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Theatre in the Elizabethan era
Theatre in the Elizabethan era
Shakespeare's life
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It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.[30] By then, he was sufficiently well known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit: ...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.[31] Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words,[32] but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself (the "university wits").[33] The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene's target. Here Johannes Fa...
“He uses similes such as the breeze that ‘blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale frogs’ and that also made a shadow on the ‘wine-colored rug’ as ‘wind does on the sea’.”
William Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564 (died on 23 April 1616), in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. Shakespeare was a poet, playwright and actor and has written about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. Shakespeare wrote many successful plays such as, Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was written in the mid-1590s in London and even today it is considered to be one of the greatest plays ever written. It is a play based on a long dispute between two families, the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, and takes place in the cities of Verona and Mantua, Italy, over the course of four short days.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 with a middle class family. In 1590, William left his family to travel into London to work towards his acting career and playwriting. William Shakespeare became the most well-known playwright in England and he had part ownership of the Globe Theatre. His playwriting career was around the time that Elizabeth I was on the throne (1558-1603), within this time period, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written but nobody knows the exact date of when it was published.
William Shakespeare’s intellectual use of the English language is what brought him prosperity throughout his lifetime, and what brings us to tears and laughter in the modern world. The life of Shakespeare is of great importance to English literature because of his many contributions including poetry, stories, and plays. However, many people do not know that he also owned a business. “William Shakespeare was a professional actor, a businessman, and a playwright. Today, nearly four hundred years after his death his plays are still performed” (Greenhill and Wignall 4).
The Shakespearean world of the late 1500's and early 1600's was very, very different from our own. Though there are differences, there are also some similarities. The world of Shakespeare is a unique, and again, is much different than our own.
There seems to be a great discussion on whether or not Shakespeare is the true author of the plays associated with his name. The internet seems to be full of essays, discussion boards and book reviews all dealing with this particular topic and most of the people submitting them are very forceful and definitive about their positions. In just a few hours of searching I found well over a thousand pages dealing with the original source of the works of art assigned to Shakespeare's name. The most disappointing part was that none of the essays I read even suggested the possibility of Shakespeare just "borrowing" information and topics from other playwrights and authors. They were all mainly interested in the man who actually put the words on paper. Not only did this decrease their usefulness for this particular paper but also they made it seem like the person who wrote the plays down on paper had some particular lawful ownership over them. This was not true though.
As published by Paul Hechinger, he stated, “Although scholars desperately searched for documentation to flesh out Shakespeare’s biography in the decades after his death, they found very little, and, to make matters more confusing, much of what they found was fraudulent”(para.8). Paul Hechinger stated how even though there was some evidence, it was fraudulent, and that makes it more realistic that Shakespeare did not write the plays. Shakespeare only had records of fraud work ties back to proving another reason that the Earl of Oxford might have written the famous plays. As explained in the sentences above, if the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s plays, there is more evidence to have an idea who actually wrote the plays. Research states that Shakespeare did not travel enough to describe his settings.... ...
William Shakespeare, poet and playwright, utilized humor and irony as he developed specific language for his plays, thereby influencing literature forever. “Shakespeare became popular in the eighteenth century” (Epstein 8). He was the best all around. “Shakespeare was a classic” (8). William Shakespeare is a very known and popular man that has many works, techniques and ways. Shakespeare is the writer of many famous works of literature. His comedies include humor while his plays and poems include irony. Shakespeare sets himself apart by using his own language and word choice. Shakespeare uses certain types of allusions that people always remember, as in the phrase from Romeo and Juliet, “star-crossed lovers”.
Shakespeare began writing poetry such as sonnets in 1592, but it wasn’t until 1609 when his book of sonnets was published. He was already a great actor and had a great reputation about him. He often played minor roles in the works he wrote. (k12) This book is called Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which contains all 154 sonnets that Shakespeare wrote throughout his lifetime except for the two that appeared in The Passionate Pilgrimage. “Shakespeare died at the age of 52 on April 23, 1616 from unknown causes.” (William
Across the Universe of Time: Shakespeare’s influence on 21st century society. It is harder to imagine a more universal writer than William Shakespeare. Rarely, if ever, is one of his many plays not being performed anywhere in the world and similarly rare is the tertiary English student who has not examined his work at length. His plays, sonnets and poems are common fodder for high school English departments across the globe.
So to conclude, we can safely agree with most academics that William Shakespeare did exist and that he did indeed write the 37 plays and 154 sonnets credited to him.
Shakespeare's tragic play, Othello, is an amalgam of diverse antecedents, including the generic influences of the ancient Greek and Roman tragedies, Italian fiction, as well as Renaissance history such as the progression of Christian humanism. Additionally, although Shakespeare incorporates some elements of the medieval morality play into Othello, the fact that his play is a tragedy shows how he modifies it from the typical ending found in a morality play. Furthermore, not only does Shakespeare include the stereotypical Englishman's view of the black race during the Elizabethan era, he also modifies it to convey the importance of looking beyond the skin color, showing the progression of a racially prejudice society to one in which people are treated judicially based upon their character.
England's most talented and well know poet and dramatist was born on April 23, 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon, located in the cetre of England. His father, John, was a glove-maker and wool dealer involved with money lending. His mother Mary Arden was the daughter of a Farmer. William was the third out of eight children whom all died young. His father became Mayor in 1568, after serving on the town council for many years.
Shakespeare got married to Anne Hathaway. He was 18 and Hathaway was 26 at the time.
In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the art of music appears in the opening of the speech as the unhappy and lovesick Orsino tells his musicians, “If music be the food of love, play on” (I.i.1) In the speech that follows, Orsino asks the musicians to give him so much musical love i.e. food that will “surfeit” and cease to yearn for love any longer. Shakespeare uses music in opening line of play and at the end by Feste singing his song. It reveals that Shakespeare has presented on stage a romantic comedy which is not detached from our everyday reality. Thus songs are used by Shakespeare with surfeiting desire not only for the purpose of entertaining the audience but also closely linked to the play’s theme.