WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

-life-
We don't know much about William Shakespeare's life. He was born in Stratford-upon-
Avon in 1564, probably on April 23rd. His father was a glover and his mother came from an
important local family. William Shakespeare probably attended Stratford's grammar school,
where he studied Latin and Greek. When I was eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, a girl
eight years older than him, and in a few years they had three children. There is no record of
his activities between 1585 and 1592 so , this period, has been called "the lost years".
Shakespeare left Stratford-upon-Avon and by 1592 he was already active in London as actor
and playwright. Shakespeare's career was interrupted in 1593 when because of the plague the
theaters in London were closed until Spring 1594. In this period Shakespeare wrote many
sonnet, so he is also one of England's greatest poets. When the theaters were opened,
became a member of one of the best companies of players, "The Lord Chamberlain's Men",
after called "The King's Men". They performed at the outdoor Globe theater, of which he
was co-owner, in summer and indoor in another theater in winter. Thanks to his success,
Shakespeare earned enough to be able to retire to Stratford in his later years, where he died
in 1616 on the same day that he was born, 23rd April.
-First folio-
Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays in a period of about twenty years, from 1591 to 1611. He
used many sources for his plays including the classical Latin and Greek writings of Plutarch
and Plautus. Shakespeare didn't publish his plays. The first collected of his plays came out in
1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death. It was edit by two actors and friends of
Shakespeare and was traditionally called the "First Folio". The First Folio included thirty-
six plays, divided into comedies, historical plays and tragedies and not in chronological
order so is difficult to date Shakespeare's works.
-Shakespeare’s canon-
Today scholars divide in more of three sub-groups because of the structure, the year of
composition and their style and their themes.
1. English history plays: from the 12th to the 16th centuries: from the Hundred years war to
the war of roses. They represent a portrait of medieval Early Modern England, Richard
III, Richard II, Henry V.
2. Roman Play’s: events from the ancient Rome, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and
Coriolanus. They’re all set in Ancient Rome and describe their lives, it also tells about
power and how to gain it.
3. Comedies: many of the comedies are inspirited on the Italian shorts stories (novella) and
tell about marriages, mistaken identities and have a happy ending. Some example are: A
midsummer Night’s dream, The merchant of Venice
4. Problem plays/Dark comedies: the word “dark comedies” underline the fact that they
cannot be considered as proper tragedies but are comedies with a dramatic side and the
“problem plays” referee to the minds of character who doubt. Recently, those words refer
to the fact that they’re impossible to identify.
5. Tragedies: they represent the destiny of mankind, man’s loneliness in the universe
6. Romances: They are tragicomedies which include virtue, magic vices, and supernatural
There are two plays that are on their own:
1. Titus and Andronicus: revenge tragedy
2. Romeo and Juliet: tragic-love story.

-Sonnets-
Shakespeare’s sonnets are very important for the English and world literature and the most
fascinating literary mysteries of all times because of some doubts:


1. The author: scholars believe that the author cannot be Shakespeare


2. The publication: they don’t know if Shakespeare authorized the publication or not, they
might have been published without the permission of the author
3. The sequence: they are not sure about that


4. Date of composition: it might have been written between 1585 or 1609

5. The content: scholars don’t know if he took inspiration from his personal lives or are just
poetic exercises. If they are taken from his life he reflects on love, death... if they are not,
he copied one of the best poetic minds of the age

-Romeo and Juliet-

It is an atypical tragedy because it has some elements typical of a comedy.
The main theme is love (typical of a comedy), faith and destiny (typical of tragedy); the main
characters fight against external forces (there is a field between the two households).
The work is divided in five acts, the place settings are Verona and Mantua (where Romeo is
banished). The story lasts five days.
The starting is atypical (because there is a sonnet):
1st act: Romeo goes to the ball to meet Juliet's cousin, but he falls in love with Juliet when he meets
her (love at first sight). She is from Capulet's family, instead he is from Montague's family.
2nd act: He goes to Juliet's balcony and compares her to the stars.
3rd act: Mercutio is killed by Tybalt. Romeo, to revenge his friend, kills Tybalt and he is banished.
The act ends with the secret marriage.
4th act: It is preparatory to the final act.
5th act: Juliety is obliged to marry Count Paris, so she drinks a potion to give her an apparent death.
Juliet sent to Romeo a message where she explains her plan, but this message never arrives. Romeo
thinks that Juliet is dead, so he drinks a Potion and he dies.
Juliet wakes up a minute later and she sees Romeo next to her, so she decides to kills herself with
Romeo's dudder.
At the end of the story, the two families have a reconciliation.
In this work there are two types of love: courtly love and love at first sight.
Themes: -misunderstanding;
-juxtaposition between reality and appearence;
-the power of destiny;
-passion and violence.
The style is regular with common rhymes.
Sonnets: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

This is one of the most famous of all the sonnets, justifiably so. But it would be a mistake to take it
entirely in isolation, for it links in with so many of the other sonnets through the themes of the
descriptive power of verse; the ability of the poet to depict the fair youth adequately, or not; and the
immortality conveyed through being hymned in these 'eternal lines'. It is noticeable that here the
poet is full of confidence that his verse will live as long as there are people drawing breath upon the
earth, whereas later he apologises for his poor wit and his humble lines which are inadequate to
encompass all the youth's excellence. Now, perhaps in the early days of his love, there is no such
self-doubt and the eternal summer of the youth is preserved forever in the poet's lines. The poem
also works at a rather curious level of achieving its objective through dispraise. The summer's day
is found to be lacking in so many respects (too short, too hot, too rough, sometimes too dingy), but
curiously enough one is left with the abiding impression that 'the lovely boy' is in fact like a
summer's day at its best, fair, warm, sunny, temperate, one of the darling buds of May, and that all
his beauty has been wonderfully highlighted by the comparison.