which broods over the play like a sunset glow. The characters are once more fairy and more human.
The third period besides includes "Cymbeline" (1610) a play about the old britous .the winter's tale (1611), and Henry VIII (1613)
HAMLET PRINE OF DENMARK
Hamlet prince of Denmark. Is visited by the ghost of his father (his dead father).who bids him avenge his death. The ghost tells him that he has been poisoned by Claudius. his brother ,who afterwards married the dead king's wife, and became king in his turn. Hamlet
موضوع: THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE