William Shakespeare: his life and creation

      These we performed in the afternoon by men and boys only. Woman never took part and this may explain why company of Shakespeare’s plays present young men dressing up as a woman.

      Most of the theatres, which built, were very large and could hold several thousand people. All sorts of people, rich and poor, came to see the plays. The people who paid the lowest price didn’t even get a seat – they had to stand. Because they stood on the ground, they were called groundlings. Some people sat on the stage itself while other sat in galleries around and above the stage. The main stage was usually brave.

The audience had to imagine the scene by listening to the language of the actors, which was very descriptive [5].  

1.7 Shakespeare and contemporary 

      It is important to remember just how different Shakespeare was from the other great dramatists of the time. Christopher Marlowe, who was born in the same years as Shakespeare, 1564, developed his writing ability much faster. His first great play, Tamburlance the Graat, was produced in 1587 and after that he wrote five plays in very quick succession: Dr. Faust, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, The Massacre at Paris and Dido, queen of Carthage. He died at the early age of 29 in very mysterious circumstances – stabbed to dearth by his companion in a tavern. The fight was said to have been about who was going to play the bill. Although Marlowe was a violent man who had previously been charged with attacking someone with a knife, it is very likely that he was murdered because he was involved in spying against powerful Catholic nobles.

      Certainly his friend end fellow writer, Thomas Kyd, was involved in some secret plot. The two men shared the same logins and, when certain papers were found in their room, Kyd was tortured on the rack and confessed.

      Kyd’s great revenge play, The Spanish Tragedy, first performed in 1587 or 1588, had a great influence on Shakespeare’s early writing and it is clear Titus Andronicus, for example, is his attempt to copy what Kyd was doing. After having been tortured, Kyd was a broken man physically and mentally and he died, in poverty and disgrace, in 1594.

      Both of these great dramatists had not died, it is interesting to speculate whether Shakespeare would have been as famous as his today. Certainly, if Shakespeare had died at the sometime as Marlowe, it is Marlowe who would be remembered as the greater writer. Shakespeare needed a few more years before he began to produce his best work [7].

      Another contemporary of Shakespeare’s and of his best friends, was the playwright Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637). During his career, Jonson was imprisoned several times for attacking the Government through his writing convinced of killing a man and almost centrally a government spy as Marlowe had been before him.

      Shakespeare seems to have stayed a way from all types of conflict, personal or political. He doesn’t seem to have fought any duels, spied on his colleagues, been involved in drunken fight in taverns, been thrown into prison or done any of the other things typical of Elizabethan gentlemen. In his way he was very different from his friends and fellow writers – not a very Elizabethan man at all, in fact [5]. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1.8 Shakespeare’s language 

      As we have learnt, in 1592 the theatres closed because of the plague. From this time, until 1600, Shakespeare produced a series of plays, which include most of his best comedies. Some writers look back over his career and describe the plays he wrote during this period as immature. To a certain extent this is a true but we must remember that they are not immathey compared to the work of other dramatists – they are only immatury when we compare them with his other plays.

      During this period he also wrote a series of poems. If we remember that, in addition to all of this, he was still a principal actor who had to learnt his lines and rehearses his parts, not only in plays written by himself but in other people’s plays as well, we can see that he must have been a very hard working writer, determined to be successful.

      The title of this section is The Rising Tide and it is intended do suggest a period in which Shakespeare was becoming better and better at writing but not yet at his peak. By comparing Shakespeare’s progress to a tide of the sea, which rises until it is full, we are using an image. The two most common types of images are metaphors and similes.

      We use a metaphor when we compare two things, by saying one thing is something else. For example, when Romeo is hiding in Juliet’s garden, she comes to the window and she is so beautiful that when Romeo sees her, he says:

      But soft who light through yonder window breaks?

      It is the east, and Juliet is the sun…

                                                   (Act 2 Scene 2)

      We use a simple when we compare two things by saying one thing is similar to something else – for example in Julius Caesar is asked to change his mind about something but he reuses, sayings:

      I am constant as northern star

                                     (Act 3 Scene 1)

      Images are more often used in poetry than in prose. Shakespeare is a great dramatic poet and uses unforgettable imagery.

      However Shakespeare dramatic poetry is not only about beauty. Some of his most powerful speeches concern violence, betrayal, war and death [5].

                                            
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1.9 Famous plays 

       What is true, however, is that very troubled period in Elizabethan’s reign, Shakespeare wrote a play which tells the story of a highly intelligent man who is faced with a very difficult decision. This play was Hamlet – probably the best know of all Shakespeare’s plays.

      The opening scene of play takes place at night on the walls of a castle, where a soldier, Francisco, is on guard. It is very cold so he has wrapped his cloak around himself. Suddenly, there is a shout:

      Bernardo: Who’s there?

      Francisco: Nay, answer me. Stand and untold yourself.

      Bernardo: Long live the king!

      Francisco: Bernardo?

      Bernardo: He.

      Now, this is very strange. Francisco is on duty and Bernardo has come to relive him because it is now Bernardo’s turn. It should be Francisco who speak first, to find out who this nevermore is. There is obviously something strange happening because even when Bernardo gives the password   (the secret word(s) which tells soldier that they are fighting for the same side – “Long live the king”), Francisco is still not sure who this period is. He thinks it’s Bernardo but he is not certain, so he turns the name into a question – “Bernardo?”. It is only when Bernardo replies that the two soldiers are satisfied and starts their conversation. Only fifteen world have been spoken so far but Shakespeare has already made us aware that there must be some reason why these two soldiers are acting so frightened, even though they in their own castle. By the end of Act 1 we have discovered that the ghost is tat of Hamlet’s father, the old king. He tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother, who then married his window, Hamlet’s mother. The ghost demands that Hamlet should take revenge by punishing his evil brother who is now the king.

      Hamlet is probably the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays. People have studied it and discussed it for hundreds of years and millions of words have been written about it. Most British schoolchildren are forced to read it and they useful have to learn. Hamlet’s soliloquies by heart [9].

      One funny story may share you how much the play has affected the English language. In the 18^th century, King George II went to see the play for the first time, but he didn’t like is very much because, he said, it was full of quotations.

      The tragedy of Othello is that we, the audience, know what is going to happen because Iago explains it all to us, but we cannot do anything to spare Othello any of the torture that he suffers.

      Act V Scene 2 is the most terrible scene of play, where Othello ask Desdemona to confess:

            I never did offend you in life.

      But Othello is now so mad with jealous that he cannot believe her and so, as she is beginning for opportunity to say just one prayer, he killed her.

      Othello is a heart braking play, because almost all adults know what it is like to experience sexual jealousy. What makes this play so tragic is the innocence of Desdemona destroyed by the pure evil of Iago. At the very end of the play, when he is asked why he did what he did, Iago says:

            Demond me nothing. What you know, you know

            From this tome forth I never will speak word.

      So Othello, who kills himself with a sword, never even gets the stisfactition of knowing why Iago destroyed his life. We do not see death of Iago. At the end of the play we are told that he will be tortured. Iago will suffer physical torture as punishment for mental which he made Othello suffer.

      Between 1608 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote five mores plays; Pericles, - Cymbeline, The winter’s Tale, The Tempest and Henry VIII. The first four of these together are called “The Lake Comedies” while the fifth was obviously specially commissioned by the court. By far the greatest of these plays is The Tempest. In terms of pure entertainment and beautiful poetry, it mat be Shakespeare’s best play. In the Tempest, Shakespeare says farewell to the theatre, to his friend and to the people who went to see his first play twenty-five years before and who had followed his career. I that sense it is a very sad play [5].  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2. Studying William Shakespeare on the English classes
1. The project of the out-of-class occupation “Shakespeare’s life and creation”

 

      Theme: Shakespeare’s life and creation

      Class: 9.

      The aim of occupation is to study Shakespeare’s life and creation.

      The occupation consists of two parts:

1. The presentation of Shakespeare’s life and creation.
2. The presentation of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

 

      I. Teacher: Dear pupils, today we’ll study William Shakespeare’s life and creation. He was one of the greatest of all playwriters and poets of all times. And now you’ll presentation each other some information about William Shakespeare. Who is the first? You’re welcome.

        Pupil 1: William Shakespeare was born on April 23^rd, 1564. He was born in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. His family was very large: William had four sisters and four brothers. Young William went to the free grammar school where he would have been taught Latin, which was the language of Roman and, at that time, still the language of academics, the Church and the State [6].

      He probably didn’t get to study many books in English because for just over a hundred years and his school would not have had a great deal of money to buy these new books.

      Pupil 2: In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway who was eight years older than William (he was eighteen at that time). Whether Anne was beautiful in reality we do not know; but she was to be our Shakespeare’s wife, and so she is of interest for all ages.

      William had three children. His son Hamnet died when he was eleven years and six months. His daughters Susannah and Judith grew up to womanhood married and survived their father a number of years. They must have been well educated and well brought up [8].

      Teacher: Now we’ll speak about Shakespeare’s career. Who is the next?

      Pupil 3: At the same time, Shakespeare was an actor, a poet and a writer of drama. He wrote 154 sonnets, 2 poems and 37 plays, where he showed his creative genius.

      The first period (1590 - 1600) of his creative work consists of comedies and histories. In this period Shakespeare wrote such histories as “King Henry IV”, “King Henry V”, “King Richard II”, “King Richard III” and others. Here the author showed historical events and dramatic characters.

      “Romeo and Juliet” is one of Shakespeare’s best plays. It is tragedy, but it was written in the first period of his creative work. This play is full of love, youth and humanism [7].

      Pupil 4: All of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies appeared between 1600 and 1608. This was second period of his literary work. In the plays of this period the dramatist reaches his full maturity. He presents great human problems. This period began with the tragedy “Hamlet”, which was a great success.

      The following plays belong to the second period: “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Macbeth” and others.

      Pupil 5: Shakespeare’s plays of the third period (1609 - 1611) are called Romantic Dramas: “The Tempest”, “The Winter’s Tale”, “Henry VIII”.

      In 1612, Shakespeare left London. He decided to live in Stratford. Since that time Shakespeare didn’t act any more and since 1613 he no longer wrote plays.

      Nobody knows what Shakespeare did during the last years of his life. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and he was buried in this church in Stratford [5].

Teacher: We start the presentation of Shakespeare’s sonnets. 

      II. Pupil 6 (sonnet 66): Tired with all these, for restful death I cry;

                          As, to behold desert a beggar born,

                              And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,

                              And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

                              And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,

              And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

                    And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,

                    And strength by limping sway disabled,

                    And art made tongue-tied by authority,

                    And folly, doctor –like, controlling skill,

                              And simle truth miscalled simplicity,

                    And captive good attending captain ill:

                    Tired with all these, from these would I be gone

                    Save that, to die, I leave my love alone [1].

      Teacher: OK! It is good for you. Next. 

      Pupil 7 (sonnet 90): Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now,

                 Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,

                 Join with the spite of Fortune, make me bow,

                 And do not drop in for an after-loss.

                 Ah, do not, when my heart hath `scaped this sorrow.

                 Come in the reaward of a conquered woe;

                 Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,

                 To linger out a purposed overthrow.

                 If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,

                 When other petty griefs have done their spite,

                 But in the onset come: so shall I taste

                 At first the very worst of Fortune’s might;

                 And other strains of woe, which now seen woe,

                 Compared with loss of thee will not seem so [1].

      Teacher: Great! Go on. 

      Pupil 8 (sonnet 91): Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,

                                Some in their wealth, some in their bodies forse;

                 Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill;

               Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;

                         And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure

                 Wherein it finds a joy above the rest.

                 But these particulars are not my measure;