William Shakespeare’ Plays
December 28th, 2008
The writings of William Shakespeare cannot be compared in the history of literature. He was a versatile English poet, playwright and dramatist. He has written about 38 plays, 154 sonnets and innumerous poems between 1582–1612, which are read and discussed even up to now. They had important contribution on English literature and western theater. All his writings have been interpreted into all known languages and they are performed around over the world more than a million times.
Although many of his works were written for English audience the appeal was worldwide. His writing style was greatly influenced by Christopher Marlowe. In 1594, Shakespeare became part-owner of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a drama play company. By then he had even began acting, along with writing plays. Under his presence the company became so famous which made King James I purchase the company and then it was named as King’s men.
His plays revolved around tragedy, comedy, romance and history. He started his career reworking on other writers work which was common at that time. Since then he helped the playwrights to finish their work fast. Like Hamlet was the new adaptation of a lost play named Ur-Hamlet and King Lear was the new version of King Leir. His plays on history were inspired by the Greek, Roman and English history. Plays like Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and Raphael Holinshed’s The Chronicle of England inspired plays like Macbeth and King Lear. Tempest was his original work.
Shakespeare’s early works of 1590s were based on romantic comedies and historic nostalgia which were the storyline of works like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV, Part I. After the plague, he started incorporating rhymed couplets and dramatic dialogues in his writings. His middle period plays revolved around betrayal, murder, egoism, power, ambition, lust, tragedy and comedy. Plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello King Lear, Troilus and Cressida were set on these themes. His later works were mostly romantic and fantasies such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. His works were also published in press as a series of quartos. Two actors named John Heminges and Henry Condell embarked on First Folio to reward and publish Shakespeare’s work exclusively during the year 1623. Categories such as comedies, tragedies and histories were made in First Folio. Contemporary critics have added categories like tragic-comedies and problem-play.
The exact order of his plays is not known and has been the subject of debate during that period, plays weren’t authoritatively printed. Many of his plays had many different blueprints and because of technical glitches like printing errors and reading mistakes, so the identifying his original work is a problem. Many words and spellings were invented by Shakespeare. He had a habit of writing his plays number of time using those different words and spellings. After his death, speculations have risen about the authenticity of Shakespeare’s work. There are only few available details on the accounts of his life and nor even his will gives details on his ownership of the Globe theater. There were rumors that they might be writings of Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon.
The works that have been lost are Love’s Labour’ Won, Cardenio and Quixote. Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Richard III are some the critically acclaimed works of William Shakespeare.
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