Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Fantasy -> The Four Steps of the Unbridled Sky

Volume 3: A blow of destiny, the king appears Chapter 78: Phoenix and Turtle Dove, Phoenix and Loyalty

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    The period from about 1600 to 1608 was Shakespeare's tragic period, although during this period he also wrote some problematic plays such as "Tit for Tat", "Troilus and Cressida" and "The End of the Marriage".  />

    Many critics believe that Shakespeare's great tragedies represent the peak of his art.  The first hero is Prince Hamlet, probably the most talked about of Shakespeare's characters, especially that famous soliloquy - To be or not to be, that is a question worth considering.

    Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal mistake was indecision, the subsequent tragic heroes, Othello and King Lear, failed because of rash decisions.

    The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often incorporate such fatal errors and shortcomings that undermine the original plan and destroy the hero and his lovers.

    In "Othello", the villain Iago provokes Othello's sexual jealousy, causing him to kill his innocent wife who loves him deeply.

    In King Lear, the old king makes a tragic mistake by giving up his rights, resulting in the murder of his daughter and the torture and blindness of the Duke of Gloucester.  Drama critic Frank Kermode felt that the script neither developed well-characterized characters nor provided the audience with relief from the torture.

    "Macbeth" is Shakespeare's shortest and most compact tragedy. Uncontrollable ambition spurred Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the upright king and usurp the throne, until their crimes in turn destroyed themselves.  In this play, Shakespeare adds supernatural elements to the tragic structure.

    His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's best poetry and were considered by the poet and critic Thomas Stearns Eliot to be  Shakespeare's most successful tragedy.

    In his final creative period, Shakespeare turned to romance dramas, also known as tragicomedies.  There were three main dramatic works during this period: "Cymbeline", "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest".  There is also "Pericles, Prince of Tire" co-produced with others.

    These four works are less sombre than tragedy, more serious than the comedies of the 1590s, and end with reconciliation and forgiveness of potentially tragic mistakes.

    Some critics have noted the change in tone as evidence of Shakespeare's more peaceful view of life, but this may simply reflect the prevailing style of drama at the time.

    Shakespeare also collaborated on two other works, Henry VIII and Two Noble Kinsmen, most likely with John Fletcher.

    It has not yet been determined for which theater company Shakespeare wrote his early plays.  The title page of Titus Andronicus, published in 1594, indicates that the work was performed by three different troupes.

    After the Black Death from 1592 to 1593, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at the Theater and the Curtaintheatre on the north bank of the Thames.

    Londoners flocked there to watch the first part of Henry IV.  When a dispute arose between the troupe and the theater's landowner, they demolished the original theater and built the Globe Theater out of lumber.  It was the first theater built by actors for actors and was located on the south bank of the Thames.

    The Globe Theater opened in the fall of 1599, and "Julius Caesar" was the first play performed.  Most of Shakespeare's successful works after 1599 were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear.

    In 1603, when the Chamberlain's Theater was renamed the King's Theater.  The troupe formed a special relationship with the new King James I.  Although performance records are incomplete, the King's Company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at the Royal Court between November 1, 1604 and October 31, 1605, including The Merchant of Venice twice.

    After 1608, they performed indoors at the Blackfriars Theater in the winter and at the Globe Theater in the summer.  The indoor theater was rich in Jacobean style and richly decorated, allowing Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage equipment.  For example.  In Cymbeline, Jupiter descends on an eagle amidst thunder and lightning, and throws a thunderbolt; the ghosts kneel down.

    Actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kemp, Henry Condell and John Hemings.  Burbage appeared in the leading roles in many of Shakespeare's first performances, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.

    Popular comedian William Kemp plays the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet.  He also played Dobelli in Much Ado About Nothing, among other roles.

    At the end of the 16th century, he was replaced by Robert Armin, who played the role of "You Da"Joy" and the jester character in "King Lear."

    1613.  Writer Henry Wotton believed that "Henry VIII" described many very spectacular ceremonial scenes.  However, on June 29, when the play was performed at the Globe Theatre.  Cannons set fire to the roof and the theater was burned down, a rare accurately recorded event in Shakespeare's era.

    In 1623, John Hemings and Henry Condell, Shakespeare's two good friends in the King's Company, published the First Folio, a collection of Shakespeare's plays.  The book contains a total of 36 Shakespeare works, 18 of which are published for the first time.  Many of these works have been previously published in quarto form.

    There is no evidence that Shakespeare approved of these versions, as described in the First Folio as plagiarism and sneaky copies.  The British biographer Alfred Pollard called some of them bad quartos because they were adapted, rewritten, or falsified texts, in many places rewritten from memory.

    So there are multiple versions of the same script, and they are different from each other.  These differences may arise from copying or typographical errors, actors' or audience's notes, and Shakespeare's own drafts.

    In other cases, such as Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare revised the text between the quarto and folio versions.  The folio version of King Lear and the quarto version published in 1608 were so different that Oxford Shakespeare published both versions because they could not be combined into a single version without ambiguity.

    From 1593 to 1594, with theaters closed due to the plague, Shakespeare published two erotic-themed narrative poems: "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece," which he dedicated to the South.  Henry Wray Osley, Earl of Ampton.

    In "Venus and Adonis", the innocent Adonis refuses Venus's sexual request, while in "The Lost Virginity of Lucrece", the chaste wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin  Rape.

    Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poem expresses guilt and moral confusion stemming from desire.  Both poems were popular and were reprinted many times during Shakespeare's lifetime.

    The third narrative poem is "The Lover's Complaint", which tells the story of a young woman regretting being seduced by a suitor. It was included in the first edition of "Sonnets" published in 1609.

    Most scholars now accept the idea that "The Lover's Complaint" was written by Shakespeare.  Critics felt that the poem's fine qualities were marred by its heavy consequences.  "The Phoenix and the Turtle Dove" mourns the death of the legendary phoenix and the loyal lover, the turtle dove.

    In 1599, two early sonnets, Opus 138 and Opus 144, were included in The Passionate Pilgrim, a book bearing Shakespeare's name but without his permission.
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report