home › electrical equipment › William Shakespeare - years of life, interesting facts, short biography. Shakespeare: was or was not? That is the question The two main cities in Shakespeare's biography

William Shakespeare - years of life, interesting facts, short biography. Shakespeare: was or was not? That is the question The two main cities in Shakespeare's biography

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: a daughter, Suzanne, and twins, Hemnet and Judith. Shakespeare's career began between 1585 and 1592 when he moved to London. He soon became a successful actor, playwright, and co-owner of a theater company called the Lord Chamberlain's Servants, later known as the King's Servants. Around 1613, at the age of 49, he returned to Stratford, where he died three years later. Little historical evidence of Shakespeare's life has survived, and theories about his life are created on the basis of official documents and testimonies of contemporaries, so questions regarding his appearance and religious beliefs are still being discussed in the scientific community, and there is also a point of view that the works attributed to him were created by whom - something else; it is popular in culture, although it is rejected by the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars.

Most of Shakespeare's works were written between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mostly comedies and chronicles, in which Shakespeare excelled. Then a period of tragedies began in his work, including works "Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" And "Macbeth" which are considered to be among the best English language. At the end of his work, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies, and also collaborated with other writers.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's friends, John Heming and Henry Condell, published the First Folio, a collection of all but two of Shakespeare's plays currently included in the canon. Later, several more plays (or their fragments) were attributed to Shakespeare by various researchers with varying degrees of evidence.

Already during his lifetime, Shakespeare received commendable reviews for his work, but he really became popular only in the 19th century. In particular, representatives of Romanticism and Victorians bowed to Shakespeare so much that Bernard Shaw called it "bardolatry", which means "bard worship" in English. Shakespeare's works remain popular to this day, being constantly studied and rethought in accordance with political and cultural conditions.

Biography

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon (Warwickshire) in 1564, baptized on April 26, the exact date of birth is unknown. Tradition places his birth on April 23: this date coincides with the precisely known day of his death. In addition, the day of St. George, the patron saint of England, is celebrated on April 23, and on this day the legend could specifically coincide with the birth of the greatest national poet. From English, the surname "Shakespeare" is translated as "stunning with a spear."

His father, John Shakespeare (1530-1601), was a wealthy artisan (glove maker), often elected to various significant public positions. In 1565 John Shakespeare was an alderman and in 1568 a bailiff (head of the city council). He did not attend church services, for which he paid large fines (it is possible that he was a secret Catholic).

Shakespeare's mother, née Mary Arden (1537-1608), belonged to one of the oldest Saxon families. In total, the couple had 8 children, William was born the third.

Shakespeare is believed to have studied at the Stratford Grammar School. grammar school), where he was supposed to get a good knowledge of Latin: the Stratford teacher of Latin and literature wrote poetry in Latin. Some scholars claim that Shakespeare attended King Edward VI's school. in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he studied the works of such poets as Ovid and Plautus, but the school magazines have not survived, and now nothing can be said for sure.

In 1582, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local landowner, who was 8 years older than him. At the time of the marriage, Ann was pregnant. In 1583, the couple had a daughter, Susan (baptized on May 23), in 1585, twins: son Hemnet, who died at the age of 11 in August 1596, and daughter Judith (baptized on February 2).

About further (within seven years) events of Shakespeare's life, there are only assumptions. The first mention of a London theatrical career dates back to 1592, and the period between 1585 and 1592 is referred to by researchers as Shakespeare's "lost years". Attempts by biographers to learn about Shakespeare's actions during this period have resulted in many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, believed that Shakespeare left Stratford to escape prosecution for poaching on the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. It is also assumed that Shakespeare took revenge on Lucy by writing several obscene ballads to him. According to another 18th century version, Shakespeare began theater career while looking after the horses of London theatrical patrons. John Aubrey wrote that Shakespeare was a school teacher. Some 20th century scholars believed that Shakespeare was the teacher of Alexander Nogton from Lancashire, since this Catholic landowner had a certain "William Shakeshaft". This theory has little basis other than the rumors that circulated after Shakespeare's death, and besides, "Shakeshaft" is a fairly common surname in Lancashire.

It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began to write theatrical works and also moved to London, but the first sources that have come down to us that speak of this date back to 1592. This year, entrepreneur Philip Henslow's diary mentions Shakespeare's historical chronicle "Henry VI", which was shown at Henslow's Rose Theatre. In the same year, a pamphlet by the playwright and prose writer Robert Greene was published posthumously, where the latter attacked Shakespeare with malice, without naming his last name, but ironically beating her - “scene shaker” (shake-scene), paraphrasing a line from the third part of “Henry VI” “ Oh, the heart of a tiger in this woman's skin! as "the heart of a tiger in the skin of a hypocrite." Scholars disagree as to the exact meaning of these words, but it is generally accepted that Greene accused Shakespeare of trying to match up with highly educated writers ("university minds") such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash, and Greene himself.

Biographers believe that Shakespeare's career could have begun at any time since the mid-1580s. From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Servants Company. This troupe included Shakespeare, who at the end of the same 1594 became its co-owner. The troupe soon became one of the leading theater groups in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the troupe received a royal patent from the new ruler, James I, and became known as the "Servants of the King".

In 1599, a partnership of members of the group built a new theater on the south bank of the Thames, called the Globe. In 1608 they also purchased the closed Blackfriars Theatre. Accounts of Shakespeare's real estate purchases and investments show that the troupe made him a wealthy man. In 1597 he bought the second largest house in Stratford, New Place.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published by In-quarto in 1594. In 1598 his name began to appear on title pages publications. But even after Shakespeare became famous as a playwright, he continued to play in theaters. In the 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's works, Shakespeare's name is included in the list of actors who performed the plays. "Everyone has their quirks"(1598) and "The Fall of Sejanus"(1603). However, his name was not on the list of actors in Johnson's play. "Volpone" 1605, which is taken by some scholars as the end of Shakespeare's London career. Nevertheless, in the First Folio of 1623, Shakespeare is called "the chief actor in all these plays," and some of them were first staged after "Volpone", although it is not known for certain what roles Shakespeare played in them. In 1610, John Davies wrote that "good Will" played "royal" parts. In 1709, in his work, Rowe wrote down the already established opinion by that time that Shakespeare played the shadow of Hamlet's father. Later it was also claimed that he played the roles of Adam in "As You Like It" and Hora in "Henry V", although scientists doubt the reliability of this information.

Shakespeare lived in London during his acting and playwriting period, but also spent some of his time in Stratford. In 1596, a year after the purchase of New Place, he resided at St. Helena's in Bishopgate, on the north side of the Thames. After the construction of the Globe Theater in 1599, Shakespeare moved to the other side of the river - to Southwark, where the theater was located. In 1604 he again moved across the river, this time to the area north of St. Paul's Cathedral, where there were a large number of good houses. He rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a manufacturer of women's wigs and headdresses.

Final years and death

There is a traditional view that a few years before his death, Shakespeare moved to Stratford. Rowe was the first biographer of Shakespeare to convey such an opinion. One reason for this may be that the London public theaters repeatedly stopped their work due to outbreaks of plague, and the actors did not have enough work. Complete retirement was rare in those days, and Shakespeare continued to visit London. In 1612, Shakespeare was a witness in the case Bellot vs. Mountjoy, a lawsuit over the wedding dowry of Mountjoy's daughter Mary. In March 1613 he bought a house in the former Blackfriar parish; in November 1614 he spent several weeks with his brother-in-law, John Hall.

After 1606-1607, Shakespeare wrote only a few plays, and after 1613 he stopped writing them altogether. He wrote his last three plays with another playwright, possibly John Fletcher, who succeeded Shakespeare as chief playwright of the King's Men.

All surviving signatures of Shakespeare on documents (1612-1613) are distinguished by very poor handwriting, on the basis of which some researchers believe that he was seriously ill at that time.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. Traditionally, it is assumed that he died on his birthday, but it is not certain that Shakespeare was born on April 23rd. Shakespeare was survived by a widow, Anne (d. 1623), and two daughters. Susan Shakespeare had been married to John Hall since 1607, and Judith Shakespeare married two months after Shakespeare's death to winemaker Thomas Quiney.

In his will, Shakespeare left most of his real estate to his eldest daughter Susan. After her, it was to be inherited by her direct descendants. Judith had three children, all of whom died unmarried. Susan had one daughter, Elizabeth, who married twice but died childless in 1670. She was the last direct descendant of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's will, his wife is only briefly mentioned, but she was already supposed to receive a third of her husband's property. However, it stated that he was leaving her "my second-best bed," a fact that gave rise to many different speculations. Some scholars consider this an insult to Ann, while others argue that the second-best bed is the marital bed, and therefore there is nothing offensive about it.

Three days later, Shakespeare's body was buried in St. Trinity. An epitaph is written on his tombstone:

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbear,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Blaste be ye man yt spares the stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.

Friend, for the Lord's sake, don't swarm
Remains taken by this land;
Untouched blessed for centuries
And cursed - who touched my ashes.
(Translated by A. Velichansky)

Sometime before 1623, a painted bust of Shakespeare was erected in the church showing him in the process of writing. Epitaphs in English and Latin compare Shakespeare with the wise Pylos king Nestor, Socrates and Virgil.

There are many Shakespeare statues around the world, including funerary monuments at Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

Creation

Shakespeare's literary heritage is divided into two unequal parts: poetic (poems and sonnets) and dramatic. V. G. Belinsky wrote that “it would be too bold and strange to give Shakespeare a decisive advantage over all the poets of mankind, as a poet proper, but as a playwright he is now left without a rival whose name could be put next to his name.”

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) in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, based on the chronology of the works, they 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 last years there was an opinion that the conclusion about the identity of the author on his works is a mistake.

In 1930, 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.

Dramaturgy

Most playwrights of the period co-wrote their works with other authors, and critics believe that Shakespeare also co-wrote some of his plays with other authors; this applies mainly to early and late works. For some works such as "Titus Andronicus" and early history plays, it has not been established that they were definitely co-written, while for "Two noble relatives" and the lost play "Cardenio" this is documented. Data obtained from the texts also suggests that some works have been reworked by other writers in relation to the original text.

Some of Shakespeare's earliest works "Richard III" and three parts "Henry VI", written in the early 1590s, a period when historical drama was in vogue. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date, but textual scholars suggest that "Titus Andronicus", "Comedy of Errors", "The Taming of the Shrew" And "Two Verona" also refer to the beginning of Shakespeare's career. His first chronicles, most likely based on the 1587 edition "Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland" Raphael Holinshed, represented the destructive results of the rule of weak and corrupt rulers and to some extent served to justify the emergence of the Tudor dynasty. Shakespeare's early plays were influenced by the work of other Elizabethan playwrights, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, the tradition of medieval drama, and the play of Seneca. "Comedy of Errors" also built according to the classical model, no sources were found for "The Taming of the Shrew", although it is related to another similarly titled play played in London theaters in the 1590s and may have folklore roots.

In the mid-1590s, Shakespeare moved from mocking and farcical comedies to romantic works. "A dream in a summer night" is a witty mixture of romance, fairy-tale magic and low society life. In Shakespeare's next, also romantic, comedy "The Merchant of Venice" contains a portrait of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflected the racial prejudices of the English of the Elizabethan era. witty play "Much ado about nothing", beautifully depicting life in the provinces "As You Like It" and animated by joy "Twelfth Night (play)" complement a number of Shakespeare's comedies. After the lyric "Richard II", almost entirely written in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into his chronicles "Henry IV, Part 1" And 2 , And "Henry V". His characters become more complex and gentle, he switches very deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, so that his mature work reaches narrative diversity. This period began and ended with tragedies: "Romeo and Juliet", the famous story of love and death of a girl and a boy, and "Julius Caesar" based on "Comparative Lives" Plutarch.

IN early XVII century Shakespeare wrote several so-called "problem plays": "Measure for measure", "Troilus and Cressida" And , as well as a number of the most famous tragedies. Many critics believe that the tragedies of this period represent the peak of Shakespeare's work. Hamlet, the title character of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, is perhaps the playwright's most researched character; this is especially true of the famous soliloquy, which begins "To be or not to be, that is the question." Unlike the introverted Hamlet, the hesitant hero, the heroes of subsequent tragedies, King Lear and Othello, suffer from too hasty decisions. Often Shakespeare's tragedy is built on the shortcomings or fatal deeds of the heroes who destroy him and his loved ones. IN "Othello" the villain Iago brings the jealousy of the title character to the point, and he kills his innocent wife. IN "King Lear" the old king makes the fatal mistake of relinquishing his rights to power, leading to horrific events such as the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. IN "Macbeth", Shakespeare's shortest and most concise tragedy, uncontrollable ambition drives Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to kill the rightful king and usurp the throne, and ultimately they are destroyed by the realization of their guilt. In this play, Shakespeare adds an element of the supernatural to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies "Antony and Cleopatra" And "Coriolanus", are considered by some critics to contain some of his finest poetry.

In the final period of his work, Shakespeare turned to the genre of romance or tragicomedy and completed three major plays: "Cymbeline", "Winter's Tale" And "Storm", and also, together with another playwright, a play "Pericles". The works of this period are less gloomy than the tragedies that preceded them, but more serious than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and deliverance from troubles. Some researchers believe that these changes came from a change in outlook on Shakespeare's life, which became more relaxed, but perhaps the plays simply reflected the theatrical fashion of that time. Two more surviving plays by Shakespeare were written by him in collaboration, possibly with John Fletcher: "Henry VIII" And "Two noble relatives".

Lifetime productions

It is not yet known exactly for which theater companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. Yes, on title page publications "Tita Andronicus" 1594, it is indicated that the play was staged by three different groups. After the plague of 1592-1593, Shakespeare's plays were already staged by his own company at the Theater and the Curtain. in Shoreditch north of the Thames. There was the first part "Henry IV". After a quarrel with its owner, the company left the Theater and built on the south side of the Thames, in Southwark, the Globe Theatre, the first theater built by actors for actors. The Globe opened in the fall of 1599, and one of the first plays staged there was "Julius Caesar". Most of Shakespeare's most famous plays written after 1599 were written for the Globe, including "Hamlet", "Othello" And "King Lear".

Shakespeare's troupe, The Lord Chamberlain's Servants, had a special relationship with King James I, especially after it was renamed The King's Servants in 1603. Although production records are scattered, there are 7 productions of Shakespeare's plays at court between November 1, 1604 and October 31, 1605, including two productions "Merchant of Venice". After 1608 they began performing at the Blackfriars Indoor Theater in the winter and working at the Globe in the summer. Good premises, combined with royal patronage, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more complex devices into the props of his plays. For example, in "Cymbeline" Jupiter descends "with thunder and lightning, sitting on an eagle: He throws lightning. Ghosts fall to their knees."

Shakespeare's troupe included such well-known actors as Richard Burbage, William Kemp, Neri Condell and John Heminges. Burbage was the lead actor in many of Shakespeare's plays, including "Richard III", "Hamlet", "Othello" And "King Lear". Popular comic actor William Kemp, among other characters, played Pietro in "Romeo and Juliet" and dogwood in "Much ado about nothing". At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, he was replaced by Robert Armin, who played such roles as Touchstone from "As You Like It" and Jester from "King Lear". In 1613, Henry Wotton reported that the play had been staged. "Henry VIII". On June 29, during the production of this performance, the cannon misfired and set fire to the thatched roof of the building, so that the entire theater burned down. This fact allows us to establish with good accuracy the time of writing the play.

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 folio of 1623 (the so-called "First Folio"), published by Edward Blount and William Jaggard as part of the so-called "Chester Collection" is considered to be the most important publication of Shakespeare's legacy; 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, Shakespeare's friends and colleagues. The book is preceded by a message to readers on behalf of Heminge and Condell, as well as a poetic dedication to Shakespeare by the playwright Ben Jonson, who also contributed to the publication of the First Folio.

In 1593 and 1594, when the theaters were closed due to the plague, Shakespeare wrote two erotic poems, "Venus and Adonis" And "Dishonored Lucretia". These poems were dedicated to Henry Risley, Earl of Southampton. IN "Venus and Adonis" the innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in "Dishonored Lucretia" the virtuous wife of Lucretia is raped by Tarquinius. Influenced Metamorphosis Ovid, the poems show guilt and the terrible consequences of uncontrolled love. Both poems were popular and were reprinted several times during Shakespeare's lifetime. third poem, "Love's Complaint", in which a girl complains about a seductive deceiver, was printed in the first edition Sonnets in 1609. Most scientists now accept that "Love's Complaint" written by Shakespeare. In a poem "Phoenix and Dove", printed in 1601 in the collection of Robert Chester "Love's Martyr", tells about the sad death of the mythological phoenix and his beloved, the faithful dove. In 1599, two sonnets by Shakespeare on behalf of Shakespeare, but without his consent in "Passionate Pilgrim".

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
The bitterness of separation: 27 -32
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).

Style

The language of Shakespeare's first plays is the language common to plays of this period. This stylized language does not always allow the playwright to reveal his characters. Poetry is often overloaded with complex metaphors and sentences, and the language is more conducive to recitation of the text than live acting. For example, solemn speeches "Tita Andronicus", according to some critics, often slows down the action; character language "Two Veronians" seems unnatural.

Soon, however, Shakespeare begins to adapt the traditional style for his own purposes. Initial soliloquy from "Richard III" goes back to the conversations with oneself of Vice, a traditional character in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid monologues would later develop into the monologues of Shakespeare's later plays. All pieces mark the transition from the traditional style to the new. Throughout his later career, Shakespeare combined them, and one of the most successful examples of mixing styles is "Romeo and Juliet". By the mid-1590s, the time of creation "Romeo and Juliet", "Richard II" And "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Shakespeare's style becomes more natural. Metaphors and figurative expressions are increasingly consistent with the needs of the drama.

The standard poetic form used by Shakespeare is blank verse written in iambic pentameter. The blank verse of the early and later plays differ considerably. The early one is often beautiful, but, as a rule, either the whole sentence or its semantic part ends at the end of the line, which creates monotony. After Shakespeare mastered the traditional blank verse, he began to change it by breaking the sentence at the end of the line. The use of this technique gives poetry power and flexibility in plays such as "Julius Caesar" And "Hamlet". For example, Shakespeare uses it to convey the feelings of a shocked Hamlet:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting

That would not let me sleep. Thought I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly-

And prais'd be rashness for it-let us know

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well…

There was a fight in my soul

disturbing my sleep; I had to lie

Heavier than the convict. Suddenly, -

Praise of surprise: us recklessness

Sometimes it helps out where it dies

Deep intent...

"Hamlet", act 5, scene 2, 4-8. Translated by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik.

In the next "Hamlet" plays, the poetic style continued to vary, especially in the emotional passages of his later tragedies. literary critic Bradley. described the style as "more concentrated, faster, more varied, with fewer repetitions". Towards the end of his career, Shakespeare used many methods to achieve similar effects. He used techniques such as enjambement, unstructured pauses and stops, and various unusual variations in sentence construction and length. In many cases, the listener himself must think out the meaning of the sentence. In late romantic plays, long and short sentences are opposed to each other, the subject and object of the action are reversed, words are omitted, which creates a sense of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic art with an understanding of practical details theatrical performance. Like all playwrights of the day, he dramatized stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshead. But the original source did not remain unchanged; Shakespeare introduced new and changed old storylines so that the full versatility of the story was revealed to the audience. With the growth of Shakespeare's skill, his characters began to emerge more clearly and acquire distinctive features speech. However, his later pieces are more reminiscent of his earlier creations. In later romantic works, he deliberately returned to an artificial style to emphasize the illusory nature of the theater.

Influence

The works of Shakespeare seriously influenced the theater and literature of the following years. In particular, he expanded the scope of the playwright's work with characterization, plot, language, and genre. For example, before "Romeo and Juliet" romance was never seen as a worthy subject for tragedy. Soliloquies were mainly used to inform viewers of the events that had taken place; Shakespeare began to use them to reveal the nature of the character and his thoughts. His work greatly influenced subsequent poets. The poets of the Romantic era tried to revive Shakespeare's verse drama, but had little success. Critic George Steiner called all English drama from Coleridge to Tennyson "weak variations on Shakespearean themes".

Shakespeare influenced writers such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner and Charles Dickens. His influence also extended to Herman Melville; his captain Ahab from the novel "Moby Dick" is a classic tragic hero inspired by King Lear. Scientists estimate that 20,000 musical works associated with the works of Shakespeare. Among them are 2 operas by Giuseppe Verdi, "Othello" And "Falstaff", in the primary source of which are the plays of the same name. Shakespeare also inspired numerous artists, including Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated the play into German. "Macbeth". The developer of the theory of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud relied on Shakespearean psychology, in particular on the image of Hamlet, in his theories about human nature.

In Shakespeare's time, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardized than they are today, and his language helped shape modern English. He is the most quoted author by Samuel Johnson in "A Dictionary of the English Language", the first work of its kind. Expressions such as "with bated breath" (lit. with bated breath = with a beating heart) ( "The Merchant of Venice") and "a foregone conclusion" (lit. a foregone conclusion) ( "Othello") have become part of modern everyday English speech.

Reputation and criticism

"He was a man not of an era, but of all times." --Ben Johnson

Although Shakespeare was not considered a great playwright during his lifetime, he received commendable reviews for his works.

In 1598, the clergy writer Francis Meurice singled him out of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. And the authors of the playbook "Parnassus" compared Shakespeare with Chaucer, Gower and Spencer. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare: "The soul of the age, worthy of applause, delight, marvel of our stage."

In the period between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, the ideas of classicism prevailed. Therefore, the critics of the time predominantly ranked Shakespeare lower than John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Riemer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic and the tragic. However, the poet and critic John Dryden held Shakespeare in high regard, saying of Johnson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare." Yet for several decades Riemer's views dominated, but in the 18th century critics began to admire him and call him a genius. This reputation was only strengthened by a number of published scientific works, dedicated to the work of Shakespeare, such as the work of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790. By 1800 he was firmly established as the national poet of England. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Shakespeare also gained a name outside the British Isles. He was supported by such writers as Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal and Victor Hugo.

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays into German in the spirit of German romanticism. In the 19th century, admiration for Shakespeare often bordered on worship and flattery. “This King Shakespeare,” wrote the essayist Thomas Carlyle in 1840, “is above us all, most noble, gentlest, yet strong; indestructible." Bernard Shaw, however, criticized the romantic cult of Shakespeare, using the word "bardo-worship" (Eng. bardolatry). He argued that Ibsen's naturalistic drama made Shakespeare obsolete.

The Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in his critical essay "On Shakespeare and Drama" based on a detailed analysis of some of the most popular works of Shakespeare, in particular: "King Lear", "Othello", "Falstaff", "Hamlet", etc. - subjected sharp criticism of Shakespeare's ability as a playwright.

After the modernist revolution of art at the beginning of the 20th century, Shakespeare was recorded in the ranks of the avant-garde. German expressionists and Moscow futurists staged his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht, developed under the influence of Shakespeare epic theater. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot attacked Shaw, saying that Shakespeare's "primitivism" made his works modern. Eliot led the movement of researchers to examine Shakespeare's images in more detail. In the 1950s, a wave of new campaigns replaced modernism and marked the beginning of "postmodern" studies of Shakespeare. In the 1980s, Shakespeare's work began to be studied by representatives of such movements as structuralism, feminism, new historicism, African American studies and queer studies.

Doubts surrounding Shakespeare's identity

"Shakespeare Question"

Some 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of works attributed to him. Alternative candidates were proposed, mostly well-born and well educated, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Theories have also been proposed according to which a group of writers was hiding behind the pseudonym "Shakespeare". However, the traditional theory is generally accepted in the academic community, and interest in the non-Strafordian current, especially in the Oxfordian theory, continues into the 21st century.

The non-Strafordians believe that one of the proofs of their theory is that there is no evidence of Shakespeare's education, while lexicon his works, according to various estimates, range from 17,500 to 29,000 words, and they also show a deep knowledge of history and literature. Since not a single handwritten manuscript of Shakespeare has survived, opponents of the traditional version conclude that his literary career was falsified.

Some scholars believe that Shakespeare's family members were Catholic, even though the Catholic religion was banned at the time. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, came from a Catholic family. The main evidence of Shakespeare's belonging to a Catholic family is the will of John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the attic of his house. The original document has been lost, and scholars disagree on its authenticity. In 1591 the authorities reported that he did not appear in church. In 1606, the name of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna was included in the list of those who did not appear at Easter communion in Stratford. Scholars have found evidence in Shakespeare's plays both for and against his Catholicism, but the truth has not been absolutely established.

sexual orientation

Despite the fact of Shakespeare's marriage and the presence of children, there are different opinions in the scientific community regarding his sexual orientation. Scholars often consider Shakespeare's sonnets to be autobiographical, and some infer from them Shakespeare's love for the young man. Others, however, consider these sonnets to be only expressions of friendship, not sexual attraction. The 26 so-called "Swarty Lady" sonnets addressed to a married woman are often cited as evidence of his heterosexual orientation.

Appearance

Written descriptions of Shakespeare's appearance made during his lifetime have not survived, and there is controversy about his true appearance. Often the true portrait of Shakespeare is called the Droeshout portrait, which Ben Jonson spoke of as a good representation of Shakespeare's appearance, especially since the bust on Shakespeare's grave is quite similar to this portrait. In the XVIII century, many attempts were made to establish the true appearance of Shakespeare, which led to numerous falsifications and various versions.

List of compositions

Play classification

Shakespeare's writings include 36 plays published in 1623 in the First Folio, the division of which here into comedies, chronicles and tragedies is given in accordance with this edition. The First Folio did not include two plays, Two noble relatives And Pericles which are now considered part of the canon, and scholars agree that Shakespeare contributed greatly to their writing. Shakespeare's poems in the First Folio have not been published.

At the end of the 19th century, Edward Dowden classified 4 of Shakespeare's later plays as romantic, and although most scholars call them tragicomedies, this variant is widely used. These plays and related "Two noble relatives" are marked with (*). In 1896, Frederick Boas coined the term "problem plays" to describe Shakespeare's plays that are difficult to classify by genre: "All is well that ends well", "Measure for measure", "Troilus and Cressida" And "Hamlet". This term has been much discussed and sometimes used in relation to other plays, and is used in our time, although "Hamlet" often referred to simply as tragedies. Problem plays are marked with (‡).

If a play is considered to be only partially written by Shakespeare, then it is marked with a (†). Works sometimes attributed to Shakespeare are classified as Apocrypha.

Comedy Writings

All is well that ends well ‡
How do you like it
Comedy of Errors
Love's fruitless efforts
Measure for measure ‡
The Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
A dream in a summer night
Much ado about nothing
Pericles *†
The Taming of the Shrew
Storm *
twelfth Night
Two Verona
Two noble relatives *†
winter fairy tale *

King John
Richard II
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1 †
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Richard III
Henry VIII †

tragedy

Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus †
Timon of Athens †
Julius Caesar
Macbeth †
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida ‡
King Lear
Othello
Anthony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline *

Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis
Dishonored Lucretia
passionate pilgrim
Phoenix and dove
Lover's Complaint

Lost Works

Rewarded efforts of love
History of Cardenio †

Apocrypha main article: Apocrypha of William Shakespeare

Arden of Faversham
Merlin's birth
Edward III
Locrine
The London Prodigal
The Puritan
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
Sir John Oldcastle
Thomas Lord Cromwell
A Yorkshire Tragedy
Sir Thomas More

The theme of almost all of Shakespeare's comedies is love, its emergence and development, the resistance and intrigues of others, and the victory of a bright young feeling. The action of the works takes place against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes bathed in moonlight or sunlight. This is how the magical world of Shakespeare's comedies appears before us, seemingly far from fun. Shakespeare has a great ability, talented to combine the comic (the witty duels of Benedict and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Petruchio and Catharina from The Taming of the Shrew) with the lyrical and even tragic (the betrayals of Proteus in The Two Veronians, the intrigues of Shylock in Merchant of Venice). Shakespeare's characters are amazingly multifaceted, their images embody the features characteristic of people of the Renaissance: will, desire for independence, and love of life. Particularly interesting female images of these comedies are equal to a man, free, energetic, active and infinitely charming. Shakespeare's comedies are varied. Shakespeare uses various genres of comedies - a romantic comedy ("A Midsummer Night's Dream"), a comedy of characters ("The Taming of the Shrew"), a sitcom ("Comedy of Errors").

During the same period (1590-1600) Shakespeare wrote a number of historical chronicles. Each of which covers one of the periods of English history.

About the time of the struggle of the Scarlet and White Roses:

Henry VI (three parts)

On the preceding period of struggle between the feudal barons and the absolute monarchy:

Henry IV (two parts)

The genre of dramatic chronicle is peculiar only to the English Renaissance. Most likely, this happened because the favorite theatrical genre of the early English Middle Ages was mysteries with secular motifs. The dramaturgy of the mature Renaissance was formed under their influence; and in the dramatic chronicles, many mystery features are preserved: a wide coverage of events, many characters, a free alternation of episodes. However, unlike the mysteries, the chronicles do not present bible story and the history of the state. Here, in essence, he also refers to the ideals of harmony - but the harmony of the state, which he sees in the victory of the monarchy over the medieval feudal civil strife. In the finale of the plays, good triumphs; evil, no matter how terrible and bloody was his way, overthrown. Thus, in the first period of Shakespeare's work at different levels - personal and state - the main Renaissance idea is interpreted: the achievement of harmony and humanistic ideals.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two tragedies:

II (tragic) period (1601-1607)

It is considered the tragic period of Shakespeare's work. Dedicated mainly to tragedy. It was during this period that the playwright reaches the pinnacle of his work:

There is no longer a trace of a harmonious sense of the world in them; eternal and insoluble conflicts are revealed here. Here the tragedy lies not only in the clash of the individual and society, but also in the internal contradictions in the soul of the hero. The problem is brought to a general philosophical level, and the characters remain unusually multifaceted and psychologically voluminous. At the same time, it is very important that in the great tragedies of Shakespeare there is a complete absence of a fatalistic attitude towards fate, which predetermines tragedy. The main emphasis, as before, is placed on the personality of the hero, who shapes his own destiny and the fate of those around him.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two comedies:

III (romantic) period (1608-1612)

It is considered the romantic period of Shakespeare's work.

Works of the last period of his work:

These are poetic tales leading away from reality into the world of dreams. The complete conscious rejection of realism and retreat into romantic fantasy is naturally interpreted by Shakespeare scholars as the playwright's disappointment in humanistic ideals, the recognition of the impossibility of achieving harmony. This path - from a triumphantly jubilant faith in harmony to tired disappointment - actually went through the entire worldview of the Renaissance.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

The incomparable world popularity of Shakespeare's plays was facilitated by the playwright's excellent knowledge of the theater "from the inside". Almost all of Shakespeare's London life was somehow connected with the theater, and from 1599 - with the Globe Theater, which was one of the most important centers of cultural life in England. It was here that the troupe of R. Burbage "Servants of the Lord Chamberlain" moved to the newly built building, just at the time when Shakespeare became one of the shareholders of the troupe. Shakespeare played on the stage until about 1603 - in any case, after this time there is no mention of his participation in performances. Apparently, Shakespeare was not very popular as an actor - there is evidence that he played minor and episodic roles. Nevertheless, the stage school was completed - work on the stage undoubtedly helped Shakespeare better understand the mechanisms of interaction between the actor and the audience and the secrets of audience success. Audience success was very important for Shakespeare, both as a theater shareholder and as a playwright - and after 1603 he remained closely associated with the Globe, on the stage of which almost all the plays he wrote were staged. The design of the Globe hall predetermined the combination of spectators of various social and property strata at one performance, while the theater could accommodate at least 1,500 spectators. The playwright and actors faced the most difficult task of keeping the attention of a heterogeneous audience. Shakespeare's plays responded to this task to the maximum extent, enjoying success with audiences of all categories.

The mobile architectonics of Shakespeare's plays was largely determined by the peculiarities of the theatrical technique of the 16th century. - an open stage without a curtain, a minimum of props, an extreme convention of stage design. This forced to focus on the actor and his stage skills. Each role in Shakespeare's plays (often written for a specific actor) is psychologically voluminous and provides great opportunities for its stage interpretation; the lexical structure of speech changes not only from play to play and from character to character, but also transforms depending on internal development and stage circumstances (Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, etc.). No wonder many world-famous actors shone in the roles of Shakespeare's repertoire.

The glorious history of Shakespeare's Globe Theater began in 1599, when in London, which was distinguished by a great love for theatrical art, buildings of public public theaters were built one after another. During the construction of the Globe, building materials were used that were left over from the dismantled building of the very first public London theater (it was called the Theatre). The owners of the building, the Burbages' troupe of famous English actors, had their land lease expired; so they decided to rebuild the theater in a new place. The leading playwright of the troupe, William Shakespeare, who by 1599 became one of the shareholders of Burbage's The Lord Chamberlain's Servants, was undoubtedly involved in this decision.

Theaters for the general public were built in London mainly outside the City, i.e. - outside the jurisdiction of the City of London. This was explained by the puritanical spirit of the city authorities, who were hostile to the theater in general. The Globe was a typical building of a public theater of the early 17th century: an oval room in the form of a Roman amphitheater, enclosed by a high wall, without a roof. The theater got its name from the statue of Atlas that adorned its entrance, supporting the globe. This globe (“globe”) was surrounded by a ribbon with the famous inscription: “The whole world is acting” (lat. Totus mundus agit histrionem; better known translation: “The whole world is a theater”).

The stage adjoined the back of the building; above its deep part rose the upper stage platform, the so-called. "gallery"; even higher was the "house" - a building with one or two windows. Thus, there were four scenes of action in the theater: the proscenium, deeply protruding into the hall and surrounded by the audience on three sides, on which the main part of the action was played out; the deep part of the stage under the gallery, where interior scenes were played; a gallery that was used to depict a fortress wall or a balcony (the ghost of Hamlet's father appeared here or the famous scene on the balcony in Romeo and Juliet was going on); and a "house", in the windows of which actors could also appear. This made it possible to build a dynamic spectacle, already laying in the dramaturgy a variety of scenes and changing the points of the audience's attention, which helped to maintain interest in what was happening on the set. This was extremely important: we must not forget that the attention of the auditorium was not supported by any auxiliary means - the performances went on in daylight, without a curtain, to the continuous hum of the audience, animatedly exchanging impressions in full voice.

The auditorium of the "Globe" accommodated, according to various sources, from 1200 to 3000 spectators. It is impossible to establish the exact capacity of the hall - there were no seats for the bulk of commoners; they crowded into the stalls, standing on the earthen floor. Privileged spectators were located with some conveniences: on the inside of the wall there were lodges for the aristocracy, above them there was a gallery for the wealthy. The richest and noblest sat on the sides of the stage, on portable three-legged stools. There were no additional facilities for spectators (including toilets); physiological needs, if necessary, were easily coped with, during the performance - right in the auditorium. Therefore, the absence of a roof could be regarded more as a blessing than as a drawback - the influx of fresh air did not allow devoted fans of theatrical art to suffocate.

However, such simplicity of morals fully met the then rules of etiquette, and the Globe Theater very soon became one of the main cultural centers England: all the plays of William Shakespeare and other prominent playwrights of the Renaissance were staged on its stage.

However, in 1613, during the premiere of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, a fire broke out in the theater: a spark from a stage cannon shot hit the thatched roof above the deep part of the stage. Historical evidence claims that there were no casualties in the fire, but the building burned to the ground. The end of the "first Globe" symbolically marked the change of literary and theatrical eras: around this time, William Shakespeare stopped writing plays.

Letter about the fire in the "Globe"

“And now I will amuse you with a story of what happened this week at Bankside. His Majesty’s actors were playing a new play called “All is True” (Henry VIII), representing the highlights of the reign of Henry VIII. The production was staged with extraordinary pomp, and even the covering on the stage was amazingly beautiful.The knights of the orders of George and the Garter, the guards in embroidered uniforms, etc., were more than enough to make the greatness recognizable, if not ridiculous.So, King Henry arranges a mask in the house of Cardinal Wolsey: he appears on the stage , several salutatory shots are heard. One of the bullets, apparently, got stuck in the scenery - and then everything happened. At first, only a small haze was visible, to which the audience, fascinated by what was happening on the stage, did not pay any attention; but through which For a fraction of a second, the fire spread to the roof and began to spread rapidly, destroying the entire building to the ground in less than an hour.Yes, those were disastrous moments for this solid building, where only wood, straw and a few rags burned down. True, one of the men's trousers caught fire, and he could easily have been roasted, but he (thank heaven!) guessed in time to put out the flame with ale from a bottle.

Sir Henry Wotton

Soon the building was rebuilt, already from stone; the thatched ceiling above the deep part of the stage was replaced with a tiled one. Burbage's troupe continued to play in the "Second Globe" until 1642, when a decree was issued by the Puritan Parliament and Lord Protector Cromwell to close all theaters and prohibit any theatrical entertainment. In 1644, the empty “second Globe” was rebuilt into a rental building. The history of the theater was interrupted for more than three centuries.

The idea of the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theater belongs, oddly enough, not to the British, but to the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker. He came to London for the first time in 1949, and for about twenty years, together with his like-minded people, bit by bit collected materials about the theaters of the Elizabethan era. By 1970, Wanamaker had established the Shakespeare Globe Trust, designed to renovate the lost theatre, create an educational center and permanent exhibition. Work on this project continued for more than 25 years; Wanamaker himself died in 1993, nearly four years before the remodeled Globe opened. The landmark for the reconstruction of the theater was the excavated fragments of the foundation of the old Globe, as well as the nearby Rose Theater, where Shakespeare's plays were staged in the "pre-Globus" times. The new building was built from "green" oak wood, processed in accordance with the traditions of the 16th century. and is located almost in the same place as before - the new one is 300 meters away from the old Globus. The careful reconstruction of the appearance is combined with modern technical equipment building.

The new Globe was opened in 1997 under the name Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Since, according to historical realities, the new building was built without a roof, performances are held only in spring and summer. However, tours in the oldest London theater "Globe" are held daily. Already in this century, next to the restored Globe, a theme park-museum dedicated to Shakespeare was opened. There is the world's largest exhibition dedicated to the great playwright; various thematic entertainment events are organized for visitors: here you can try to write a sonnet yourself; watch a sword fight, and even take part in a production of a Shakespearean play.

The Language and Stage Means of Shakespeare

In general, the language of Shakespeare's dramatic works is unusually rich: according to the studies of philologists and literary critics, his dictionary contains more than 15,000 words. The speech of the characters is replete with all sorts of tropes - metaphors, allegories, paraphrases, etc. The playwright used many forms of 16th-century lyric poetry in his plays. - sonnet, canzone, alba, epithalamus, etc. White verse, with which his plays are mainly written, is distinguished by flexibility and naturalness. This is the reason for the great attraction of Shakespeare's work for translators. In particular, in Russia, many masters of literary text turned to translations of Shakespeare's plays - from N. Karamzin to A. Radlova, V. Nabokov, B. Pasternak, M. Donskoy and others.

The minimalism of the stage means of the Renaissance allowed Shakespeare's dramaturgy to organically merge into a new stage in the development of world theater dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. - director's theater, focused not on individual acting work, but on the overall conceptual solution of the performance. Can't even enumerate general principles all numerous productions of Shakespeare - from a detailed everyday interpretation to an extreme conventionally symbolic; from farce-comedy to elegiac-philosophical or mystery-tragedy. It is curious that Shakespeare's plays are still oriented to viewers of almost any level - from aesthetic intellectuals to undemanding audiences. This, along with complex philosophical problems, is facilitated by intricate intrigue, and a kaleidoscope of various stage episodes, alternating pathetic scenes with comedic ones, and the inclusion of fights, musical numbers, etc. in the main action.

Shakespeare's dramatic works became the basis for many performances of the musical theater (the operas Othello, Falstaff (based on the Merry Wives of Windsor) and Macbeth by D. Verdi; the ballet Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev and many others).

Shakespeare's departure

Around 1610 Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. Until 1612, he did not lose touch with the theater: in 1611 the Winter Tale was written, in 1612 - the last dramatic work, The Tempest. The last years of his life he moved away from literary activity, and lived quietly and imperceptibly with his family. This was probably due to a serious illness - this is indicated by Shakespeare's surviving testament, drawn up clearly hastily on March 15, 1616 and signed in a changed handwriting. April 23, 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon died the most famous playwright of all times and peoples.

The influence of Shakespeare on world literature

The influence of the images created by William Shakespeare on world literature and culture cannot be overestimated. Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet - these names have long become common nouns. They are used not only in works of art, but also in ordinary speech as a designation of any human type. For us, Othello is a jealous man, Lear is a parent, destitute of heirs, whom he himself has favored, Macbeth is a usurper of power, and Hamlet is a person who is torn apart by internal contradictions.

Shakespeare's images also had a huge impact on Russian literature of the 19th century. The plays of the English playwright were addressed by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and other writers. In the 20th century, interest in the inner world of man increased, and the motives and heroes of Shakespeare's works again excited poets. We find them in M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak, V. Vysotsky.

In the era of classicism and the Enlightenment, Shakespeare was recognized for his ability to follow "nature", but was condemned for not knowing the "rules": Voltaire called him a "brilliant barbarian". English Enlightenment criticism appreciated Shakespeare's life-like truthfulness. In Germany, Shakespeare was raised to an unattainable height by I. Herder and Goethe (Goethe's sketch "Shakespeare and He Has No End", 1813-1816). In the period of romanticism, the understanding of Shakespeare's work was deepened by G. Hegel, S. T. Coleridge, Stendhal, V. Hugo.

In Russia, Shakespeare was first mentioned in 1748 by A.P. Sumarokov, however, even in the 2nd half of the 18th century, Shakespeare was still little known in Russia. Shakespeare became a fact of Russian culture in the first half of the 19th century: writers associated with the Decembrist movement turned to him (V. K. Kuchelbeker, K. F. Ryleev, A. S. Griboedov, A. A. Bestuzhev, etc.) , A. S. Pushkin, who saw the main advantages of Shakespeare in his objectivity, the truth of characters and the "correct depiction of time" and developed Shakespeare's traditions in the tragedy "Boris Godunov". In the struggle for the realism of Russian literature, V. G. Belinsky also relies on Shakespeare. The importance of Shakespeare especially increased in the 30-50s of the 19th century. Projecting Shakespearean images onto the present, A. I. Herzen, I. A. Goncharov and others helped to comprehend the tragedy of time more deeply. A notable event was the production of "Hamlet" translated by N. A. Polevoy (1837) with P. S. Mochalov (Moscow) and V. A. Karatygin (Petersburg) in the title role. In the tragedy of Hamlet, V. G. Belinsky and other progressive people of the era saw the tragedy of their generation. The image of Hamlet attracts the attention of I. S. Turgenev, who saw in him the features of "superfluous people" (Art. "Hamlet and Don Quixote", 1860), F. M. Dostoevsky.

In parallel with the comprehension of Shakespeare's work in Russia, acquaintance with the works of Shakespeare itself deepened and expanded. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, mainly French adaptations of Shakespeare were translated. Translations of the 1st half of the 19th century sinned either with literalism ("Hamlet" in the translation by M. Vronchenko, 1828), or with excessive liberty ("Hamlet" in Polevoy's translation). In 1840-1860, translations by A. V. Druzhinin, A. A. Grigoriev, P. I. Weinberg and others discovered attempts at a scientific approach to solving problems of literary translation (the principle of linguistic adequacy, etc.). In 1865-1868, under the editorship of N.V. Gerbel, the first "Complete collection of dramatic works of Shakespeare translated by Russian writers" was published. In 1902-1904, under the editorship of S. A. Vengerov, the second pre-revolutionary Complete Works of Shakespeare was published.

The traditions of advanced Russian thought were continued and developed by Soviet Shakespeare studies on the basis of deep generalizations made by K. Marx and F. Engels. In the early 1920s, A.V. Lunacharsky read lectures on Shakespeare. The art criticism aspect of the study of Shakespeare's heritage is brought to the fore (V. K. Muller, I. A. Aksyonov). Historical and literary monographs (A. A. Smirnov) and individual problematic works (M. M. Morozov) appeared. Significant contribution to modern science about Shakespeare are the works of A. A. Anikst, N. Ya. Berkovsky, the monograph of L. E. Pinsky. Film directors G. M. Kozintsev, S. I. Yutkevich comprehend the nature of Shakespeare's work in a peculiar way.

Criticizing allegories and magnificent metaphors, hyperbole and unusual comparisons, "horrors and buffoonery, reasoning and effects" - the characteristic features of the style of Shakespeare's plays, Tolstoy took them as signs of exceptional art, serving the needs of the "upper class" of society. Tolstoy, at the same time, points to many of the merits of the plays of the great playwright: his remarkable "ability to stage scenes in which the movement of feelings is expressed", the extraordinary stage presence of his plays, their genuine theatricality. The article on Shakespeare contains Tolstoy's profound judgments about the dramatic conflict, characters, the development of the action, the language of the characters, the technique of constructing the drama, etc.

He said: “So I allowed myself to blame Shakespeare. But after all, every person acts with him; and it is always clear why he does it this way. He had pillars with the inscription: moonlight, home. on the essence of the drama, and now quite the opposite." Tolstoy, who "denied" Shakespeare, placed him above the playwrights - his contemporaries, who created inactive plays of "moods", "riddles", "symbols".

Recognizing that under the influence of Shakespeare the whole world dramaturgy, having no "religious basis", Tolstoy attributed his "theatrical plays" to it, noting at the same time that they were written "accidentally". Thus, the critic V. V. Stasov, who enthusiastically greeted the appearance of his folk drama The Power of Darkness, found that it was written with Shakespearean power.

In 1928, based on her impressions of reading Shakespeare's "Hamlet", M. I. Tsvetaeva wrote three poems: "Ophelia to Hamlet", "Ophelia in Defense of the Queen" and "Hamlet's Dialogue with Conscience".

In all three poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, one can single out a single motive that prevails over others: the motive of passion. Moreover, Ophelia, who in Shakespeare appears as a model of virtue, purity and innocence, acts as the bearer of the ideas of a "hot heart". She becomes an ardent protector of Queen Gertrude and is even identified with passion.

Since the mid-30s of the 19th century, Shakespeare has occupied a large place in the repertoire of the Russian theater. P. S. Mochalov (Richard III, Othello, Lear, Hamlet), V. A. Karatygin (Hamlet, Lear) are famous performers of Shakespeare's roles. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, the Moscow Maly Theater created its own school of their theatrical embodiment - a combination of stage realism with elements of romance, which put forward such outstanding interpreters of Shakespeare as G. Fedotova, A. Lensky, A. Yuzhin, M. Yermolova . At the beginning of the 20th century, the Moscow Art Theater turned to the Shakespearean repertoire (Julius Caesar, 1903, staged by Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the participation of K. S. Stanislavsky; Hamlet, 1911, staged by G. Craig; Caesar and Hamlet - V. I. Kachalov

And:

Often referred to as the national poet of England. The works that have come down to us, including some written jointly with other authors, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems and 3 epitaphs. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into every major language and are staged more often than the works of other playwrights.

Around 1613, at the age of 48, he returned to Stratford, where he died three years later. Little historical evidence of Shakespeare's life has survived, and theories about his life are created on the basis of official documents and testimonies of contemporaries, so questions regarding his appearance and religious beliefs are still being discussed in the scientific community, and there is also a point of view that the works attributed to him were created by whom - something else; it is popular in culture, although it is rejected by the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars.

Most of Shakespeare's works were written between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mostly comedies and chronicles, in which Shakespeare excelled. Then came a period of tragedies in his work, including the works of "Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" and "Macbeth", which are considered among the best in the English language. At the end of his work, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies, and also collaborated with other writers.

Already during his lifetime, Shakespeare received commendable reviews for his work, but he really became popular only in the 19th century. In particular, representatives of romanticism and Victorians bowed to Shakespeare so much that they called it "bardolatry", which means "bard worship" in English. Shakespeare's works remain popular to this day, being constantly studied and rethought in accordance with political and cultural conditions.

William Shakespeare

His father, John Shakespeare (1530-1601), was a wealthy artisan (glove maker), often elected to various significant public positions.

In 1565 John Shakespeare was an alderman and in 1568 a bailiff (head of the city council). He did not attend church services, for which he paid large fines (it is possible that he was a secret Catholic).

Shakespeare's mother, née Mary Arden (1537-1608), belonged to one of the oldest Saxon families. In total, the couple had 8 children, William was born the third.

It is believed that Shakespeare studied at the Stratford "grammar school" (English grammar school), where he was supposed to get a good knowledge of Latin: the Stratford teacher of Latin and literature wrote poetry in Latin. Some scholars claim that Shakespeare attended the King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he studied the work of such poets as Ovid and Plautus, but the school journals have not survived, and now nothing can be said for sure.

In 1582, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local landowner, who was 8 years older than him. At the time of the marriage, Ann was pregnant.

In 1583, the couple had a daughter, Susan (baptized on May 23), in 1585, twins: son Hemnet, who died at the age of 11 in August 1596, and daughter Judith (baptized on February 2).

Attempts by biographers to learn about Shakespeare's actions during this period have resulted in many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, believed that Shakespeare left Stratford to escape prosecution for poaching on the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy.

It is also assumed that Shakespeare took revenge on Lucy by writing several obscene ballads to him.

According to another version of the XVIII century, Shakespeare began his theatrical career, looking after the horses of London theatrical patrons. John Aubrey wrote that Shakespeare was a school teacher. Some 20th century scholars believed that Shakespeare was the teacher of Alexander Nogton from Lancashire, since this Catholic landowner had a certain "William Shakeshaft". This theory has little basis other than the rumors that circulated after Shakespeare's death, and besides, "Shakeshaft" is a fairly common surname in Lancashire.

In the same year, a pamphlet by the playwright and prose writer Robert Greene was published posthumously, where the latter attacked Shakespeare with malice, without naming his last name, but ironically beating her - “scene shaker” (shake-scene), paraphrasing a line from the third part of “Henry VI” “ Oh, the heart of a tiger in this woman's skin! as "the heart of a tiger in the skin of a hypocrite."

Scholars disagree as to the exact meaning of these words, but it is generally accepted that Greene accused Shakespeare of trying to match up with highly educated writers ("university minds") such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash, and Greene himself.

Biographers believe that Shakespeare's career could have begun at any time since the mid-1580s.

Since 1594, Shakespeare's plays have only been staged by a troupe. "Servants of the Lord Chamberlain". This troupe included Shakespeare, who at the end of the same 1594 became its co-owner. The troupe soon became one of the leading theater groups in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the troupe received a royal patent from the new ruler, James I, and became known as the "Servants of the King".

In 1599, a partnership of members of the group built a new theater on the south bank of the Thames, named "Globe".

In 1608 they also purchased the closed Blackfriars Theatre. Accounts of Shakespeare's real estate purchases and investments show that the troupe made him a wealthy man. In 1597 he bought the second largest house in Stratford, New Place.

In 1598, his name began to appear on the title pages of publications. But even after Shakespeare became famous as a playwright, he continued to play in theaters. In the 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's works, Shakespeare's name is included in the list of actors who performed the plays Everyone Has Their Whims (1598) and Sejanus Has Fallen (1603). However, his name was not included in Johnson's 1605 play Volpone, which is taken by some scholars as a sign of the end of Shakespeare's London career.

Nevertheless, in the First Folio of 1623, Shakespeare is called "the chief actor in all these plays," and some of them were first staged after Volpone, although it is not known for certain what roles Shakespeare played in them.

In 1610, John Davies wrote that "good Will" played "royal" parts.

In 1709, in his work, Rowe wrote down the already established opinion by that time that Shakespeare played the shadow of Hamlet's father. Later it was also claimed that he played the roles of Adam in As You Like It and Horus in Henry V, although scholars doubt the accuracy of this information.

Shakespeare lived in London during his acting and playwriting period, but also spent some of his time in Stratford.

In 1596, a year after the purchase of New Place, he resided at St. Helena's in Bishopgate, on the north side of the Thames. After the construction of the Globe Theater in 1599, Shakespeare moved to the other side of the river - to Southwark, where the theater was located.

In 1604 he again moved across the river, this time to the area north of St. Paul's Cathedral, where there were a large number of good houses. He rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a manufacturer of women's wigs and headdresses.

In 1612, Shakespeare was a witness in the case of Bellot v. Mountjoy, a lawsuit over the wedding dowry of Mountjoy's daughter Mary.

In March 1613 he bought a house in the former Blackfriar parish. In November 1614 he spent several weeks with his brother-in-law, John Hall.

All surviving signatures of Shakespeare on documents (1612-1613) are distinguished by very poor handwriting, on the basis of which some researchers believe that he was seriously ill at that time.

Three days later, Shakespeare's body was buried in the Stratford Church of the Holy Trinity.

An epitaph is written on his tombstone:

"Good friend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Blaste be ye man yt spares the stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones".

"Friend, for the sake of the Lord, do not swarm
Remains taken by this land;
Untouched blessed for centuries
And cursed - who touched my ashes ".

There are many Shakespeare statues around the world, including funerary monuments at Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death, the Royal Mint has issued three two-pound coins (dated 2016), symbolizing the three groups of his works: comedies, chronicles and tragedies.

Shakespeare's literary heritage is divided into two unequal parts: poetic (poems and sonnets) and dramatic. wrote that "it would be too bold and strange to give Shakespeare a decisive advantage over all the poets of mankind, as a poet proper, but as a playwright he is now left without a rival whose name could be put next to his name."

William Shakespeare. The Greatest Show on Earth

The writings of William Shakespeare

Comedies by William Shakespeare

All is well that ends well
How do you like it
Comedy of Errors
Love's fruitless efforts
Measure for measure
The Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
A dream in a summer night
Much ado about nothing
Pericles
The Taming of the Shrew
Storm
twelfth Night
Two Verona
Two noble relatives
winter fairy tale

Chronicles of William Shakespeare

King John
Richard II
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Richard III
Henry VIII

Tragedies of William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Timon of Athens
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida
King Lear
Othello
Anthony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline

Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Venus and Adonis
Dishonored Lucretia
passionate pilgrim
Phoenix and dove
Lover's Complaint

The Lost Works of William Shakespeare

Rewarded efforts of love
History of Cardenio

Apocrypha of William Shakespeare

Judgment of Paris
Arden Feversham
George Green
Locrin
Edward III
Musedor
Sir John Oldcastle
Thomas, Lord Cromwell
Cheerful Edmontovsky devil
London prodigal son
Puritan
Yorkshire tragedy
Lovely Emma
Merlin's birth
Sir Thomas More
The tragedy of the second maid
passionate pilgrim

(glovemaker), often elected to various public positions. He did not attend church services, for which he paid large fines (it is possible that he was a secret Catholic).

Shakespeare's mother, nee Mary Arden (1537--1608), belonged to one of the oldest Saxon families.

It is believed that Shakespeare studied at the Stratford "grammar school" (English "grammar school"), where he received a serious education: the Stratford teacher of Latin and literature wrote poetry in Latin. Some scholars claim that Shakespeare attended King Edward VI's school in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he studied the work of poets such as Ovid and Plautus, but the school journals have not survived, and now nothing can be said for sure.

Bust of Shakespeare in St. Trinity in Stratford

All surviving signatures of Shakespeare on documents (-) are distinguished by very poor handwriting, on the basis of which some researchers believe that he was seriously ill at that time. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. Traditionally, it is assumed that he died on his birthday, but it is not certain that Shakespeare was born on April 23rd.

Shakespeare's autograph on his will

Three days later, Shakespeare's body was buried in St. Trinity. An epitaph is inscribed on his tombstone:

good friend for jesus sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares the stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

A painted bust of Shakespeare was also erected in the church, next to which there are two more epitaphs - in Latin and in English. The Latin epitaph compares Shakespeare with the wise Pylos king Nestor, Socrates and Virgil.

Shakespeare was survived by a widow, Anne (d. 1623), and both daughters. The last direct descendant of Shakespeare was his granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard (1608-1670), daughter of Susan Shakespeare and Dr. John Hall. Three sons of Judith Shakespeare (married Queenie) died young without issue.

Creation

Dramaturgy

English drama and theater in the time of William Shakespeare

At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth (Elizabeth I of England, 1533-1603), who ascended the throne in 1558, there were no special buildings for showing performances, although then there were already quite a lot of working acting troupes. For these purposes, inns or halls were used. educational institutions and private houses. In 1576, the entrepreneur James Burbage (1530-1597), who began as an actor in the troupe of Leicester's Men, built the first special building for theatrical performances - The Theatre. It was erected outside the city, on the outskirts of Shoreditch (Shoreditch). William Shakespeare was part of Burbage's Chamberlain's Men, which was formed from actors previously belonging to three different companies, from at least 1594. When James Burbage died in 1597, the lease on the land on which The Theater was located expired. While the issue of new premises was being decided, the troupe's performances were held at the nearby Curtain Theater (The Curtain, 1577-1627), founded by Henry Lanman. Meanwhile, The Thearte was dismantled and transported piece by piece to the other side of the river. In early 1599, construction was completed and a new theater opened, which they called The Globe. Burbage's sons Cuthbert and Richard (Cuthbert Burbage and Richard Burbage, 1567-1619), became the owners of half of the building, they offered to share the rest of its value among several shareholders from the troupe. So Shakespeare became one of the co-owners of the Globe. In 1613, during the performance of "Henry VIII", the thatched roof of the theater broke out, and it burned to the ground. A year later, the "second Globe" (The second Globe) was built on the same place, with a tiled roof. At that time, in the English theatrical environment, the creation of new plays often took place on the basis of the use of existing texts, which were altered and supplemented. In his work, William Shakespeare also used this method, improving the materials found in different sources. In the period from 1595 to 1601, there is an active development of its writing career. Shakespeare 's skill brings glory to his works and troupe .

English playwrights, predecessors and contemporaries of William Shakespeare

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 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.

Theatrical technique in the era of William 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, the silence that our auditorium, there was no Shakespeare in the 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 scenes of the main play (intermissions in Shakespearean theater did not have). 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.

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.

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) .

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 in 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 not only describes historical events, but explores the motives behind the actions of the characters.

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".

Third period (1600-1609)

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 of creation by the playwright 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.

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 a drama. 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 threatened deadly danger, and the ending can be considered conditionally happy. This problematic work does not fit into a specific genre, but exists on the verge of genres: going back to morality, it is directed towards tragicomedy.

Sonnets dedicated to a friend: 1 -126
Chanting a friend: 1 -26
Friendship Trials: 27 -99
The bitterness of separation: 27 -32
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

Dating problems

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 legacy 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 included 36 Shakespeare's plays - all except "Pericles" and "Two noble relatives". 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).

Compositions

Plays commonly considered Shakespearean

The Comedy of Errors (g. - first edition, - probable year of first production)
Titus Andronicus (g. - first edition, authorship is debatable)
Romeo and Juliet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Merchant of Venice ( r. - first edition, - probable year of writing)
King Richard III (r. - first edition)
Measure for Measure (g. - first edition, December 26 - first production)
King John (r. - first edition of the original text)
Henry VI (r. - first edition)
Henry IV (r. - first edition)
Love's Labour's Lost (g. - first edition)
As You Like It (writing - - gg., d. - first edition)
Twelfth Night (writing - not later, d. - first edition)
Julius Caesar (writing -, g. - first edition)
Henry V (r. - first edition)
Much Ado About Nothing (r. - first edition)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (g. - first edition)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ( r. - first edition, r. - second edition)
All's well that ends well (writing - - gg., g. - first edition)
Othello (creation - no later than the year, first edition - year)
King Lear (December 26
Macbeth (creation - c., first edition - c.)
Anthony and Cleopatra (creation - d., first edition - d.)
Coriolanus ( r. - year of writing)
Pericles (g. - first edition)
Troilus and Cressida ( d. - first publication)
Tempest (November 1 - first production, city - first edition)
Cymbeline (writing - g., g. - first edition)
Winter's Tale (g. - the only surviving edition)
The Taming of the Shrew ( d. - first publication)
Two Veronians ( d. - first publication)
Henry VIII ( r. - first publication)
Timon of Athens ( d. - first publication)

Apocrypha and lost works

Main article: Apocrypha and Lost Works of William Shakespeare

In a handwriting very similar to Shakespeare's signatures, three pages of a joint, never staged play "Sir Thomas More" are written (uncensored). The spelling of the manuscript matches print media plays by Shakespeare (at that time there was no common system of English spelling). Confirmed Shakespeare's authorship and stylistic analysis.

There are also a number of plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare (or creative teams with his participation).

The Reign of King Edward III, possibly co-authored with Thomas Kyd (1596).
Love's Efforts Rewarded (1598) - a play either lost or known by a different title ("All's well that ends well" or "The Taming of the Shrew").
Cardenio ("Double Lies, or Lovers in Distress") - co-authored with John Fletcher (1613, ed. 1728 by Lewis Theobald). According to the traditional view, the 1728 publication is a forgery, while the text in which Shakespeare contributed is lost. Recently, however, a number of researchers believe that the well-known text "Cardenio" is not a fake and may contain Shakespearean lines.
Yorkshire Tragedy (n/a, ed. 1619, Jaggard)
Sir John Oldcastle (n/a, ed. 1619, Jaggard)

fakes

Vortigern and Rowena - author. William Henry Ireland

"Shakespeare Question"

Shakespeare's life is little known - he shares the fate of the vast majority of other English playwrights of the era, whose personal lives were of little interest to contemporaries. There is a point of view, the so-called anti-Stratfordianism, or non-Stratfordianism, whose supporters deny the authorship of Shakespeare (Shakspere) from Stratford and believe that "William Shakespeare" is a pseudonym under which another person or group of persons was hiding. Doubts about the validity of the traditional view have been known since at least 1848 (and some anti-Stratfordians see hints of this in earlier literature as well). At the same time, there is no unity among non-Stratfordians as to who exactly was the real author of Shakespeare's works. The number of probable candidates proposed by various researchers currently amounts to several dozen.

Bernard Shaw criticized the romantic cult of Shakespeare in the 19th century, using the word "bardo-worship" (Eng. bardolatry).

Shakespeare's works in other art forms

This section is not completed.

You will help the project by correcting and supplementing it.

Notes

Biography: or, Third division of… - Google Books
See section "Biography"
Smirnov A. A. William Shakespeare // Shakespeare W. Complete Works in 8 volumes. M.: Art, 1957. T. 1., p. thirty.
A.Anikst. Shakespeare
S. Shenbaum. Shakespeare. Brief documentary biography
Baldwin, T.W. William Shakspere's Small Latine and Less Greeke. 2 volumes. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1944: Passim. See also Whitaker, Virgil. Shakespeare's Use of Learning. San Marino: Huntington Library Press, 1953: 14-44.
Germaine Greer "Past Masters: Shakespeare" (Oxford University Press 1986, ISBN 0-19-287538-8) pp1-2
Theater of the era of Shakespeare: textbook. allowance for universities / A. A. Anikst. - 2nd ed., corrected. - M.: Bustard, 2006. - S. 82. ISBN 5-358-01292-3
I. Gililov. A game about William Shakespeare, or the Mystery of the Great Phoenix. M., 1977, p. 122-124. ISBN 5-87334-021-8
According to the Julian calendar, according to the Gregorian - May 3
V. G. Belinsky Hamlet, drama by Shakespeare. Mochalov as Hamlet // Collected works in three volumes. - M ., 1948. - T. 1. - S. 302-303.
"William Shakespeare. Biography and career of the playwright at the Globe Theatre. O. Nikolaeva
W. Shakespeare. Comedy. Introductory article by O. Postnov. - M. Eksmo, 2008. p. 10. ISBN 978-5-699-28192-3
Lukov Vl. A. Genre // Electronic Encyclopedia "The World of Shakespeare".
"William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet: the history of the plot, text and translations of the tragedy "O. Nikolaeva
Preface to the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Batyushkov F. D.
Brown F.A. The Merry Wives of Windsor // Shakespeare V. Complete Works. / Library of great writers, ed. S. A. Vengerova. St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron, 1903. T. 2. S. 434-445.
E. Burgess. William Shakespeare. Genius and his era. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2001, p. 229-233. ISBN 5-227-01302-0
A. A. Anikst. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Shaitanov I. O. Foreign Literature. 10-11 grades. Methodological advice.
Pope E. M. The Renaissance Background of Measure for Measure//Twentieth century interpretations of Measure for Measure/Ed. by G. L. Geckle. Englewood Cliffs. New York, 1970. P. 51
Shaitanov I. O. Two “failures”: “Measure for measure” and “Angelo”. Questions of Literature, 2003, No. 1.
Radlov E. Timon of Athens // Shakespeare V. Complete Works / Library of Great Writers, ed. S. A. Vengerova. St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron, 1903. T. 3. S. 504-513
Ratsky I. The problem of tragicomedy and latest plays Shakespeare // Theater. . No. 2.
William Shakespeare. Sonnets. - M.: EKSMO, 2008, p.9
William Shakespeare. Sonnets. - M.: EKSMO, 2008, pp. 340-341
Anikst A. A. Poems, sonnets and poems by Shakespeare // Shakespeare W. Complete works in 8 volumes. M.: Art, 1960. T. 8. S. 594.