INTRODUCTION OF SHAKE SPEAR
I. Introduction
Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives. In the course of a quarter century, Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.
II. Three important points about Shakespeare
In examining Shakespeare's life, three broad points should be kept in mind from the start. First, despite the frustration of Shakespeare biographers with the absence of a primary source of information written during (or even shortly after) his death on 23 April 1616 (his fifty-second birthday), Shakespeare's life is not obscure. In fact, we know more about Shakespeare's life, its main events and contours, than we know about most famous Elizabethans outside of the royal court itself.
Second, the appeal of seeing an autobiographical basis in Shakespeare's plays and poetry must be tempered by what the bulk of the evidence has to say about him. Although there are fanciful stories about Shakespeare, many centering upon his romantic affairs, connections between them and the events or characters of his plays are flimsy, and they generally disregard our overall impression of the Bard. In his personal life, Shakespeare was, in fact, an exceedingly practical individual, undoubtedly a jack of many useful trades, and a shrewd businessman in theatrical, commercial and real estate circles.
Third, the notion that plays ascribed to Shakespeare were actually written by others (Sir Francis Bacon, the poet Phillip Sidney among the candidates) has become even weaker over time. The current strong consensus is that while Shakespeare may have collaborated with another Elizabethan playwright in at least one instance (probably with John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsman), and that one or two of his plays were completed by someone else (possibly Fletcher on an original or revised version of Henry VIII), the works ascribed to Shakespeare are his.
The Playwright
I. IntroductionAny discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be loaded with superlatives. In the course of a quarter century, Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.
II. Three important points about Shakespeare
In examining Shakespeare's life, three broad points should be kept in mind from the start. First, despite the frustration of Shakespeare biographers with the absence of a primary source of information written during (or even shortly after) his death on 23 April 1616 (his fifty-second birthday), Shakespeare's life is not obscure. In fact, we know more about Shakespeare's life, its main events and contours, than we know about most famous Elizabethans outside of the royal court itself.
Second, the appeal of seeing an autobiographical basis in Shakespeare's plays and poetry must be tempered by what the bulk of the evidence has to say about him. Although there are fanciful stories about Shakespeare, many centering upon his romantic affairs, connections between them and the events or characters of his plays are flimsy, and they generally disregard our overall impression of the Bard. In his personal life, Shakespeare was, in fact, an exceedingly practical individual, undoubtedly a jack of many useful trades, and a shrewd businessman in theatrical, commercial and real estate circles.
Third, the notion that plays ascribed to Shakespeare were actually written by others (Sir Francis Bacon, the poet Phillip Sidney among the candidates) has become even weaker over time. The current strong consensus is that while Shakespeare may have collaborated with another Elizabethan playwright in at least one instance (probably with John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsman), and that one or two of his plays were completed by someone else (possibly Fletcher on an original or revised version of Henry VIII), the works ascribed to Shakespeare are his.
The Playwright
History themed Plays
- King Henry IV Part 1 - play by William Shakespeare
- King Henry IV Part 2 - a Shakespearean play
- King Henry V - play by William Shakespeare
- King Henry VI Part 1 - play by William Shakespeare
- King Henry VI Part 2 - a Shakespearean play
- King Henry VI Part 3 - a Shakespearean play
- King Henry VIII - play by William Shakespeare
- King John - play by William Shakespeare
- Richard II - play by William Shakespeare
- Richard III - play by William Shakespeare
- Antony and Cleopatra - play by William Shakespeare
- Coriolanus - a Shakespearean play
- Hamlet - play by William Shakespeare
- Julius Caesar - play by William Shakespeare
- King Lear - play by William Shakespeare
- Macbeth - play by William Shakespeare
- Othello - play by William Shakespeare
- Romeo and Juliet - play by William Shakespeare
- Timon of Athens - a Shakespearean play
- Titus Andronicus - a Shakespearean play
- Alls Well That Ends Well - play by William Shakespeare
- As You Like It - play by William Shakespeare
- Comedy of Errors - play by William Shakespeare
- Cymbeline - a Shakespearean play
- Love's Labour's Lost - a Shakespearean play
- Measure for Measure - play by William Shakespeare
- Merchant of Venice - play by William Shakespeare
- Merry Wives of Windsor - play by William Shakespeare
- Midsummer Nights Dream - play by William Shakespeare
- Much Ado About Nothing - play by William Shakespeare
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre - a Shakespearean play
- Taming of the Shrew - play by William Shakespeare
- The Tempest - play by William Shakespeare
- Troilus and Cressida - a Shakespearean play
- Twelfth Night - play by William Shakespeare
- Two Gentlemen of Verona - a Shakespearean play
- Winter's Tale - a Shakespearean play
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