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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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William SHAKESPEARE ( 1564 - 1616 )
`The Bard of Avon', English poet and playwright, wrote the famous 154 Sonnets and numerous highly successful oft quoted dramatic works including the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet;
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!"
--Lord Polonius, Hamlet Act I, Scene 3
Over the centuries there has been much speculation surrounding various aspects of Shakespeare's life including his religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sources for collaborations, authorship of and chronology of the plays and sonnets. Many of the dates of play performances, when they were written, adapted or revised and printed are imprecise.
England's celebration of their patron Saint George is on 23 April, which is also the day claimed to be the birth date of Shakespeare. Although birth and death dates were not recorded in Shakespeare's time, churches did record baptisms and burials, usually a few days after the actual event. The infant William was baptised on 26 April 1564 in the parish church Holy Trinity of Stratford upon Avon. He lived with his fairly well-to-do parents on Henley Street, the first of the four sons born to John Shakespeare (c1530-1601) and Mary Arden (c1540-1608), who also had four daughters. John Shakespeare was a local businessman and also involved in municipal affairs as Alderman and Bailiff, but a decline in his fortunes in his later years surely had an effect on William.
Shakespeare wrote most of his plays as `quarto texts', that being on a sheet of paper folded four ways. A few of his plays were printed in his lifetime, though they appeared more voluminously after his death, sometimes plagiarised and often changed at the whim of the printer. First Folio would be the first collection of his dramatic works, a massive undertaking to compile thirty-six plays from the quarto texts, playbooks, transcriptions, and the memories of actors. The approximately nine hundred page manuscript took about two years to complete and was printed in 1623 as Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. It also featured on the frontispiece the famous engraved portrait of Shakespeare said to be by Martin Droeshout (1601-c1651).
William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, according to his monument, and lies buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon. It is not clear as to how or why Shakespeare died, but in 1664 the reverend John Ward, vicar of Stratford recorded that "Shakespeare, Drayton and Ben Johnson had a merie meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a feavour there contracted." His tombstone is inscribed with the following epitaph;
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare
To digg the dust encloased heare
Blessed by y man y spares hes stones
And curst be he y moves my bones
His Tragedies
Some probably inspired by Shakespeare's study of Lives (trans.1597) by Greek historian and essayist Plutarch and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Some are reworkings of previous stories, many based on English or Roman history. The dates given here are when they are said to have been first performed, followed by approximate printing dates in brackets, listed in chronological order of performance.
Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),
Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),
Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),
Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),
Othello 1604-05 (1622),
Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),
King Lear 1606 (1608),
Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from Plutarch
Timon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), and
Macbeth 1611-1612 (1623).
ROMEO & JULIET
His Histories
Shakespeare's series of historical dramas, based on the English Kings from John to Henry VIII were a tremendous undertaking to dramatise the lives and rule of kings and the changing political events of his time. No other playwright had attempted such an ambitious body of work. Some were printed on their own or in the First Folio (1623)
King Henry VI Part 1 1592 (printed in 1594);
King Henry VI Part 2 1592-93 (1594);
King Henry VI Part 3 1592-93 (1623);
King John 1596-97 (1623);
King Henry IV Part 1 1597-98 (1598);
King Henry IV Part 2 1597-98 (1600);
King Henry V 1598-99 (1600);
Richard II 1600-01 (1597);
Richard III 1601 (1597); and
King Henry VIII 1612-13 (1623)

KING HERRY VIII
His Comedies, again listed in chronological order of performance.
Taming of the Shrew first performed 1593-94 (1623),
Comedy of Errors 1594 (1623),
Two Gentlemen of Verona 1594-95 (1623),
Love's Labour's Lost 1594-95 (1598),
Midsummer Night's Dream 1595-96 (1600),
Merchant of Venice 1596-1597 (1600),
Much Ado About Nothing 1598-1599 (1600),
As You Like It 1599-00 (1623),
Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-01 (1602),
Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1609),
Twelfth Night 1602 (1623),
All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03 (1623),
Measure for Measure 1604 (1623),
Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1608-09 (1609),
Tempest (1611),
Cymbeline 1611-12 (1623),
Winter's Tale 1611-12 (1623).
2 types of sonnet
1.shakespearen sonnet
Sonnets are fourteen-line lyric poems, traditionally written in iambic pentameter - that is, in lines ten syllables long, with accents falling on every second syllable, as in: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". Sonnets originated in Italy and were introduced to England during the Tudor period by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Shakespeare followed the more idiomatic rhyme scheme of sonnets that Sir Philip Sydney used in the first great Elizabethan sonnets cycle, Astrophel and Stella (these sonnets were published posthumously in 1591). Sonnets are formal poems and consist of 14 lines (3 quatrains and a couplet).
2.petrarchen sonnet
14 lines long (1 octave+1 sestet)
Unrequited love
(abba abba) octave
(cdc cdc)
(cdd cdd)
(cde cde) sestet
(cdd cee)
Sonnet 126 O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.
Sequence & themes of Shakespeare's Sonnets
The sonnets are stories about a handsome boy, or rival poet, and the mysterious and aloof "dark" lady they both love. The sonnets fall into three clear groupings: Sonnets 1 to 126 are addressed to, or concern, a young man; Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to, or concern, a dark lady (dark in the sense of her hair, her facial features, and her character), and Sonnets 153-154 are fairly free adaptations of two classical Greek poems. The text of these famous sonnets can be accessed by clicking one of the sonnets links below. The most popular of the Great Bard's Sonnets are Sonnets 018, 029, 116, 126 and 130.
Sonnet 142 Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
REFERENCES http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/
http://members.aye.net/~gharris/blog/william-shakespeare.jpg
http://istor.indyarocks.com/trphotos/Romeo_and_Juliet_with_Friar_Laurence__Henry_William_Bunbury1220008807.jpg
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/images/the-winters-tale.jpg
His Poetry
William Shakespeare is referred to as a Literary Genius and much of this praise is due to the wonderful words of his short sonnet poems and his extended poems as detailed on this page. He is the most widely read author in the whole of the Western World - his poems and quotes from poems are familiar to everyone. And yet when we think about Shakespear we immediately we think of his famous plays and not his less famous poems. During the Bard's lifetime dramatists were not considered 'serious' authors with 'serious' talent - but it was highly fashionable to write poems. Plays were for entertainment poems were for the elite! There was not even such a thing as a custom built theatre until 1576! Actors were common folk. Poets of the era such as Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Raleigh were of the nobility and there poems are still enjoyed today. These poets had credibility and so did their poetry. William Shakespeare came from Yeoman stock - he lacked credibility - his poems would have helped with this poblem !. The Bard did not give permission for one of his plays or his sonnets to be published. He was, however, happy to have his poems published. William Shakespeare has been attributed with the following poems:
A Lover's Complaint Poem
A Lover's Complaint is the most neglected of the Poems of William Shakespear, assuming that it is his. It was first published in 1609, by Thomas Thorpe, under the same cover as the Sonnets; but has seldom been reprinted. The Lover's Complaint seems to be a very early poem (perhaps 1591), but no date of composition of the poem can be assigned.
Venus and Adonis Poem
April 18, 1593 Registration of Venus and Adonis Poem
Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare's narrative poem in six-line stanzas, was published by Richard Field (1561 - 1624). The poem was dedicated to Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). This dedication refers to the author's "unpolisht lines" and contains the typically fawning language of a commoner addressing a nobleman in the hope of obtaining, or retaining, their patronage in exchange for poems dedicated to the recipient.
The Rape of Lucrece Poem
May 9, 1594 Registration of The Rape of Lucrece
On May 9, 1594, the poem was entered in the Hall Book of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, the English government's pre-publication registry. The poem was listed in the Hall Book under the title of The Ravyshement [Ravishment] of Lucrece but was published with the title Lucrece. The Rape of Lucrece was substituted as a title at a later date. The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem resembling a revenge tragedy with 1,855 lines.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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Comments (22)
Anonymous said
at 5:13 pm on Nov 20, 2008
The thing I like most about Shakespeare is his use of language; he says things about human experience better than almost anyone else; and it is through language that we externalize and understand our experiences.
Anonymous said
at 12:34 am on Nov 27, 2008
To me,shakespeare's most tragedy play is ROMEO and JULİET.What ı really want to know is how he found such an interesting subject.Also ı am looking forward to watching the film in the lesson.HATİCE ERDOĞAN
Anonymous said
at 5:41 pm on Nov 28, 2008
about ROMEO AND JULIET: the lesson was very good,because the power-poit made the lesson was more well-organised than normal.
Anonymous said
at 8:24 pm on Nov 28, 2008
shakespeare plays with the words in his plays, which ı like best about shakespeare.His subjects are simple but he is talented that he made all of them interested and famous..
Anonymous said
at 7:41 pm on Dec 14, 2008
Simple subjects,but he uses the words and controls the events in a perfect way.I want to see the movie of Romeo and Juliet like Hatice:)
Anonymous said
at 5:02 pm on Dec 19, 2008
I think he is the greatest writer in the English language.He was the world's preminent dramatist.He was a respected poetin his own day but his reputation didn't rise to its present heights until 19th century
Anonymous said
at 7:05 pm on Dec 21, 2008
Shakespeare!He is a great poet and playwright.He plays with the words very well and uses the language perfectly. His work has an important impression on later theatre and literature.
Anonymous said
at 2:03 pm on Dec 30, 2008
Shakespeare knows very well how he attracts people.He did very impressive things.
Anonymous said
at 5:27 pm on Dec 31, 2008
ı think english are lucky person due to the fact that they have very excellent poem and writer or a humanist, also it shows that english literature would be rigid and not much developed without that writer and poem....
Anonymous said
at 5:47 pm on Dec 31, 2008
shakespeare is a magnificant poet in british history so british owes him so much that if he woulnt live british literature would nt be famous..ı think british history based on him.
Anonymous said
at 7:34 pm on Jan 12, 2009
William Shakespare is considered to have been the greatest writer of England.I heard that he was not famous in his own time,but he became famous later.I am curıos about what is the reason behind it?
Anonymous said
at 12:37 am on Jan 13, 2009
He was a perfect dramatist and poet.He wrote many poems,sonnets and plays that have great importance on English Literature.
Anonymous said
at 1:20 am on Jan 13, 2009
I was not interested in poems very much before I became to interested in Shakespeare.He was absolutely a great writer and he really affects me.He is very good at telling the emotions of different types of people.
Anonymous said
at 4:26 am on Jan 13, 2009
William Shakespare is insepareble part of English Literature
what makes the English Literature attractive and effective is his poems and plays
Anonymous said
at 4:33 am on Jan 13, 2009
he is one of the greatest artist of all times he is widely known with his plays and poems today and we can not think English Literature without him
Anonymous said
at 6:16 am on Jan 13, 2009
I admire the Shakespare's poems.Shakespeare compose miracles in his poems.In Romeo and Juliet I was very impressed.Elders say that even if I think 40 years sentences like these cant come to my mind:d
Anonymous said
at 4:15 pm on Jan 13, 2009
I think he is the most talented poet of English literature his poems and plays are unique in the world
Anonymous said
at 4:16 pm on Jan 13, 2009
ı agree with Azime ı like his plays especially romeo and juliet and hamlet his poems effect me deeply
Anonymous said
at 4:32 pm on Jan 13, 2009
He is an important figure in English Literature.I heard that his Othello has some information about Ottoman Empire.I dont know how much of what I heard is true,it would be nice to find something about our history in English literate,especially from William Shakespeare's works.
Anonymous said
at 8:06 pm on Jan 13, 2009
he is the most talented writer even in the world. I am really interested in poems and I like most of his work but I wish he had been famous in his time also...
Anonymous said
at 5:18 pm on Jan 14, 2009
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IS A GREAT WRITER.HE HAS LOTS OF PLAY OTHER THAN ROMEO AND JULIET.FOR EXAMPLE HAMLET.IT HAS A VERY INTERESTING CONTENT.WE WONDER OTHER PLAYS OF HIM WHICH WE DIDN’T LEARN.WE WISH WE HAD TIME TO STUDY THEM,AT LEAST ONE MORE PLAY.
Anonymous said
at 8:26 pm on Jan 15, 2009
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright and widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Büşra
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