AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare [ wɪljəm ʃeɪkspɪə ] (baptized on 26. April  1564 ^July. In Stratford-upon-Avon , † April 23 ^{. Jul} / 3. May  1616 ^greg. Ibid ^[1] ) was an English dramatist , poet and actor . His comedies and tragedies are among the most important stage plays in world literature and are the most frequently listed and filmed . His surviving complete work includes 38 (according to other count 37) dramas, epic poems and 154 sonnets .

He is considered one of the most important poets of world literature.

Life

Early years

Shakespeare's birthplace

Shakespeare's date of birth is not known. He was baptized April 26, 1564, according to the Holy Trinity Church register in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Since the 18th century, the April 23 is often called as his birthday, but this statement is not certain and is probably only due to the fact that Shakespeare died on the same day of the year 1616 (April 23). ^[2] It is sometimes backed up on April 23 as Shakespeare's alleged birthday with the claim that in Elizabethan England children were baptized three days after their birth; in fact, there was no such three-day use. ^[3]

William Shakespeare's parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden , who came from a wealthy family. He probably attended grammar school in Stratford-upon-Avon , where he received lessons in Latin, Greek, history, moral teaching and poetry. ^[4] The lessons of Grammar School mediated knowledge of rhetoric and poetics and directed the students also to produce small dramas along the lines of classical models. There is no evidence that Shakespeare, like other contemporary English playwrights, has attended a university.

At the age of 18, he married the eight-year-old farmer's daughter Anne Hathaway . The date of the wedding is unknown, the marriage license report was ordered on November 27, 1582. About six months after the marriage, the daughter Susanna was born (baptismal entry May 26, 1583). Nearly two years later, twins, the son Hamnet and the daughter Judith, were born (baptismal entry February 2, 1585); Hamnet died in 1596 at the age of eleven (funeral August 11, 1596, cause of death unknown). From 1598 a letter has been received in which a certain Richard Quiney asked Shakespeare for a loan of £ 30. years later, on February 10, 1616 married William Shakespeare's daughter Judith, his son Thomas Quincy.

Lost years

Over the eight years 1584/85 to 1592, which in Shakespeare studies as "lost years" are called, little is known. In the absence of sufficient sources, more legends have arisen, some of which can be attributed to anecdotes handed down by contemporaries.

The first written document proving that Shakespeare was in London came from the poet Robert Greene , who defamed him in 1592 in a pamphlet as an upstart. Greene blames Shakespeare as compelling as the respected poets of his time: there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hunker down in a players hide, supposes he is as well as able to bombast out a naked verse the best of you: and beeing an absolute John fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake scene in a countrey .(For there is an uprising crow, finely decked out with our feathers, who, with their tiger's heart hidden in an actor's robe,To be able to pour out blank verses like the best of you; and as an absolute Hans steam-in-all-lanes, he appears to be the biggest theatrical shaker in the country.) The term Shake-scene is a pun on the Shakespeare name .

In the posthumous publication of the pamphlet, the publisher added an apology, suggesting that Shakespeare was already popular at the time and had influential patrons. He was at that time already a member of the troupe Lord Strange's Men , who called himself from 1594 Lord Chamberlain's Men and counted among the leading acting troupes in London. Shortly after his accession Jacob I made her as King's Men to his own.

Playwright and actor

First work published under the name William Shakespeare, 1593

Shakespeare wrote plays for his theater company, in which he was financially involved, and acted as an actor in smaller roles himself. His pieces have been very successful, according to the diary entries of the theater entrepreneur Philip Henslowe .

As his biggest competitor was first Christopher Marlowe , later Ben Jonson . It was customary to rewrite and recast older pieces: Shakespeare's Hamlet , for example, could be the adaptation of an older "Ur-Hamlet". Partly legends and fairy tale fabrics have been made into dramas several times, as in the case of King Lear . Pieces were also made from printed sources, such as Plutarch's biographies of great men, collections of Italian novels or chronicles of English history. Another common method was to write sequels to successful pieces. Such was the figure of Falstaff in Henry IV.So beloved by the public that Shakespeare re-performed them in The Merry Wives of Windsor .

Poet and businessman

In addition to his dramatic work Shakespeare wrote (probably as the theaters of London because of the plague epidemics had to close temporarily) also lyrical and epic poetry. The latter established his reputation as an author among his contemporaries. Probably in 1593 he wrote the two narrations Venus and Adonis and Lucrece , which are a noble patron Henry Wriothesley , Earl of Southampton , appropriated. The publication of 154 sonnets in 1609 is surrounded by numerous puzzles. In a short editorial credo , which is mostly read as a "dedication", is from the only begetter and Mr. WHthe speech; The identity of this person is still unknown. Perhaps this sonnet publication is a pirated print .

London, Shakespeare's Globe Theater (reconstruction)

Shakespeare's signature under the will ( Last Will ), 1616

From 1599 Shakespeare was co-owner of the London Globe Theater , which had built his troupe as a replacement for the theater , after his lease had expired. Lord Chamberlain's men , named after their patron and sponsor Lord Chamberlain , often performed at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth's successor, James I they called themselves after their royal patron King's Men .

As a partner of the Globe , Shakespeare acquired wealth and influence. 1596 was his father John Shakespeare , a family coat of arms granted which he had applied unsuccessfully already 1576th In 1597, Shakespeare bought the second largest home in his hometown of Stratford, New Place .

In 1596, the theater entrepreneur James Burbage acquired the Blackfriars Theater , which was later joined by Shakespeare. Unlike the Globe, it was a covered theater in which the troupe played from now on during the winter months. The audience was there because of the significantly higher admission prices more exclusive than the large open-air stages.

Last years

At the age of 46, Shakespeare returned to Stratford as a rich man and spent his last years there. He did not quite break ties with his former colleagues, and in some of the theater productions he became co-author. For subsequent years, several visits to London have been documented, which usually had family and friendly occasions.

Shakespeare died at the age of 52 in 1616 in Stratford, ten days after his great Spanish contemporary Miguel de Cervantes , and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church. On the stone plate that marks his grave, the inscription reads:

O good friend, do not dig for Jesus' sake

in the dust, enclosed here.

Blessed be who protects these stones,

damn it, who moves my bones.

Shakespeare's Tomb at Holy Trinity Church

Presumably shortly after Shakespeare's death, a commemorative bust with a Latin inscription by a person unknown to this day was erected in the side wall of the church.

Shakespeare's former theater colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell published his works under the title Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in a large-format book called First Folio . The volume is preceded by an appreciation by Ben Jonson , which states:

Triumph my Britain, you have one to show 
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. 
Hey was not an age, but for all time! ...

Britain, rejoice, you call it your own,

in front of the European stage.

He does not belong to a time, but to all times! ...

The cause of death is unknown. However, about 50 years after Shakespeare's death, John Ward, vicar of Holy Trinity Church at Stratford, noted in his journal: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry encounter, apparently drinking too much; for Shakespeare died of a fever he had suffered. "This news is now considered an anecdote without substantive content, but its true core could be that in Shakespeare's year of death, a typhoid epidemic was rampant that the poet fell victim to could be.

Shakespeare portraits

The so-called Chandos portrait , around 1610

From Shakespeare some pictorial representations and portraits are handed down. These images were often copied with the increasing reputation of the playwright and thereby modified more or less. Also, several unsecured works were early referred to as Shakespeare portraits.

The only two portraits that probably represent the historical William Shakespeare were made posthumously:

·         the Droeshout Engraving (1623), the frontispiece of the front page of the first folio issue. He was probably stabbed for a lost template today. Martin Droeshout the Younger (* 1601) is traditionally regarded as an artist, but recently he is also known as the older Martin Droeshout (1560-1642). ^[10]

·         the tomb monument at Holy Trinity Church , Stratford-upon-Avon (before 1623).

Probably authentic is probably also the lifetime of the poet incurred

·         Chandos portrait (from about 1594-1599). The exact date of its origin is unknown, the painter was probably Joseph Taylor (1585-1651). Investigations by curator Tarnya Cooper showed in 2006 that the picture was taken from Shakespeare's time and could show the poet.

Other portraits whose authenticity does not have a broad consensus and which are in part very controversial are u. a .:

·         the Sanders portrait, discovered in Canada in 2001, was probably painted from studies on Shakespeare's lifetime

·         The Cobbe portrait , made public in 2006 and presented to the public in 2009, is considered authentic by Stanley Wells and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon.

·         The Janssen portrait, by the same painter as the Cobbe portrait, known since 1770, restored in 1988.

Not considered authentic u. a .:

·         the Ashbourne portrait , kept in the followers Shakespeare Library in Washington DC

·         the flower portrait of 1609; it has been considered a fake in the 19th century since a study by the National Portrait Gallery in 2004

·         the so-called Darmstadt Death Mask, known since 1849; The authenticity is only claimed by Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel

   the Davenant bust, circa 1613, in terracotta; Authenticity is also claimed only by Hammerschmidt-Hummel.

Shakespeare's language

Title page of the first issue 1609

Shakespeare had an extensive vocabulary: 17,750 different words are counted in his works. characteristic of Shakespeare is his stylistic variety that dominates from the lowest to the highest court language foul language all levels and registers alike. A particular feature of his literary language is the variety of usage of imagery ( Imagery ).

In Shakespeare's time, grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were not as standardized as they had been since the eighteenth century. It was also possible and common to shape new words when the need arose. Many terms found in modern English appear for the first time in Shakespeare (for example, multitudinous, accommodation, premeditated, assassination, submerged, obscene ). However, the impression that Shakespeare has created more new expressions and phrases than any other English poet, in part also explain that the originated in the 19th century Oxford English Dictionary with preference Shakespeare quotes as Erstbelege.

Authorship of his works

Today's Shakespeare research assumes that doubts about the authorship of William Shakespeare of Stratford in the traditionally attributed to him work are unfounded. For more than 150 years, however, there has been a debate about "true" authorship. This is due not least to the fact that the romantic image of the "genius poet" seems incompatible with a person like the business-oriented London theater entrepreneur Shakespeare. ^[18]The first folio edition of 1623, with its concrete definition of the Shakespearean drama corpus, disregarding the preceding apocryphal dramas, did the remainder to delineate the picture of a sudden genius that could easily be turned into a straw man. The problem of William Shakespeare's authorship of the work attributed to him is not regarded as a legitimate research topic by established academic Shakespeare research. However, some Shakespeare researchers criticize the refusal of academic literary scholarship to seriously discuss with non-academic (and by now also some academic) researchers who also call themselves "anti-Stratfordians." ( Stratfordiansare thus persons who believe that William Shakespeare, born in Stratford, is the author of the works attributed to him.)

Background of the authorship debates in many "anti-Stratfordians" is the view that the poet of Shakespearean works could not have been a simple man of little education from the province. Teaching a Grammar School , as Shakespeare probably went to Stratford, provided the basic knowledge and skills needed to acquire the knowledge he had learned in his dramas. In the 18th century Shakespeare was considered an uneducated author.  One can not say both well: the author of the plays has an unexplained high education, andhe had at the same time only little education. Shakespeare's authorship of his works is also said to be the absence of any original manuscripts of his works, aside from the controversial manuscript of Sir Thomas More . However, this is not a feature of 16th century authors. In addition, Shakespeare's six surviving handwritten signatures are considered by some reviewers to be so awkward that they may well have been illiterate. But even this is valuation from a modern point of view, which does not take into account the historical reality.

The discussion about the true author of Shakespeare's works begins with the writer Delia Bacon . In her book, The Philosophy of Shakespeare's Plays (1857), she hypothesized that the name William Shakespeare hid a group of writers consisting of Francis Bacon , Sir Walter Raleigh, and Edmund Spenser . Their publication sparked further speculation that continues today, with ever-new candidates for authorship mentioned.

Among the persons who are considered to be possible authors of the works of Shakespeare, Francis Bacon , William Stanley and, more recently, especially Edward de Vere are the most frequently cited. In addition, Christopher Marlowe plays a certain role (see Marlowe theory ). In the 19th and 20th centuries, prominent figures such as Georg Cantor , Henry James and Mark Twain also publicly commented on the antistatfordian theses.

Reception in Germany

Shakespeare monument in Weimar

In Germany, the Shakespearean reception has an eventful history in which the poet was commissioned for the most varied interests.

Of great importance Shakespeare was the literary theory of education at Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (in the 17th Literaturbrief 1759), for the dramatist of the Sturm und Drang about at Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg ( Letters on Merckwürdigkeiten the literature , 1766/67), with Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz ( Notes on the Theater , 1774), Johann Gottfried Herder ( From German Art and Art , 1773) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ( Speech for Schäkespears Day, 1771), even with the amateur, but the more enthusiastic Ulrich Bräker ( Something about William Shakespears spectacles of a poor unlettered cosmopolitan, who enjoyed the luck to read the same. ) Anno 1780 ); also for German romanticism , especially with August Wilhelm von Schlegel (Viennese lectures on dramatic art and literature 1809-1811) and for the theory of drama in the 19th century. The influential theorist Johann Christoph Gottsched , who was committed to the French classicism of the 17th century. a. at the three Aristotelian unitsThe French theory of drama had, as Voltaire before him, still made quite disparaging remarks about Shakespeare. In the second half of the century, however, Shakespeare became the prototype theorist of the late Enlightenment and Sturm und Drang the prototype of genius, and remained in the judgment not only the theatrical poet unequaled "star of the highest height" (Goethe) to our present day.

One of the peculiarities of German Shakespearean reception since Romanticism is the notion that Germans have a special affinity with Shakespeare, that his work is closer to the German soul than to English.  The study of Shakespeare and to the Political reaching popularization of his work took place in the German Shakespeare Society , which was founded in 1864 by enthusiasts rather than by qualified philologists, their institutionalization. It is the oldest Shakespeare society in the world and significantly older than the English.

It is impossible to overlook the number of Shakespeare's impressions (often made especially for individual productions) for more than 250 years. Known transmissions of the dramas are the editions of Christoph Martin Wieland and Johann Joachim Eschenburg (both published in Zurich) as well as Gabriel Eckert (who revised the Wieland / Eschenburg texts in the so-called "Mannheim Shakespeare"), by Eduard Wilhelm Sievers , that of Johann Heinrich Voß and his sons Heinrich and Abraham, the Schlegel-Tieck edition (by August Wilhelm von Schlegel , Wolf von Baudissin , Ludwig Tieck and his daughterDorothea Tieck ) as well as in older times the translations of individual pieces by Friedrich von Schiller or Theodor Fontane , more recently during the Weimar Republic very popular, because stage-suitable versions of Hans Ludwig Rothe , which were banned after a Goebbels -Erlass, however, and the extensive translation (27 pieces) by Erich Fried and the planned overall translation (37 pieces are available at the end of 2017) by Frank Günther . Recent translations of individual pieces that caused a stir were z. B. by Thomas Brasch and Peter Handke .

In recent years, Shakespeare translation has again focused more on sonnets , which have been used by many translators since the eighteenth century.

Shakespeare's work has become the most abundant source of winged words over the centuries . Only the Bible is quoted even more frequently.

His Works

Shakespeare was primarily a playwright, but also wrote two verses and 154 sonnets . The first attempt at a complete edition of his plays appeared posthumously in Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies , the so-called folio edition . This contains 36 dramas, including 18 previously unpublished, a foreword by the publisher as well as praise and dedication poems.

Not preserved is the drama Cardenio , which was performed in 1612 . Also not included is the collaboration on Sir Thomas More , a play written by several authors; Shakespeare's participation, however, has recently been called into question again. A number of plays have been attributed to Shakespeare since the third folio issue (1662). Apart from Pericles, which is accepted as an authentic work by Shakespeare and another author, these pieces, known as "apocryphal", have long ceased to be candidates for inclusion in Shakespeare's real works.  In the research is constantly discussed about write-ups and write-downs of other works and about the collaboration of other authors in his works or on the collaboration of Shakespeare in the works of other authors.  Recent suggested attributions concern Edward III and Double Falshood or The Distress Lovers . In Edward III (printed 1596) Shakespeare is assumed co-authorship (. U a of Brian Vickers.); the drama was included in the latest edition of The Norton Shakespeare and the second edition of Oxford Shakespeare. Double Falshood, whose authorship has been controversial since the beginning of the 18th century, became part of the 2010 Arden edition of Shakespeare's works.

historical dramas

The Globe (replica)

·      

   King John ( King John , around 1595/96)

·  Henry VIII ( King Henry VIII or All Is True , c. 1612/13)

York Fallot

·         Henry VI.

·         Part 1 ( King Henry VI, Part 1 , 1591)

·         Part 2 ( King Henry VI, Part 2 ; 1591-1592)

·         Part 3 ( King Henry VI, Part 3 ; 1591-1592)

·         Richard III. ( King Richard III , circa 1593, printed 1597)

Lancaster tetralogy

·         Richard II ( King Richard II , between 1590 and 1599, printed 1597)

·         Henry IV

·         Part 1 ( King Henry IV, Part 1 , circa 1595/96, printed 1598)

·         Part 2 ( King Henry IV, Part 2 , circa 1597, printed 1600)

·         Henry V ( King Henry V , 1599, printed 1600 as pirate print )

comedies

Cheerful comedies

·         The Comedy of Errors ( The Comedy of Errors ; to 1591, printed 1623)

·         Love's Labor's Lost (also: love suffering and pleasure , Love's Labor's Lost , 1593, printed 1598)

·         The Taming of the Shrew ( The Taming of the Shrew , 1594, printed 1623)

·         Two gentlemen from Verona ( The Two Gentlemen of Verona , circa 1590-1595, printed 1623)

·         A Midsummer Night's Dream ( A Midsummer Night's Dream ; 1595/96, printed 1600)

·         The Merchant of Venice ( The Merchant of Venice , 1596)

·         Much Ado About Nothing ( Much Ado about Nothing , to 1598/99, printed 1600)

·         As you like it ( As You Like It , circa 1599, printed 1623)

·         The Merry Wives of Windsor ( The Merry Wives of Windsor , 1600/01)

·         What you want ( Twelfth Night or What You Will , circa 1601, printed 1623)

causing headaches

·         Troilus and Cressida ( Troilus and Cressida , circa 1601, printed 1610)

·         All's Well That Ends Well ( All's Well That Ends Well ; 1602/03 printed, 1623)

·         Measure for measure ( Measure for Measure ; 1604, printed 1623)

romances

·         Pericles, Prince of Tire ( Pericles, Prince of Tire , around 1607, first print 1609)

·         A Winter's Tale ( The Winter's Tale , 1609, printed 1623)

·         Cymbeline ( Cymbeline ; 1610)

·         The Tempest ( The Tempest , 1611, printed 1623)

tragedies

Early tragedies

·         Titus Andronicus (around 1589-1592, printed 1594)

·         Romeo and Juliet ( Romeo and Juliet , 1595, printed 1597 ( pirated ), then 1599)

Roman plays

·         Julius Caesar ( The Tragedy of Julius Caesar , 1599, printed 1623)

·         Antony and Cleopatra ( Antony and Cleopatra , around 1607, printed 1623)

·         Coriolanus ( Coriolanus , circa 1608, printed 1623)

Later tragedies

·         Hamlet ( Hamlet, Prince of Denmark , around 1601, printed 1603, possibly pirated print )

·         Othello (around 1604, printed 1622)

·         King Lear ( King Lear , circa 1605, printed 1608)

·         Timon of Athens ( Timon of Athens , around 1606, first print 1623)

·         Macbeth (around 1608, printed 1623)

Versdichtungen

·         Venus and Adonis ( Venus and Adonis , 1593)

·         Lucretia ( The Rape of Lucrece , 1594)

·         The Lovers Complaint ( A Lover's Complaint , 1609)

·         The Love Pilgrim ( The Passionate Pilgrim , 1609, contains two sonnets from Shakespeare and three spells from Love's Labor's Lost )

·         The Phoenix and the Turtledove ( The Phoenix and the Turtle , printed 1601)

·         Sonnets ( Sonnets , 1609)