William Shakespeare - vita e opere

William Shakespeare: Life and Works (1564-1616)

Early life and marriage

1564 = Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he attended the local grammar school.

1585 = He gets married (at 18) to Anne Hathaway. At some point, he left Stratford (1585-1592 LOST YEARS).

Career beginnings and recognition

1592 = He was in London for sure, got quite the reputation (Robert Greene’s insults + some praises, so he was clearly the author of his plays).

Major works and theatre involvement

1592-1594 = Three histories that compose Henry VI, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus.

Plague years = The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet…

1594 = The theatres reopened. He joined the company The Lord Chamberlain’s Men as actor and shareholder. He wrote: Much Ado about Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Henry IV (I, II), Henry V.

1599 = Completion of the Globe. He wrote: Julius Caesar, 4 comedies: As You Like It, Twelfth Night… Troilus and Cressida (first described as a comedy then a tragedy, lastly a tragicomedy).

The great tragedies and later years

The Great Tragedies = Hamlet (revenge play), Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra (King’s Men).

1608 = Because of the plague, the King’s Men moved to the Blackfriars Theatre; famous = tragicomedy, (The Tempest).

1611 = Returned to Stratford.

1616 = Death.

Shakespeare’s sources and style

Shakespeare’s sources = classics, novellas, but also London’s crowded streets. His success = the way in which his stories are told, in the form of drama; no Aristotelian rules. The language that his characters spoke is made up of words of everyday speech + unexpected expressions, locutions, hidden or shown rhetorical figures. His characters constitute the archetype of an attitude and a form of experience that could be common to everyone of us.

Histories

Themes of his histories = responsibilities of the King, the disasters caused by opposing forces within the nation, the necessity of national unity, the legitimacy of kingship.

Works

• 3 historical dramas about Henry VI + Richard III (its sequel). Source = chronicles of Hall and Holinshed.
• Henry VI = His lack of political skills was one of the causes of the Wars of the Roses.
• Richard III = At Henry VI’s funeral, he woos Lady Anne, widow of Henry’s son Edward, both killed by Richard himself, is a wicked figure. His aim is the conquest of power, and he’s great at dissimulating (like a dictator).
• Richard II (1595) = Queen Elizabeth was old and childless and people were afraid that she might be deposed. 1367-1400: King Richard II banishes Henry Bolingbroke, seizes noble land and uses the money to fund wars. Henry returns to England to reclaim his land, gathers an army of those opposed to Richard, and deposes him. Now, as Henry IV, he imprisons Richard, and Richard is murdered in prison. Richard’s soliloquy before his murder.