William Shakespeare - vita e opere

William Shakespeare: Life and Works (1564-1616)

1564 - William Shakespeare is 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).

1592 - He was in London for sure, and gained quite the reputation. Robert Greene's insults and some praises confirmed that he was clearly the author of his plays.

1592-1594 - He wrote three histories that compose Henry VI, The Taming of the Shrew, and Titus Andronicus.

Plague years - During this time, he wrote The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and more.

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

1599 - The completion of the Globe. He wrote Julius Caesar, four comedies: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Troilus and Cressida (which was first described as a comedy, then a tragedy, and lastly a tragicomedy).

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, (TheTempest).1611= returned to Stratford.1616= death 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 (it's sequel). Source= chronicles of Hall and Holinshed.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= the perfect touch to the representation of a weak king, influenced by his favourites but with great sensibility and theatricality that made him more suitable to being defined as "poet", rather than

“king”.*Henry IV (I, II), Bolingbroke faces the rebellion of nobles and of his son Henry. Falstaff, leader of the dissolute crew frequented by the prince, is a great liar,… which instructs us in freedom from the society. After Henry IV’s death, Henry V refuses to acknowledge his old friend. England won at the battle of Agincourt (1415). In the eve of the battle, in disguise, he talks to three soldiers who talk about the justice of the war if they’ll die in battle and have as reward the misery of their loved ones. The king= it’s a just cause.