This presentation is all about Shakespeare in a nutshell..

2. William Shakespeare
 Works & his life –
 How did he do this?
 Genius & training
 Genius – 2 influences – little village of
Stratford, the great city of London.
 Stratford – he learned natural man & his
environment.
 London- artificial man & his unnatural
surroundings.

3. Life
 Baptized on April 23rd 1564.
 Parents - John Shakespeare , Mary Arden.
 He learnt a little at the grammar school at
Stratford & his ‘real teachers’ were natural
surroundings and people around him.
 Age of 14- his father fell into debt – he
stopped his studies to support his family.
 No evidence of his early occupation.

4.  1582, he was married to Anne Hathaway – 8
yrs older than him – soon he left his family
and went to London.
 1587 – London – stealing the deer in Sir
Thomas Lucy’s park – Nicholas Rowe in “first
life of Shakespeare” claimed that no evidence
of park in that place.
 1587-1611 – life in London – period of
tremendous literary activity.

5.  1592- first authentic reference of him –
Greene’s Pamphlet – important position
among the playwrights.
 Started working with other men in London
theaters.
 He revised older plays before writing his own.
 Henry VI – 3 parts – loosely strung English
Chronicle history.
 Titus Andronicus, Richard III – Marlowe &
Shakespeare.

6.  Soon broke away from his apprenticeship –
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Comedy of Errors, Two
Gentlemen of Verona,
 First English Chronicle plays – Henry VI, Richard
III, Richard II, King John.
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet.
 Poems – “Venus and Adonis” – dedication to Earl
of Southampton – immense success.
 Invested money – became partners of Globe &
Blackfrairs theaters.

7. Wonderful Plays

8.  1597 – his family got released from debt – New
Place- finest house at Stratford.
 Continued to visit his house – in 1611 – returned
to his village from London.
 Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, Pericles
– humours.
 1609 – English ship disappeared
 A year later the sailors returned – wrecked in
Bermudas – 10 months with mysterious noises.
 Robinson Crusoe – The Tempest.

9.  1611- lost interest in Globe &Blackfriars
theater.
 After a simple life, he died on April 23, 1616.
 Cursed tomb.

10. Works
 First printed collection of his plays – First Folio
(1623)- actors – Heming & Condell.
 It contained 36 plays.
 Full of typographical errors and uncertain dates
and classifications.
 Four periods
1. Period of early experimentation
2. Period of rapid growth
3. Period of gloom & depression
4. Period of restored serenity.

11. Period of early experimentation
 1595-Marked by youthfulness & wide
imagination, lavishness of language, rimed
couplets-blank verse.
 Love’s Labour’s Lost
 Two Gentlemen of Verona
 Richard III

12. Period of rapid growth & development
 Dated from 1595-1600.
 Careful and artistic work, better plot, increase
in knowledge of human nature.
 The Merchant of Venice
 Midsummer Night’s Dream
 As You Like It
 Henry VI

13. Period of gloom & depression
 Dated from 1600-1607.
 Full maturity of his powers.
 Cause of the sadness is unknown – probably because
of personal experience & political misfortunes of his
friends Essex & Southampton.
 Sonnets
 Twelfth Night
 Hamlet
 Macbeth
 King Lear
 Othello & Julius Caesar

14. Period of restored serenity
 Last years of poet’s literary works.
 Second period of his experimentation.
 The Winter’s Tale
 The Tempest

15. Classification - source
 Historical plays:
 Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar.
 Fictional plays:
 Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice.
 Historical material – Holinshed’s Chronicle of
England, Scotland and Ireland.
 North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives.
 Love’s Labour’s Lost & Merry Wives of Windsor –
original plot.
 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, The Tempest
– made over the older plays.

16. Classification – Dramatic type
 3 classes
 Tragedy & comedy – tragi-comedy,
melodrama, lyric drama, farce etcetera.
Tragedies
Comedies
Historical
plays

17. • Merchant of Venice, Midsummer
Night’s Dream, As You Like It,
Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Twelfth
Night
Comedies
• Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet,
King Lear, OthelloTragedies
• Julius Caesar, Richard III, Henry VI,
Henry V, Coriolanus, Antony and
Cleopatra
Historical
plays

18. Doubtful plays
 Pre-Shakespearian group
 Titus Andronicus & HenryVI (1st part)
 HenryVI & Richard III –Marlowe & Shakespeare.
 Taming of the Shrew,Timon & Pericles – partly
Shakespeare’s work.
 HenryVIII – Fletcher and Shakespeare.
 Two Noble Kinsmen – Fletcher
 Edward III – anonymous – credited to
Shakespeare.

19. Poems
 Long poems – “Venus and Adonis” & “The
Rape of Lucrece”.
 Sonnets – 154 – 1609
 Reference to his friend and woman.
 “Mr.W.H”, “Fair lady”, “Dark lady”
 Homer & Dante – narrow limits
 Universal poet.
William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke

20. THANK YOU