...William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From roughly 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which Shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal history of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. There are two primary sources that provide historians with a basic outline of his life. One source is his work—the plays, poems and sonnets—and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these only provide brief sketches of specific events in his life and provide little on the person who experienced those events. Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as William Shakespeare's birthday. Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon. William...
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...the true author of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Since the 1920s Edward de Vere has been the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. Edward de Vere, was the Earl of Oxford in 17th century. He was the Queen Elizabeth’s principal minister, a writer and a lyric poet. He is the most popular claimant for obvious reasons – he was highly educated, tremendously aristocratic, upwardly mobile, and well-versed in country life. After the death of Edward de Vere’s father, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth and received an excellent education in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. According to a curriculum in Cecil, Edward de Vere’s daily studies included dancing, French, Latin, writing and drawing, cosmography, penmanship, riding, shooting, exercise and prayer. He showed a prodigious talent for scholarship from his early years. Edward de Vere graduated from Cambridge University at age of 14; he was awarded an honorary MA by Cambridge on a Royal progress. He earned a Master of Arts of 16, and then attended Gray’s Inn to study law. “The merchant of Venice”, one of the Shakespeare’s plays discusses law. One of the important people who influence his early studies is his maternal uncle Arthur Golding, an officer in the Court of Wards under Cecil. He is credited with the translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, published in 1567, a book widely recognized as having a major influence on “Shakespeare”. William Shakespeare, by contrast...
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...To be or not to be Shakespeare? The authorship of Shakespeare's works is the subject of ongoing debate in literary and theatrical circles, where it is doubtful that Shakespeare was really the man of Stratford recognized by the official story. This controversy surfaced because it is difficult to believe that the tradesman of Stratford could be the genius behind the greatest poems and playwrights ever written. Since the 19th century , a fierce debate arose between the sulfur Oxfordians ( who believe that a man so uneducated as William Shakespeare could not have written works as remarkable ) and the Stratfordiens , for whom the identity and genius of Shakespeare make no doubt. According to biographical information William of Stratford grew up in an illiterate household in the remote agricultural town of Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record that he traveled at all or that he ever left England. Firstly, how can an uneducated man write such a titanic work ? The Anti-Stratfordians speculate that the man in Stratford who did not even go through a day’s school education, could not have revealed to the world, at the age of twenty, his first verses of the most highly-regarded poems and playwrights in history. The Anti-Stratfordians argue that only a well educated person, versed in history, linguistics, politics and many other fields could have reached such feats of written art. Secondly, anoter idea upon which the Anti-Stratfordians base their conspiracy...
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...acknowledged by critics and playgoers alike, and his social and professional position had become considerable. Inside the theatre his influence was supreme. When, in 1598, the manager of the company rejected Ben Jonson’s first comedy—his ‘Every Man in his Humour’—Shakespeare intervened, according to a credible tradition (reported by Rowe but denounced by Gifford), and procured a reversal of the decision in the interest of the unknown dramatist who was his junior by nine years. He took a part when the piece was performed. Jonson was of a difficult and jealous temper, and subsequently he gave vent to an occasional expression of scorn at Shakespeare’s expense, but, despite passing manifestations of his unconquerable surliness, there can be no doubt that Jonson cherished genuine esteem and affection for Shakespeare till death. Within a very few years of Shakespeare’s death Sir Nicholas L’Estrange, an industrious collector of anecdotes, put into writing an anecdote for which he made Dr. Donne responsible, attesting the amicable relations that habitually subsisted between Shakespeare and Jonson. ‘Shakespeare,’ ran the story, ‘was godfather to one of Ben Jonson’s children, and after the christening, being in a deep study, Jonson came to cheer him up and asked him why he was so melancholy. “No, faith, Ben,” says he, “not I, but I have been considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my godchild, and I have resolv’d at last.” “I pr’ythee, what?” sayes he. “I’...
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...the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-723-1 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4381-3425-3 (e-book) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Criticism and interpretation. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Heims, Neil. PR2976.W5352 2010 822.3'3—dc22 2010010067 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk...
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...Luhrmann’s Modern Day Shakespeare The 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet provides viewers with the same theatrical influence as the original play. Baz Luhrmann was able to accomplish this through modern filmmaking techniques and visual imagery. Luhrmann’s adaptation maintains much of the same elements of the original play. However, Luhrmann was able to make it more appealing to modern audiences by integrating modern elements into the film, thus turning Shakespeare’s original love story into a more modern yet controversial, interpretation of the original love story. In today’s society Shakespeare’s poetic language would leave viewers perplex. Luhrmann is able to keep Shakespeare’s original language by incorporating creative cinematography, editing, and style. Luhrmann recognizes early on that it is imperative to modernize the prologue in order for viewers to fully comprehend the film’s plot; any misperception would leave viewers confused and not emotionally involved. He is able to accomplish this through the use of dialogue, written text, and visual images. In order to reach modern audiences, Luhrmann has to be inventive in his filmmaking techniques; therefore he integrates modern-day media language. By adding news media and displaying selected pieces of text onscreen he is able to intensify the romantic teen tragedy, thus turning Shakespeare’s original play into a distinguishable film for modern audiences. Luhrmann’s use of visual imagery...
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...Intertextuality is the shaping of a text meaning by another text. Intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody.[1][2][3] An example of intertextuality is an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As philosopher William Irwin wrote, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion and influence.”[4] Contents [show] Intertextuality and poststructuralism[edit] Kristeva’s coinage of “intertextuality” represents an attempt to synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics—his study of how signs derive their meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin’s dialogism—his examination of the multiple meanings, or “heteroglossia”, in each text (especially novels) and in each word.[5] For Kristeva,[6] “the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of intersubjectivity” when we realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader but instead is mediated through, or filtered by, “codes” imparted to the writer and reader by other texts. For example, when we read James Joyce’s Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment, or as a response to the...
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...Frank Kelly Ms. Corley ENG3U - 1 9 March 2016 End Goal of Writing Othello When studying Othello, no analyst or reader can deny that the masterpiece written by Shakespeare is truly remarkable. However, there is debate as to whether the play was written to tell a story about a war hero who ascends to the peak of Italian military ranks and fell off due to his insecurities, or for Shakespeare to present an allegory narrating the chaos in seventeenth century England. The assertion made declaring Othello to be an allegory is very compelling. Just like an artist chooses every stroke of their painting, in Othello, Shakespeare’s words are all determined very conscientiously. This could potentially mean he was crafting a perfect narration to provoke the leaders of his time about the imperfections of the society they live in. The underlying themes throughout the book are extremely plausible claims in order to draw a parallel to an allegory. The most profound theme in Othello is how love can present shameful aspects and hereby, make someone act irrationally. Reputation is a compelling reason for why Othello acts aberrantly. He is proud of the reputation and power he had works so diligently for, therefore, he was not going to let it crumble. Lastly, Othello was an African leader in the Italian military, which was particularly irregular in that era. This feeds into his profound insecurities because he is looked at as an outlier. Clearly, Shakespeare was using this to show how racism...
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.... ] Breaking the Book Known as Q Readers, in fact, never confront abstract, idealized texts detached from any materiality. ey hold in their hands or perceive objects and forms whose structures and modalities govern their reading or hearing, and consequently the possible comprehension of the text read or heard. —Roger Chartier O let my books be then the eloquence . . . —“23” Shake-speares Sonnets I COLEMAN HUTCHISON is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at Northwestern University. He is completing a dissertation entitled “Revision, Reunion, and the American Civil War Text.” N THE FIRST SENTENCE OF HER ART OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS, Helen Vendler tells a little white lie: “I have reprinted both the 1609 quarto Sonnets and a modernized version of my own” (xiii). e crux of this declaration is “reprinted.” Vendler does indeed print a version of the 1609 quarto—or “Q,” as it is referred to bibliographically; one could even say that she “reprints” the type of the quarto. Vendler does not, however, “reprint” the 1609 quarto Sonnets. Like nearly every modern editor before her, Vendler presents the poems as discrete units on a page, eliding and ignoring the page breaks that so o en—and, I will argue, so meaningfully—interrupt the poems. In “reprinting” these poems, Vendler uses a de cut-and-paste method to rearrange, re-member, and reconstitute the type of the 1609 quarto into uninterrupted material units, into what we would visually recognize as “sonnets.” e...
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...RUSANGU UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE ENGL 210 Shakespeare Notes LECTURER SAMBOKO, B. M. There are many outstanding people in history: - our heroes… our role models…. Politicians: Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, Mahatma Gandhi, Kenneth Kaunda Community Service: Mother Teresa, George Muller, David Livingstone Religious: Apostle Paul, the other apostles, Ellen G White, Anderson, The pope, Martin Luther, Sports: Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, Benzema - Michael Jordan, Pele, Maradona Music: Lady Gaga, jZ, Tupak, Michael Jackson, Jim Reeves, Jimmy Hendricks, Literary Circles: Before Shakespeare the great names in literature were: o Homer – Ancient times - well known for his great epics o Dante – Middle Ages – wrote brilliantly on circumstances of human existence o Aristotle – the great philosopher ENTER SHAKESPEARE – THE LITERARY GIANT Spelling of Shakespeare: Spelling not yet standardized, thus name spelled in different ways • Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shackspere, Shaxper, Shagspere, Shaxberd, etc. Shakespeare: The most well known playwright of Elizabethan times is Shakespeare. But there were also other writers who in their time were just as, or even more famous than him. WHAT MAKES SHAKESPEARE STAND OUT? – The volume of his works Plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare ■ 14 COMEDIES – funny play...
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...Who was William Shakespeare? Shakespeare is William Shakespeare, one of the English-speaking world's greatest playwrights and poets, who possessed a great knowledge of human nature and transformed the English theatre. Yet many facts of his life remain a mystery. Some have been acquired from painstaking looks at the records of the time, so that this summary is based on generally agreed facts. It has been said that we only know three things about Shakespeare: that he was born, married and died. He was baptised on April 26, 1564; we do not know his birth date, but many scholars believe it was April 23, 1564. His father was John Shakespeare (who was a glover and leather merchant) and his mother Mary Arden (who was a landed local heiress). John had a remarkable run of success as a merchant, alderman, and high bailiff of Stratford, during William's early childhood. His fortunes declined, however, in the late 1570s. William lived for most of his early life in Stratford-upon-Avon. We do not know exactly when he went to London but he is said to have arrived in 1592. There is great conjecture about Shakespeare's childhood years, especially regarding his education. It is surmised by scholars that Shakespeare attended the free grammar school in Stratford, which at the time had a reputation to rival that of Eton. While there are no records extant to prove this claim, Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek would tend to support this theory. In addition, Shakespeare's...
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...Early European Theater • The writings of this period were primarily hymns, sermons and similar theologically oriented works. • Latin became a literary medium. • Major preserves of learning are the monasteries. • 8th century Europe returned to greater stability under the Carolingian kings. ➢ Charles Martel – defeated the Moslems at Tours in 732 AD, through his innovative use of armored horsemen as the principal military force, initiating the development of knighthood. ➢ Charlemagne – extended his realm into the Slavic territories and converting non- Christians on the way. Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope and pronounced him as the successor to Constantine. The scenario was the first attempt to establish the Holy Roman Empire. • Charlemagne’s death caused Europe to break into small units isolated from each other and from the world. • Moslem controlled the Mediterranean and the Vikings, still pagans, conquered the northern seas. Early Middle Ages • Life was relatively simple. • Feudalistic patterns were fully established. ➢ Manor (large estate)- headed by a noble man, assumed absolute authority over the peasants who worked his land collectively. ➢ Vassals – supplies the lords a specified number of knights upon demand and the lords in return were bound to protect their vassals. The Theater (500- 900 AD) • The theater revived during the early Middle Ages. • After the Western Roman...
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...Biography of Walt Whitman Walter "Walt" was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle. Whitman's sexuality is often discussed alongside his poetry. Though biographers continue to debate his sexuality, he is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual in his feelings and attractions. However, there is disagreement among biographers as to whether Whitman had actual sexual experiences with men. Whitman was concerned with politics throughout...
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...Rhetorical Terms/Devices Figurative language is the generic term for any artful deviation from the ordinary mode of speaking or writing. It is what makes up a writer’s style – how he or she uses language. The general thinking is that we are more likely to be persuaded by rhetoric that is interesting, even artful, rather than mundane. When John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” (an example of anastrophe), it was more interesting – and more persuasive – than the simpler, “Don’t be selfish.” Indeed, politicians and pundits use these devices to achieve their desired effect on the reader or listener nearly every time they speak. The stylistic elements in a piece of writing work to produce a desired effect related to the text’s (and author’s) purpose, and thus reveals the rhetorical situation. In classical rhetoric, figures of speech are divided into two main groups: Schemes — Deviation from the ordinary pattern or arrangement of words (transference of order). Tropes — Deviation from the ordinary and principal meaning of a word (transference of meaning). *Important Note: Words marked with an asterisk* are words for which it would be impossible for you to write 3 examples for your weekly vocabulary assignment. In those cases, please write only the definition, in your own words, and the rhetorical uses/effect of that device, or do what you are instructed to do under those words. Please mark these words that deviate...
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...------------------------------------------------- I Have a Dream From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Martin Luther King Jr. speech. For other uses, see I Have a Dream (disambiguation). Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering "I Have a Dream" at the 1963 Washington D.C. Civil Rights March. | "I Have a Dream"30-second sample from "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. | Problems listening to this file? See media help. | "I Have a Dream" is a public speech by American activist Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was delivered by King on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.[1] Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863,[2] King examines that: "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free".[3] At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"[4] In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become the most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred.[5] The speech was ranked the top American speech...
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