5/XVI century. Theatre in England. William Shakespeare.

The 16th century lasts from 1501-1600. Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) was a significant figure in the Elizabethan era. In Spain, Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) published "Don Quixote" in two parts (1605, 1615). William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was also creating his famous plays and poetry during the sixteenth century.

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, English theater blossomed in London. English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, or (commonly) as Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.

The era of early modern theater begins with “Gorboduc,” a play about civil war and succession to the throne of a kingdom. (These were topical and sensitive issues at the time, coming on the heels of the English Reformation brought about by Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII.) “Gorboduc”, which was written by both Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, is significant for being the first dramatic work to be written in blank verse.

This is the time whenWilliam Shakespeare was writing and performing, along with other legendary playwrights of the era like Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. It is considered to be the most brilliant period in the history of English theatre.

The most famous Elizabethan playhouse ( theater ) was the Globe Theatre (1599) built by the company in which Shakespeare had a stake - now often referred to as the Shakespearean Globe, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre. From 1909, the current Gielgud Theatre was called "Globe Theatre", until it was renamed in 1994.

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.

6/The Life of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s Comedies

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford on about April 23rd 1564. His father William was a successful local businessman and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner. Relatively prosperous, it is likely the family paid for Williams education, although there is no evidence he attended university.

In 1582 William, aged only 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. Soon after they had their first daughter, Susanna. They had another two children but William’s only son Hamnet died aged only 11.

William Shakespeare wrote 154 Sonnets mostly in the 1590s. Fairly short poems, they deal with issues such as lost love. His sonnets have an enduring appeal due to his characteristic skill with language and words. The plays of Shakespeare have been studied more than any other writing in the English language and have been translated into numerous languages. He was rare as a play-write for excelling in tragedies, comedies and histories. He deftly combined popular entertainment with a rare poetic capacity for expression which is almost mantric in quality.

William Shakespeare's plays come in many forms. There are the histories, tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies. Among the most popular are the comedies, which are full of laughter, irony, satire, and wordplay. Many times the question is asked: what makes a play a comedy instead of a tragedy? Comedies treat subjects lightly, meaning they don't treat seriously such things as love. Shakespeare's comedies often use puns, metaphors, and insults to provoke "thoughtful laughter." The action is often strained by artificiality, especially elaborate and contrived endings. Disguises and mistaken identities are often very common.

The plot is very important in Shakespeare's comedies. They are often very convoluted, twisted and confusing, and extremely hard to follow. Another characteristic of Shakespearean comedy is the themes of love and friendship, played within a courtly society. Songs often sung by a jester or a fool parallel the events of the plot. Also, foil and stock characters are often inserted into the plot.

Love provides the main ingredient for the plot. If the lovers are unmarried when the play opens, they either have not met or there is some obstacle in the way of their love. Examples of the obstacles these lovers go through are familiar to every reader of Shakespeare: the slanderous tongues which nearly wreck love in Much Ado About Nothing; the father insistent upon his daughter marrying his choice, as in A Midsummer Nights Dream; or the expulsion of the rightful Duke's daughter in As You Like It.

Many themes are repeated throughout Shakespearean comedies. One theme is the never-ending struggle between the the forces of good and evil. Another theme is that love has profound effects, and that people often hide behind false faces.

The comedies themselves can be sub-categorized as tragicomedies, romantic comedies, comedies of justice, and simple entertaining comedies with good wholesome fun. Many of these plays remain popular favorites 400 years after they were written.

Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy about a love relationship. It has a basic plot that's more orthodox than those of most of Shakespeare's plays. It's about two strong personalities who see each other as combatants, rather than partners. The play exploits games of verbal punning and backchat between two reluctant lovers. Much Ado About Nothingfirst appeared in a quarto 1599.

Twelfth Night is the most intricate of Shakespeare's great middle-period comedies. Written in 1601, it plays the familiar games of the time with boys playing girls who dress as boy pages. It is also filled with confusions of identity and memorable verbal put-downs. The play was not printed until the First Folio of 1623.