William Shakespeare
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"All the world's a stage"--As You Like It (1603) by Shakespeare "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."--Hamlet "Shakespeare was bowdlerized between 1807 and 1818 when The Family Shakespeare is published, expurgating 'those words and expressions... which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.'" --Sholem Stein "We do not know whether the study of the humanities, of the noblest that has been said and thought, can do very much to humanize. We do not know; and surely there is something rather terrible in our doubt whether the study and delight a man finds in Shakespeare make him any less capable of organizing a concentration camp." --"To Civilize Our Gentlemen" (1965) by George Steiner "We must remind ourselves that Shakespeare, who scarcely relies upon philosophy, is more central to Western culture than are Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, Heidegger and Wittgenstein." --The Western Canon (1994), Harold Bloom, p. 10 [...] "No one has matched [Shakespeare] as psychologist, thinker, or rhetorician. Wittgenstein, who resented Freud, nevertheless resembles Freud in his suspicious and defensive reaction to Shakespeare, who is an affront to the philosopher even as he is to the psychoanalyst." --The Western Canon (1994), Harold Bloom, p. 10 |
Photo: Chimpanzee Typing (1907) - New York Zoological Society
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William Shakespeare (baptised April 26 1564 – died April 23 1616) was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, and as the world's preeminent dramatist. However, the playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "bardolatry". He claimed that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.
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Nobrow
Although William Shakespeare and by extension theater itself is now a highbrow form, this was not so until the nineteenth century. Historian Lawrence Levine articulated Shakespeare's popularity shift this way: "By the turn of the nineteenth century, Shakespeare had been converted from a popular playwright whose dramas were the property of all those who flocked to see them, into a sacred author who had to be protected from ignorant audiences and overbearing actors threatening the integrity of his creations."
Authorship
Around 150 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to emerge about the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Alternative candidates proposed include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. Although all alternative candidates are almost universally rejected in academic circles, popular interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory, has continued into the 21st century.
Canonical plays
The plays are here according to the order in which they are given in the First Folio of 1623. Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as the 'romances'. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as the 'problem plays'.
Comedies
- The Tempest *
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Measure for Measure **
- The Comedy of Errors
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Love's Labour's Lost
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The Merchant of Venice **
- As You Like It
- The Taming of the Shrew
- All's Well That Ends Well **
- Twelfth Night
- The Winter's Tale *
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre * (not included in the First Folio)
- The Two Noble Kinsmen * (not included in the First Folio)
Histories
- King John
- Richard II
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
Tragedies
- Troilus and Cressida **
- Coriolanus
- Titus Andronicus
- Romeo and Juliet
- Timon of Athens
- Julius Caesar
- Macbeth
- Hamlet
- King Lear
- Othello
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Cymbeline*
See also
