William Shakespeare
(1564 –1616 )
Shakespeare's Literaty Work.
William Shakespeare (bapt. 26
April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was
an English playwright, poet,
and actor, widely regarded as
the greatest writer in the
English language and the
world's greatest dramatist.
Poet and playwright
William Shakespeare was one
of the greatest titans of
Renaissance. He wrote 38
plays, 154 sonnets and 2
narrative poems.
Shakespeare's plays belong to
different dramatic genres.
Creation
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Shakespeare's literary legacy falls
into two unequal parts: poetic
(poems and sonnets) and dramatic.
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VG 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 himself, but as a playwright he
now remains without a rival, whose
name could be placed next to his
name”.
First period (1590-1594)
According to literary techniques, it can be called a period of imitation: Shakespeare is still entirely in the
power of his predecessors.By mood, supporters of a biographical approach to the study of Shakespeare's work
were defined as a period of idealistic faith in the best sides of life: "Young Shakespeare enthusiastically
punishes vice in his historical tragedies and enthusiastically praises high and poetic feelings - friendship, selfsacrifice, and especially love" ( Vengerov).
Second period (1594-1601)
Around 1595, Shakespeare creates one of his most popular tragedies - Romeo and Juliet - the story of
the development of the human personality in the struggle with external circumstances for the right to
free love.
Third period (1600-1609)
The third period of his artistic activity, approximately covering 1600-1609, the supporters of the subjectivist
biographical approach to Shakespeare's work call the period of "deep spiritual darkness."The heroes of
Shakespeare's "great tragedies" are outstanding people, in whom good and evil are mixed. Faced with the
disharmony of the surrounding world, they make a difficult choice - how to exist in it, they themselves
create their own destiny and bear full responsibility for it.
Fourth period (1609-1612)
In the plays of the last period, ordeals emphasize the joy of deliverance from adversity. Slander is
exposed, innocence justifies itself, loyalty is rewarded, the madness of jealousy has no tragic
consequences, lovers unite in a happy marriage. The optimism of these works is perceived by critics as
a sign of the reconciliation of their author.
Shakespeare s poems
The sonnet is a 14-line poem. In the
English tradition, which is based
primarily on Shakespeare's sonnets, a
certain rhyme is adopted. A total of 154
sonnets were written by Shakespeare,
and most of them were created in 15921599. The whole cycle of sonnets is
divided into separate thematic groups.
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Poems
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In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed
because of plague, Shakespeare published two
narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and
Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated
them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.
In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects
the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of
Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the
lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's
Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and
moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust.
Both proved popular and were often reprinted
during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative
poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young
woman laments her seduction by a persuasive
suitor, was printed in the first edition of the
Sonnets in 1609.
Sonnets:
Sonnets 83
�Sonnets 91
�Sonnets 147
�Sonnets 130
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Sonnet 83
I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set,
I found (or thought I found) you did exceed,
That barren tender of a poet's debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you your self being extant well might show,
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth
grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb,
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes,
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
Sonnet 91
Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,
Coral is far more red, than her lips red,
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head:
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight,
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress when she walks treads on the
ground.
And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet 147