William Shakespeare

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Sources :# Raphael Hollinshed’s Chronicles of England , Scotland , and Ireland (1577) – King Lear , Macbeth and Cymbeline . 

# Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives ( “The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans “) – Antony and Cleopatra , Julius Caesar , Timon of Athens , Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus . 

# Edward Hall’s “The Union of two noble families of Lancasters and Yorks “ (1547) –for Historical Plays . ( War of Roses and established Tudor Monarch ) 

# Ovid’s Metamorphosis (tl. By Arthur Golding 1567) – Tempest Midsummer Night’s Dream and Titus Andronicus . 

# Arthur Brooke’s The Tragic History of Romeus and Julius (1562) – Romeo and Juliet . 

# Boccaccio’s Decameron- The Winter’s Tale (Robert Greene’s Pandosto ) , All Well that Ends Well , The Two Gentlemen of Verona , Cymbeline and Othello . 

# Matteo Boiordo’s Orlando Innamarto- ‘ Fountain of Head ‘ and ‘ Garden of Ardenne ‘ as ‘Forest of Arden in As You Like It . 

# Matteo Bandello’s Certain Tragical Discourses (tl By Geoffrey Phenton 1567) – Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night . 

# Thomas Kyd’s Ur Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy –Hamlet . 

# Thomas Lodge’s Wit’s Miseries and world’s Madness –Hamlet . 

# Saxxo The Grammarian’s Historia Danica “ History of Amleth “(13th C) – Hamlet . 

# Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta – The Marchant of Venice . 

#Hollinshed’s Chronicles on Scotland – Macbeth . 

# Daemonologie by King James and Discovery of Witchcraft by Reginald Scott – The Trio of Witches in Macbeth . 

# Hollinshed’s Chronicle + Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britannia + Bodel’s Matter of Britain + Albion’s England (1589) – King Lear . 

# Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia – subplot of King Lear (Earl of Gloucester , Edmund and Edgar ). 

# John Gower’s Confessio Amantis – Pericles .

# Plautus’ Menaechmi – The Comedy of Errors . 

# Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde – As You Like It . 

# Jorge de Montemarjo’s Diana Enamorada – The Two Gentlemen of Verona . 

#William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure – All’s Well that Ends Well . 

PUBLICATION 

# First Folio (1623) – 18+18 

Second Folio (1632) – 18+18+1( Love’s Labor Lost ) .

1st Folio compiled by – Henry Cordell and John Heminger . 

Title Page – Mr. William Shakespeare (Comedies , Histories , and Tragedies ). 

Prefatory sonnet by Ben Jonson “ To the Memory of My Most Beloved Author Mr. Shakespeare “. 

Literary Phases – 1 st Phase (1580s – 1590s ) 

Poems , 26 sonnets and 7 other plays.                                                                                                                           Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece are popular poems of this age. 

Plays have influenced of Christopher Marlowe . 

Titus Andronicus and Henry VI Parts I,II, and III are major historical plays 

Others – Taming of the Shrew and Comedy of Errors . 

II nd Phase (1590s -1600) 

Major Historical Plays and Romantic Comedies . 

The Merchant of Venice , Much Ado About Nothing , As You Like It , The Merry Wives Windsor , Midsummer Night’s Dream , and Twelfth Night ( tragic-comedy) . 

Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II , Henry V  .

III rd Phase (1601-1608) 

Great Tragedies and Tragi-comedies . 

Tone of most of the plays written during this phase was dark and melancholic . 

Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , Macbeth , Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus . 

1601-1604 Dark Comedies All’s Well that Ends Well and Measure for Measure .

IV th Phase (1608-1616) 

Last Plays . 

Peircles , Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale , and The Tempest . 

Henry VIII and The two Noble Kinsmen came out in collaboration with Fletcher . 

Sonnets (1609) and Poems 

154 

126-dedicated to a Fair Youth 

127-154 – dedicated to the Dark Lady . 

1-17 – description of the Fair’s Youth’s Beauty 

18-126 – about Platonic Love . 

Dedicated to some Mr. WH – William Herbert – Earl of Pembroke . 

“ A Lover’s Complaint “- poem attached with the sonnets . 

“ Venus and Adonis (1593) 

“ The Rape of Lucrece “ (1594) 

“ The Phoenix and The Turtle “ (1601) – first metaphysical poem In English . 

Important Fools 

Falstaff in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 . 

Festle in Twelfth Night . 

Costard in Love’s Labour Lost . 

Nick Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream . 

Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream . 

The Fool in King Lear . 

The Gravediggers in Hamlet . 

Touchstone in As You Like It . 

Trinculo in Tempest . 

Pompey in Measure for Measure . 

Important Heroines 

Beatrice and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing . 

Cordelia , Goneril , and Regan in King Lear . 

Desdemona in Othello . 

Gertrude and Ophelia in Hamlet .

Titania , Hippolyta , Hermia and Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream . 

Imogen in Cymbeline . 

Celia and Rosalind in As You Like It . 

Bianca and Katherine in Taming The Shrew . 

Hermione in A Winter’s Tale . 

Isabella in Measure for Measure 

Miranda in the Tempest 

Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night . 

Portia in The Merchant of Venice 

Tamora in Titus Andronicus . 

Volumnia in Corilanus .