In Warwickshire, in the center of Great Britain, there is a world-famous small town - Stratford. This small town is world-famous for the birth of a great man, William Shakespeare (1564-1616). William Shakespeare was an outstanding British dramatist and poet. He was hailed by Marx as the greatest dramatic genius in mankind alongside the ancient Greek tragic poet Aeschylus; while dramatists of Shakespeare's contemporaries called him "not of an era, but of an era." Belonging to all centuries”.
In the second half of the 16th century, with the development of the economy, the town of Stratford has become a large-scale trading town. Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, was the son of a yeoman farmer. Unwilling to live a life of facing the loess and turning his back to the sky, he gave up farming and went into business, and later became the councilor of the town of Stratford. In 1557, John married Mary Arden, the daughter of the aristocratic landowner Robert Arden. Their third son, William Shakespeare, was born on April 23, 1564. April 23 happened to be St. George's Day, a traditional British holiday. When Shakespeare died 52 years later, it happened to be April 23.
Shakespeare entered Stratford Grammar School when he was 7 years old. At that time, the purpose of running the grammar school was only to teach students to learn Latin characters, and other astronomy, geography, etc. were not taught. In school, young Shakespeare loved the works of Roman poets such as Ovid and Virgil. In particular, Ovid's "Metamorphoses" made little Shakespeare fall in love with it. In his spare time, little Shakespeare liked to play in the fields and forests around his hometown, listen to farmers' chats, and listen to passers-by tell interesting stories about their journeys. At the age of 14, Shakespeare left school.
On November 27, 1582, 18-year-old William Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway. Ann Hathaway is a farmer's daughter, 8 years older than Shakespeare. Shortly after his marriage, Shakespeare left his hometown and came to London. London was the largest city in the UK at the time, with 200,000 residents. Shakespeare quickly found a theater job in London. At the beginning, his job was to help with some chores in the theater: Utoki also occasionally played supporting roles in the plays.
In Britain at that time, the drama genres inherited from the Middle Ages began to be transformed, and a large number of tragedies and comedies modeled on ancient Roman dramas came out, but at this time drama was still in its primitive stage. At that time, playwrights were represented by "university talents". Such as Thomas Kidd, Robert Green, etc.
Shakespeare wrote his first play at the age of 25, describing a civil war between two royal families. The performance was a great success in 1590, which greatly inspired the young Shakespeare. Subsequently in 1594, he wrote three more works, collectively called "Henry VI", a trilogy describing various events in the Henry Dynasty in England. One describes the events of the Hundred Years' War between England and France, one describes the 30 years of English Civil War, the "War of the Red and White Roses", and the third describes the continuation of the Civil War. In the first play, Shakespeare described the war from the British standpoint and described the French national heroine Joan of Arc as a "witch and adventurer". The final script is filled with horrific descriptions. He then wrote the historical tragedy "Richard III", describing the rise and fall of the last king of the York dynasty. In 1595, he wrote the chronicle dramas "Charlie II", "King John", "Henry IV" (Part 1 and 2), and "Henry V". These historical dramas reflected the formation process of the British nation-state. Shakespeare reproduced past historical events in the play, which was more consistent with the tone of the Tudor Dynasty at that time, reflecting his opposition to feudal separatism, his support for the centralized monarchy, and his hope to achieve enlightened monarchy. But the king is not a figure with divine authority. He must work for the welfare of the people, otherwise he will be overthrown by rebels. Even Elizabeth I believed that the history described in "Charlie II" was somewhat similar to that of the Tudor Dynasty. She was worried that she would fall into the same fate as Richard II, so she ordered the book censorship agency to ban the play. .
During this period, Shakespeare wrote two other funny comedies - "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Comedy of Love", and the most charming comedy is - "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The script was written for a performance at a certain aristocratic wedding celebration. The theme is freedom of love. The script ends with a happy wedding scene. Following "A Midsummer Night's Dream", he also wrote two comedies, "The Merchant of Venice" and "Much Ado About Nothing." "The Merchant of Venice" tells the story of Shylock, a Venetian loan shark, who takes revenge on Anthony, an emerging commercial capitalist, and exposes the sins of loan sharks.
Shakespeare's first genius tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet", was staged between 1594 and 1595. Through the love tragedy of a young couple, Romeo and Juliet, it reflects the conflict between love ideals and feudal forces and their opposition to each other. The pursuit of free love praises pure love and expresses Shakespeare's humanist ideal - that is, "love first".
In his works in the second half of the 1690s, Shakespeare described various characters from different walks of life, reflecting Shakespeare's fine observation of characters. In addition, the plots in Shakespeare's plays are also particularly fascinating and the language is very expressive. In the early days, his plays were very action-oriented. As his skills improved, the plots of his plays became more exciting.
Thirdly, Shakespeare's plays are a perfect combination of poetry and dramatic plots. The protagonists not only speak in poetic language, but they themselves and their feelings are also richly poetic. For example, in "Romeo and Juliet", he described the wedding and farewell of Romeo and Juliet. In the play, he wrote: "That is the skylark that announces the dawn, not the nightingale. Look, my love, the unpretentious morning sun has set gold on the eastern clouds. Line, the night stars have burned away the pleasant day, and I crept onto the misty mountain top."
In the early days, Shakespeare also dabbled in another form of poetry creation at that time - the sonnet. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets during his lifetime, most of which were dedicated to a male friend. As a poet, Shakespeare reached the pinnacle of English Renaissance poetry. However, writing poetry was not his specialty; his main achievement was in drama.
In 1594, Shakespeare entered the "Palace Theater Company". In 1601, he wrote the tragedy "Hamlet", which tells a story of revenge that took place in Denmark in the 12th century. Prince Hamlet's father was assassinated, and his mother married Hamlet's uncle. In the end, the prince avenged his father. Hamlet in the play is endowed with humanistic ideals by Shakespeare, shaping him into an image beloved by the people. The work exposes the sins of the palace and points out that this is a world where right and wrong are reversed, but even if there is a desire to reorganize the world, there is nothing that can be done. This has some connection with the Essex tragedy of the aristocracy. At that time, an uprising led by Tyrone broke out in Ireland. In order to claim credit, the great nobleman Essex became the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force. However, Essex did not succeed in his mission and was treated coldly by Elizabeth I. So, he decided to launch a coup, but was killed when it was revealed. In the play "Hamlet", Shakespeare is particularly resentful of "the rich and powerful". In addition, Shakespeare described a murderous king, which alluded to the then King Elizabeth I. Shakespeare and his hope that everything could be improved reflected a humanist's fantasy.
In 1603, Elizabeth I died and King James I of Scotland came to the throne. Shakespeare successively wrote the tragedies "Othello" (1604), "King Lear", "Macbeth" (1606), "Antony and Cleopatra" (1607), etc. The first three plays, together with "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet", form the peak of his tragic genre skills. This period was a period when Shakespeare's art and thought were becoming more and more perfect.
After 1609, Shakespeare's artistic style underwent a fundamental turning point. In 1609, he wrote a legendary play "Pelkes, Prince of Tire". Romance is a dramatic genre that is neither tragedy nor comedy, but a bizarre mixture of the two. Subsequently, Shakespeare wrote three legendary plays, "Cymbeline" (1610), "The Winter's Tale" (1611), and "The Tempest" (1612). Plays in Shakespeare's style quickly became popular. Contemporary playwrights John Fletcher and Beaumont wrote many plays of the same form.
In "Cymbeline", Shakespeare wrote that Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline from his previous wife, fell in love with Posthumus Leonatos, a young nobleman with a lower status. But the king did not tolerate this union and expelled Posthumus from the kingdom. At the same time, the tyranny and cruelty of the upper class rulers are shown in the drama.
Shakespeare's last play was the historical drama "Henry VIII", written in 1613. The play describes a true story. The tyrant Henry VIII sent his wife to the guillotine in order to marry the maid he liked in the palace. However, in order to escape the persecution of the rulers, Shakespeare added a large number of words at the end of the play to praise the contemporary Elizabeth I and the living James. When "Henry VIII" was being performed at the Globe Theatre, a fire broke out and the theater was destroyed. From then on, Shakespeare did not write another play.
In more than 20 years, Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays, two poems, and a collection of sonnets. In addition, he also edited some scripts written by other playwrights. In these plays, Shakespeare gave an extremely detailed description of British society based on humanistic ideas. Most of the scripts use ready-made themes from history, folklore and literary works, but what they represent is closely related to real life. The characters he created are vivid, touching and full of personality, and his language is gorgeous and poetic. The types of plays he wrote include tragedies, comedies, historical dramas, etc., among which tragedy is the most famous. In his tragedy, Shakespeare not only exposed the darkness of the feudal system, but also listed the intricate contradictions in different eras, countries and classes. His historical dramas eulogized national unity, supported royal power, opposed division, and reflected the political ideals of humanists. His comedies praise individual freedom, enjoyment of individual reality, advocate equality and freedom, and reflect bourgeois humanistic moral values. Shakespeare's plays have a wide range of themes, vivid language and full of people's character. However, due to the limitations of his time and class, Shakespeare did not see the power of the working people and could not recognize the real source of social evil. Therefore, he tended to promote human nature, heroes and love too much.
In 1613, when Shakespeare was 49 years old, he left the theater and returned to Stratford. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52. Three days later, he was buried under the altar of Stratford Church, and a tombstone was erected in front of his tomb.
The letter read: "Well-meaning friends, for the sake of Jesus, do not move the remains buried here. If you do not touch this stone, God bless you, and anyone who disturbs my bones will be cursed."
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