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IV. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Life
William Shakespeare was the greatest poet and playwright in English
literature. He was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1564. He was the eldest
son and the third child of a tradesman and Alderman of Stratford. He was
baptized on 26, April 1564 and probably educated at Stratford Grammar
School, but he was not known up to his eighteen years. He did not go to
University and his younger contemporary Ben Johnson, would later speak that
Shakespeare knew little Greek. However the Grammar School educated
Shakespeare and enabled him to continue his play-writing.
In 1575 when William Shakespeare was 11, there was a great
plague in the country. The queen went out of London to avoid its negative
effects. This event made a strong impact on the mind of young William
Shakespeare.
When William Shakespeare was 18, he married a girl, 8 years
older than him. Her name was Anne Hathaway. Five years later William
Shakespeare went to London. He started to work at the theatre named The
Globe. At that time he only played some minor roles. In 1593 he appeared in
public as a poet, with his “Venus and Adonis” and the following year with
“The Rape of Lucrece”. He became one of the owners of the globe and also had
the interest in the theater.
Shakespeare started to write plays in 1595 and altogether he
wrote 38 plays. But only 36 were published in the Folio of 1623, and 18
plays had been published in his lifetime.
In 1611, William Shakespeare retired from writing, he
returned to his Stratford to live in a house. His only son, Hamnet died when
he was still a child. Which Shakespeare also lost a daughter but his third
child married a doctor. The doctor was called John Hall, and their home was
preserved as one of William Shakespeare Properties and administered by the
William Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust.
In 1616 William Shakespeare was buried in the church where he
was baptized in 1564. The following is the words on William Shakespeare’s
gravestone:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To digg the dust encloased heare!
Blest be the man that
spares thes stones,
And curst be
he that moves my bones.
Dramatic Career
Although the precise date of many of Shakespeare’s plays is
in doubt, his dramatic career is divided into four periods:(1) the period up
to 1594, (2) the years from 1594 to 1600, (3) the years from 1600 to 1608,
(4) the period after 1608. In all periods, the plots of his plays were
frequently drawn from chronicles, histories, or earlier fiction.
In the first period William Shakespeare just made several
experiments. His early plays are only some superficial constructions and
verse. Some of the Shakespeare’s early plays are just a rewritten works of
others works. Four plays showed the picture of England in Fifteenth Century.
These plays are probably within Shakespeare’s earliest the dramatic works.
These plays, Henry VI (Parts I, II, III,) and Richard III,
deal with the evil results of weak leadership. Shakespeare’s comedies of the
first period represent a wide range. The Comedy of Errors depends on
its appeal on the mistakes in identity between two sets of twins involved in
romance and war. The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona,
and Love's Labour’s Lost are all comedies and satires. Romeo
and Juliet is a tragedy of love story, which has moved young men and
young women of generations.
In the second period, William Shakespeare wrote his most
important plays about English history. The second period historical plays
include Richard II, Henry IV (Parts I and II) and Henry V.
These plays deal with English kings who lose their power. In the second
period among the comedies, the most popular one was A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. It was a fantasy in which two pairs of noble lovers got involved
in their love affairs. Another comedy is The Merchant of Venice. In
this play Shakespeare showed friendship and romantic love. The witty comedy
Much Ado About Nothing is marred by an insensitive treatment of its
main character. The most comedies of William Shakespeare are As You like
It and Twelfth Night. The most memorable characters are the
lovely heroines. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy about
middle-class life. Also in the second period, one of the two tragedies is
Romeo and Juliet. It was famous for its poetic treatment of young
people’s love, and it was doomed by fate and by feuds of their elders. The
other tragedy is Julius Caesar. It was a serious tragedy of political
rivalries.
In the third period, Shakespeare wrote his greatest tragedies
and the dark comedies. The tragedies of this period are the most profound it
once of his works. Hamlet is the most important one in this period.
Othello is the growth of unjustified jealously in the protagonist.
King Lear deals with the results of the irresponsibility and
misjudgment. The tragic results come from their power to their evil children
rather than their good children. Antony and Cleopatra was a different
type of love, the middle-aged passion of Roman general
Mark Antony for the
Egyptian Queen Cleopatra.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare drew a picture of a good man, but this good man was
very ambitious. In getting and retaining the Scottish throne, Macbeth gave
up his humanity. He can meet so many evil crimes. Three other plays cannot
be called great tragedies because the heroes in the plays are lack of tragic
stature. In Troilus and Cressida the gulf between the ideal and the real,
both individually and politically, is evoked. In Coriolanus, the Roman hero
is portrayed as unable to bring himself either to woo the Roman masses or to
crush them by force. Timon of Athens is a similarly bitter play about a
character reduced to nothing by non-gratification. The two comedies of this
period are also dark in mood. Of these, All’s Well That Ends Well is less
significant that Measure for Measure which suggests a picture of morality in
Christian terms.
In the fourth period, William Shakespeare’s works are romances. In the end
of his career Shakespeare created several plays in a mood of final
resignation in the human lot. These plays are very different from his other
comedies. The Romantic tragic- comedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a about
the character painful loss of his wife and persecution of his daughter.
After many adventures, Pericles is reunited with his loved ones. In
Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale, the domestic situations are resolved by
restoring loved ones. The most successful product of his creativity is
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The resolution suggests the beneficial effects of
the union of the wisdom and power. And two final plays include a historical
drama, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and a story of two noble
friends for one woman.
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