William Shakespeare
‘Shakespeare’s era’ was the time of Renaissance and the time of ‘Elizabethan Age’. England became the sea power, the trade rapidly grew and there were also big changes in culture. The Renaissance was a period of revival antic ideals, especially ideals of human physical and psychical beauty, ideals of relations between man and woman etc. People began to love and enjoy their life again. The Renaissance and Humanism brought into literature and drama a new wave of realism and satire, which most important representative was William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare is probably the greatest dramatist of England and he is considered to be the greatest of all over the world. He was born on 23 April 1564 in Stradford upon Avon as the youngest son of a glove maker John Shakespeare and his wife Mary. He had one brother and one sister. He went to the local grammar school in Stradford. The grammar schools were the most common form of education, and they were free. He also learned the Catechism and studied the Bible but he remained open-minded and a free-thinker.
Stradford upon Avon was a market town which became busy on fair days. In these times there were a lot of different celebrations and festivals – and acting was part of local village culture. Watching various performances people were given a good opportunity to escape their problems of everyday life.In the 16th century plays were performed in the courtyards of inns. William as a young boy and later as a young man had plenty of opportunity to see plays and actors from various travelling companies. This was a wonderful experience for his personality and imagination.
William married Ann Hathaway in 1582. He was only eighteen and a half, Ann was eight years older. They had three children together – a daughter Susan and the twins – a boy Hamnet and a girl Judith – but Hamnet died at the age of 11. Shakespeare loved his family but in spite of this fact he went to the London in 1587. London was the only place where a man with his talents could make a career.
We don´t know much about his life in London until 1592. When he came to London it was a most exciting time. Mary Queen of Scots had just been executed, Phillip II of Spain was building up the Army because walter Raleigh and Francis Drake, the sea pirates, represented constant danger for the Spanish ships.
The theatres were very popular. In London existed two very favourite theatres – The Theatre and The Swan – under the patronage of the King. They were the only places where people could hear honest comments about life. William Shakespeare joined a group of actors (there were no actresses at all) – the group was called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, each actor played 2-3 roles in a single play. First he helped to adapt or rewrite older plays but later he started to write his own plays and he was very successful. Both Queen Elizabeth 1. and James 1. liked him very much.
In 1599 he bought The Globe Theatre. For the next decade the Globe, on the Thames at Bankside, became one of the main London’s theatre and the home of Shakespeare’s work. Many of his greatest plays were written during those ten years, and were acted here.
When he was working in London he didn´t leave his family for good. He would often return home to Stradford and enjoyed the pleasures of family life. After acting and writing and after his son´s death he went back to Stradford and lived a quiet life with his family. He earned enough money to afford a new fine big house in Stradford.
In these times very few men lived past 60. At the age of 52 William Shakespeare made his will. It was completed in March 1616. A month later in April he celebrated his birthday with his friends (it is said it was a very loud and noisy celebration) – and after this birthday party he fell ill with a temperature. He didn´t recover and he died on 23 April 1616 – the same day as his birth.
He was exactly 52 years old. He is buried at local Trinity Church. There are only two portraits of Shakespeare which are authentic. One of them is the bust in Stradford Trinity Church.
William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, which were commonly divided into: tragedies which were mostly written during the first decade of the 17th century and show us the negative side of the new society, comedies express the typically spirit of the Renaissance, the pleasant aspect of the happy an beautiful life, others are historical plays, romances and sonnets.
Comedies are for example: The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night
History plays: Richard III. Richard II, Henry VI, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra
Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello
Romances: The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest
Shakespeare’s heroes, moral questions and human suffering inspired many artists of the periods after him, for example Guiseppe Verdi, Sergej Prokofjev, Ludvig van Beethoven or Čajokovskij. The most important Czech translator of Shakespeare’s work was J.V.Sládek in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
Romeo and Juliet is about the unhappy love and death of Romeo and Juliet, the only children of two powerful houses of Verona – the House of Montague and the House of Capulet. These two houses hate each other and Romeo Montague meets Juliet Capulet at the ball. He falls in love with her although he knows that she is Capulet. They love each other very much and ask Friar Laurence to marry them. Their love and marriage are secret and by an unhappy coincidence Romeo kills Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. Prince of Verona sends Romeo to the exile outside Verona and young Juliet is forced to get married to a young nobleman Paris. She asks Friar Laurence for help again and he gives her magic drops. After swallowing them she falls asleep for several hours and looks as if she was dead. Romeo learns about Juliet’s death and hurries to the Capulet’s Monument. He does not know about the trick and kills himself. Then Juliet wakes up and when she sees Romeo dead, she kills herself too. After this horrible events the families made peace.
In Hamlet Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, has succeeded (nastupuje) Hamlet’s father and marries the Queen. Hamlet, the son of the dead king of Denmark, learns the truth about father’s death from a father’s ghost at Elsinor Castle – he tells him truth about his murder – Claudius and the Queen killed him. Hamlet wants to revenge his Father’s death. He pretends to be mad because he does not know how to find some proof against. He tries to test the story of the murder with a theatrical performance during which the murder is re-enacted and, by seeing the story, King Claudius betrays himself. He sends Hamlet to England to be killed. Later Hamlet returns to Denmark. Claudius is alarmed and wants to destroy Hamlet. When Hamlet kills only by mistake Polonius, Ophelia’s father, Claudius sends Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, to a fencing match with Hamlet. Hamlet is wounded by Laertes’s poisoned sword. He manages to stab Claudius and Laertes is dying too. Hamlet’s mother drinks poisoned wine destined for Hamlet.
King Lear had three daughters and he decided to divide his kingdom among them. He asked them to tell him which of them loved him best. The Two older daughters Goneril and Regan – both already married – said they love him above all, but it wasn’t true. His youngest and most favourite daughter Cornelia, who really loved him said that she give half her love to her father and half to her future husband. The king became angry and drove her away from home. All to late he recognised that his two older daughters had not spoken the true. He left their castles, wandered in a terrible storm and became mad. Cordelia, who had married the king of France, came to the England with an army to help her father. But her army was defeated, she and also her father became prisoners. Cordelia was hanged in prison and after King Lear saw her death, his heart broke and he died too.