William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon but s a young man left for London, where he became an actor and a professional playwright. He mainly worked for the Globe and the Blackfriars playhouses. He was notable among other things for his use of language, which appealed to all kinds of audiences and which adapted itself to the necessities of such varied plays as the poetic Romeo and Juliet or the linguistically abrupt King Lear. Many of the phrases from his plays became commonly known and used, for example, “To be or not to be”, from Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s work includes a sonnet sequence of 154 poems. The sequence can be divided in two parts: one concerned mainly with a young man and the other dealing with the so-called “dark lady”. The main theme is love, both homosexual and heterosexual, although such topic as war and death are also present. The imagery comes form a wide variety of sources: gardening, navigation, law, and farming.
The phrase “Shakespeare’s language” has come to mean both the state of English around 1600 and Shakespeare’s use of it. The original editions of Shakespeare’s works look very different from present-day orthography. Early editions of Shakespeare spelled the vowel in “band” and “bond” indifferently, and made no distinction between the consonants in words like “Murders” and “Murthers”. Presumably, the spellings represented indistinguishable pronunciations.
The structure of Shakespeare’s Early Modern English is unlike present-day English. Its older features are:
- word order
- the polarity of adjectives and verbs
- transitivity
- Subject-verb concord
- negation and the use of do
- relative pronouns and conjunctions
- verb inflection
- personal pronouns
- strong and weak verbs
Finally, Shakespeare’s vocabulary is sometimes estimated at c. 20,000 words. For it, he drew on Renaissance:
- technical terms,
- derivations,
- compounds,
- archaisms,
- polysemy,
- etymological meanings and
- idioms
Shakespeare is famous for his plays, which he wrote at different periods in his life and which can be classified as belonging to different, chronologically ordered phases (each about five years in duration):
Shakespeare’s work includes a sonnet sequence of 154 poems. The sequence can be divided in two parts: one concerned mainly with a young man and the other dealing with the so-called “dark lady”. The main theme is love, both homosexual and heterosexual, although such topic as war and death are also present. The imagery comes form a wide variety of sources: gardening, navigation, law, and farming.
The phrase “Shakespeare’s language” has come to mean both the state of English around 1600 and Shakespeare’s use of it. The original editions of Shakespeare’s works look very different from present-day orthography. Early editions of Shakespeare spelled the vowel in “band” and “bond” indifferently, and made no distinction between the consonants in words like “Murders” and “Murthers”. Presumably, the spellings represented indistinguishable pronunciations.
The structure of Shakespeare’s Early Modern English is unlike present-day English. Its older features are:
- word order
- the polarity of adjectives and verbs
- transitivity
- Subject-verb concord
- negation and the use of do
- relative pronouns and conjunctions
- verb inflection
- personal pronouns
- strong and weak verbs
Finally, Shakespeare’s vocabulary is sometimes estimated at c. 20,000 words. For it, he drew on Renaissance:
- technical terms,
- derivations,
- compounds,
- archaisms,
- polysemy,
- etymological meanings and
- idioms
Shakespeare is famous for his plays, which he wrote at different periods in his life and which can be classified as belonging to different, chronologically ordered phases (each about five years in duration):
Phase 1 includes a variety of plays such as comedies, history plays and the famous tragedy: Romeo and Juliet. The plays of this period show:
- traditional rhymed lines,
- end stopped blank verse and
- their imagery is not very sophisticated
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Phase 2 includes comedies; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night; and history plays which are characterised by:
- more flexible syntax and rhythm
- more concentrated imagery
- more forceful characterisation
Phase 3 includes the so-called “problem plays” so called because of the difficulty of interpretation. They include Hamlet and Measure for Measure.
Phase 4 is the period of the great tragedies like Othello, Macbeth and King Lear.
Phase 5 includes reconciliation plays, so named because of the pattern of reconciliation of the opposing elements.
Another possible classification of Shakespeare’s plays is into comedies, tragedies and history plays. In the following paragraphs, representative plays of each of these types are discussed in more detail.
Phase 5 includes reconciliation plays, so named because of the pattern of reconciliation of the opposing elements.
Another possible classification of Shakespeare’s plays is into comedies, tragedies and history plays. In the following paragraphs, representative plays of each of these types are discussed in more detail.