Name: Dhruvita Dhameliya
Roll no : 06
Semester. : 1
Year : 2021 to 2023
Topic : Shakespeare's Life
E-mail ID : dhameliyadhruvita24@gmail.com
Submitted to : S. B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
William Shakespeare:
No writer in the history of world literature holds such a unique position as the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare does. Shakespeare's works are highly remarkable for their graceful style and universally celebrated for their comprehensive understanding of human condition. Shakespearean works exhibit the power of literature to transport the audience into a magnificent word of mystery and fantasy. Shakespeare is definitely the unchallengeable master of romantic literature. His writings have proven that it is still possible to explore human life without presenting it realistically. He was quite aware of the classical formulas of writing, but opted to write in his individual style. His novel dramatic technique thought to have paved the way for the 20th century romantic movement. Following his style a number of great romantic writers such as Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge shaped their poetic career. His works of art have been entertaining for the last few centuries and still continue to amaze us with their artistic and universal appeal. His friend and fellow dramatist Ben Jonson could recognise his brilliance and wrote in praise of him:
"He was not of an age, but for all time!"
William Shakespeare, often called England's national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare's personal life is shrouded in mystery.
Who Was William Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.
Known throughout the world, Shakespeare's writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.
There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work - the plays, poems and sonnets -and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.
When Was Shakespeare Born?
No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare's birthday.
Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road.
Family :
Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.
Before Shakespeare's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.
Childhood and Education:
Scant records exist of Shakespeare's childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.
Little is known about Shakespeare’s formal education. The young Shakespeare probably attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in central Stratford, which educated the sons of Stratford citizens. The curriculum of that school was largely based on the study of Latin grammar and literature. Shakespeare’s writings evince that he was greatly influenced by the classical Latin writers like Ovid as well as other Latin works. But his real talent were greatly influenced by the men and natural surroundings of his village. He grew up in the beautiful village of Stratford with sights and scenery that could stir up anyone’s creative side. Many of his literary works reflect the beauty and splendour of his birthplace.
Shakespeare’s writing style has been a subject of scrutiny for a number of critics. Many critics believe that some of his writings lack originality. The dramatist borrowed his raw materials largely from classical legend, history, and biography, Italian tales, English and Scottish chronicles,even older plays and folk tales. But all these old works were brilliantly transformed by a freshness of presentation. Mixing of different plots never made his plays incoherent. These dramatic reconstructions have become the most original creations of Shakespeare. The patterns of his plots are sometimes complex but always clearly woven. His characters are true to life and well developed. In his plays he mixed tragedy and comedy since they are mixed in human life.
Shakespeare’s Plays
So far as is known Shakespeare had no hand in the publication of any of his works. Only 16 plays were published before his death. Almost all the plays of Shakespeare were printed posthumously by his fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell in a volume called First Folio in 1623. They were published from Shakespeare’s original manuscripts, though several of them had been obtained from earlier published Quartos. The traditional division of his plays into tragedies, comedies, and histories follows the logic of the First Folio. It is at this point that stage directions, punctuation and act divisions enter his plays, setting the trend for further future editorial decisions. Modern criticism has also labelled some of his plays “problem plays” or tragi-comedies, as they elude easy categorisation, or perhaps purposefully break generic conventions. The term “romances” has also been preferred for the later comedies.
The exact date of composition of Shakespearean plays is a highly disputable issue. By using evidences of style, versification, and general tone it has been possible to arrange the plays in their chronological order. On the whole, there is a unanimity among the critics about this order. The dramatic career of Shakespeare has been divided into four sharply-defined periods and the plays of each period bear certain family resemblances.
(1) The First Period:
This period covers the years 1588-1596. This was a period of apprenticeship and was largely experimental. The works of this period are immature and the style is often crude and artificial. The plays written in period are:
1)Titus Andronicus, Henry VI (three parts)
2)Love’s Labour’s Lost
3)Comedy of Errors
4) Two Gentlemen of Verona
5)Richard III
6)Romeo and Juliet
7) Love’s Labour’s Lost
2) The Second Period:
This period covers the years 1596-1600. It is the period of great comedies and chronicle plays. The plays written in this period shows rapid growth of his genius. These plays reflect a deeper understanding of human life and human nature. This is the period when he abandoned rime and used blank verse. The plays of this period are:
1)King John
2) The Merchant of Venice
3) Henry IV (Part I & Part II) 4)Henry V
5)The Taming of the Shrew
6)The Merry Wives of Windsor 7)Much Ado About Nothing
8)As You Like It
9) Twelfth Night.
(3) The Third Period:
This period includes the years 1601-1607. It is the period of the great tragedies, and of the sombre or bitter comedies. It is considered the supreme phase of Shakespeare’s literary career. This is the time when Shakespeare wrote his greatest masterpieces. At this stage his attention was largely confined within the darker sides of human nature. The plays of this period are:
1)Julius Caesar
2) Hamlet
3)All’s Well That Ends Well 4)Measure for Measure
5) Troilus and Cressida 6)Othello
7) King Lear
8) Macbeth
9) Antony and Cleopatra
10)Coriolanus
11)Timon of Athens
4)The Fourth Period:
This period covers the years 1608-1612. It is the period of the later comedies or dramatic romances. The plays of this period reveals the decline of Shakespeare’s dramatic powers since they lack careful characterisation, plot construction, and versification. During this period Shakespeare changed his temper from bitter and gloomy to serene and peaceful. Beauty and calmness, forgiveness and reconciliation are the main noted of the plays of this period, which have been called “romances”. he plays written in period are:
1)Pericles (1608)
2)Cymbeline (1609)
3)The Winter’s Tale (1610-11)
4)The Tempest (1611)
5)Henry VIII (unfinished).
Last years :
After about 1608 Shakespeare began to write fewer plays. For most of his working life he wrote at least two plays a year; by 1608 he had slowed usually to one a year, even though the acting company continued to enjoy great success. In 1611 Shakespeare retired from London theatre and returned to his village, where he had established his family and became a prominent citizen. He lived there still his demise. He died on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. He also died on his birthday, if the tradition that he was born on April 23 is correct. He was married to Hathaway until his death and was survived by his two daughters, Susanna and Judith. Susanna married Dr. John Hall, a doctor with a thriving practice in Stratford, in 1607. His younger daughter, Judith, married a Stratford winemaker, Thomas Quiney, in 1616. Shakespeare’s wife, Anne, died on August 6, 1623. Soon after her death, Susanna and John Hall moved into New Place, where they lived until their deaths, his in 1635 and hers in 1649. Their daughter, Elizabeth Hall, died childless in 1670. Judith Quiney had three sons, but none lived long enough to produce heirs, and she died in 1662. Thus, by 1670, the line of Shakespeare’s descendants had reached its end. There are no direct descendants of the playwright alive today.
Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on account of his fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440. A monument placed by his family on the wall nearest his grave features a bust of him posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust. It is assumed Shakespeare himself wrote the epitaph on his tombstone:
"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosèd here;
Bleste be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones."
Words count : 1743
References :
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