W.

SHAKESPEARE
1564 - 1616
LIFE AND WORKS
His life
Born in 1564 in Stratford-on Avon,
Warwichshire; mother, Mary Arden,
gentle birth; father – dealer in
commodities + magistrate of town
council + mayor of Stratford
Attended Stratford grammar school
Attended theatre performances
Left school and formal education around
13
Married Ann Hathaway at 18; they had
three children
Around 1585 – he left for London
Became an actor in James Burbage’s
company
He played, wrote and owned shares
As actor he played Adam (As You Like It),
the Ghost (Hamlet)
Died in 1616; buried in Stratford church
Publishing Shakespeare’s plays
Plays were bought by companies of actors
Companies might sell plays
They did not print them
Less than half of his plays were printed
during his lifetime
No manuscripts were preserved
Some of the plays were printed in quarto
form (sheets of paper folded twice)  pirated
texts. Plays were “stolen” from stage 
shorthanded or given by actors
The Bad Quarto - printed in 1594
The Good Quarto – printed in 1598 – based
on Shakespeare’s manuscripts
Seven years after Shakespeare’s death (1623) –
Heminge and Condell (with the contribution
of Ben Jonson) published the Folio (large
sheets folded once)
As there is no original, the original version is
hard to establish
Reference – the Good Quarto
THE FOUR PERIODS OF CREATION
THE PERIOD OF IMITATION AND EXPERIMENT
(1590-1594)
THE PERIOD OF HISTORIES AND COMEDIES (1595-
1600)
THE PERIOD OF TRAGEDIES AND SATIRIC
COMEDIES (1601-1608)
THE PERIOD OF DRAMATIC ROMANCES (1609-
1611)
THE PERIOD OF IMITATION AND
EXPERIMENT (1590-1594)
In this period come: Shakespeare matured
 Titus Andronicus - a tragedy of
blood in the Kydian style slowly.
 the three Henry VI plays By 1593 - Shakespeare
 Richard III – influenced by
Morlowe’s tragedy
had written nothing
King John - adaptation of an old comparable to Doctor
history play Faustus
three early comedies: Love’s Labour’s
Lost – influenced by Lyly and his
wider range of interest
Euphuistic style. The Comedy of than Marlowe
Errors; The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- romantic comedy in Greene’s style
Some of his Sonnets
THE PERIOD OF HISTORIES AND COMEDIES (1595-1600)

Shakespeare attained mastery of dramatic

technique and revealed great growth in poetic
and dramatic power.
To this period belong:
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar - foreshadows the great tragedies
Richard II – influenced by Marlowe’s Edward II
Henry V
The two parts of Henry IV displaying
Shakespeare’s greatest comic character, Falstaff
Seven comedies: The Taming of the Shrew and
The Merry Wives of Windsor – farces + five are
romantic comedies: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream - a delightful blend of fantasy, romance
and farce. The Merchant of Venice - notable for
the figure of Shylock and for the complexity of
the plot. As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and
Much Ado about Nothing represent
Shakespeare’s best work in the field.
Shakespeare’s comedies
- features -
no high comedy (as in Molière’ Tartuffe;)
comedy is always mingled with romance or
farce, usually with both
Shakespeare’s comedies are not realistic or
satiric
no attempt to reform the world or to portray life
as it is
setting is some far-off romantic spot, like
Illyria, Venice or the Forest of Arden
atmosphere is romantic and fanciful
plots include much the same elements: love at
first sight, cases of mistaken identity, women
disguised as men
usually two heroines like Viola and Olivia
(Twelfth Night), Rosalind and Celia (As You
Like It) - strongly contrasted to each other
What the characters do is seldom the results of
what they are, as in high comedy
characters are lifelike and delightful
THE PERIOD OF TRAGEDIES AND SATIRIC COMEDIES (1601-1608 )
A break in Shakespeare’s development. He
abandoned the history play.
Beginning with Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
treated his historical material as tragedy
rather than as chronicle history.
The comedies - gloomy and bitter. Troilus
and Cressida, Pericles, All’s Well that Ends
Well, Measure for Measure
The four greatest of his tragedies come
apparently in the following order: Hamlet,
Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. To these, a
fifth is sometimes added, Antony and
Cleopatra.
they are not surpassed by the work of any
other author.
Hamlet makes the strongest appeal to our
time; structurally, it is inferior to Othello,
which technically seems to be perfect. King
Lear is perhaps the most powerful of them
all.
Shakespeare’s tragedies
- features -
 more permanent in appeal than comedy
 plots and settings are unrealistic
 characters are treated more realistically
 the number of characters is large
 the interest of the audience is largely centered upon
one, as in Marlowe’s plays;
 occasionally, as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and
Cleopatra, two figures divide our interest
 tragic heroes of Shakespeare - persons of rank
(Sophocles and Racine); never middle-class (Ibsen);
never drawn from the lower levels (O’Neill)
 character is destiny
 treatment of character - highly original
 subtlety of characterization - raised a melodramatic
plot to the level of great tragedy
 he gave his audience what they wanted but at the
same time struggled to satisfy his own standards of
excellence.
THE PERIOD OF DRAMATIC ROMANCES (1609-1611)

Cymbeline, A Winter’s Tale, The

Tempest - resemble Shakespeare’s
romantic comedies from the second
period
superior in characterization
loss of technical skill
growing indifference to the
demands of the audience
The Tempest - Shakespeare seems
to be writing for himself rather
than for his audience
The Tempest, his last play - a
magnificent conclusion to the work
of the greatest British dramatist.