The Age of Shakespeare

1564 - 1616

born in Stratford-upon-Avon (probably: April 23rd 1564 also the date

of his death St. Georges day patron saint of England); son of a
prosperous trader; probably educated in Latin grammar and the
classics;
married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, the daughter of an important
yeoman = farmer (three children);
c. 1587 he moved to London where he joined a theatrical company
(Lord Chamberlains Men the Kings Men); as an actor he played
before the Queen at Greenwich;
not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing;
he enjoyed royal patronage both under the reign of Elizabeth I (died
1603) and under the reign of James I (King of England between
1603 1625; House of Stuart)
a few months after his death, two of his friends and colleagues in
the Kings Men published his collected plays in the First Folio. But
for them much of his work would have been lost.

Shakespeares writing career (37 plays):

four literary periods of creation
1st period: (1589 - 1600) history plays (inspired by Roman and English
sources: Seneca, Plutarch or the Holinshed Chronicle): Titus Andronicus,
Julius Caesar // Henry IV (Parts I - II), Henry V, Henry VI (Parts I - III), Richard
II, Richard III, King John and comedies: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The
Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Nights Dream,
Loves Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice etc.
Historical and cultural context: centralized monarchy (Henry VIII, Elizabeth I);
authority of meaning: body politic; Reformation and Anglican Church;
modelling minds: Machiavelli, Castiglione vicious ruler/autocrat & pharisaic
courtier
Shakespeares view of history: nostalgic view of the Late Middle Ages which
came to an end once opportunism and machiavelism infiltrated politics; the
civil wars of the fifteenth century come to dramatic life in all their turbulence
and suffering; seeks guidance for the present in the events of the past a
humanist in the way he deals with history (history plays - not didactic though
studies of kingship; instances of both political drama and political propaganda:
Richard III most telling example)

Richard III (written:1592 -1593)

I am determined to prove a villain (I, 1)
The list of crimes attributed to Richard III by William Shakespeare is long:
-

murdering King Henry VI and Edward of Lancaster: admits to having killed

both father and sons spurred by the beauty of Anne Neville, Edwards wife:

I
did kill King Henry, But twas thy beauty that provoked me. Nay, now dispatch; twas I that stabbd
young Edward, But twas thy heavenly face that set me on. (I, 2)

contriving the death of his brother Clarence: to accomplish this he has told
his brother Edward IV about a prophecy which says that someone with a
name beginning with letter G will murder Edwards heirs

killing William, Lord Hastings: accused of having conspired with witches

and killed for treason

disposing of his two child nephews in the Tower of London:

poisoning his wife in order to marry his niece:

dead: And I would have it suddenly performd (IV, 2)

I wish the bastards

Rumour it abroad / That Anne, my wife,

is sick and like to die: / I will take order for keeping her close. (IV, 3)

I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking
glass;
I, that am rudely stamped and want loves
majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made
up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
(Richard III, Act I, scene ii)

Richard is lamenting his physical

attributes which are shown here to be
that
of
a
deformed
monster,
unattractive to women and so badly
made that dogs bark at him as he
walks by them (reminding one of the
haunch back of Notre Dame Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer);

in contrast with Castigliones image of

a perfect courtier: accomplished in
sports, telling jokes, fighting, poetry,
music, drawing, and even dancing;
graceful and apt in conversation;
in the trend of Machiavellis ruthless
autocrat, amoral and rapacious,
practicing treachery, dissimulation,
murder etc. to meet his goals: seizure
of power; however, it appears that one
cannot call it virtue to kill ones
citizens, betray ones friends, to be
without faith, without mercy, without
religion; these modes can enable one
to acquire empire, but not glory (The
Prince) a man of virtue must act in
such a way that he can acquire both
power and glory.

Propaganda: the final advent of the Tudors is shown to have the

force of a heaven-sent deliverance (= izbvire) after a long chain of
disasters caused by weakness and ambition, by villainy and
usurpation, by sinfulness and rebellion against Gods set-order and
will.

Comedies

continues his study of human nature and the quest for knowledge is
set against a romantic background of dream, love and partnership;
a dramatic loss of identity (common self-sufficiency image) and a
test of personality free one from dogmatic limitation;
brings about confusion and insecurity but allows the rebirth of
character and a new insight (a new perspective on ones personality
/ individuality)
the forest, the city and the court spatial dimensions invested with
symbolical qualities; places where the characters lose themselves =
labyrinths
marriage (except Romeo and Juliet which is a tragic version of a
romantic comedy) crowns a relationship which has been founded on
patience, endurance and courage; implies mutual recognition and
celebration of beauty and wisdom

2nd period: the Sonnets: 154

-

the sonnet up to Shakespeare was a mere glorification of the body

politic or a conventional outpouring of emotions;
invented in southern Italy (c.1230); Francis Petrarch (1307-1374)
one of the earliest Renaissance humanists inherited the tradition of
writing sonnets models for lyrical poetry and courteous display of
emotions (if the courtier spoke, it was not so much to teach and to
persuade, as to please): court-painters / court-poets (a system of
patronage);
the sonnet responded to the courtiers need to proclaim an identity
in a system of patronage in which women were extremely influential;
to be heard the courtier had to show his woe (= nenorocire,
suferin), his skills in pleading so that his benefactrix / benefactress
might be pleased;
conventional in structure and content (stereotyped imagery, conceits
= an elaborate image or far-fetched comparison); not an expression
of personal, genuine intimate feelings

Conclusions: The function of the sonnet in the Elizabethan Age proves

to be double-folded. As with the miniature portrait, within the lines of
the sonnet there manifested a different type of discourse: a political
one reflecting the ideology of the age (conventional, flattering,
deceiving) and a passionate self-revelatory expression of the
personal body. The desire to please the other as part of the
dogmatic rigour of the body politic (official discourse at court) is
transformed in a timid manifestation of ones personality. The sonnet
secures the narrative (the voice) of the painting in as much as the
portrait configurates the likeness (the image) of the mute sitter.

3rd period (1601 - 1607): the great tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, King
Lear, Othello, Timon of Athens
Historical context: Queen Elizabeths death the country is on the
threshold of social instability;
Shakespeares plays start with a Renaissance (deeply humanistic)
confidence in mans power to control the universe and end with a
medieval awareness of mans essential, inborn weakness and
vulnerability (counter-humanism) Fortune / Providence might give
meaning and coherence to a chaotic world:
Blest are those / Whose blood and judgement are so commingled /
That they are not a pipe for fortunes finger / To sound what stop she
please (Hamlet, III, 2)

Othello
the invisible hand of Providence
intervenes to produce the most tragic
effect: Othello, the noble nature whom
passion could not shake is vulnerable in
his love for Desdemona; Iagos villainy
and the play of chance which favours it
leads to the complete ruin of the main
character

4th period after 1608; romantic tragicomedies: Pericles prince of Tyre,

Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, The Tempest

The play begins on the deck of a ship at sea in the middle of a violent
tempest. The passengers, Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, and Ferdinand,
believe they are about to drown. The scene then changes to the island
where Miranda and her father, Prospero, are living and have been since
Prosperos brother, Antonio, stole Prosperos title as Duke of Milan, and set
him and Miranda adrift on a rotting ship. The conspiracy to take over
Prospero's power was the work of his brother who plotted with the King of
Naples, Prospero's enemy. Through magic and the spirit Ariel, Prospero
created the storm and chaos among the sailors and passengers so that they
would be separated and believe the others drowned. However, Prospero
has protected them all from harm and hidden the ship under a charm.
Through a series of events including the use of magic, plots to overthrow
Prospero and the falling in love of Miranda and Ferdinand, son of Alonso the
King of Naples, many of the key characters are able to seek forgiveness,
and Prospero is able to embrace mercy over vengeance. He realizes that
"the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.

Seminar task:
Comment on the clash between
humanism and counter-humanism
(optimism and pessimism) in
Shakespeares Hamlet.