English playwright one of the forerunners of Shakespeare. William Shakespeare - Brilliant playwright

WORKSHOP 1 Topic: “English theater of the Adrazhennia era. Creativity of W. Shakespeare” 1. Agile characteristics of the development of the English theater art of the Adragen era. 2. Creativity W. Shakespeare. Periyadyzatsyya creative playwright (aptymystychny, tragic, romantic). 3. Shakespeare's dramas are the most daring and daring art of all. Pastanov's plays of Shakespeare on the stage of European theatres. 4. Shakespeare's phenomenon in the real theatrical skill. Trying ab aўtarstvo creatў. 5. Theater "Globe": history and present. Pabudova scenes, stage equipment, acting masters.

Theater of the Renaissance. English theater

The theater of the English Renaissance was born and developed on the market square, which determined its national British flavor and democracy. The most popular genres on the areal stages were morality and farces. During the reign of Elizabeth Tudor, the mysteries were banned. From the beginning of the 16th century, English theatrical art approached a new stage - the beginning of the development of humanistic drama, which began to take shape against the background of the political struggle between the royal power and the Catholic Church.

Sharp criticism and propaganda of the new humanistic ideology sounded from the stage, dressed in the clothes of habitual interludes and morality. In the play by the humanist John Rastell "Interlude on the Nature of the Four Elements" (1519), in addition to the figures traditional for morality, there are the following characters: Thirst for Knowledge, Lady Nature, Experience, and as an opposition to them - the devil Ignorance and the harlot Thirst for pleasure. The irreconcilable struggle of these characters in the play ends with the victory of enlightenment over obscurantism and ignorance.

John Bale - a prominent figure in the English Reformation and a famous writer, author of the play "King John". By adding social themes to the morality, he laid the foundation for dramaturgy in the genre of historical chronicle.

The new theater was born out of a medieval farce. The court poet, musician and organizer of colorful spectacles, John Gaywood, developed the farce by writing satirical interludes. In them, he ridiculed the fraud of monks and sellers of indulgences, the intrigues of the clergy, greedy for profit, the cunning tricks of the priests, who covered their sins with ostentatious piety. In addition to the main character - a rogue - and negative characters - churchmen - simple-minded and good-natured commoners participated in short everyday scenes. The satirical interludes of the early 16th century became the link between medieval farcical theater and the emerging dramatic theater.

The introduction of the English people to Italian culture and art contributed to the active perception and popularization of ancient culture and the achievements of ancient civilization. The intensive study of the Latin language and the work of Seneca and Plautus led to translations of ancient tragedies and comedies into English. Performances based on these translations became very popular among the aristocratic and university environment.

At the same time, the aristocrats and the enlightened public admired the sonnets of Petrarch and the poems of Ariosto. The novels of Boccaccio and Bandello were known in a raznochin society. At the royal court, masquerades were introduced as entertaining entertainment events, at which scenes from Italian pastorals were played out.

The first examples of national comedy and tragedy appeared on the stage in the middle of the 16th century. Nicholas Udol, the author of the first English comedy, Ralph Royster Doyster (c. 1551), was an educated court organizer of entertainment and tried to teach people "good rules of life" through his works.

The Gorboduk play (1562) by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sequile was first performed at the court of Queen Elizabeth and is considered the first English tragedy. It clearly shows the imitation of the Roman tragedy: the division of the play into 5 acts, choral singing and monologues of messengers, bloody crimes, but the plot is based on a historical fact from medieval history. The moral of the tragedy was in the allegorical pantomime and interludes that the actors performed between acts, explaining unexpected plot twists.

After farcical mysteries and primitive farces, on the basis of ancient and Italian dramaturgy, a new English dramaturgy was born, in which there was a compositional basis, proportionality of parts, logic in the development of action and characters.

The playwrights of the new generation almost all had a university education and came from a democratic environment. Having united in a creative group called "University Minds", in their works they tried to synthesize the high humanistic culture of aristocrats and folk wisdom with its folklore.

W. Shakespeare's predecessor - the famous English playwright John Lily (c. 1554-1606) - was a court poet. In his most interesting comedy "Alexander and Campaspe" (1584), written according to the story of the Greek historian Pliny, he showed the generosity of Alexander the Great, who, seeing the love of his friend, the artist Apelles, for the captive Campaspe, yielded to her friend. Thus, in the struggle between duty and feeling, duty won. The idealized image of Alexander in the play is opposed by the skeptical figure of the philosopher Diogenes, whose folk wisdom and common sense triumph over the self-confidence and arrogance of the monarch and his entourage.

John Lily laid the foundation for the so-called romantic comedy. He introduced the lyrical element into dramatic action, giving prose speech a bright poetic flavor. He pointed the way for the future fusion of the two genres of comedy - romantic and farcical.

The true ancestor of the English Renaissance drama was Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a well-known playwright, author of works of philosophical and atheistic content. The son of a shoemaker, who achieved the degree of Master of Science by his perseverance, he was distinguished by courage and freethinking. K. Marlo preferred the work of an actor in a theater troupe to the career of a priest that opened before him after graduating from the university in Cambridge. His first dramatic work, Tamerlane the Great, was full of atheistic ideas. This monumental work was written in two parts over the course of two years (part I in 1587 and part II in 1588). "Tamerlane the Great" is a dramatized biography of the famous Eastern conqueror of the late XIV century, Timur. Marlo gave his hero the strength and appearance of a legendary hero. And, what is especially important, he made the noble feudal lord, who Timur really was, a “low-born shepherd”, who only by the power of his will, energy and mind rose above the legitimate rulers.

The play by K. Marlo "The tragic story of Doctor Faust" (1588) reveals the other side of human life. The rejection of ascetic principles and unconditional submission to the highest authority for the sake of a thirst for knowledge and the joy of life are clothed by him in the image of the atheist Dr. Faust. The drama of the liberated consciousness of Dr. Faust and the loneliness that followed it leads him to repentance, while highlighting the enormous energy of the struggle for freedom of thought.

The last tragedy of K. Marlo "Edward II", written on the material of historical chronicles, became the basis of English drama, which W. Shakespeare successfully developed in his works.

Simultaneously with the plays of K. Marlowe, plays by other playwrights from the University Minds group were staged on the stage: Thomas Kyd - "The Spanish Tragedy" (1587) and Robert Greene - "Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay", "James IV" and "George Green , Weckfield field watchman "(1592).

The creative community of playwrights from the University Minds group preceded a new stage in the development of national drama - the birth of Renaissance tragedy and comedy. Gradually, the image of a new hero emerged - bold and courageous, devoted to the humanistic ideal.

At the end of the 16th century, the English folk theater gathered huge crowds of people for their performances, absorbing all the revolutionary ideas and imitating the brave heroes who defended their human dignity in the struggle. The number of theatrical troupes steadily increased, the performances from hotel yards and city squares moved to theaters specially built for this purpose.

In 1576, in London, James Burbage built the first theater, which was called “The Theater”. It was followed by the construction of several theater buildings at once: "Curtain", "Blackfriars", "Rose" and "Swan". Despite the fact that the city council of commons by its order forbade theatrical performances in London itself in 1576, the theaters were located on the south bank of the Thames, in an area that was beyond the power of the council of commons.

Actors of London theaters for the most part, not counting the well-known, who enjoyed the patronage of the nobles, were low-income and disenfranchised people. The royal decree equated artists with homeless vagabonds and provided for the punishment of troupes that did not have wealthy patrons. Despite the tough attitude towards theaters on the part of the authorities, their popularity increased from year to year and their number increased.

The form of organization of theater troupes at that time was of two types: a share partnership of actors with self-government and a private enterprise headed by an entrepreneur who owned props and bought the rights to stage a play from playwrights. A private entrepreneur could hire any troupe, placing the actors in bondage to his whims.

The quantitative composition of the troupe was no more than 10-14 people, who in the repertoire of the theater had to play several roles. The female roles were played by pretty young men, achieving a reliable performance with plasticity of movements and lyricism of the voice. The general manner of acting by the actors was going through a stage of transition from epic style and sublime pathos to a restrained form of internal drama. The leading actors of the tragic genre in the era of W. Shakespeare were Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn.

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon (English Stratford-upon-Avon). His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker, and in 1568 he was elected mayor of the city. His mother, Mary Shakespeare of the Arden family, belonged to one of the oldest English families. It is believed that Shakespeare studied at the Stratford "grammar school", where he studied the Latin language, the basics of Greek and received knowledge of ancient mythology, history and literature, reflected in his work. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, from whom a daughter Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Between 1579 and 1588 commonly called "lost years", because. there is no exact information about what Shakespeare did. Around 1587, Shakespeare left his family and moved to London, where he took up theatrical activities.

We find the first mention of Shakespeare as a writer in 1592 in the dying pamphlet of the playwright Robert Greene "For a penny of a mind bought for a million remorse", where Greene spoke of him as a dangerous competitor ("upstart", "crow flaunting in our feathers). In 1594, Shakespeare was listed as one of the shareholders of the troupe of Richard Burbage "Servants of the Lord Chamberlain" (ChamberlainЂЂЂs Men), and in 1599 Shakespeare became one of the co-owners of the new Globe Theatre. By this time, Shakespeare becomes a fairly wealthy man, buys the second largest house in Stratford, receives the right to a family coat of arms and the noble title of a gentleman. For many years Shakespeare was engaged in usury, and in 1605 he became a farmer of church tithes. In 1612 Shakespeare left London and returned to his native Stratford. On March 25, 1616, a will was drawn up by a notary and on April 23, 1616, on his birthday, Shakespeare dies.

The paucity of biographical information and many inexplicable facts gave rise to a fairly large number of people nominated for the role of the author of Shakespeare's works. Until now, there are many hypotheses (first put forward at the end of the 18th century) that Shakespeare's plays were written by a completely different person. For more than two centuries of the existence of these versions, a variety of applicants have been put forward for the "role" of the author of these plays - from Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlo to the pirate Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth. There were versions that a whole team of authors was hiding under the name of Shakespeare. At the moment, there are already 77 candidates for authorship. However, whoever he is - and in numerous disputes about the personality of the great playwright and poet, the point will not be put soon, perhaps never - the creations of the genius of the Renaissance today still inspire directors and actors around the world.

The entire career of Shakespeare - the period from 1590 to 1612. usually divided into three or four periods.

From the end of the 80s of the 16th century, the dramaturgy of the English Renaissance entered a time of mature skill. Every new author, almost every new work enriches the drama with new ideas and artistic forms.

Dramaturgical creativity becomes professional. A galaxy of playwrights, nicknamed "university minds", appears. As the nickname indicates, these were people with university education and advanced degrees. They received a classical liberal education, were well-read in Greek and Roman literature, and knew the writings of Italian and French humanists. Robert Greene and Christopher Marlo received their BA and MA degrees from Cambridge. John Lily, Thomas Lodge, George Peel received degrees from Oxford. Only Thomas Kidd did not finish the university, but he studied at one of the best London schools. By this time, humanism was a fully formed doctrine, and they only had to accept it.

But Oxford and Cambridge prepared their students only for the priestly career. At best, they could become teachers. But that was not why they read Plautus and Seneca, Boccaccio and

Ariosto to follow this path. After receiving their diplomas, they rushed to London. Each of them was full of new ideas and creative aspirations. Soon the printing presses of the capital started working on them. But it was difficult to live on literary income. Poems, novels, pamphlets brought more fame than money. The "stormy geniuses" of that era, who blazed new trails in literature and theater, lived starving at the very bottom of London, hobnobbed with tavern regulars and thieves, huddled in inns and ran away from there when there was nothing to pay the owner. They also happened to get into the salon of some noble and wealthy patron of poetry, but here they did not take root.

They were driven to the theater by their love of art and the search for a job. With Robert Green, for example, it happened like this. One day he wandered the streets without a penny in his pocket and met an old acquaintance who struck him with his rich suit. Curious about where his friend got so rich, Green heard that he had become an actor. The actor, having learned that Green writes poetry, invited him to write for the theater.

Lily came to playwriting in a different way. He taught Latin to the boys of the choir. When another choir performed performances of boy actors with great success, he decided to write a play and act it out with his students.

But, no matter how accidental were the reasons that attracted "university minds" to the theater, their arrival there was, in essence, natural. The theater turned out to be the best platform for their ideas, a field in which they could show their artistic talent.

Most of the "university minds" wrote for the folk theatre. Only Lily from the very beginning was guided by the "chosen" court-aristocratic public.

Peru John Lily (1553 - 1606) owns eight plays: "Alexander and Campaspe" (1584), "Sappho and Phaon" (1584), "Galatea" (1588), "Endymion, or Man in the Moon" (1588), " Midas" (1589 - 1590), "Mother Bomby" (c. 1590), "Metamorphoses of Love" (c. 1590), "Woman in the Moon" (c. 1594).

It was not for nothing that Lily studied ancient authors. He was addicted to ancient stories and myths. But his plays were by no means academic exercises in imitation of ancient authors. Lili's dramaturgy was quite modern, despite the Greek names of the heroes and heroines. Borrowing plots from ancient history and mythology, filling them with pastoral elements in the spirit of Italian humanism, Lily gave in his comedies an allegorical depiction of Elizabeth's court society. In almost every one of his comedies, under one name or another, Queen Elizabeth is brought out, glorified as a model of all virtues. Lily's Athens is reminiscent of London, and the Arcadian meadows are of English nature.

Lily's comedies are dominated by love themes, only in "Midas" there were elements of political satire on the Spanish King Philip II and in "Mother Bombie" - features of everyday satire. As a rule, Lily's action takes place in a conditional setting. The characters are half fictional, half real. They speak in a very peculiar secular jargon.

Lily was the creator of a special style of "eufuism", which got its name from Lily's novel "Euphues, or Anatomy of wit" (1579). The style of speech developed by Lili was closely connected with the ideological concept that underlay all his work.

Lily was a representative of the court-aristocratic humanism. Fully supporting the existing system, he believed that humanism should be limited to the task of educating the ideal gentleman, endowed with external and internal culture. Based on the treatise of the Italian writer Castiglione "The Courtier", Lily, in the image of the hero of his novel, Eufues, sought to present a concrete embodiment of his ideal. High intelligence and fine sensitivity must go hand in hand with refined manners. With his novel, Lily wanted to give examples of gallantry to the aristocrats of the time of Elizabeth. In fact, his novel was on English soil one of the earliest examples of that "precise" style, which subsequently received such a significant development in French noble literature of the 17th century and was cruelly ridiculed by Molière.

Characteristic features of the euphuistic style: rhetoric, an abundance of metaphors and comparisons, antitheses, parallelisms, references to ancient mythology. Not only Lily's novel was written in a similar language, but also his plays. In Lily's comedy Endymion, the hero speaks of his beloved: "O beautiful Cynthia! Why do others call you fickle when I find you unchanged? The ruinous time, vicious morals, unkind people, seeing the incomparable constancy of my beautiful beloved, dubbed her changeable, unfaithful Is it possible to call unstable one who always goes her own way, from birth without changing her direction for a moment? buds are worthless until they give color, and the color - until it gives ripe fruit, and shall we call them changeable because from a seed comes a sprout, from a sprout a bud, from a bud a flower ?"

Euphuism had a significant impact on the literary language of the era, including the language of dramatic works. At a certain stage, he played a positive role, contributing to the enrichment and ennoblement of the language. However, the emphasized aristocracy and artificiality of this style could not but cause a reaction on the part of those writers who were guided by the living folk language. Shakespeare, who first paid a certain tribute to euphuism, then repeatedly parodied this style. When Falstaff and Prince Henry (Henry IV, Part 1) stage a meeting between the king and the prince, the fat knight, who throughout this scene parodies a number of dramatic works of the era, imitates the euphuistic style as follows:

"Harry, I am surprised not only by your pastime, but also by the society in which you live. Although the chamomile grows faster the more it is trampled on, youth wears out the sooner the more it is abused. That you are my son, this partly me I am convinced by your mother's assurances, partly my own opinion, but especially the roguish look in your eyes and the stupid drooping of your lower lip ... Your company stains a person. I tell you this, Harry, not from drunken eyes, but with tears in my eyes, not jokingly but grieving, not only with words, but with a aching heart." Polonius' speeches in Hamlet are also euphuistic. But here it is both a parody and a characterization of the character: such were the tastes of the court environment.

Along with artificiality, however, in Lily's comedies there was real lively wit. An example of it is the dialogue of Plato, Aristotle and Diogenes in "Alexander and Campaspe", the conversations of servants in other comedies. There is only one step from here to the wit of Shakespearean comedies.

Lily was the creator of "high" comedy. He was the first to bring comedy beyond farce. With the possible exception of "Mother Bombie", where there are elements of farce, he paints romantic situations everywhere, building the action on the clashes of high passions. In this, too, he is a direct predecessor of Shakespeare. But the morality with which his comedies are imbued is completely opposite to Shakespeare's and, in general, to the ethical principles of folk drama. In Lily's comedies, a conflict is very frequent, arising from the fact that two people love one woman ("Alexander and Campaspe", "Sappho and Faon", etc.). One of them needs to give up his love. Lily asserts strict moral discipline, insists on the need to suppress her passions, and in this sense puritanism is not alien to him. The folk drama by no means cultivated the stoic suppression of passions, feelings and desires. On the contrary, its whole pathos was in depicting the strength and beauty of powerful passions, in affirming the legitimacy of a person's right to satisfy his aspirations, in the struggle of the good principles of human nature against the bad ones.

The major representatives of folk drama before Shakespeare were Green, Kid and Marlo.

Robert Green (1558 - 1592) was a native of Norwich. He studied at the University of Cambridge, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1578 and a master's degree in 1583. As a bachelor, he traveled to Spain and Italy. Green's literary activity began in Cambridge, it became the main source of his livelihood after 1583, when he settled in London. Eight-nine years lived by Green in the capital were the most stormy and fruitful period of his life. Green wrote in various genres: poetry, poems, novels, satirical pamphlets and dramas. Intense, poorly paid work, periods of complete need, when Green literally starved, and succeeding months of prosperity, when he intemperately reveled, squandering his fee - all this undermined his health. He fell ill and died at some inn, in debt to the owner and not even leaving money for a funeral.

Greene's first dramatic experience, "Alphonse, King of Aragon" (1587), is a play depicting the extraordinary feats and grandiose victories of a hero who wins the crown and love of a beautiful girl. The dramatization of "Furious Roland" (1588) also has a romantic basis. The plot of Ariosto's poem gave Green the opportunity to satisfy the public's love for bright, entertaining action and bring out heroes endowed with great passions.

Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay (1589), like Marlowe's Faust, reflects a characteristic phenomenon of the era - the desire to know the secrets of nature and subdue it with the help of science. Like Marlo, Green does not separate science from magic. His hero, the monk Bacon, is a warlock with the ability to work miracles. However, Greene's play is completely devoid of the tragic sense that Marlowe's play has. There is no titanism in Green's characters, and the whole plot is given a romantic coloring. The Prince of Wales and his courtier, Lacey, seek the love of the forester's daughter, the beautiful Marguerite. The rivalry between the two magicians, Bacon and Bongay, is, as it were, the comic background of this love story.

An essential element of the play is its connection with folklore. Its plot has its roots in English folk legends about the medieval scientist Roger Bacon (XIII century), who invented glasses and substantiated the principle of constructing a telescope. In the play, he possesses a "magic glass" that allows him to see far away. Some scenes are built on the fact that Bacon looks through this glass, and what he sees, the audience sees.

Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay is one of the most popular plays in the folk theatre. It is imbued with undeniable democracy. The heroine of the play Margarita is a girl from the people who acts as the embodiment of the ideal of beauty, fidelity and love, as the bearer of free feelings. "Neither the king of England, nor the ruler of all Europe," she declares, "would make me stop loving the one I love."

Green's attitude to science is also imbued with democracy. Monk Bacon uses his magical power not for personal purposes, but to help people. At the end of the play, he utters a prophecy about the future of England, which, having passed through the crucible of wars, will reach a peaceful life:

First Mars will take possession of the fields, Then the end of the military storm will come: Horses will graze without fear in the field, Wealth will bloom on the banks, Whose sight Brutus once admired, And peace will descend from heaven to the bushes ...

In "James IV" (1591) Green, like other playwrights of the era, used the historical plot to interpret political problems. Green is a supporter of "enlightened monarchy". Like Shakespeare later, he raises the question of the personality of the king, believing that it depends on whether the government will be just or unjust. The Scottish King James IV is depicted in the play as a typical embodiment of monarchical arbitrariness. Because of his love for Ida, the daughter of the Countess of Arran, acting at the instigation of the treacherous courtier Atekin, James IV orders the murder of his wife Dorothea, the daughter of the English king. Warned of the conspiracy, the queen goes into hiding. The news of her supposed death reaches her father, Henry VII, who is invading Scotland with an army. Dorothea appears in hiding. James IV repents, and everything ends in peace.

This play, like other works by Green, is characterized by a combination of a socio-political theme with personal conflicts. The evil King James is opposed to the English King Henry VII, who acts as the guardian of justice and legality. To understand the general spirit of this play, the episode in which the lawyer, the merchant and the priest are having a conversation about the causes of social disasters is of great importance. Green makes the priest the spokesman for the most just views. “What is the name of such an order in which the poor always lose their case, no matter how fair it is?” the priest is indignant. and they will resort to your help, you will remove the last thread from them and let them go around the world with their children. Now the war has begun; the robbed people are worried; we are robbed even without enemies; our own ruin us and sentence at the same time: in peacetime, the law did not spare us, now we will destroy it in turn."

The hero of the play "George Greene, Weckfield Field Watchman" (1592) is a man of the people, a yeoman, proud of being a commoner, and refusing the title of nobility, which the king wants him to receive. George Green is hostile to the feudal lords, he captures the rebellious lords who rebelled against Edward III. The political direction of the play corresponded to the positions of the bourgeois humanists, who saw in the strengthening of the absolute monarchy a means to suppress the self-will of the feudal barons. The idea of ​​the unity of the people and the king in the struggle against the feudal lords runs through the entire play. Such views of Greene were, of course, an illusion that arose at that stage of the social development of England, when the absolute monarchy relied in its struggle against the feudal lords on the support of the bourgeoisie and the people.

As in "The Monk Bacon", in "Weckfield Field Watchman" one can clearly feel the connection between Greene's dramaturgy and folklore. Not to mention the fact that one of the characters in the play is the hero of folk ballads Robin Hood, the image of George Green was also borrowed by the author from folk songs. The democratic sympathies of the writer are also reflected in the images of the townspeople of Weckfield, in the loving depiction of the life of ordinary people and in the folk humor that colors a number of episodes of the play.

Grin was completely uncharacteristic of tragic pathos. As a rule, his plays have a happy ending. The comic element in them is very significant, which Green organically connected with the main lines of the plot. Green liked to build complex intrigue and lead parallel action.

These features of Green's dramaturgy have firmly entered the practice of the English Renaissance theater.

Thomas Kidd is one of the most interesting and at the same time the most mysterious figures of the English Renaissance. Even the dates of his birth and death are not exactly known: it is assumed that he was born in 1557 and died in 1595. We only know that before becoming a playwright, he was a scribe. Some of his plays were published without the name of the author, others were marked only with initials. The main source for determining Kid's authorship was the account books of the theater entrepreneur Philip Genslo, who noted the payment of royalties to the authors of the plays.

According to researchers, Kid was the author of five plays. The first in time was the "Spanish Tragedy", the popularity of which can be judged by the fact that over the course of a decade it was published four times (1st edition - no date, 2nd - 1594, 3rd - 1599, 4th - 1602). Although the name of the author is not indicated on any edition, all researchers consider the affiliation of this play to Kid as indisputable. It is assumed that Kid wrote the first part of the tragedy "Jeronimo", which depicts the events preceding the "Spanish tragedy".

Kid is further credited with the authorship of the play, the lengthy title of which reads: "The tragedy of Soliman and Persis, in which constancy in love is depicted, inconstancy of fate and the bargaining of death." With certainty, one can speak of Kid's authorship in relation to the tragedy "Pompeii the Great and the Beautiful Cornelia", because his name is indicated on the title page. It also states that the play is a translation of a tragedy by the French poet Robert Garnier. Finally, it is believed that Kyd was the author of the pre-Shakespearean tragedy of Hamlet, which is known to have been performed on the stage in 1587-1588, although its text has not come down to us.

The most remarkable of all these dramas was the "Spanish Tragedy", which marked the beginning of the "bloody drama" genre. It begins with the appearance of the ghost of Andrea, crying out for revenge for his death at the hands of the Portuguese Balthazar. This task is taken over by the friend of the deceased, Horatio, who captures Balthazar and brings him to Spain. But here Balthazar manages to make friends with the son of the Duke of Castile - Lorenzo. With his assistance, Balthazar is going to marry the bride of the late Andrea, the beautiful Belimperia. But Belimperia loves Horatio. To eliminate the rival, Balthazar and his friend Lorenzo kill Horatio. They hang the body of the murdered man on a tree in front of his house. Horatio's father, Hieronimo, finds the corpse and vows to find the killers in order to take revenge on them. Mother Horatio, shocked by grief, commits suicide. After learning who was the cause of all his misfortunes, Jeronimo comes up with a plan for revenge. He invites his son's killers to participate in the performance of the play at the wedding celebration on the occasion of the marriage of Balthazar and Belimperia. All the main characters are involved in this play. In the course of this play, Hieronimo must kill Lorenzo and Balthazar, which he does. Belimperia commits suicide, father Lorenzo falls dead, and thus Jeronimo's revenge is carried out. When the king orders Hieronimo's arrest, he bites off his tongue and spits it out so as not to reveal his secret. Hieronimo then stabs himself with a dagger.

"Spanish Tragedy" - a drama of court intrigues and cruel revenge - is of considerable interest both in its artistic features and in its ideological orientation.

Rejecting ready-made plots of ancient or medieval origin, Kid himself invented the plot of his tragedy, which takes place in contemporary Spain, in the 80s of the 16th century. He fills the play with violent passions, rapidly developing events and pathetic speeches. Skillfully building the action, he leads several parallel intrigues at the same time, striking the viewer with unexpected coincidences and sharp turns in the fate of the characters. The characters are outlined with sharp, expressive strokes. Temperament is combined in them with purposefulness, with a huge strong-willed pressure. He creates images of villains who know no limits to deceit and cruelty. Jeronimo's thirst for revenge turns into an obsession bordering on insanity.

To match the whole color of the tragedy and female images, in particular the heroine of the play Belimperiya, who is not inferior to men in passion, energy, determination. Kid's characters pour out their feelings in speeches full of intense emotionality, stormy exclamations, bold hyperbole. In this, Kid's tragedy is similar to many other dramatic works of the era. But there is a feature in the "Spanish Tragedy" that distinguishes this play from the mass of modern dramatic production. This is her exceptional theatricality and stage presence. Unlike many plays, in which much of the action took place offstage, in Kid everything takes place on stage, in front of the audience. Having overcome the schematism of the literary, "academic" drama, Kid, as it were, revived on a new basis the elements of visualization and effective spectacle, characteristic of the mystery theater. Kid's play creates an exciting spectacle, the events presented in it cause either pity and compassion, or fear and horror. Throughout the action of the "Spanish Tragedy" there are eight murders and suicides, each of which is carried out in its own way; in addition, the audience is shown hanging, insanity, biting off the tongue and other terrible things. The heroes of Kid not only made speeches, but performed many different deeds, and all this required new acting techniques for that time, the development of facial expressions, gesticulation, and stage movement. Among the innovative elements of Kid's dramaturgy, one should also note his introduction of the "stage on stage" - a device that contained rich stage possibilities and was subsequently used by Shakespeare repeatedly.

Kid's dramatic innovations were not an end in themselves. They are inextricably linked with the ideological orientation of his work. Horror and villainy, presented in abundance in the "Spanish Tragedy", reflected Kidu's characteristic tragic perception of reality.

The heap of horrors and atrocities in the bloody drama was a reflection of the revelry of individualistic self-will and the collapse of all feudal ties in the conditions of the emerging bourgeois society. The breaking of old moral norms was expressed in the loss of restraining principles. Anger, deceit, betrayal, predation, violence, murder and other similar phenomena captured in the bloody drama were not an invention of playwrights, but a reflection of the facts of reality. Not without reason, it was in the genre of bloody drama that a significant number of works were created based on modern material, and not on borrowed literary or historical plots.

The vast majority of bloody tragedies depicted the life of the upper strata of society, the court and the nobility. The democratic orientation of the genre was reflected in the fact that, in essence, bloody dramas always condemned the immorality and cruelty of high society.

A special place among the bloody dramas is occupied by the work of an unknown author "Arden from Feversham" (c. 1590). The essential difference of this play from other works of this genre is that the action in it takes place not at the court and not among the nobility, but in the life of people of a simple rank. This is the first bourgeois family drama in the English theatre. The source of its plot was the real events that took place in 1551.

The play depicts the story of the murder of the burgess of Arden by his wife Alice and her lover Mosby. Unable to restrain her passions, Alice decides to get rid of her unloved husband, but the implementation of her plan always encounters obstacles, and Arden manages to avoid the traps prepared for him over and over again.

Leading the action with great skill, the playwright unfolds before the viewer pictures of the provincial and metropolitan life of middle-class people, working people and the scum of society. The dramatic skill with which the story unfolds has led researchers to speculate that Shakespeare or The Kid could have been the author of this anonymous play. These assumptions, however, do not have any serious grounds.

The greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors was Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). The son of a Canterbury shoemaker, who completed a full course of science at the University of Cambridge, Marlow received in 1587 the degree of master of liberal arts. After settling in London, he was engaged in poetic and dramatic activities, staging plays for public theaters.

While living in London, Marlowe joined a circle of freethinkers, headed by Walter Raleigh, one of the brightest figures of the English Renaissance; Raleigh was a warrior, navigator, poet, philosopher, historian. Ideologically connected with Raleigh, Marlo openly professed atheism and republican views. Numerous denunciations of Marlo have been preserved, which were filed by agents of the secret police. An investigation was conducted into the case of his free-thinking. But the authorities decided to do without the usual legal procedure: Marlo was killed by government agents in an inn in the city of Deptford, and then a version was composed that the cause of the poet's death was a brawl over a tavern girl. In fact, as researchers have now documented, the playwright fell victim to the police terror of the Elizabethan government.

Marlo's first play appeared in 1587, and five years later he was already dead. Despite the short duration of his activity, Marlo left a very significant dramatic legacy.

The first tragedy of Marlowe literally shocked his contemporaries. Not a single work of the scene until that time had such success as that which fell to the lot of "Tamerlane" (1st part - 1587, 2nd part - 1588). The hero of the tragedy is a simple shepherd who becomes a commander and conquers numerous kingdoms of the East.

Tamerlane is a titanic personality: he strives for unlimited domination over the world. This is a man of great ambition, an indefatigable thirst for power, indomitable energy. He does not believe in fate and in God, he is his own destiny and his own god. He is unshakably convinced that everything desired is achievable, you just need to really want and achieve it.

Faith in the power of the mind and will of man is expressed by Marlo in Tamerlane's monologue:

We are created from four elements, Warring stubbornly among themselves. Nature teaches our mind to soar And to cognize with an insatiable soul the Wonderful architecture of the world, To measure the complex path of the heavenly bodies And strive for infinite knowledge...

Having achieved one of his first military victories, Tamerlane captures the beautiful Zenocrate, the daughter of the Egyptian Sultan. He falls in love with her with all the force of passion inherent in his nature. Zenocrate is at first afraid of Tamerlane's indomitability, and then, subdued by his heroic energy, she gives her heart to him. Tamerlane makes his conquests, wanting to put the whole world at the feet of his beloved woman. At the end of the first part, Tamerlane enters into battle with the father of Zenocrates, the Egyptian sultan. Zenocrate is experiencing a split of feelings between love for Tamerlane and for his father. Tamerlane captures the Sultan, but returns his freedom, and he blesses his marriage to Zenocrates.

If the first part depicts the conquest of the East by Tamerlane, then in the second we see Tamerlane spreading his conquests to the West. He defeats the Hungarian king Sigismund.

Zenocrate, who managed to give Tamerlane three sons, dies. Tamerlane's grief is boundless. He burns down the city where Zenocrate died. Accompanied by his three sons, Tamerlane, like a whirlwind of death, sweeps with his troops through all the new countries he conquers. He conquers Babylon and Turkey. Here he orders the Qur'an to be burned. This episode is a challenge to the atheist Marlo religion, it was not difficult for contemporaries to guess that he also refers to the holy scriptures of Christianity. Tamerlane dies, ordering to be buried next to Zenocrates and bequeathing to his sons to continue the conquest of new lands.

"Tamerlane" by Marlo is the apotheosis of a strong personality, a hymn to human energy. The hero of the tragedy embodies the spirit of the era when the emancipation of the individual from feudal fetters took place. Tamerlane undoubtedly has features of bourgeois individualism. His highest aspiration is unlimited power over the world and people. He discards the old moral principles and believes that the only law is his will.

But there was also a deeply democratic basis in the image of Tamerlane. Marlo chose as the hero of the drama a man rising from the very bottom to the pinnacle of power and might. The people's audience of that time was supposed to be impressed by this shepherd, who defeats the kings and makes them serve him. Tamerlane forces one of the captured kings to depict a step at the foot of his throne, he harnesses other kings to a chariot and rides around on it, puts another king in a cage and carries him behind him to demonstrate his power.

The democratic spectator, of course, joyfully applauded this spectacle of so many deposed kings, defeated by a simple shepherd. "Tamerlane" was a challenge to the old world, its rulers. Marlowe, as it were, proclaimed in his play that a new ruler of the world was coming; he has no titles, no ancestors, but he is powerful, smart, energetic, and before his will, thrones and altars will fall to dust. Such was, in essence, the idea of ​​the play, and this was its pathos, which captivated contemporaries so much.

The same challenge was contained in The Tragic History of Doctor Faust (1588 - 1589). Here the hero is also a titanic personality. But if Tamerlane wanted to achieve unlimited power over the world through military exploits, then Faust strives for the same goal through knowledge. Borrowing the plot from the German folk book about the warlock Dr. Faust, Marlo created a typical Renaissance work that reflected the most important feature of the era - the emergence of a new science.

Faust rejects medieval scholasticism and theology, which are powerless to comprehend nature and discover its laws; they only bind the person. The revolt against medieval theology and the rejection of religion is embodied in the alliance that Faust makes with the devil. The godless and atheist Marlo here gives full vent to his hatred of religion. His hero finds more benefit for himself in communion with the devil - Mephistopheles than in obedience to religious dogmas.

In Marlowe's tragedy one senses a powerful impulse for knowledge, a passionate desire to conquer nature and make it serve man. In Faust, this desire for knowledge is embodied. The seekers of new paths in science were brave people who heroically rebelled against medieval religious prejudices, courageously endured the persecution of the church and the persecution of obscurantists, who put their lives at stake in the name of achieving their great goal.

Such a heroic person is Faust, who even agrees to sell his soul to the devil in order to master the secrets of nature and conquer it. Faust composes an enthusiastic hymn to knowledge:

Oh, what a world, a world of wisdom and benefit, Honor, omnipotence and power Is open to those who have given themselves to science! Everything that lies between the silent poles Is subject to me.

Knowledge is not an end in itself for Faust. It is for him the same means to conquer the whole world for himself, which for Tamerlane was his sword. Science should give him wealth and power.

However, there is a difference between Faust and Tamerlane. Tamerlane is a whole person. He knows no doubts and hesitations. The play about him, in fact, is not a tragedy, but rather a heroic drama, because from beginning to end the viewer sees the solid triumphs of the hero. Faust is different. Here, from the very beginning, we feel the duality of the hero. He has two souls. Faust craves, albeit short-term, but still real power over the world and is ready to sacrifice his "immortal" soul for this. But fear also lives in him, fear for this "soul" of his, which in the end will have to pay for the violation of the eternal order of things.

At the end of the tragedy, Faust is ready to renounce himself, "to burn his books." What is it - the author's recognition of the defeat of his hero? Rejection of the desire for unlimited freedom and power over the world, reconciliation with everything that Faust first renounced?

It should not be forgotten that in creating tragedy Marlowe depended on his source and had to follow the course of events in the legend of Faust. In addition, Marlowe was forced to reckon with the prevailing point of view and could not have staged the play if Faust had not been punished for renouncing religion. But besides these external circumstances that played their role, there was also an internal reason that prompted Marlo to write such an ending to the tragedy. Faust reflects the duality of that ideal of a free person, to which Marlowe strove. His hero is a strong man who has freed himself from the power of God and the feudal state, but he is also an egocentric, trampling on social institutions and moral laws.

"Faust" is the most tragic of Marlowe's creations, because it reveals the impasse into which a person enters, rejecting all moral norms in his striving for freedom.

"The Maltese Jew" (1592) denotes a new stage in the development of Marlo's worldview. Unlike the first two dramas, which glorified the individual, here Marlo criticizes individualism.

The tragedy takes place in Malta. When the Turkish sultan demands tribute from the knights of Malta, the commander of the order finds an easy way out. He takes money from the Jews living on the island and pays off the Turks. This arbitrariness angers the wealthy Jew Barabas, who refuses to give money and hides it in his house. Then they deprive him of his property and turn his house into a nunnery. To save the money hidden there, Barabas forces his daughter to declare her conversion to Christianity and become a nun. But instead of helping her father, Abigail, the daughter of Barabas, becomes a sincere Christian. Then Barabas poisons her. Meanwhile, Malta is besieged by the Turks. Barabas goes over to their side and helps them take over the fortress. As a reward for this, the Turks appoint him governor and give into his hands the hated knights. Wanting to keep the governorship, but realizing that for this he needs to have the support of the inhabitants, Barabas offers the captured knights freedom and promises to destroy the Turks on the condition that the knights then leave the management of the island in his hands and pay him one hundred thousand pounds. Barabas arranges a hatch, under which he places a cauldron with boiling resin. The Turkish military leaders invited by him should fall into this hatch. But the former governor of the island, dedicated to the matter, arranges so that Barabas falls into the hatch, which burns in boiling tar.

In the image of Barabas, Marlo, as a humanist, branded the acquisitiveness and greed of the bourgeoisie. Marlowe was the first to create the predatory bourgeois type in English Renaissance drama.

If in the first two of his plays wealth was portrayed by Marlo as one of the means to satisfy human needs, then in The Maltese Jew the playwright shows the detrimental effect of gold on character when wealth becomes an end. The image of Barabas embodies the typical features of the bourgeoisie of the era of the primitive accumulation of capital. He founded his fortune by usury. Now he is a merchant, sending his ships with goods to different countries. He turns his proceeds into jewelry. With the passion of a treasure hunter, choking with delight, he speaks of his treasures:

Bags of opal, sapphire and amethyst, Topaz, emerald and hyacinth, Ruby, sparkling diamonds, Precious stones, large, And each weighing many carats. For them I will be able, in case of need, to redeem the great kings from captivity, - This is what my wealth consists of And this is what, I believe, it is necessary to turn Income from trade; Their price will increase all the time, And in a small box you will save an infinite number of Treasures.

All nature, according to Barabas, should serve the purpose of increasing wealth, in which he sees the highest good, because, as he says: "People are valued only for wealth." As for conscience and honor, Barabas has his own opinion on this matter:

Those unfortunates who have a conscience, Doomed to live in poverty forever.

Therefore, when his property is confiscated from Barabas, in desperation he utters a monologue full of passion:

I lost all the gold, all the riches! Oh heaven, did I deserve this? Why did you decide, stars, to plunge Me into despair and poverty?

After becoming governor, Barabas seeks to use power to his advantage; at the same time, he expresses a typically bourgeois attitude to power:

I will keep the power gained by treason with a firm hand. Without a profit, I will not part with her. He who, having power, did not acquire Friends or sacks full of gold, is like an Ass in Aesop's fable: He threw off the luggage with bread and wine And began to gnaw dried thistles.

Condemning the cruel predation of Barabas, the atheist Marlo nevertheless did not fail to put into his mouth words exposing the hypocritical religion of Christians:

The fruits of their faith I know are: Deception and malice, pride beyond measure, - And this is not consistent with their teachings.

Barabas is opposed as a positive character by the ruler of Malta, Farnese. In his speeches we hear condemnation of usury and other methods of bourgeois accumulation. When Barabas calls the monetary tribute imposed on him by the ruler a theft, Farnese objects:

No, we are taking away your wealth, To save a lot of people with this. For the good of all, let one suffer, Than all others endure for one.

Thus, Marlo opposes the principle of the common good to individualism.

In terms of the depth of social insight, "The Jew of Malta" Marlo approaches the "Merchant of Venice" and "Timon of Athens" by Shakespeare.

"Edward II" (1593) is a historical chronicle saturated with political content. Edward II is a weak-willed, pampered king, a slave to his passions, whims, whims. Power serves him only as a means of satisfying his own whims. Weak-willed and soft-bodied, he is obedient to his minions, especially one of them, Gaveston, whose insolent behavior causes general outrage.

The weak king is opposed by the energetic and ambitious Mortimer, who raises a rebellion in order to seize power in his own hands. He pretends to be the guardian of the common interest. In essence, he sees in power only the satisfaction of his egoism. Having eliminated the king by killing and becoming the de facto ruler of the country, he also causes discontent with his rule and falls victim to a noble rebellion.

"Edward II" is an anti-monarchist and anti-noble play. Marlo denies the divinity of royal power and shows a picture of a state where arbitrariness and violence reign. This play continues the criticism of individualism that took place in The Maltese Jew. Edward's weakness and Mortimer's strength oppose each other like two sides of selfishness. The Epicurean Edward and the ambitious Mortimer are only two sides of individualism.

The Massacre of Paris (1593) has as its plot the events of Bartholomew's Night. Marlo shows here the consequences of religious intolerance and uses this for his constant critique of religion. The last work of Marlo - "The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage" (1593) - remained unfinished. Written by Thomas Nash.

Marlowe's dramaturgy is one of the most significant developments in the development of English Renaissance drama. Of all Shakespeare's predecessors, he was the most gifted. An early death interrupted his activity in its prime, but what Marlowe managed to do enriched the theater of his time.

In the tragedies, Marlo expressed the pathos of asserting a personality freed from medieval feudal ties and restrictions. The glorification of the power of man, his desire for knowledge and power over the world, the rejection of religion and patriarchal morality are combined in Marlowe's heroes with the denial of any ethical foundations. The individualism of his mighty heroes bore an anarchist character.

Starting with the idea of ​​affirming the personality in Tamerlane, Marlo already in Faust comes to a partial understanding of the contradictions of individualism, the criticism of which becomes the main motive of The Maltese Jew. At the same time, of course, one should also take into account the difference in the goals of the heroes: for Tamerlane - this is power, for Faust - knowledge, for Barabas - wealth. Faust therefore stands out as a hero with truly positive aspirations for all his individualism. Although in Marlo's plays there are attempts to create positive characters (Zenocrates in Tamerlane, Farnese in The Maltese Jew), nevertheless Marlo did not create images that could ideologically and artistically fully resist his individualistic heroes. Hence the inconsistency and some one-sidedness that are characteristic of Marlowe's dramaturgy. The task of creating titanic characters that carry positive social aspirations was carried out by Shakespeare, who replaced Marlo, who owes a lot to his predecessor.

Marlo made a significant contribution to the development of drama, raising its artistic form to a great height. He gave examples of a more perfect construction of dramatic action, to which he gave internal unity, building the development of the plot around the personality and fate of the central character. In his work, the concept of the tragic also received a deeper development. Before Marlowe, the tragic was understood externally as an image of all kinds of villainy, causing fear and horror. Marlo himself stood on this position, creating "Tamerlane" and "Maltese Jew". Marlowe's "Faust" surpasses both of these dramas in a deeper understanding of the tragic, which is expressed here not so much in the external as in the internal conflict in the hero's soul, which culminates in the play's finale. The image of Faust, in accordance with Aristotle's understanding of the tragic, evokes fear and compassion. At the same time, it should be noted that Marlowe's realism deepened from play to play, reaching the greatest psychological truth in Edward II.

The merit of Marlo was also the introduction of blank verse into the drama. White verse had the freedom that was necessary to give naturalness to the speeches of the characters. Of all Shakespeare's predecessors, Marlowe was the most gifted poet. His style was distinguished by pathos, bold comparisons, vivid metaphors, an abundance of hyperbole, and in the best way corresponded to the feelings of Marlowe's titanic heroes. The energy and great emotional force of Marlowe's dramatic speech subsequently gave Ben Jonson full reason to speak of Marlowe's "powerful verse."

Main article:Elizabethan drama

In the era of Shakespeare, along with the then successful Globe Theater in London, there were several other notable theaters that competed with each other. Theater "Rose" (The Rose, 1587-1605), built by businessman Philip Henslowe (Philipp Henslowe, 1550-1616). The Swan Theater (The Swan, 1595-1632), which was built by the jeweler and merchant Francis Langley (Francis Langley, 1548-1602), the Fortune Theater, whose construction began in 1600, and others. One of Shakespeare's most famous playwrights was the talented poet Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), under whose influence Shakespeare undoubtedly fell at the very beginning of his work, and all of whose plays were then staged at the Rose Theater. He was one of the playwrights - "academics" who had Oxford or Cambridge diplomas, which also included Robert Greene (Robert Greene, 1558-1592), John Lyly (John Lyly, 1554-1606), Thomas Nashe (Thomas Nashe, 1567-1601 ), George Peele (1556-1596) and Thomas Lodge (Thomas Lodge, 1558-1625). Along with them, other writers, who did not have a university education, worked, whose writings in one way or another influenced Shakespeare's work. This is Thomas Kyd (Thomas Kyd, 1558-1594), who wrote an earlier play about Hamlet, John Day (John Day, 1574-1638?), Henry Porter (Henry Porter, d. 1599), author of the play "Two shrews from Abingdon" (The Two Angry Women of Abingdon), on the basis of which Shakespeare's comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1597-1602) was created.

[edit] Theatrical technique in the era of William Shakespeare

Main article:Theatrical technique in the age of Shakespeare

Theatrical technique in the era of Shakespeare - Shakespearean theater undoubtedly corresponds to the system of the play, originally staged by groups of itinerant comedians in inns and hotel yards; these hotel yards usually consisted of a building surrounded on the second floor by an open tier-balcony, along which the rooms and entrances to them were located. A wandering troupe, having entered such a courtyard, staged a scene near one of the rectangles of its walls; spectators were seated in the courtyard and on the balcony. The stage was arranged in the form of a wooden platform on the goats, part of which went out to the open courtyard, and the other, the back, remained under the balcony. A curtain fell from the balcony. Thus, three platforms were immediately formed: the front one - in front of the balcony, the back one - under the balcony behind the curtain, and the upper one - the very balcony above the stage. The same principle underlies the transitional form of the English theater of the 16th and early 17th centuries. The first public stationary theater was built in London (or rather outside of London, outside the city limits, since theaters were not allowed within the city) in 1576 by the Burbage acting family. In 1599, the Globe Theater was created, with which most of Shakespeare's work is associated. Shakespeare's theater does not yet know the auditorium, but knows the yard as a reminiscence of hotel yards. Such an open, roofless auditorium was surrounded by a gallery or two galleries. The stage was covered with a roof and represented the same three platforms of the hotel yard. The front part of the stage wedged almost a third into the auditorium - a standing parterre (thus literally carrying out its name "par terre" - on the ground). The democratic part of the audience, which filled the parterre, also surrounded the stage in a dense ring. The more privileged, aristocratic part of the audience settled down - lying and on stools - on the stage itself along its edges. The history of the theater of this time notes the constant hostility and squabble, sometimes even turning into a fight, between these two groups of spectators. The class enmity of the craftsmen and workers against the aristocracy had a rather noisy effect here. In general, that silence, which our auditorium knows, was not in Shakespeare's theater. The back of the stage was separated by a sliding curtain. Intimate scenes were usually performed there (for example, in Desdemona's bedroom), they also played there when it was necessary to quickly transfer the action to another place and show the character in a new position (for example, in Marlo's drama "Tamerlane" there is a note: "the curtain is pulled back, and Zenocrate lies in bed, Tamerlane sitting beside her", or in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale": "Pauline draws back the curtain and reveals Hermione, standing in the form of a statue"). The front platform was the main stage, it was also used for processions, then favorite in the theater, for showing fencing, which was extremely popular at that time (the scene in the last act of Hamlet). Clowns, jugglers, acrobats also performed here, entertaining the audience between the scenes of the main play (there were no intermissions in the Shakespearean theater). Subsequently, during the later literary processing of Shakespearean dramas, some of these clowning interludes and clownish remarks were included in the printed text. Each performance necessarily ended with a "jiga" - a special kind of song with a dance performed by a clown; the scene of gravediggers in Hamlet in Shakespeare's time was a clownery, it was filled with pathos later. In Shakespearean theater there is still no sharp difference between a dramatic actor and an acrobat, a jester. True, this difference is already being developed, it is felt, it is in the making. But the edges have not yet been erased. The link connecting the Shakespearean actor with the buffoon, the histrion, the juggler, the clownish "devil" of the medieval mystery, with the farcical buffoon, has not yet been broken. It is quite understandable why the boilermaker from "The Taming of the Shrew" at the word "comedy" first of all recalls the tricks of the juggler. The upper scene was used when the action had to be depicted by the logic of events above, for example, on the walls of the fortress ("Coriolanus"), on Juliet's balcony ("Romeo and Juliet"). In such cases, the script has a remark "above". For example, such a layout was practiced - the top depicted a fortress wall, and the curtain of the back platform pulled back at the bottom meant at the same time the city gates opening in front of the winner. Such a system of theater also explains the structure of Shakespeare's dramas, which still do not know any division into acts (this division was made after Shakespeare's death, in the edition of 1623), neither exact historicism, nor pictorial realism. The parallelism of plots in one and the same play, so characteristic of Elizabethan playwrights, has recently been explained by the peculiar structure of the stage, open to the audience from three sides. The so-called law of "temporal continuity" dominates this scene. The development of one plot made it possible for the other to continue, as it were, "behind the scenes", which filled the corresponding interval of "theatrical time" between segments of this plot. Built on short active-playing episodes, the action is transferred from place to place with relative speed. This is also reflected in the tradition of mystery scenes. So a new exit of the same person, or even just a few steps along the stage with a corresponding textual explanation, already indicated a new place. For example, in Much Ado About Nothing, Benedict tells the boy: “I have a book on the window in my room, bring it here to the garden” - this means that the action takes place in the garden. Sometimes in the works of Shakespeare, a place or time is indicated not so simply, but by a whole poetic description of it. This is one of his favorite tricks. For example, in “Romeo and Juliet”, in the picture following the scene of a moonlit night, Lorenzo entering says: “A clear smile of a dawning gray-eyed Gloomy is already driving the night and gilding the cloud of the east with stripes of light ...” Or the words of the prologue to the first act of “Henry V”: “ ... Imagine that the plains of the two kingdoms stretch wide here, whose shores, Leaning close so close to each other, Separates the narrow but dangerous Mighty ocean. A few steps Romeo with friends meant that he moved from the street to the house. To designate a place, "titles" were also used - tablets with an inscription. Sometimes the scene depicted several cities at once, and inscriptions with their names were enough to orient the viewer in action. With the end of the scene, the characters left the stage, sometimes even remained - for example, disguised guests walking down the street to the Capulet's house ("Romeo and Juliet") did not leave the stage, and the appearance of lackeys with napkins meant that they had already arrived and are in the chambers of the Capulets. Drama at this time was not seen as "literature". The playwright did not pursue authorship, and it was not always possible. The tradition of anonymous drama came from the Middle Ages through itinerant troupes and continued to operate. So the name of Shakespeare appears under the titles of his plays only in 1593. What the theater playwright wrote, he did not intend for publication, but had in mind exclusively the theater. A significant part of the playwrights of the Elizabethan era was attached to a particular theater and undertook to deliver a repertoire to this theater. The competition of troupes demanded a huge number of plays. For the period from 1558 to 1643, their number in England is estimated at over 2,000 names. Very often the same play is used by a number of troupes, reworking each in its own way, adapting it to the troupe. Anonymous authorship ruled out literary plagiarism, and we could only talk about “pirate” methods of competition, when a play is stolen by ear, according to an approximate recording, etc. And in Shakespeare's work we know a number of plays that were the use of plots from pre-existing dramas. Such, for example, are Hamlet, King Lear and others. The public did not demand the name of the author of the play. This, in turn, led to the fact that the written play was only the "basis" for the performance, the author's text was altered during rehearsals in any way. The performances of the jesters are often denoted by the remark “the jester says”, providing the content of the jester's scene to the theater or improvisations of the jester himself. The author sold his manuscript to the theater and subsequently did not claim any copyright claims or rights to it. The joint and thus very fast work of several authors on one play was very common, for example, some developed a dramatic intrigue, others - a comic part, antics of jesters, still others depicted all kinds of "terrible" effects, which were very popular then, etc. e. By the end of the era, at the beginning of the 17th century, literary drama was already beginning to make its way onto the stage. Alienation between "learned" authors, secular "amateurs" and professional playwrights is becoming less and less. Literary authors (for example, Ben Jonson) begin to work for the theater, theater playwrights, in turn, are increasingly beginning to be published.

[edit] The question of periodization

Researchers of Shakespeare's work (Danish literary critic G. Brandes, publisher of the Russian complete works of Shakespeare S. A. Vengerov) at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, based on the chronology of the works, presented his spiritual evolution from a "cheerful mood", faith in the triumph of justice , humanistic ideals at the beginning of the path to disappointment and the destruction of all illusions at the end. However, in recent years there has been an opinion that the conclusion about the personality of the author based on his works is a mistake.

In 1930, the Shakespeare scholar E. K. Chambers proposed a chronology of Shakespeare's work by genre, later it was corrected by J. McManway. There were four periods: the first (1590-1594) - early: chronicles, Renaissance comedies, "tragedy of horror" ("Titus Andronicus"), two poems; the second (1594-1600) - Renaissance comedies, the first mature tragedy ("Romeo and Juliet"), chronicles with elements of tragedy, ancient tragedy ("Julius Caesar"), sonnets; the third (1601-1608) - great tragedies, ancient tragedies, "dark comedies"; the fourth (1609-1613) - fairy tale dramas with a tragic beginning and a happy ending. Some of the Shakespeare scholars, including A. A. Smirnov, combined the first and second periods into one early period.

[edit] First period (1590-1594)

The first period is approximately 1590-1594 years.

According to literary methods it can be called a period of imitation: Shakespeare is still completely at the mercy of his predecessors. By mood this period was defined by supporters of the biographical approach to the study of Shakespeare's work as a period of idealistic faith in the best aspects of life: "The young Shakespeare enthusiastically punishes vice in his historical tragedies and enthusiastically sings of high and poetic feelings - friendship, self-sacrifice, and especially love" (Vengerov) .

In the tragedy Titus Andronicus» Shakespeare fully paid tribute to the tradition of his contemporary playwrights to keep the attention of the audience by forcing passions, cruelty and naturalism. The horrors of "Titus Andronicus" are a direct and immediate reflection of the horrors of the plays by Kid and Marlowe.

Probably Shakespeare's first plays were the three parts of Henry VI. Holinshed's Chronicles served as the source for this and subsequent historical chronicles. The theme that unites all Shakespearean chronicles is the change of a series of weak and incapable rulers who led the country to civil strife and civil war and the restoration of order with the accession of the Tudor dynasty. Like Marlowe in Edward II, Shakespeare does not simply describe historical events, but explores the motives behind the actions of the characters.

« Comedy of Errors"- an early, "student" comedy, comedy of positions. According to the custom of that time, a reworking of the play by a modern English author, the source for which was Plautus' comedy Menechmas, which describes the adventures of twin brothers. The action takes place in Ephesus, which bears little resemblance to an ancient Greek city: the author transfers the signs of contemporary England to an antique setting. Shakespeare adds a double servant storyline, thereby confusing the action even more. It is characteristic that already in this work there is a mixture of the comic and the tragic, which is usual for Shakespeare: the old man Egeon, who unwittingly violated the Ephesian law, is threatened with execution, and only through a chain of incredible coincidences, absurd mistakes, in the finale, salvation comes to him. Interrupting a tragic plot with a comic scene, even in the darkest works of Shakespeare, is a reminder, rooted in medieval tradition, of the proximity of death and, at the same time, the incessant flow of life and its constant renewal.

The play " The Taming of the Shrew”, created in the tradition of farcical comedy. This is a variation on the plot, popular in London theaters in the 1590s, about the pacification of a wife by her husband. In an exciting duel, two outstanding personalities converge and the woman is defeated. The author proclaims the inviolability of the established order, where the head of the family is a man.

In subsequent plays, Shakespeare moves away from external comedic devices. " Love's fruitless efforts"- a comedy created under the influence of Lily's plays, which he wrote for staging in the mask theater at the royal court and in aristocratic houses. With a fairly simple plot, the play is a continuous tournament, a competition of characters in witty dialogues, complex verbal play, composing poems and sonnets (by this time Shakespeare already mastered a difficult poetic form). The language of "Love's Labour's Lost" - pretentious, flowery, the so-called euphuism - is the language of the English aristocratic elite of that time, which became popular after the publication of Lily's novel "Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit."

[edit] Second period (1594-1600)

Romeo and Juliet. Painting by F. Dixie (1884)

Around 1595, Shakespeare creates one of his most famous tragedies - "Romeo and Juliet", - the history of the development of the human personality in the struggle with external circumstances for the right to love. "For his version of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare may have used a reworking of an old text left by the 'academics' (the circle of playwrights who had university degrees)." about the woeful fate of Romeo and Juliet (1524) was picked up by other Italian authors (Bandello, Bolderi, Groto) and further spread in European literature.In England, the well-known plot was put by Arthur Brooke as the basis of the poem "The Tragic Story of Romeus and Juliet" (Arthur Brooke. The tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562)." Probably, Brooke's work served as a source for Shakespeare.He strengthened the lyricism and drama of the action, rethought and enriched the characters' characters, created poetic monologues that reveal the inner experiences of the main characters, thus transforming an ordinary work into a Renaissance love poem.This is a tragedy of a special type, lyrical , optimistic, despite the death of the main characters in the finale.Their names have become a household name for the highest poetry of passion.

Approximately 1596, another of Shakespeare's most famous works dates back - "The Merchant of Venice". Shylock, just like another famous Jew of the Elizabethan drama - Barabbas ("Jew of Malta" by Marlo), yearns for revenge. But, unlike Barabbas, Shylock, who remains a negative character, is much more difficult. On the one hand, this is a greedy, cunning, even cruel usurer, on the other hand, an offended person whose offense causes sympathy. Shylock's famous monologue on the identity of the Jew and any other person “But doesn’t the Jew have eyes?..”(act III, scene 1) is considered by some critics to be the best speech in defense of Jewish equality in all literature. The play contrasts the power of money over a person and the cult of friendship - an integral part of life's harmony.

Despite the "problem" of the play and the drama of the storyline of Antonio and Shylock, in its atmosphere "The Merchant of Venice" is close to fairy tale plays like " Sleep on a summer night"(1596). The magical play was probably written for the celebrations on the occasion of the wedding of one of the Elizabethan nobles. For the first time in literature, Shakespeare endows fantastic creatures with human weaknesses and contradictions, creating characters. As always, he layers dramatic scenes with comic ones: Athenian artisans, very similar to English workers, diligently and clumsily prepare for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta the play “Pyramus and Thisbe”, which is a story of unhappy love, told in a parodic form. The researchers were surprised by the choice of plot for the "wedding" play: its external plot - misunderstandings between two pairs of lovers, resolved only thanks to the goodwill of Oberon and magic, a mockery of female whims (Titania's sudden passion for the Foundation) - expresses an extremely skeptical view of love. However, this "one of the most poetic works" has a serious connotation - the exaltation of a sincere feeling, which has a moral basis.

Falstaff with a large jug of wine and a goblet. Painting by E. von Grützner (1896)

S. A. Vengerov saw the transition to the second period “in absence toy poetry of youth, which is so characteristic of the first period. The heroes are still young, but they have already lived a decent life and the main thing for them in life is pleasure. The portion is piquant, lively, but already the gentle charms of the girls of the Two Veronians, and even more so Juliet, are not in it at all.

At the same time, Shakespeare creates an immortal and most interesting type, which until now had no analogues in world literature - Sir John Falstaff. The success of both parts Henry IV”Not least of all is the merit of this most striking character in the chronicle, who immediately became popular. The character is undoubtedly negative, but with a complex character. A materialist, an egoist, a man without ideals: honor is nothing for him, an observant and insightful skeptic. He denies honors, power and wealth: he needs money only as a means of obtaining food, wine and women. But the essence of the comic, the grain of the image of Falstaff is not only his wit, but also a cheerful laugh at himself and the world around him. His strength is in the knowledge of human nature, everything that binds a person is disgusting to him, he is the personification of the freedom of the spirit and unscrupulousness. A man of the passing era, he is not needed where the state is powerful. Realizing that such a character is out of place in a drama about an ideal ruler, in " Henry V Shakespeare removes it: the audience is simply informed of Falstaff's death. According to tradition, it is believed that at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who wanted to see Falstaff on stage again, Shakespeare resurrected him in " The Merry Wives of Windsor". But this is only a pale copy of the former Falstaff. He lost his knowledge of the world around him, there is no more healthy irony, laughter at himself. Only a self-satisfied rogue remained.

Much more successful is the attempt to return to the Falstaff type in the final play of the second period - "Twelfth Night". Here, in the person of Sir Toby and his entourage, we have, as it were, a second edition of Sir John, although without his sparkling wit, but with the same infectious good-natured chivalry. It also perfectly fits into the framework of the “Falstaffian” period, for the most part, a rude mockery of women in "The Taming of the Shrew".

[edit] Third period (1600-1609)

Hamlet and Horatio in the cemetery. Painting by E. Delacroix (1839)

The third period of his artistic activity, approximately covering 1600-1609 years, supporters of the subjectivist biographical approach to Shakespeare’s work call the period of “deep spiritual darkness”, considering the appearance of the melancholic character Jacques in comedy as a sign of a changed worldview "As You Like It" and calling him almost the predecessor of Hamlet. However, some researchers believe that Shakespeare, in the image of Jacques, only ridiculed melancholy, and the period of alleged disappointments in life (according to the supporters of the biographical method) is not actually confirmed by the facts of Shakespeare's biography. The time when the playwright created the greatest tragedies coincides with the flowering of his creative powers, the solution of material difficulties and the achievement of a high position in society.

Around 1600 Shakespeare creates "Hamlet", according to many critics, is his deepest work. Shakespeare kept the plot of the well-known tragedy of revenge, but shifted all his attention to spiritual discord, the inner drama of the protagonist. A new type of hero has been introduced into the traditional revenge drama. Shakespeare was ahead of his time - Hamlet is not the usual tragic hero, carrying out revenge for the sake of Divine justice. Coming to the conclusion that it is impossible to restore harmony with one blow, he experiences the tragedy of alienation from the world and dooms himself to loneliness. According to the definition of L. E. Pinsky, Hamlet is the first "reflective" hero of world literature.

Cordelia. Painting by William F. Yemens (1888)

The heroes of Shakespeare's "great tragedies" are outstanding people in whom good and evil are mixed. Faced with the disharmony of the world around them, they make a difficult choice - how to exist in it, they create their own destiny and bear full responsibility for it.

At the same time, Shakespeare creates the drama " Measure for measure". Despite the fact that in the First Folio of 1623 it is classified as a comedy, there is almost no comic in this serious work about an unjust judge. Its name refers to the teaching of Christ about mercy, in the course of action one of the heroes is in mortal danger, and the ending can be considered conditionally happy. This problematic work does not fit into a certain genre, but exists on the verge of genres: going back to morality, it is directed towards tragicomedy.

True misanthropy emerges only in "Timon of Athens"- the story of a generous and kind man, ruined by those whom he helped and became a misanthrope. The play leaves a painful impression, despite the fact that the ungrateful Athens after the death of Timon suffers punishment. According to the researchers, Shakespeare suffered a failure: the play is written in uneven language and, along with its advantages, has even greater disadvantages. It is not excluded that more than one Shakespeare worked on it. The character of Timon himself failed, sometimes he gives the impression of a caricature, other characters are simply pale. The transition to a new strip of Shakespearean creativity can be considered "Antony and Cleopatra". In "Antony and Cleopatra" the talented, but devoid of any moral foundations, predator from "Julius Caesar" is surrounded by a truly poetic halo, and the half-traitor Cleopatra largely atones for her sins with a heroic death.

[edit] Fourth period (1609-1612)

Prospero and Ariel. Painting by William Hamilton (1797)

The fourth period, with the exception of the play "Henry VIII" (some researchers believe that it was written in collaboration with John Fletcher), includes only three or four years and four plays - the so-called "romantic dramas" or tragicomedies. In the plays of the last period, hard trials emphasize the joy of deliverance from disasters. Slander is caught, innocence is justified, loyalty is rewarded, the madness of jealousy has no tragic consequences, lovers are united in a happy marriage. The optimism of these works is perceived by critics as a sign of reconciliation of their author. "Pericles", a play significantly different from everything previously written, marks the emergence of new works. Naivety bordering on primitiveness, the absence of complex characters and problems, a return to the construction of action characteristic of early English Renaissance drama - all indicate that Shakespeare was in search of a new form. "Winter's Tale" is a whimsical fantasy, a story "about the incredible, where everything is possible." The story of a jealous man who succumbs to evil, suffers mental anguish and deserves forgiveness by his repentance. In the end, good conquers evil, according to some researchers, affirming faith in humanistic ideals, according to others, the triumph of Christian morality. The Tempest is the most successful of the last plays and, in a sense, the finale of Shakespeare's work. Instead of struggle, the spirit of humanity and forgiveness reigns here. Poetic girls created now - Marina from "Pericles", Loss from "The Winter's Tale", Miranda from "The Tempest" - these are images of daughters beautiful in their virtue. Researchers tend to see in the final scene of The Tempest, where Prospero renounces his magic and retires, Shakespeare's farewell to the theater world.

[edit] Poems and poems

Main article:Poems and Poems of William Shakespeare

First edition of the Sonnets (1609)

In general, Shakespeare's poems, of course, cannot be compared with his brilliant dramas. But taken by themselves, they bear the imprint of an outstanding talent, and if they had not drowned in the glory of Shakespeare the playwright, they could well have delivered and indeed did deliver great fame to the author: we know that the scholar Mires saw in Shakespeare the poet the second Ovid. But, in addition, there are a number of reviews of other contemporaries who speak of the "new Catullus" with the greatest enthusiasm.

[edit] poems

The poem "Venus and Adonis" was published in 1593, when Shakespeare was already known as a playwright, but the author himself calls it his literary first-born, and therefore it is very possible that it was either conceived, or even partly written back in Stretford. There is also the suggestion that Shakespeare considered the poem (as opposed to plays for the public theater) a genre worthy of the attention of a noble patron and a work of high art. Echoes of the homeland clearly make themselves felt. The local Middle English flavor is vividly felt in the landscape, there is nothing southern in it, as required by the plot, before the spiritual gaze of the poet, there were undoubtedly native pictures of the peaceful fields of Warwickshire with their soft tones and calm beauty. One also senses in the poem an excellent connoisseur of horses and an excellent hunter. The plot is largely taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses; in addition, much is borrowed from Lodge's Scillaes Metamorphosis. The poem is developed with all the arrogance of the Renaissance, but still without any frivolity. And this is what mainly affected the talent of the young author, in addition to the fact that the poem was written in sonorous and picturesque verse. If the efforts of Venus to kindle desires in Adonis strike the later reader with their frankness, then at the same time they do not give the impression of something cynical and not worthy of artistic description. Before us is passion, real, frenzied, darkening the mind and therefore poetically legitimate, like everything that is bright and strong.

Much more mannered is the second poem, Lucretia, published the following year (1594) and dedicated, like the first, to the Earl of Southampton. In the new poem, not only is there nothing unbridled, but, on the contrary, everything, as in the ancient legend, revolves on the most refined understanding of a completely conventional concept of female honor. Insulted by Sextus Tarquinius, Lucretia does not consider it possible to live after the abduction of her marital honor and expresses her feelings in the longest monologues. Brilliant, but rather strained metaphors, allegories and antitheses deprive these monologues of real feelings and make the whole poem rhetorical. However, this kind of loftiness during the writing of poetry was very popular with the public, and Lucretia was as successful as Venus and Adonis. Booksellers, who alone at that time profited from literary success, since literary property for authors did not then exist, printed edition after edition. During Shakespeare's lifetime, "Venus and Adonis" went through 7 editions, "Lucretia" - 5.

Two more poems are attributed to Shakespeare, one of which, "The Complaint of a Lover", may have been written by Shakespeare in his youth. The poem "The Passionate Pilgrim" was published in 1599, when Shakespeare was already known. Its authorship has been questioned: it is possible that thirteen of the nineteen poems were not written by Shakespeare. In 1601, in the collection "Love's Martyr, or Rosalind's Complaint", prepared under the direction of the little-known poet Robert Chester, Shakespeare's allegorical poem "The Phoenix and the Dove" was published, which is part of a cycle of works by other poets with the same characters.

[edit] Sonnets

Main article:Sonnets by William Shakespeare

The so-called "Chandos portrait" of an unknown person, in which Shakespeare is traditionally seen

A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines. In Shakespeare's sonnets, the following rhyme is adopted: abab cdcd efef gg, that is, three quatrains for cross-rhymes, and one couplet (a type introduced by the poet Earl of Surrey, who was executed under Henry VIII).

In total, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, and most of them were created in the years 1592-1599. They were first printed without the knowledge of the author in 1609. Two of them were published as early as 1599 in the collection The Passionate Pilgrim. These are sonnets 138 And 144 .

The entire cycle of sonnets is divided into separate thematic groups:

Sonnets dedicated to a friend: 1 -126

Chanting a friend: 1 -26

Friendship Trials: 27 -99

Bitterness of separation: 27 -32

The first disappointment in a friend: 33 -42

Longing and fears: 43 -55

Growing alienation and melancholy: 56 -75

Rivalry and jealousy towards other poets: 76 -96

"Winter" of separation: 97 -99

Celebration of renewed friendship: 100 -126

Sonnets dedicated to a swarthy lover: 127 -152

Conclusion - the joy and beauty of love: 153 -154

Sonnet 126 violates the canon - it has only 12 lines and a different rhyme pattern. Sometimes it is considered a section between two conditional parts of the cycle - sonnets dedicated to friendship (1-126) and addressed to the "dark lady" (127-154). Sonnet 145 written in iambic tetrameter instead of pentameter and differs in style from the others; sometimes it is attributed to the early period and its heroine is identified with Shakespeare's wife Anna Hathaway (whose last name, perhaps as a pun "hate away" is presented in the sonnet).

First publications

It is estimated that half (18) of Shakespeare's plays were published in one way or another during the playwright's lifetime. The most important publication of Shakespeare's heritage is considered to be the folio of 1623 (the so-called "First Folio"), published by Edward Blount and William Jaggard as part of the so-called. "Chester collection"; printers Worrall and Col. This edition includes 36 Shakespeare's plays - all except "Pericles" and "Two Noble Kinsmen". It is this edition that underlies all research in the field of Shakespeare.

This project was made possible through the efforts of John Heminge and Henry Condell (1556-1630 and Henry Condell, d.1627), friends and colleagues of Shakespeare. The book is preceded by a message to readers on behalf of Heminge and Condell, as well as a poetic dedication to Shakespeare - To the memory of my beloved, the Author - by the playwright Ben Jonson (Benjamin Jonson, 1572-1637), who was at the same time his literary opponent, critic and friend who contributed to the publication of the First Folio, or as it is also called - "The Great Folio" (The Great Folio of 1623).

VIII. PRECURSORS

The new dramaturgy, which replaced the theater of the Middle Ages - mysteries, allegorical morality and primitive folk farces, developed gradually.

Back in the thirties of the sixteenth century, Bishop Bayle, an ardent Protestant, wrote a play directed against Catholicism. He illustrated his thoughts with an example from the history of England - the struggle of King John the Landless (reigned from 1199 to 1216) against the Pope. In reality, this king was an insignificant person, but he was dear to the heart of the Protestant bishop because he was at enmity with the pope. Bayle wrote a morality in which personified virtues and vices acted. The central figure of the play was called Virtue. But at the same time it was called King John. Among the gloomy figures personifying vices, the name of one was Illegally Seized Power, she is also the Pope; the name of the other is Incitement to Revolt, she is also the legate of the Pope. Bayle's "King John" is a kind of play in which the allegories of the old medieval morality were combined with the new historical genre, which later flourished in Shakespeare's historical plays. Bayle's "King John" was compared by literary historians to a cocoon: it is no longer a caterpillar, but not yet a butterfly.

At the same time, in the thirties of the 16th century, the so-called "school" drama began to develop in England. It is called so because it was created within the walls of universities and schools: the plays were written by professors and teachers, performed by students and schoolchildren. But it can also be called a "school" drama in the sense that the playwrights who created it themselves were still learning how to write plays by studying ancient authors and imitating them. In the thirties of the sixteenth century the first comedy in English, Ralph Royster-Deuster, was written; its author was a well-known teacher at that time, Nicholas Youdl, director of the Eton School. In the fifties, the learned lawyers Sackville and Norton wrote the first tragedy in English - Gorboduk.

But all this was only "school". Real, full of life dramatic works appeared only when people from universities - "university minds" - began to give their plays to professional actors. This happened in the eighties of the XVI century.

In 1586, two plays appear that deserve special attention. The author of the first is Thomas Kidd (who also wrote the first play about Hamlet, which, unfortunately, has not come down to us).

Kid's play is a typical "tragedy of thunder and blood", as they said then. The title itself is eloquent - "Spanish Tragedy". This is an attempt, still primitive, to depict the power of human feelings. The terrible figure of Revenge appears on the stage, reminiscent of the images of an old morality. Immediately the Spirit of the murdered Andrea comes out, who, complaining about the vile murderers, calls out to his terrible companion. The action begins. The young man Horatio loves the beautiful girl Belimperia, and she loves him. But Belimperia is also loved by Balthazar, the son of the Portuguese king. Balthasar is taken to help the brother of Belimperia - the criminal Lorenzo. On a moonlit night, when young people, sitting in the garden, declare their love to each other, masked killers come on stage and kill Horatio with daggers. On the English stage of that time, they liked to depict murders and other "horrors": an actor was put a bottle of red vinegar under a white cloak; the dagger pierced the bubble, and red spots appeared on the white cloak. Having stabbed Horatio with daggers, the killers hang his corpse on a tree - apparently, in order to more clearly show the audience the corpse stained with blood. The assassins then forcibly take Belimperia away. Horatio's father, old Jeronimo, runs out to her screams - in one shirt, with a sword in his hands. Seeing the corpse of his son hanging on a tree, he utters a thunderous monologue, calling for revenge ... Everything that happens on the stage is observed by Revenge and the Spirit of the murdered Andrea, who, rejoicing, is waiting for revenge, because Horatio's killers are also his killers. But old Jeronimo hesitates: it is not easy to take revenge on the king's son. The unfortunate old man thinks longingly about life. "O world! he exclaims. “No, not the world, but a collection of crimes!” He compares himself to a lonely traveler who lost his way on a snowy night... Andrea's spirit is seized with anxiety. He turns to Vengeance, but sees that she is sleeping. "Wake up, Revenge!" he exclaims in despair. Revenge is awakening. And then a thought strikes old Jeronimo. To achieve his goal, he plans to stage a play at the court (the reader has already noticed some similarities between this tragedy and Shakespeare's Hamlet; we recall once again that Kidd was the author of the first play about Hamlet). In the performance staged by Jeronimo, Belimperia, initiated into his plan, as well as Balthazar and Lorenzo participate. In the course of the play, the characters must kill each other. Old Jeronimo makes it so that instead of "theatrical" murders, real murders occur. The performance ends, but the actors do not get up from the ground. The Spanish king demands an explanation from Jeronimo. Hieronimo refuses to answer and, in confirmation of his refusal, bites off his own tongue and spits it out. Then the king orders to give him a pen so that he writes an explanation. Hieronimo asks with signs to give him a knife to sharpen his pen, and stabs himself with this knife. A jubilant Revenge appears over a pile of bloodied corpses, which suggests that the true retribution is yet to come: it begins in hell.

Everything in this play is theatrical, conditional, melodramatic through and through. Thomas Kidd's "Spanish Tragedy" is the ancestor of that "romantic" trend in the dramaturgy of the Shakespearean era, which gave rise to such tragedies as, for example, "The White Devil" or "The Duchess of Malfi" by Shakespeare's contemporary - Webster.

In the same year, 1586, a play of a completely different kind was written. Its title is "Arden from the city of Feversham" (its author is unknown to us). This is a family drama. It tells how a young woman, Alice Arden, and her lover Moseby killed Alice's husband. The murder itself is depicted with great force, when Alice tries in vain to wash away the stains of blood (this motif was developed with grandiose force by Shakespeare in that famous scene in which Lady Macbeth wanders half asleep, overcome by memories). Everything in this play is vital, realistic. And the plot itself was borrowed by the author from real life. In the epilogue, the author asks the audience to forgive him for the fact that there are no "decorations" in the play. According to the author, “simple truth” is enough for art. This play can be called the ancestor of that trend in the dramaturgy of the Shakespearean era, which strove to depict everyday life, such as Thomas Heywood's wonderful drama "A Woman Killed by Kindness." Shakespeare's work combines both currents - romantic and realistic.

That was the prologue. The real events begin with the appearance on the London stage of the plays of Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe was born, like Shakespeare, in 1564 and was only two months older than him. Marlo's homeland was the ancient city of Canterbury. Christopher Marlo's father owned a shoe shop. The parents sent their son to Cambridge University, hoping to make him a priest. However, after graduating from university, instead of the church altar, Marlo ended up on the stage of the London stage. But he was not destined to become an actor. According to legend, he broke his leg and had to quit acting. Then he took up writing plays. His grandiose epic in two parts and ten acts "Tamerlane the Great" appeared in 1587-1588. In this epic, Marlo tells about the life, wars and death of the famous commander of the XIV century.

“Scythian shepherd”, “robber from the Volga” is called Tamerlane in Marlo’s play by the eastern kings, whom he overthrows from the throne, capturing their kingdoms. Tamerlane's army, according to Marlo, consists of "simple country boys". Marlo portrays Tamerlane as a muscular giant. This is a man of phenomenal physical strength, indestructible will and elemental temperament. It resembles the mighty figures created by Michelangelo's chisel. The motif of the glorification of earthly life, so typical of the Renaissance, resounds loudly in this grandiose dramatic epic; words are heard from the stage: “I think that heavenly pleasures cannot be compared with royal joy on earth!”

Tamerlane, like Marlo himself, is a passionate freethinker. In one of his stormy thunderous monologues, he says that the goal of man is "forever to rise to infinite knowledge and to be forever in motion, like the celestial spheres that do not know rest." This fabulous hero is full of an excess of strength. He rides onto the stage in a chariot, to which instead of horses the kings he has taken prisoner are harnessed. "Hey you spoiled Asian nags!" he shouts, urging them on with his whip.

Marlo's next play was The Tragic History of Doctor Faust. It was the first dramatic adaptation of the famous legend. Marlo's play reflected the human desire to conquer the forces of nature, so characteristic of the Renaissance. Faust sells his soul to Mephistopheles in order to "get the golden gifts of knowledge" and "penetrate the treasury of nature." He dreams of enclosing his hometown with a copper wall and making it inaccessible to the enemy, changing the course of rivers, throwing a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean, filling Gibraltar and connecting Europe and Africa into a single continent ... "How grandiose it all is!" - remarked Goethe, who used some of the features of Marlo's tragedy for his Faust.

The grandiose scope of fantasy, the powerful pressure of forces, as if with difficulty, characterize Marlo's work. "Marlo's powerful verse," wrote Ben Jonson. Shakespeare also speaks of the "powerful saying" of Marlowe.

The Puritans, who created the code of the new bourgeois morality, were indignant at the passionate freethinker who openly preached his views. One after another, denunciations came to the Queen's Privy Council. And even the common people, although Marlowe's plays were a huge success among them, sometimes looked at what was happening on the stage not without superstitious fear. There was even such a rumor in London. Once, after the performance of Faust, it turned out that the actor who played the role of Mephistopheles was ill and did not go to the theater. Who, then, played Mephistopheles that day? The actors rushed into the dressing room, and only then, by the smell of sulfur, did they guess that the devil himself was performing on the London stage that day.

Marlo wrote several more plays (his best play in terms of the liveliness of the human portraits he created is the historical chronicle "King Edward II"). But his amazing talent was not destined to unfold in full force. On May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe, in his thirtieth year, was killed in a tavern. The Puritans rejoiced. “The Lord planted this barking dog on the hook of vengeance,” wrote one of them.

Many legends have developed around the death of Marlo. Some legends told that Marlo died in a drunken brawl, having quarreled with his killer over a prostitute; others that he fell defending the honor of an innocent girl. These legends were seriously listened to until recently. And only in 1925, the American professor Leslie Hotson managed to find documents in the English archives that shed new light on the circumstances of Marlo's death (Hotson's discoveries are set out in the book: Leslie Hotson. The Death of Cristopher Marlowe, 1925). And it turned out that the murder of Marlo was the work of the Privy Council of Queen Elizabeth; at the murder of Marlo, a certain Field was present - an agent of the Privy Council.

Thus died, without fully revealing his creative powers, the "father of English drama" Christopher Marlowe. And just in that year, when his star, burning with a bright, passionate and uneven brilliance, set, the star of William Shakespeare began to rise in the theatrical sky of London. Unlike his predecessors, who were university-educated, "university minds," this new playwright was a mere actor.

We have mentioned only a few of Shakespeare's predecessors. In reality, Shakespeare made extensive use of the entire literary past of his homeland. He borrowed a lot from Chaucer (for example, Shakespeare's poem "Lucretia" with its plot roots takes us to Chaucer's "Legends of Good Women"; the images of Theseus and Hippolyta in the comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" were probably inspired by "The Knight's Tale" from Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's poem Troilus and Cressida influenced Shakespeare's comedy of the same name, etc.). Shakespeare owed much to Edmund Spenser, author of The Faerie Queene, and to other poets of his school. From "Arcadia" by Philip Sidney, Shakespeare borrowed the plot, which he embodied in the image of Gloucester, betrayed by his son Edmund ("King Lear") - Shakespeare also paid tribute to euphuism. Finally, among the predecessors of Shakespeare, the nameless narrators of English folk ballads should be mentioned. It is in the English folk ballad that the tragic drama of action is born, which is so typical of the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Many thoughts and feelings that have long existed among the people and reflected in folk ballads and songs have found a brilliant artistic embodiment in Shakespeare's work. The roots of this creativity go deep into the folk soil.

Of the works of foreign literature, Shakespeare was primarily influenced by the Italian short stories Boccaccio and Bandello, from which Shakespeare borrowed a number of plots for his plays. A collection of Italian and French short stories translated into English, entitled The Hall of Delights, was Shakespeare's handbook. For his "Roman tragedies" ("Julius Caesar", "Coriolanus", "Antony and Cleopatra") Shakespeare took plots from Plutarch's Lives of Famous People, which he read in North's English translation. Among his favorite books were also Ovid's Metamorphoses in an English translation by Golding.

Shakespeare's work has been prepared by many poets, writers and translators.

From the book of Charlemagne author Levandovsky Anatoly Petrovich

Chapter first. Predecessors Under the onslaught of "barbarians" You should start from afar, and in order to approach the emperor of the 9th century, you will have to remember another empire, much more ancient. For more than twelve centuries, ancient Rome dominated, at first within a small

From the book of the Master of serf Russia author Safonov Vadim Andreevich

FORECESSORS AND FROLOV Kuzma Frolov spent his entire subsequent long life at the Zmeinogorsk mine. It was here that his deep talent as a mechanic manifested itself in its entirety. Forced by circumstances to make a broad replacement of human labor with the energy of water

From the book by William Harvey. His life and scientific activity author Engelgardt Mikhail Alexandrovich

Chapter II. Harvey's predecessors Physiology of the ancients. - Erazistrat. - Galen. - The final conclusion of ancient physiology. - The fall of pagan science. - The doctrine of the "false science of the world" and its influence. - Middle Ages. - The revival of science. - The servility of European science before

From the book by James Watt. His life and scientific and practical activities author Kamensky Andrey Vasilievich

CHAPTER IV. WATT'S PRECURSORS People have known the power of steam for a very long time. Even in books they wrote about it in antiquity. Already the Alexandrian scientist Heron, 120 years BC, described the so-called Aeolian ball, which rotated when heated on its horizontal axis.

From the book Nechaev: Creator of Destruction author Lurie Felix Moiseevich

PRECURSORS While Nechaev crosses the seas and distant countries, let us leave our hero for a while and turn to those who paved the way for him in the revolutionary movement. Nechaev did not appear from scratch - let's get acquainted with his predecessors. A novel by F. M. Dostoevsky

From the book Passion for Tchaikovsky. Conversations with George Balanchine author Volkov Solomon Moiseevich

Predecessors and contemporaries Balanchine: Tchaikovsky adored. Mozart. People

From the book of Herodotus author Surikov Igor Evgenievich

Predecessors Not every ancient people had a historical science (the Greeks unequivocally hold the palm here), but nevertheless they all possessed one form or another of historical consciousness, historical memory. After all, life in the present is impossible

From the book Alexander the Great the author Fort Paul

The Greeks - the predecessors of Alexander It can be argued that if the invasion of the Persian Empire turned out to be a relatively easy matter, then this was due not only to the fact that travelers, diplomats, doctors and merchants from at least

From the book MATISSE author Alpatov Mikhail Vladimirovich

From the book of Jan Hus author Kratochvil Milos Vaclav

CHAPTER 4 HUS' PRECEDERS AND TEACHERS We tried to present to the reader's eye a picture of Czech and Prague society at the beginning of the 15th century, got acquainted with its constituent parts, determined their interests and economic strength; and before us contradictions were revealed and

From the book of Arafat author Konzelman Gerhard

10. Arafat's predecessors in the leadership of the PLO

From the book The Hanssen Case. "Moles" in the USA author Kolpakidi Alexander Ivanovich

CHAPTER FIVE Hanssen's Predecessors Recruiting agents in the NSA, the CIA, and in the special services of the US Army and Navy, Soviet intelligence never forgot about America's oldest special service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Infiltrate the FBI, which was in charge of internal

From Luther Burbank author Molodchikov A.I.

I. PAGES FROM THE PAST (Forerunners of Burbank.) 1. "Secrets of Nature" by Konrad Sprengel Man has been cultivating plants since time immemorial. And, undoubtedly, even the primitive farmer, for whom the charred bough replaced all agricultural implements, achieved

From the book The Mandelstam Code author Lifshits Galina Markovna

Predecessors There is no doubt that a work of art bears the imprint of the personality and activity of its creator. In addition, in each case in its own way, the influence of the predecessor poets also participates in the construction of a poetic work.

From the book First circumnavigation of the world by James Cook

From the book American Scientists and Inventors by Wilson Mitchell

The Wrights' Predecessors The true pioneer of heavier-than-air flight was Sir George Cayley (1773–1857), who, in the words of Orville Wright, "knew more of the principles of aeronautics than any of his predecessors, and as much as any of his successors." ". In those

William Shakespeare is considered a brilliant poet and playwright not only in Britain, but throughout the world. It is generally accepted that his works are a kind of encyclopedia of human relationships, they are like a mirror in which people, great and insignificant, are presented in their essence. He wrote 17 comedies, 11 tragedies, 10 chronicles, 5 poems and 154 sonnets. They are studied in schools, higher educational institutions. No playwright has been able to achieve such greatness as Shakespeare was awarded after his death. Until now, scientists from different countries are trying to solve the question of how such a creator could appear in the 16th century, whose works 400 years later remain still relevant.

There is no consensus on the origin of Shakespeare. The exact date of his birth is unknown. According to generally accepted information, he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, near Birmingham, and was baptized there on April 26, 1564. His father was a meat trader, had two houses, and was elected mayor. But in Shakespeare's family, no one dealt with issues of literature, history, and, moreover, was not fond of the theater. There was no environment in Stratford that could bring up a future playwright.

Young William went to a school for not very wealthy children, which taught for free. At the age of 14 he graduated from it, and at the age of 18 he was forced to marry the daughter of a wealthy peasant - allegedly his family had a difficult financial situation. His wife, Anne Hathaway, was 8 years older than William.

Shakespeare, apparently, was disappointed in his marriage and went to London to work. There is evidence that he joined a group of itinerant actors. It was in London that he began to write poetry, poems, dedicating them to influential people. It is likely that by doing so he attracted the attention of rich people. He was recommended to go to the theatre. True, he was not accepted as an actor, but was offered to serve the visitors' horses. He agreed. Then he tried himself as a prompter. He showed literary abilities, and various plays began to be given to him for revision: dramas, comedies. It is possible that acquaintance with these works, the performance of actors on stage made him want to try himself as an author. And at the age of 25 he wrote his first play about the war between two dynasties. Behind her, another and another. Some were accepted for production, and they were successful with the public.

Shakespeare wrote for the Globe Theatre, which was built in 1599 at the expense of actors, including Shakespeare. On the pediment of the building was the saying of the Roman author Petronius the Arbiter: "The whole world is a theater, all the people in it are actors." The building was destroyed by fire on June 29, 1613.

Shakespeare's plays differed from the traditional ones in their deep content. He, like no one before him, introduced an exciting intrigue and demonstrated how a changed situation changes people. He showed that a great person in a new situation can act low and, conversely, an insignificant person can rise to a great deed. He revealed the moral essence of the characters, as the plot developed, each showed his own character, and the audience empathized with what was happening on the stage. The dramatic works of Shakespeare turned out to be with high moral pathos.

But he could not do without difficulties: with his plays he deprived other authors of their earnings, the public wanted Shakespeare, they went to his dramas. He borrowed stories from ancient authors, used historical chronicles. For these borrowings, he was nicknamed "the crow in other people's feathers."

Plays brought the theater a good income, and Shakespeare himself grew rich. He bought a house in his homeland in Stratford, then bought a house in London, gave money at interest. He was a prosperous author and was even awarded the coat of arms of the nobility depicting a falcon with a spear.

Shakespeare lived for pleasure, and it is believed that he died after a merry feast with friends.

People close to Shakespeare, his contemporaries, appreciated the work of their favorite - they predicted his eternal life in the theatrical world. And so it happened. The genius of Shakespeare was also spoken about many years after his death, when his plays entered the repertoire of the world's leading theaters.

His heroes have become a symbol of tragic life situations: Romeo and Juliet - selfless love, Lady Macbeth - criminality, Iago and Othello - deceit and gullibility, Falstaff - cowardice and boasting, Hamlet - throwing between feeling and duty.

Shakespeare was a born playwright, he helps the viewer to take a fresh look at himself and the world.