William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) - English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon“.

His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.

Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had only some grammar school education. He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the "university wits“

But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" as Robert Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins.

Though most dramas met with great success in the Elizabethan Era, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I) that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest.

His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.

After the birth of the twins, left few historical traces scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592

as Shakespeare's "lost years“. many apocryphal stories of this period, such as

Shakespeare fleeing to London to escape prosecution for deer poaching. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. Some biographers claimed that S. had been a country schoolmaster.

In 1592 began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.

retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later.

Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence - called "bardolatry“. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances.

There are four periods in Shakespeare's writing career.

1. EARLY: 1590 – cca.1595. - mainly comedies influenced by Roman and Italian models and history plays in the popular chronicle tradition.

Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Histories: Henry VI (parts 1, 2, 3), Richard III

Early tragedies: Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet.

MIDDLE: about 1595-1599. - greatest comedies and histories

Comedies: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice

Histories: Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part II, Henry V, Julius Caesar

LATE: 1600-1612 – two subperiods: “Tragic” period “Romance” period

about 1600 to about 1608 wrote mostly tragedies:

“The Four Great Tragedies”: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

Other tragedies: Anthony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus

“Problem plays”: Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure

about 1608 to 1613, mainly romances: The Tempest A Winter’s Tale Cymbeline Pericles OTHER WORKS: 154 sonnets and two long

narrative poems: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece

two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth").

It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication.

Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Holinshed’s Chronicles – the source for most of the history plays – events from English history

A surge of national pride and patriotism, especially after the victory over the Armada

Shakespeare often focuses on a part of characters’ lives and omits significant events for dramatic purposes

Events that S. chose to dramatize were the collapse of the medieval society of England in the Wars of the Roses, and the loss of territories in France

Plays often regarded by critics as Tudor propaganda

Warning against dangers of civil war Plays celebrate the founders of Tudor

dynasty and demonize members of the rival House of York (Richard III)

On the one hand, the plays serve the politics of the time by showing how a rebellion against the rightful monarch leads to bloodshed and chaos; on the other hand, S. uses the well-known dramatic ideas:

The Fall of Princes The Fortune’s Wheel

Elizabethan comedy – different meaning from modern comedy

Shakespearean comedy – a happy ending, usually marriage, and a light-hearted tone and style

Greater emphasis on situations than characters (numbing the audience's connection to the characters, so that when characters experience misfortune, the audience still finds it laughable)

A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders

Separation and re-unification

Deception among characters (especially mistaken identity)

A clever servant Tension between characters, often within a family Multiple, intertwining plots Use of all styles of comedy (slapstick, puns, dry

humor, witty banter, practical jokes) Pastoral element (courtly people living an

idealized, rural life), originally an element of Pastoral Romance, exploited by Shakespeare for his comic plots and often parodied for humorous effects.

Best comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing

Several of Shakespeare's comedies, such as Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, The Merchant of Venice - an unusual tone - a difficult mix of humour and tragedy - classified as problem plays.

It is not clear whether the uneven nature of these dramas is due to an imperfect understanding of Elizabethan humour and society by modern audience, a fault on Shakespeare's part, or a deliberate attempt by him to blend styles and subvert the audience's expectations.

Influences: Aristotle – tragedy meant to arouse pity and fear in the audience; leads to catharsis (emotional release and purification brought about by an intense emotional experience); characters: kings and nobles; the main character: of a high social and moral standing but with a tragic flaw/fault/mistake (misjudgment, ambition, gullibility, jealousy, indecisiveness) which brings about his downfall and final demise. Revenge tragedy – especially popular – a wronged hero plans and executes revenge.

Seneca – violence; hero’s wrong decisions; stoic acceptance of his fall; five-act structure

Four stages in a man’s life: as a son (Hamlet), a lover and a husband (Othello), a man of ambition (Macbeth) and a father/old man (King Lear)

All protagonists have potential for both good and evil

Hamlet (1600 – 1601) A revenge tragedy; blank verse The mystery of procrastination – hero’s tragic

flaw remains unclear (too sensitive for such a brutal task – Goethe; paralyzed by his habit of thinking – Coleridge; psychoanalytical interpretation, Oedipal complex – Freud / Ernest Jones)

Othello (1603 – 1604)Domestic tragedy with a tinge of the

revenge motif in the character of Iago Illusion vs. reality; ocular proofTragic flaw – trusting nature; gullibility;

jealousyMaster of malicious plotting –

Machiavellian character of Iago (Vice)

King Lear (1605 – 1606)Ancient British historyThe division of kingdom – tragic mistake;

disruption of hierarchyGreedy, ungrateful children

Macbeth (1606)Scottish historyTwo characters willfully embrace evil

(unlike Othello, Hamlet and Lear) Inner conflict; tragic flaw: hero’s ambition

they bear similarities with medieval romance literature and are different from comedies in many ways.

Shakespeare's romances share the following features:

A redemptive plotline with a happy ending involving the re-uniting of long-separated family members;

Magic and other fantastical elements; A deus ex machina, often manifesting as a Roman

god (such as Jupiter in Cymbeline or Diana in Pericles);

A mixture of "civilized" and "pastoral" scenes (such as the gentry and the island residents in The Tempest)

Influenced by tragicomedies by Beaumont and Fletcher; and courtly masque by Ben Jonson

distinctiveness of the late romances has been questioned – the plays certainly share common features with earlier Shakespearean works such as Twelfth Night, with earlier romances by other authors back to the ancient world, and with works in genres like pastoral. Yet Shakespeare's late plays have a distinctive aura to them, with elements of tragicomedy and masque blended with elements of comedy and romance and pastoral – not into a chaos as might be expected, but into coherent, dramatically effective and appealing plays

Improvement of blank verse Combination of traditional with freer

style Development of characters Wide range of themes