Introduction to Shakespeare. Who knows?

Shakespeare (W. William Shakespeare；; 1564 ~ 1616) was born in Stratford, England on April 23rd, 1564, and died on May 3rd, 1616 (julian calendar on April 23rd). An outstanding dramatist and poet in the English Renaissance, his masterpieces include four tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, the comedy The Merchant of Venice and more than one hundred sonnets.

william shakespeare, a great English playwright and poet, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Wavyk, central England in 1564. His father, Jone Shakespeare, was a grocer engaged in wool, leather manufacturing and grain business. He served as the town civil administrator in 1565 and was elected as the mayor three years later. Shakespeare studied in the local grammar school when he was young. Historian George Stevenson said that from these written materials, future generations roughly outlined Shakespeare's life and life track: at the age of 13, his family fell into poverty, and then he dropped out of school to do business. At the age of 22, he went to London to work in the theater and later became an actor and playwright; In 1597, he returned to his hometown to buy real estate and spent his last days in life. Although he received a good basic education, he didn't go to college. In 1582, at the age of 18, he listed Shakespeare's plays before the age of 35 and praised his comedies and tragedies as "unparalleled", which could be compared with the first-rate drama poets in ancient times. But he never published his own plays before his death. In 1596, he applied for the title of "gentleman" and the right to own the coat of arms in the name of his father, and bought considerable real estate three times. In 163, James I succeeded to the throne, and his troupe was renamed "The King's Sacrifice Troupe", and he and the actors in the troupe were appointed as the imperial attendants. Around 1612, he bid farewell to London and returned to his hometown to settle down. He died on April 23, 1616 and was buried in Trinity Church in the town. Leave a will before death. His two portraits, which are said to be reliable, are the bust in the church and the portrait of Droeshout, and his handwriting has six signatures and a three-page manuscript of Sir Thomas More. In 1623, actors J. Hamming and H. Candel printed his plays in folio, and collected 36 plays (2 of which were first printed), known as "first folio". Since 1772, people have been asking questions about the author of Shakespeare's plays and trying to prove that the author is Bacon, C. Marlowe, Earl of Letland, Earl of Oxford, Earl of Derby, etc., but there is no evidence.

Shakespeare lived in London for more than twenty years, while his wife stayed in Stratford all the time. He retired and returned to his hometown of Stratford (around 1612) when he was close to his destiny. In 1616, Shakespeare died around his fifty-second birthday and was buried in Trinity Church. Leave a will before death. His two portraits, which are said to be reliable, are the bust in the church and the portrait of Droeshout, and his handwriting has six signatures and a three-page manuscript of Sir Thomas More. In 1623, actors J. Hamming and H. Candel printed his plays in folio, and collected 36 plays (2 of which were first printed), known as "first folio".

Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays (thirty-eight if Two Noble Parents co-written with Fletcher), two long poems and one hundred and fifty-four sonnets in the more than twenty years from 159 to 1612. His plays are mostly based on historical records, novels, folklore and old plays, which reflect the historical reality of the transition from feudal society to capitalist society and promote the humanitarian thought and human nature view of the emerging bourgeoisie. On the one hand, he borrowed extensively from ancient dramas, English medieval dramas and the emerging culture and art in Europe, on the other hand, he deeply observed life, understood society and grasped the pulse of the times, so that Shakespeare was able to create many vivid characters and paint a broad and colorful picture of social life, and made it famous for its characteristics of blending sadness and joy, poetic and imaginative, unity in contradictions and changes, philosophy of life and critical spirit.

Generally speaking, Shakespeare's drama creation can be divided into the following three periods:

The first period (159 ~ 16) was mainly about writing historical dramas and comedies, including 9 historical dramas, 1 comedies and 2 tragedies.

Of the nine historical plays, except King John, which is about British history in the early 13th century, the other eight are two four-part series: the first, middle and second parts of Henry VI and Charles III; Charles ii, Henry IV (known as the most successful historical dramas) and Henry V. These historical dramas have summarized the turmoil in British history for more than a hundred years, shaped a series of positive and negative monarchies, and reflected Shakespeare's humanistic political and moral ideals of opposing feudal separatism, supporting centralization, condemning tyrants and tyranny, and demanding enlightened monarchies to carry out top-down reforms and establish harmonious social relations.

Most of the p>1 comedies, The Wrong Comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The futility of love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much ado about nothing, All Happy and Twelfth Night, are based on love, friendship and marriage. Praise the new style of progress and beauty, but also gently expose and ridicule the decay and ugliness of old things, such as the false correction of asceticism, the hypocrisy of Puritans and the greed of usurers. The basic mood of Shakespeare's drama creation in this period is optimistic and clear, full of confidence in solving social contradictions with humanistic ideals, so that the tragedy Romeo and Juliet written in this period is also full of comedy atmosphere. Although the hero died of double suicide, the ideal of love overcame death and got the reconciliation of feudal feud. However, The Merchant of Venice, a mature comedy later in this period, contains melancholy and tragic factors. While advocating kindness, friendship and sincere love, it reflects the class oppression and racial discrimination of the law of the jungle in Christian society, indicating that the author has gradually realized that there is an intractable contradiction between ideal and reality.

The second period (161 ~ 167) was dominated by tragedies, with three Roman plays, five tragedies and three "dark comedies" or "problem plays".

The Roman dramas Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Cory Ollanu are historical dramas based on Plutarch's Biography of Greek and Roman Heroes.

The four tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and the tragedy Timon of Athens mark the author's in-depth thinking about the times and life, and strive to shape some tragic heroes in the new era: they woke up from the imprisonment and ignorance of the Middle Ages, and under the dawn of modern times, they were ambitious to develop or improve themselves, but they could not overcome the limitations of the times and themselves, and finally they were in the same place. Hamlet found that "the whole era was out of tenon" in order to avenge his father, and decided to take on the responsibility of "reorganizing Gankun". As a result, he was too ambitious to return to heaven. Othello was honest and simple, believed in people and hated evil. He killed his wife and killed himself at the mercy of traitors, and was rewarded with evil for pursuing perfection. King Lear lost his nature and reason in the honor, pride and self-confidence brought by power, and fantasized that he could be as great as an ordinary person by dividing power into different countries to prove that he was not a king, so he suffered a painful ordeal. Macbeth is a meritorious hero, with goodness and beauty in his character. Driven by the temptation and ambition of the throne, he is reduced to a sinner who is "from bloody to bloody" and regrets common people. The tragedies of these characters profoundly reveal all kinds of social evils and bourgeois egoism that began to appear in primitive accumulation of capital's period, and show the irreconcilable contradiction between humanistic ideal and cruel reality, which is of high generalization significance.

Due to the enhancement of ideological depth and realism depth of plays in this period, comedies such as troilus and Cresida, All shall be well that ends well, and tit for tat also show a dark side, and are shrouded in the evil shadow of treachery and intrigue, so they are called "problem dramas" or "dark comedies".

tragicomedy or legendary drama in the third period (168 ~ 1613) tended to compromise and fantasy.

The main works are four tragicomedy or legendary dramas, Prince Ricci of Tyre, cymbeline, Winter Story and The Tempest. Most of these works are about separation, reunion, framing and revenge. Although we still adhere to the humanistic ideal and expose the dark reality, the solution of contradictions mainly depends on magic, fantasy, coincidence and accidental events, and ends with preaching forgiveness, tolerance, compromise and reconciliation.

Shakespeare also collaborated with Fletcher to write the historical drama Henry VIII and the legendary drama Two Noble Relatives, the latter of which has been included in the existing Shakespeare drama collections in recent years.

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william shakespeare (1564-1616) was the most important writer in Britain and Europe during the Renaissance. He was born into a merchant family in Stratford, central England. When I was a teenager, I received basic education in the local grammar school, studied Latin, philosophy and history, and was exposed to the works of ancient Roman playwrights. Later, he dropped out of school to make a living because of his family's decline. When Shakespeare was young, famous troupes often toured the countryside, which cultivated his interest in drama. Around 1585, he left his hometown and went to London. He first worked as a handyman in the theater, then became an actor, and then adapted and wrote plays. Shakespeare not only participated in performances and screenwriters, but also had extensive contacts with society, and often went to court or came to the countryside with the troupe. These experiences broadened his horizons and laid the foundation for his creation.

159-16 was the early period of Shakespeare's creation, also known as the period of historical drama and comedy. During this period, Shakespeare's humanistic thought and artistic style gradually formed. At that time, Britain was in the heyday of Queen Elizabeth's rule, with stable and unified kingship and prosperous economy. Shakespeare is full of confidence in realizing humanistic ideals in the real society, and his works are full of optimism and clarity. During this period, he wrote nine historical plays, including Richard III (1592), Henry IV (two episodes) (1597-1598) and Henry V (1599). The basic theme of the script is to support the central kingship, condemn the feudal tyrant and praise the enlightened monarch. For example, "Henry IV" shows the picture of the turbulent domestic situation. The nobles unite to rebel against the king, but the rebellion is finally quelled; The prince lived a dissolute life earlier, but later he made mistakes and made great achievements in quelling civil strife. In the play, historical facts and artistic fiction are highly unified. Falstaff is the most vivid among the characters. He is selfish, lazy and timid, but he is alert, smart and optimistic, which makes people laugh.

The comedies created in this period include the poetic A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), The Merchant of Venice (1597), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598), which reflects the customs of citizens' lives, Much ado about nothing (1599), which advocates chastity and love, and The Twelfth, which praises love and explores human nature. The basic themes of these plays are love, marriage and friendship, which are full of lyrical colors and show Shakespeare's ideal of humanistic life. At the same time, he also wrote three tragedies, such as Romeo and Juliet (1595). Although the works have a sad side, the basic spirit is the same as that of comedy. Shakespeare also wrote the long poems Venus and adonis (1592-1593), The Disgrace of Lucretius (1593-1594) and 154 sonnets.

At the beginning of 17th century, when the regime of Queen Elizabeth I and James I changed, social contradictions in Britain intensified and social ugliness became increasingly exposed. During this period, Shakespeare's thought and art became mature, and the humanistic ideal collided fiercely with social reality. He felt that his ideal was difficult to realize, and his creation changed from praising humanistic ideal in the early days to exposing and criticizing social darkness. The second period of Shakespeare's creation (161-167) is also called the tragic period. He wrote such famous tragedies as Hamlet (161), Othello (164), King Lear (166), Macbeth (166) and Timon of Athens (167). In Othello, Desdemona, who was born in a noble family, ignored the opposition of her father and society, and married Othello the moor privately, which showed the theme of opposing racial prejudice. The reason for their tragedy was not only Othello's jealousy, but also the powerful evil forces represented by Iago. Othello's sobriety before his death contains the victory of human reason. King Lear shows a disintegrated society. King Lear paid the price of his life because of his stubbornness, and also brought great disasters to the country and people. The protagonist has changed from a feudal monarch with absolute authority to a homeless old man with nothing, and the fate and personality of the characters have changed greatly, which is the most distinctive in Shakespeare's works. In Macbeth, a hero became a personal careerist and tyrant because of his inner ambition and external instigation. Its tragic significance lies in that personal ambition and egoism can destroy a character who is not evil. Generally speaking, these tragedies have deeply exposed the decay of feudal nobles, the appalling egoism, the evil of money relations and the sufferings of working people; Stylistically, the atmosphere of romance and joy is reduced, the mood of melancholy and indignation is increased, the image is fuller and the language is more proficient.

after p>168, Shakespeare entered the last period of his creation. At this time, Shakespeare saw that the ideal of humanism could not be realized in the real society, so he turned from writing tragedies to writing legendary dramas, from exposing and criticizing the darkness of the real society to writing dream worlds. Therefore, this period is also called Shakespeare's legendary drama period. During this period, his works often solved the contradiction between ideal and reality through mythical fantasy and supernatural power; The works are permeated with the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. There is no joy in the early stage and no gloom in the middle stage. Instead, they are full of beautiful life fantasies and rich romantic feelings. The Tempest (1611) best represents the style of this period and is called "a will written in poetry". In addition, he also wrote three legendary dramas, such as cymbeline and The Story of Winter, and the historical drama Henry VIII.

Shakespeare's works, starting from the truth of life, profoundly reflect the features of the times and social essence. In his view, drama "seems to give nature a mirror: show virtue its own face, show absurdity its own posture, and show the times and society its own image and imprint". Marx and Engels praised Shakespeare as a classic writer of realism, and proposed that drama creation should be more "Shakespearean". This is a creative principle put forward in view of the shortcomings of "turning the individual into a simple mouthpiece of the spirit of the times" in drama creation. The so-called "Shakespearization" means that writers, like Shakespeare, are good at starting from the truth of life, showing a broad social background and providing people and events in their works.