Life of great dramatist William Shakespeare: History Part-2

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Shakespeare & the London Theatre

● In London, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (also called Lord Strange’s Men) performed his plays, and also probably the Queen’s Men.
● Shakespeare owned shares in the Second Blackfriars Theatre, an indoor theatre built by James Burbage, and later, the Globe.
● In the 1590s, the London theatre scene was unsettled
● Actors’ companies were forming and disbanding themselves under the pressure of the plague.
● All London theatres were closed from 1592 to 94 due to the plague.
● Shakespeare seems to have turned to non-dramatic poetry at this time

The Sonnets:

Writing and Publication
● Circulated in manuscripts before 1598
● In 1598, Francis Meres praised Shakespeare’s “sugared sonnets” in his Palladis Tamia, or Wit’s Treasury
● First publication of sonnets
● In 1609, the sonnets were first published in quarto format by Thomas Thorpe, probably without the
author’s knowledge
● The quarto edition has a mysterious dedication from the publisher to “Mr. W.H.” as “the only begetter of these poems”

The Globe
● At first the Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed in The Theatre built by James Burbage in 1576
● In 1597, after a dispute with the Puritan landlord over the terms of lease, the players moved to the nearby Curtain playhouse
● On the night of 28 December 1597, when the landlord was out of town, Burbage and his friends dismantled The Theatre timber by timber
● The wood was used to build The Globe on the Bankside, where the Rose playhouse was already achieving great success
● The first recorded performance at the Globe was of Julius Caesar on 21 September 1599 In the early 17th century
● Shakespeare secured a coat-of-arms, which granted him the status of a gentleman
● A coat-of-arms is a heraldic shield with a unique design granted by the monarch to an individual or
family as a recognition of social rank
● Wrote most of the Great Tragedies, Dark Comedies and Romances
● Recognized as a genius in his own time
● Queen Elizabeth dies in 1603
● King James’s accession to the throne

The Mermaid Tavern
● Was probably a member of the “Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen” who met at the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside
● Ben Jonson
● John Donne
● John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont
● Thomas Coryat
● John Selden
● Robert Bruce Cotton
● Richard Carew
● Richard Martin
● William Strachey

Retirement
● 1610 retired from theatre
● Moved into the big house New Place at Stratford
● 1613 Globe theatre burns down
● Lost money but still wealthy; helps rebuild Globe
● Dies on April 23, 1616 at age 52
● Buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford
● Left his property to the male heirs of his eldest daughter, Susanna
● Bequeathed his “second-best bed” to his wife
● The couple had lived apart for 20 years of their marriage

Also read Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) – Preface to Shakespeare, Neo-classical Criticism: John Dryden, Alexander Pope

Shakespeare Photos

The Works
● 37 plays
● Recently, another play The Double Falsehood, added to the canon
● 154 sonnets
● 2 (4) long poems
● Shakespeare authorship question

Classification of Plays

● First Period — Apprenticeship (Age 26-30)
● Second Period — Mastered his art!
● Favourite “Romantic Comedy”
● Third Period — Problem of Evil in the World
● Fourth Period — Creates a new drama form
● “Tragicomedy” or the dramatic romance

Early Comedies
● Plots less original
● Characters less finished
● Style lacks power
● Set in exotic locations
● Emphasis is on situation rather than character
● Strong heroines; clever servants
● Multiple plots
● Amorous love & friendship, mistaken identity, disguise
● Women steadfast in love; men are fickle
● Wit and word play, quibbling, slapstick

English Histories

● Shaped the genre of the history play that hitherto did not exist
● 10 plays:
● Minor Tetralogy
● Henry VI 3 Parts and Richard III
● Major Tetralogy
● Richard II, Henry IV 2 Parts and Henry V
● King John
● Henry VIII

Histories in the First Folio
● In the First Folio, plays were categorized into 3
groups: tragedies, comedies and histories
● British History Plays recognized as a genre in the Folio
● Roman, Greek and Scottish history excluded
● Histories were categorized according to the time depicted
● 1st play King John (13th century)
● Last play Henry VIII (16th century)
● Histories based on chronicle matter (similar to legends) excluded, for eg.
King Lear, Cymbeline

English Histories

● Neither tragedy nor comedy; a combination of both
● Based on Edward Hall’s Chronicles (of the Wars of the Roses and establishment of the Tudor dynasty)
and Raphael Holinshed’s the incomplete Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
● Written throughout his career; show rapid maturation; characters are more developed
● Did not insist on unadorned historical fact— addressed not only “history”, but also “historiography”; hence these plays are superior to the lifeless chronicle plays of the age

General Themes
● Empire, statehood, nationality
● Competition to the crown
● Clash of ethical and political concerns
● Role of women in politics
● Question of whether nobility is derived from birth or behaviour
● Monarch’s duty to the people
● As against the medieval theory of Divine Right of Kings
● Neither monarch nor the Parliament is an independent authority
● The dual body of the king: the individual body & the body politic (the conflict between the two may lead to tragedy)

Minor Tetralogy
● Early histories
● Deal with the recent Wars of the Roses between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists (15th century)
● Depict the issue of emergent nationhood
● Tendency to identify villains (Richard III) and heroes (Lord Talbot in Henry VI Part 1, Humphrey in Henry VI Part 2, Henry Tudor in Richard III)
● Henry VI 3 Parts and Richard III
● Minor Tetralogy reflects England’s new sense of national identity and power (under the Tudor dynasty,
and following the defeat of the Spanish Armada)

● Minor Tetralogy followed by King John (13th century)

Major Tetralogy
● On the earlier Plantagenets of the late 14th and early 15th centuries)
● Richard II (printed in1597, is usually dated 1595), Henry IV 2 Parts (1600) and Henry V (written in 1599, printed in 1600)
● Written at the same time as the romantic comedies—both have complementary coming-of-age themes, one in love and marriage, the other in a young man growing up to be a worthy king
● Throne as important; desire for stable government
● Mixing low life with history (as in John Falstaff)
● Use of excellent blank verse

Other Sources: https://www.williamshakespeare.net/