William Shakespeare was a renowned English playwright and poet born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote some of the most famous plays in English literature, including tragedies like Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth as well as comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest. The document discusses Shakespeare's life and upbringing, his career in London writing and acting in plays, his works categorized by genre and period, and his legacy as one of the greatest writers in the English language.

2. William Shakespeare
 Works & his life –
 How did he do this?
 Genius & training
 Genius – 2 influences – little village of
Stratford, the great city of London.
 Stratford – he learned natural man & his
environment.
 London- artificial man & his unnatural
surroundings.

3. Life
 Baptized on April 23rd 1564.
 Parents - John Shakespeare , Mary Arden.
 He learnt a little at the grammar school at
Stratford & his ‘real teachers’ were natural
surroundings and people around him.
 Age of 14- his father fell into debt – he
stopped his studies to support his family.
 No evidence of his early occupation.

4.  1582, he was married to Anne Hathaway – 8
yrs older than him – soon he left his family
and went to London.
 1587 – London – stealing the deer in Sir
Thomas Lucy’s park – Nicholas Rowe in “first
life of Shakespeare” claimed that no evidence
of park in that place.
 1587-1611 – life in London – period of
tremendous literary activity.

5.  1592- first authentic reference of him –
Greene’s Pamphlet – important position
among the playwrights.
 Started working with other men in London
theaters.
 He revised older plays before writing his own.
 Henry VI – 3 parts – loosely strung English
Chronicle history.
 Titus Andronicus, Richard III – Marlowe &
Shakespeare.

6.  Soon broke away from his apprenticeship –
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Comedy of Errors, Two
Gentlemen of Verona,
 First English Chronicle plays – Henry VI, Richard
III, Richard II, King John.
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet.
 Poems – “Venus and Adonis” – dedication to Earl
of Southampton – immense success.
 Invested money – became partners of Globe &
Blackfrairs theaters.

7. Wonderful Plays

8.  1597 – his family got released from debt – New
Place- finest house at Stratford.
 Continued to visit his house – in 1611 – returned
to his village from London.
 Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, Pericles
– humours.
 1609 – English ship disappeared
 A year later the sailors returned – wrecked in
Bermudas – 10 months with mysterious noises.
 Robinson Crusoe – The Tempest.

9.  1611- lost interest in Globe &Blackfriars
theater.
 After a simple life, he died on April 23, 1616.
 Cursed tomb.

10. Works
 First printed collection of his plays – First Folio
(1623)- actors – Heming & Condell.
 It contained 36 plays.
 Full of typographical errors and uncertain dates
and classifications.
 Four periods
1. Period of early experimentation
2. Period of rapid growth
3. Period of gloom & depression
4. Period of restored serenity.

11. Period of early experimentation
 1595-Marked by youthfulness & wide
imagination, lavishness of language, rimed
couplets-blank verse.
 Love’s Labour’s Lost
 Two Gentlemen of Verona
 Richard III

12. Period of rapid growth & development
 Dated from 1595-1600.
 Careful and artistic work, better plot, increase
in knowledge of human nature.
 The Merchant of Venice
 Midsummer Night’s Dream
 As You Like It
 Henry VI

13. Period of gloom & depression
 Dated from 1600-1607.
 Full maturity of his powers.
 Cause of the sadness is unknown – probably because
of personal experience & political misfortunes of his
friends Essex & Southampton.
 Sonnets
 Twelfth Night
 Hamlet
 Macbeth
 King Lear
 Othello & Julius Caesar

14. Period of restored serenity
 Last years of poet’s literary works.
 Second period of his experimentation.
 The Winter’s Tale
 The Tempest

15. Classification - source
 Historical plays:
 Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar.
 Fictional plays:
 Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice.
 Historical material – Holinshed’s Chronicle of
England, Scotland and Ireland.
 North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives.
 Love’s Labour’s Lost & Merry Wives of Windsor –
original plot.
 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, The Tempest
– made over the older plays.

16. Classification – Dramatic type
 3 classes
 Tragedy & comedy – tragi-comedy,
melodrama, lyric drama, farce etcetera.
Tragedies
Comedies
Historical
plays

17. • Merchant of Venice, Midsummer
Night’s Dream, As You Like It,
Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Twelfth
Night
Comedies
• Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet,
King Lear, OthelloTragedies
• Julius Caesar, Richard III, Henry VI,
Henry V, Coriolanus, Antony and
Cleopatra
Historical
plays

18. Doubtful plays
 Pre-Shakespearian group
 Titus Andronicus & HenryVI (1st part)
 HenryVI & Richard III –Marlowe & Shakespeare.
 Taming of the Shrew,Timon & Pericles – partly
Shakespeare’s work.
 HenryVIII – Fletcher and Shakespeare.
 Two Noble Kinsmen – Fletcher
 Edward III – anonymous – credited to
Shakespeare.

19. Poems
 Long poems – “Venus and Adonis” & “The
Rape of Lucrece”.
 Sonnets – 154 – 1609
 Reference to his friend and woman.
 “Mr.W.H”, “Fair lady”, “Dark lady”
 Homer & Dante – narrow limits
 Universal poet.
William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke

20. THANK YOU