Культурология. Горелова А.В - 45 стр.

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4.2. William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
Many periods in Shakespeare's life remain obscure to us. Subject-matter
for his biography began to be collected only about a hundred years after his
death, and many of the facts gathered are very doubtful.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564, in the town of Stratford-on-Avon.
He was christened in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford on April 26.
In his childhood Shakespeare probably attended the Stratford Grammar
School, where he could have acquired a considerable knowledge of Latin.
The first record we have of his life after his christening is that of his
marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. A daughter was born to them in 1583 and
twins, a boy and a girl, in 1585. After the birth of the twins we know absolutely
nothing about Shakespeare's life for the next seven years.
The first (and very complimentary) mention of Shakespeare as dramatist
was made by the writer Francis Meres in 1598. Meres drew up a list of
Shakespeare's plays, and also made mention of his sonnets, some of which were
probably written at an earlier date.
The sonnets appeared in a separate edition only in 1609, when the fashion
for sonnets was on the decline, and the book didn't attract much attention.
During the last years of his life Shakespeare wrote less and less. He tried
composing in a new manner, originated by Beaumont and Fletcher and very
fashionable at the time. But after the Globe had been destroyed by fire in 1613
during a performance of Henry VIII, he retired to Stratford and seems to have
stopped writing altogether.
In 1623, two of Shakespeare's fellow-actors, John Heminge and Henry
Condell, collected and published all his plays in a single volume, which is now
known as the First Folio. Sixteen plays in the collection were printed for the
first time.
Shakespeare died in 1616. There was a drama in England before
Shakespeare. But it was he who created a real drama, and it was he who raised
the English theatre to the heights it has never since reached.
Four Periods in Shakespeare’s Literary Work. Shakespeare's literary
work may be divided into four periods.
The first period, dating from the beginning of his career to 1594, may be
called the period of apprenticeship. However, one play written during that time,
Richard III, remains one of his most popular and most frequently staged works.
During the second period, from the 1594-95 season up to 1600,
Shakespeare wrote plays belonging mainly to two dramatic genres: histories
(historical, or chronicle, plays) and comedies. The two tragedies written during
those years, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, differ greatly from his mature
tragedies. The former, one of his most popular and frequently produced plays, is
a true masterpiece; but its treatment of the material places it apart from his great
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