Skip to main content

HOW TO WRITE ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE



William Shakespeare was an Elizabethan poet and playwright that is he lived during the time of the Tudor monarch Elizabeth the first he is widely considered the greatest dramatist in English Literature, the Bard of Avon and England’s National poet. On  speaking about  Shakespeare's imagination the French writer Alexander Tumanov  said “After God Shakespeare has created most”.


Shakespeare was born in 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon in England as a son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.  Shakespeare’s father was a Glover and his mother belong to a wealthy landowning  family . Probably Shakespeare was educated in a grammar school whose curriculum consisted of Latin grammar and classics . His contemporary Ben Johnson has written that Shakespeare new small Latin and less Greek. At the age of 18 he  married  Anne Hatheway who was 8 years senior to him and with Anne  Shakespeare had three children a daughter by name Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith.


Sometime after 1585 he left for London the capital city of England. In London he began his career as an actor ,writer and part owner of a drama company called Lord Chamberlain's man with later became the King’s Men. Shakespeare started writing plays in the traditional style adopting traditional plots and stock dramatic devices but later he came to be known for his insightful originality  particularly in the creation of characters he even aroused the envy of his contemporarie’s such as Robert Greene. Shakespeare's plays were staged at three different theatres The Theatre, The Curtain and The Globe . He lived in London for about three decades after that he probably retired to his hometown Stratford-upon-Avon. He died on the 23rd of April 1616.


In 1623 that is seven years after Shakespeare's death John Heming and Henry Condell two of Shakespeare's friends published a volume called the First Folio collection of his plays and poems. His surviving work consists of 38 plays with this also includes collaborations. In addition to these 38 plays the Folio also contains 154 sonnets and 2 long narrative poems Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece and several other poems also. Shakespeare is widely studied, interpreted and his plays are widely performed.  His plays are performed more than the works of any other playwrights. The plays are usually classified into tragedy, comedy and historical plays.  Some scholars also add the categories as chronicle plays, Roman plays, Problem plays and Dramatic romances.

 

We know what we are

But know not what we may be”

                                                                                                  -  By William Shakespeare


Comments

You May Also Like

SCHOOLS OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Introduction : Ø   Comparative Literature was established in France during the 19 th century as an academic discipline : France   1816 Ø   It reached America only during the 20 th century through the German scholars who migrated to America from Hitler’s Germany The French School : Ø   In the French sense of Comparative Literature, it is the moral responsibility of every French Comparatist to trace and relate the world literary experience to the French literary response because , according to him, the French literature is the backbone of the universal literary system Ø   Therefore, they were interested in analysing the external sources and influence of works. In the French School, Comparative Literature becomes an ancillary discipline in the field of French literary history Ø   The French school   was too narrow and relied too heavily on factual evidence Ø   It argued that Comparative literature ought to involve the study of two el...

THEMATOLOGY IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Introduction v   Thematology or study of themes is a new area in the field of comparative literature. It was introduced by the famous American comparatist, Harry Levin. It was he who coined the term ‘Thematics’ or ‘Thematology’ v   Thematology is a comparative study of literary works as they relate to other literary works as far as the themes are concerned Themes and Motifs Thematology involves the study of ‘themes’ and ‘motifs’ . Both are basically different but modern literary critics use them as interchangeable terms. A motif is a recurring element in a work of art. It may be an incident or a device or a formula. For example, folklores have a common motif of a ugly woman becoming a charming princess. Another common motif is bemoaning of the bygone past in lyrics. The ‘theme’ is a recurrent element but it is related to the subject-matter to both form and content Motif vs Theme The theme is the central idea or message where as the motif constitutes the unit from...

NATIONAL, COMPARATIVE AND WORLD LITERATURE

  “Literature in English” is a common one that encompasses all literature written in English, regardless of the citizenship of the author Classification is essential to distinguish Comparative Literature from National Literature, General Literature, and World Literature   National Literature Two contradictory explanations…. 1. National literature  is produced by the people of a state, in the language of that people. For example, the Tamil literature, written in Tamil and by a Tamilian is accepted as National Literature. This is a narrow sense which excludes Tamil literature produced in countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries National literature is the literature produced by citizens of a particular nation. It's one way of grouping literature (e.g., American literature, British literature, French literature, and Indian English literature) 2. Many comparitists accept all writings produced by those people who share the same culture and language t...