Liceul Teoretic “Mihai Veliciu” Chisineu-CrisLucrare pentru obtinerea atestatului de competente lingvistice in limba engleza Coordonator, Prof. Goldis Cristina Absolvent, Iuga Viorica Simona Mai 2013 ―TO BE OR NOT TO BE THAT IS THE QUESTION‖ . ..........3 Critical reputation....2 Religion ...............................16 4...............2Textual sources.....18 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............9 2..............................3 Later years and death............17 CHAPTER V : CLASIFICATION OF THE PLAYS.....3 Marriage..............................................6 1..................10 CHAPTER III : ABOUT HIS WORK .........................................................2 London and theatrical career ...............................2 Influence .............9 2...........................................................13 CHAPTER IV : SPECULATION ABOUT SHAKESPEARE 4...1 Early life .................................................................15 4...........................................................................................................................................1 Authorship...11 3.................................................................TABLE OF CONTENTS ARGUMENT ……………………………………………3 CHAPTER I : LIFE 1.....12 3.......................................8 CHAPTER II : PLAYS ……………...1Performances................................................4 1...........1 Style .................................19 ............11 3............... William Shakespeare was a genue and he is still leaving through his works. He is generally regarded as the most famous English writer and often called England’s National Poet and the ―Bard of Avon‖.ARGUMENT . . I have chosen this theme becauseWilliam Shakespeare was the most famous playwright and writer in the English language. Life 1. .Chapter I. and Mary Arden. a glover. a daughter of the gentry.1 Early life •Shakespeare was born in Stratfordupon-Avon in April 1564 •He was the son of John Shakespeare. The King Edward VI Grammar School. which was set up by King Edward VI and was free to all male children in England.The Comedy of Errors was written while he was at this school. It is believed that one of Shakespeare’s early plays. It is assumed that Shakespeare didn’t receive any University education.Shakespeare attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford.now know as Oaks High School . . he was sufficiently well known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit. Shakespeare's plays were performed by only the Lord Chamberlain's Men.1.2 London and theatrical career It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing. but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. that soon became the leading playing company in London Lord Chamberlain’s Men theatre . a company owned by a group of players. From 1594.By then. including Shakespeare. Susanna had married a physician.1. . John Hall. Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. in 1607.In his will. The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".3 Later years and death Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived by his wife and two daughters. a vintner. and Judith had married Thomas Quiney. two months before Shakespeare’s death. Chapter II. the rest. north of the Thames. Poins.After the plagues of 1592–3. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. Hal..Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV.and you scarce shall have a room" Sir Jhon Gilbert:The William Shakespeare plays . Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch..1 Performances It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. "Let but Falstaff come. Leonard Digges recording.Plays 2. Many of the plays had already appeared in quarto versions— flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. including 18 printed for the first time. It contained 36 texts. published the First Folio. .2. two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men.No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions.2 Textual sources In 1623. which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies". John Heminges and Henry Condell. a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits. Soon. . The poetry depends on extended.Chapter III.1 Style Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. however. The opening soliloquy of Richard IIIhas its roots in the selfdeclaration of Vice in medieval drama.About his work 3. and the language is often rhetorical. 2 Influence The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama.Chapter III. a friend of William Blake. for his theories of human nature Biblical influences on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth ." The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli.About his work 3. even translated Macbeth into German. in particular that of Hamlet. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology. though with little success. but he received a large amount of praise. Gower and Spenser. And the authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College. delight. In the First Folio.3. the applause. Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age. the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. .3 Critical reputation Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime. In 1598. Cambridge. though he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art". numbered him with Chaucer. the wonder of our stage". Several "group theories" have also been proposed.IV. 17th Earl of Oxford. doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him.Speculation about Shakespeare 4. Christopher Marlowe. continues into the 21st century . and Edward de Vere. but interest in the subject.1 Authorship Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death. particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. Only a small minority of academics believe there is reason to question the traditional attribution. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon. Mary Arden.2 Religion Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics. and scholars differ as to its authenticity . found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. however. certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The document is now lost. at a time when Catholic practice was against the law.Speculation about Shakespeare 4. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by John Shakespeare.IV. Shakespeare's mother. their first daughter Susanna was born. Judith Shakespeare Susanna Shakespeare . a play that may have drawn on his own grief at loosing his only son.IV.Speculation about Shakespeare Six months after the marriage. Twins. Hamnet died aged 11. Hamnet and Judith soon followed in 1585. four years later Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Clasification of the plays Shakespeare wrote 38 plays. 12 dramas and 152 sonnets. Richard III.V. Richard II. The Merchant of Venice. The Comedy of Errors. Romeo and Juliet. Much Ado about Nothing. Julius Caesar. Hamlet. Some of Shakespeare’s well known comedies are. Anthony and Cleopatra. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Some of Shakespeare’s histories are – King John. Shakespeare’s well known tragedies are – Macbeth. Henry VIII.The Tempest. Histories and Tragedies. Henry V. Shakespeare’s plays have been categorised into 3. .Comedies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. London: Vintage. A Life of William Shakespeare.Bibliography •Adams. Shakespeare: The Biography. OCLC 1935264 •Ackroyd. Peter (2006). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. OCLC 2993883.ISBN 9780749386559 •Bowers. Fredson (1955). •dia. On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists. Joseph Quincy (1923).org/wiki/William_Shakespeare .