1. Insert articles where necessary:

Looking back, ... Elizabethan period was ... period when ... English national spirit triumphed, period between ... restraints of... medievalism and ... rise of... Puritanism. It was ... immense­ly creative period: ... flowering of... English Renaissance, which finally reached ... people through ... court. In ... England, ... Renaissance was largely ... literary achievement, with its poetic drama, songs, lyrics and ... ballads. It was also ... period of... great seamanship and ... time when ... wealthy upper classes built immense country ... houses all over ... land. ... queen herself, ... cautious politician, was both highly cultivated and able to rise to ... heroic demands made upon her.

2. What else do you know about this period in Europe?

3. Make up sentences from the following phrases:

a) of literary-minded noblemen; often; Actors and playwrights, had the patronage; as well as travellers and entertainers

b) in London; called The Theatre; in 1576; was built; The first permanent theatre; by James Burbage

c) of inns and great halls; Plays; in the courtyards; were often enacted

d) in 1599; was built; where Shakespeare's plays were performed; from the material of Burbage's Theatre; The Globe Theatre

e) took place; Performances; in the daytime

f) pageants, humour, wit, songs; Plays; and of course poetry; were full of

g) in particular those by Ceneca; was initially much influenced by; English tragedy / classical plays in Latin

h) Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593); Ben Johnson (71573-1637); and; Apart from Shakespeare; Thomas Kyd (1558— 1594); included; the great dramatists

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

Life William Shakespeare is generally considered the

greatest dramatist the world has ever known and the finest poet who has written in the English language. Shakespeare has also been the world's most popular author. No other writer's plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries.

Shakespeare understood human nature as few other artists have. He could see in a specific dramatic situation the qualities that relate to all human beings. He could thus create characters that have mean­ing beyond the time and place of his plays. Yet, his characters are not symbolic figures. They are remarkably individual human beings. They struggle just as people do in real life, sometimes successfully and sometimes with painful and tragic failure.

Shakespeare was born to middle-class parents on the 23 of April, 1564. His birth-place was the small market town of Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a glover and merchant. He bought land and houses in Stratford and in 1568 he was made Mayor. His mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a local land-owner. In 1582 at the age of 18 William'married 25-year-old Anne Hathaway, the daugh­ter of a farmer. Shortly after marriage Shakespeare left Stratford tp seek his fortune in the theatrical world of London. Within a few years, he had become one of the city's leading actors and playwrights. His last few years he spent in retirement in Stratford, where he died on 23 April, 1616. Shakespeare was buried in Stratford Church.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. These plays contain vivid characters of all types and from many walks of life. Kings, pickpock­ets, drunkards, shepherds and philosophers, generals and hired killers all mingle in Shakespeare's plays. In addition to his deep under­standing of human nature, Shakespeare had knowledge in a wide vari­ety of other subjects. These subjects include music, the law, the Bible, military science, art, politics, history and sports. Yet, Shakespeare had no professional experience in any field except the theatre.

Works Above all other dramatists stands William

Shakespeare, a supreme genius whom it is impos­sible to characterize briefly. Shakespeare is unequaled as poet and intellect,,but he remains elusive. The sureness and profound popu­larity of his taste enabled him to lead the English Renaissance with­out privileging or prejudicing any one of its divergent aspects, while as actor, dramatist, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's play­ers he was involved in the Elizabethan theatre at every level. His career (dated from 1589 to 1613) was exactly within the period of greatest literary flourishing, and only in his works are the total pos­sibilities of the Renaissance fully realized.

The early histories. Shakespeare's early plays were principally histories and comedies. About a fifth of all Elizabethan plays were histories, but this was the genre that Shakespeare particularly made his own, dramatizing the whole sweep of English history from Richard 11 to Henry VII.

The early comedies. The early comedies share the popular and romantic forms used by the "university wits" but overlay them with elements of elegant courtly revel and a sophisticated consciousness of comedy's fragility and artifice, These are festive comedies, giving access to a society vigorously and imaginatively at play. One group, "The Comedy of Errors", "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", and "Twelfth Nighf, are comedies of intrigue, fast moving, often farcical, and placing a high premium on wit. A second group, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "Love's Labour's Lost", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and "As You Like It", have as a common denominator a journey to a natural environment, such as a wood or park, in which the restraints governing everyday life are released and the characters are free to remake themselves untrammeled by society's forms. All the comedies share a belief in the positive, health-giving powers of play, but none is completely innocent of doubts about the limits that encroach upon the comic space, and in the four plays that approach tragicomedy, "The Merchant of Venice", "Much Ado About Nothing", "All's Well That Ends Well", and " Measure for Measure"', festivity is in direct collision with the constraints of normality, with time, business, law, human indifference, treachery, and selfishness.

The tragedies. The confusions and contradictions of Shake­speare's age find their highest expression in his tragedies. In these extraordinary achievements, all values, hierarchies, and forms are tested and found wanting, and all society's latent conflicts are acti­vated. Shakespeare sets husband against wife, father against child, the individual against society; he uncrowns kings, levels the nobleman with the beggar, and interrogates the gods. In the major tragedies that follow, Shakespeare's practice cannot be confined to a single gener­al statement that covers ail cases, for each tragedy belongs to a sep­arate category: revenge tragedy in "Hamlet", domestic tragedy in "Othello", social tragedy in "King Lear", political tragedy in "Macbeth" and heroic tragedy in "Antony and Cleopatra".

The last group of plays comprises the four romances, "Pericles", "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale", and "The Tempest", which devel­op a long, philosophical perspective on fortune and suffering. In these plays Shakespeare's imagination returns to the popular romances of his youth and dwells on mythical themes — wanderings, shipwrecks, the reunion of sundered families, and the resurrection of people long thought dead.

It was a triumphant record. Shakespeare revolutionized the drama, enlarging the audience's vision of human life and enriching the lan­guage. His plays, then as now, appealed to a wide audience. They reveal both a thorough knowledge of literature and a profound sympathy with the language and behavior of the common man. The shrewd commer­cial dramatist and the supremely gifted artist cannot be separated.

.ASSIGNMENT

Copy the following paragraph, adding capital letters and punctuation where necessary.

william Shakespeare englands greatest writer was born in 1564 to stratford-upon-avon glove merchant john Shakespeare who played a prominent part in local affairs until his fortunes declined william received a good education at the local grammar school and in 1582 he married anne hathaway with whom he had three children suzan-na hamnet and judith from that point on very little is known about his life other than that by 1592 he was already a successful drama­tist and may also have been an actor if only of small parts in the win­ter of 1594 he was a leading member of the Lord Chamberlains com­pany of actors with whom he stayed for the rest of his life when it came under royal patronage in 1603 it became known as the Kings Men Shakespeare died in 1616.

HAMLET A general summary

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is in low spirits because of his father's recent death and also because of the hasty marriage of his mother to the new king, his father's brother Claudius. The feelings of depression are strengthened when he learns that the spirit of his father has been seen walking on the battlements of the castle. Hamlet determines to see the spirit for himself and when he does, the Ghost tells him that he was murdered by Claudius, and he asks Hamlet to seek revenge for his "foul and most unnatural murder".

After his interview with the Ghost, Hamlet decides to find proof of his uncle's villainy. He resolves to pretend to be mad, in the hope that people will not realise that he is plotting to kill the king. Polonius had told his daughter, Ophelia, to have nothing to do with the young prince shortly before Hamlet shows the signs of madness. He believes that Hamlet's madness derives from his unfulfilled love for Ophelia. Claudius, however, feels that love is not the full expla­nation for Hamlet's behaviour.

A group of actors visit the castle and Hamlet decides to use them in order to find out the taith of the Ghost's claims. He arranges for the actors to re-enact his father's murder, and Claudius's reactions convince Hamlet of his uncle's guilt. Hamlet again determines to kill the king, but finding Claudius at prayer, he delays his vengeance and goes instead to visit his mother.

Hamlet shows his mother how shameful her behaviour has been, and pleads with her not to live as Claudius's wife. Polonius has been hiding behind a curtain listening to the conversation between Gertrude and her son; when he moves Hamlet kills him, thinking him to be the king.

After the play, that Hamlet has arranged, Claudius realises that his crime has been discovered, and when he hears of the death of Polonius he recognises that Hamlet is a threat to his life. Accordingly, Claudius arranges to send Hamlet to England, osten­sibly on a diplomatic mission, but in reality with a letter to the King of England requesting that Hamlet be put to death. Hamlet finds the letter and replaces his name with the names of his companions. Shortly after this, the ship is attacked by pirates. Hamlet is taken prisoner but the pirates agree to put Hamlet ashore in Denmark in return of a favour which he is able to do for them.

In the meantime, Ophelia, has gone mad with grief and drowned herself; and her brother, Laertes, has returned from France vowing to avenge the deaths of his father and sister. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is responsible for both deaths and offer to show Laertes how he can punish Hamlet. Claudius persuades Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a fencing duel. The plan is that Hamlet will use the blunted sword while Laertes uses an unblunted one. To make even surer of Hamlet's death, Laertes decides to put poison on the tip of the unblunted sword and Claudius promises that he will poi­son some wine and give it to Hamlet in the course of the duel.

During the duel Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword but, during a scuffle both swords are dropped and Hamlet picks up the poisoned sword and wounds Laertes with it. Gertrude asks for wine during the contest and dies after drinking from the goblet that Claudius had prepared for Hamlet.

Before he dies Laertes confesses the plot that he and Claudius had hatched and Hamlet stabs Claudius with poisoned sword.

28

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? — To die — to sleep —

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache, and thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to,— 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die — to sleep —

To sleep!perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death —

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns — puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution