THE RENAISSANCE (1485-1625)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
 little documentation: born in 1564, educated at Stratford where he learnt some Greek and Latin;
 at 18 married Anne Hataway (24) and had 3 children;
 accused of hunting in a private estate, moved to London;
 worked as a schoolmaster, holding horses, actor and refurbishing other writer’s players;
 in 1595 joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors;
 his reputation grew and had important friends (Earl of Southampton);
 became a shareholder of the Globe and bought New Place at Stratford.
PLAYS
 suspicion that Marlowe and Bacon wrote his plays (never attended university but had opportunities to improve his
culture)
 Copyrights didn’t exist: borrowed his plots from ancient and contemporary sources (Plutarch, Plautus, Chaucer); the
original was completely changed;
 Seneca’s influence can be seen in some exaggerated rethoric, blood-thirsty details, ghosts and magic;
 didn’t publish his plays, circulating in copies (bad quartos) with notes of reconstructions of his plays;
 the First Folio collected in 3 sections “Comedies, Histories and Tragedies”, not dated,
 chronological order still approximate, but dates assigned through:
1. internal evidence (references to contemporary events)
2. external references (other writers mentioning his works)
3. literary evidence (the style, the characterization, the plot and the metrical skill)
THEMATICAL GROUPING
HISTORIES
ROMAN PLAYS (TRAGEDIES/HISTORIES)
o source: Chronicles (1577) by Holinshed
o source: Plutarc’s Lives
o based on the English kings
o conflict between private feelings and public duties
o Tudors bringing greatness and prosperity; homage to
Queen Elizabeth
o suffering and catastrophe can result from it
o patriotic theme and a keen observation of human
nature.
COMEDIES
TRAGEDIES
o source: popular prose-romances, morality plays
o action usually concentrates on a single individual
opposed to society
o several kinds:
1. romantic comedies (early period)
o human begins are always dominated by a strong
passion (ambition; Brutus, Macbeth)
2. dark comedies (middle years): Measure for Measure,
All’s well that ends well
o fate generates action; the hero fights against it
3. romances: (last period)
o a wide range of themes:
o start with a calamity separating the main characters
1. love and hate (Romeo)
o characters closer by circumstances (lost children
refound, dukes restored)
2. revenge (Hamlet)
o final order and happiness (double or triple wedding)
3. ambition (Macbeth)