One of the most famous figures in theatrical history is playwright William Shakespeare, who completely transformed the way that both thespians and audience members believed the performing arts could be seen.
Shakespeare created a new form of storytelling and discussed topics in his plays that many other writers of the time wouldn’t have dared release to the public.
Although the works of Shakespeare may seem extremely outdated by today’s standards, the theater could have never become what it is today without the influence of this legendary writer.
William Shakespeare set a new standard in storytelling and artistic innovation that has allowed his name to be remembered for centuries.
Why Is Shakespeare So Famous?
William Shakespeare is famous for his work as a screenplay writer and became famous after he released his play The Taming of the Shrew, which is believed to have been written sometime before 1592.
A play within a play, The Taming of the Shrew followed the story of Baptista Minola as he attempts to marry off his headstrong elder daughter Katherina (Kate) to the highest bidder so that his younger, more desirable daughter, Bianca, can choose from her many suitors and marry.
Baptista refuses to allow Bianca to marry before Kate is married off.
The Taming of the Shrew pokes fun at the extreme level of materialism that was filling marriages of the time.
Although this may have been Shakespeare’s first play, he is perhaps best known for other plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth.
When most people think of William Shakespeare, they think of the iconic love story of Romeo and Juliet.
The titular characters of Romeo and Juliet are two young lovers who come from rival families in Verona, Italy.
Romeo and Juliet’s love story is filled with death and tragedy, caused solely by the hatred of others.
Although the young couple hoped that their love would be enough to end the bitter rivalry between their families, the events of this play caused the hatred to dig even deeper.
The unique way that Shakespeare wrote his plays and directed his actors eventually led to the creation of Shakespearean theater.
Even though this writer passed away in 1616, his plays are still enjoyed by people around the world.
While there is a lot of mystery surrounding the career and life of Shakespeare, Shakespeare is considered to be one of the most important artists in history.
Where Does “To Be Or Not To Be” Come From?
The iconic line, “To be or not to be,” comes from William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, and represents the opening query of Prince Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1.
In this scene, Prince Hamlet is questioning what he has been taught and trying to understand what he should do.
On one hand, Hamlet is considering the idea of being able to sit back and enjoy the spoils that his family has been able to amass over the generations.
However, the prince is conflicted because he also believes that he should be helping those who are dealing with “a sea of troubles.”
The story of Hamlet follows Prince Hamlet after the ghost of his father, the King of Denmark, reaches out to him and tells him to avenge his death by killing the current King of Denmark, his uncle.
The stress of the situation seemingly causes Hamlet to follow into madness as he begins to consider the consciences of life and death, but this is simply part of the plan that Hamlet and his ghostly father devised.
Having heard that his nephew had gone mad and potentially discovered that he was the one who killed the prince’s father, the new King of Denmark becomes paranoid himself and begins to devise a way to kill Hamlet with the help of his wife, who was once married to the former king.
To add to his uncle’s paranoia, Prince Hamlet writes a play that eerily mimics the death of his father that he has traveling actor friends perform.
During the play, Hamlet watches his uncle and his uncle’s partner, Claudius.
This play is filled with mind games that make the final duel between the family even more satisfying.
For those who are looking to get into Shakespearean theater, Hamlet is an excellent play to start with.
Did William Shakespeare Write All Of His Own Plays?
No, historians believe that it is incredibly unlikely that William Shakespeare wrote all of his plays by himself.
It is more likely that Shakespeare worked in tandem with other writers and simply published works under his name as a way for his notoriety to bring an audience to the works of other artists.
Due to his extremely unlikely background, some historians believe that William Shakespeare was simply the pen name for writers who felt that they couldn’t release these plays without damaging their own reputations.
Shakespeare was the son of a glove maker from Stratford-upon-Avon, England, which would have been humble beginnings for any writer.
This background caused Shakespeare’s penmanship to be questioned even as he was originally releasing the plays and is a topic of debate that continues to this day.
Those who don’t believe that William Shakespeare was the true author of his plays are called Anti-Stratfordians.
These people believe that the lack of evidence that Shakespeare wrote these plays is evidence that he didn’t write them.
Another major point that supports their claims includes the fact that Shakespeare never went to college like most great writers of the time.
That means Shakespeare wouldn’t have had access to an education that would have taught him the languages, grammar, or vocabulary seen in his plays.
William Shakespeare couldn’t have learned these skills from his parents since they were illiterate, and he seemingly didn’t teach his children these same skills since they were also illiterate.
This means that Shakespeare would have completely neglected the education of his children if he actually had written these plays.
Those who firmly believe that Shakespeare is the writer that history has remembered him as think that Anti-Stratfordians are choosing to ignore multiple possibilities that could have led to his education and lifestyle.
How Many Plays Did William Shakespeare Write?
William Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays and more than 150 poems of varying lengths, which have since been translated into every major language and even fictional languages such as Star Trek’s Klingon.
Although there is no way to be certain, it is believed that Shakespeare first began publishing his plays in the late 1590s.
The first play Shakespeare wrote was likely Taming of the Shrew, which was quickly followed up by Henry VI, a three-part play that the writer worked on from 1591 until 1592.
This trilogy was based on the Wars of the Roses and looked at how much damage divided families could cause.
One of the least performed works of Shakespeare is The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which tells the tragic love stories of Valentine and Proteus.
Valentine has fallen in love with the Duke’s daughter, despite knowing that her father plans on marrying her off to Turio against her wishes.
Titus Andronicus was originally written sometime between 1591 and 1592, having first been performed in January of 1594.
The play tells the tale of Titus Andronicus, a man who spent 10 years at war and lost 21 sons.
This play is considered to be the most brutal of all of Shakespeare’s plays due to the amount of gore and topics such as rape, cannibalism, mutilation, and frequent murder.
Titus Andronicus has seen many rewritings to fit with more timely themes.
During the early years of Shakespeare’s theatrical career, the black plague hit and caused theaters to shut down.
When the theaters reopened, Richard III was the play that Shakespeare decided to debut as his great return.
The story follows Richard of Gloucester as he uses the chaos of wars around him to quickly climb into power, despite him being unfit for the crown.
Who Published William Shakespeare’s Plays?
John Heminge and Henry Condell printed a majority of William Shakespeare’s plays seven years after the great playwright passed away in 1616.
This was an extremely difficult task for the friends of Shakespeare since a majority of his plays were only written down for a single showing.
Despite the challenge that faced them, Heminge and Condell published The First Folio and were able to collect almost all of the screenplays through Shakespeare’s production company, the King’s Men acting company.
The First Folio gives modern readers a look at the most accurate portrait of William Shakespeare, a portrait done by Martin Droeshout.
The collection consists of 36 different plays, 18 of which had never been printed prior to the publication of The First Folio.
The plays in this collection include All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Cymbeline, Coriolanus, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VI Part 1, Julius Caesar, Henry VII, Macbeth, King John, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Timon of Athens, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Winter’s Tale.
Thanks to John Heminge and Henry Condell, these plays have been able to stand the test of time when Shakespeare’s lack of attention to preservation could have caused them to be lost after his death.
The First Folio was so successful that The Second Folio was published only nine years later and was met with an equal amount of excitement.
Later editions of many of Shakespeare’s plays were altered during the late 1600s to reflect the preferences of the time, but many of these alterations came at the request of the monarchy which felt the plays represented them poorly.
Since this time, versions of Shakespeare’s plays have been split up into Arden, Riverside, Oxford, Cambridge, and Folger editions.
Who Inspired William Shakespeare?
Geoffery Chaucer and Plutarch were the greatest influences on William Shakespeare’s writing style.
Like even modern playwrights, Shakespeare was often influenced by a large variety of artists who were popular at the time.
Geoffery Chaucer is considered to be one of the greatest English poets of all time, despite all of his works being written in Middle English.
Unlike William Shakespeare, Chaucer was born into a wealthy family.
Chaucer’s father served as the deputy of King Edward III’s butler, allowing Geoffery Chaucer to find his own place in the King’s court.
He eventually earned his permanent residency with the King, first beginning his major work as a poet following the death of Queen Phillipa in 1369.
In 1368, Chaucer wrote his first major poem Book of the Duchess.
The piece that Chaucer is best known for is the Canterbury Tales, which tells the tales of a traveling group of pilgrims who held a storytelling contest.
When Geoffery Chaucer died in 1400, he became the first poet buried in the “poet’s corner” in Westminster Abbey.
His influence could best be felt in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The other great influence of William Shakespeare was the biographer and philosopher Plutarch, son of Aristobulus and student of Ammonius.
Starting in 66 A.D., Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy under Ammonius and eventually became a philosophy teacher himself.
Plutarch was a beloved teacher who earned the admiration of both emperors Hadrian and Trajan.
He and Trajan were so close that when Trajan died, Plutarch felt he couldn’t stay in Rome and decided to travel the world.
On his journeys, he went to Sparta, Greece, Corinth, Sardis, and Alexandria.
Plutarch was best known for his piece Parallel Lives, which Shakespeare used as the main source for plays like Julius Caesar or Antony and Cleopatra.
How Did Shakespeare Influence Theater?
William Shakespeare influenced theater while he was alive by discussing new topics and making plays that appealed to the masses rather than just the royal families.
His plays continued to change the rules of theater even decades after his death.
Without Shakespeare and his acting company, The Globe Theatre would have never been able to be built.
The Globe is the theater that Shakespeare was best known for performing at along with four other acting companies that collectively paid for the building.
When Shakespeare was alive, the casts of plays were composed entirely of men.
However, his plays were used to introduce women as actresses during the late 1660s, following the English Civil War.
The first actress will forever remain nameless, but we do know that the first role performed by a woman in front of a public audience was in December of 1660 in the role of Desdemona in Othello.
Not only did Shakespearean theater give us our first actress, but it also paved the way for the creation of Elizabethan theater.
What Was Shakespeare’s Last Play?
The last play that William Shakespeare ever wrote was most likely The Two Noble Kinsmen, which was written sometime between 1613 and 1614.
This was one of the first few plays that followed the burning of the Globe.
This play tells the tale of two best friends who have been captured in battle and imprisoned after serving as knights at arms.
During their imprisonment, the pair spot a beautiful woman outside their window and immediately fall in love with the stranger.
After realizing that they’re both in love with the same woman, their deep friendship turns into a bitter rivalry over a woman neither of them had ever spoken to.
The pair was eventually released, but their imprisonment led one to madness.
One of the knights runs into the woods, forcing his friend to chase after him.
This comedic tale shows how powerful a poison jealousy can be and how poor drunken ideas can be in hindsight, making it a popular favorite among classic readers and long-time thespians alike.
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