Cuộc đời và sự nghiệp Shakespeare (Tài liệu tiếng Anh)

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognizedin much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Shakespeares playscommunicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior,revealed through portrayals of a wide variety of characters. His use of poeticand dramatic means to create a unified aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity ofvocal expressions and actions is recognized as a singular achievement, andhis use of poetry within his plays to express the deepest levels of humanmotivation in individual, social, and universal situations is considered one of thegreatest accomplishments in literary history....
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Cuộc đời và sự nghiệp Shakespeare (Tài liệu tiếng Anh)Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognizedin much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Shakespeares playscommunicate a profound knowledge of the wellsprings of human behavior,revealed through portrayals of a wide variety of characters. His use of poeticand dramatic means to create a unified aesthetic effect out of a multiplicity ofvocal expressions and actions is recognized as a singular achievement, andhis use of poetry within his plays to express the deepest levels of humanmotivation in individual, social, and universal situations is considered one of thegreatest accomplishments in literary history.LifeA complete, authoritative account of Shakespeares life is lacking, and thusmuch supposition surrounds relatively few facts. It is commonly accepted thathe was born in 1564, and it is known that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. The third of eight children, he was probably educated atthe local grammar school. As the eldest son, Shakespeare ordinarily wouldhave been apprenticed to his fathers shop so that he could learn andeventually take over the business, but according to one account he wasapprenticed to a butcher because of declines in his fathers financial situation.According to another account, he became a schoolmaster. In 1582Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer. He issupposed to have left Stratford after he was caught poaching in the deer parkof Sir Thomas Lucy, a local justice of the peace. Shakespeare and AnneHathaway had a daughter in 1583 and twins—a boy and a girl—in 1585. Theboy did not survive.Shakespeare apparently arrived in London about 1588 and by 1592 hadattained success as an actor and a playwright. Shortly thereafter he securedthe patronage of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The publicationof Shakespeares two fashionably erotic narrative poems Venus and Adonis(1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) and of his Sonnets (published 1609,but circulated previously in manuscript form) established his reputation as agifted and popular poet of the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). TheSonnets describe the devotion of a character, often identified as the poethimself, to a young man whose beauty and virtue he praises and to amysterious and faithless dark lady with whom the poet is infatuated. Theensuing triangular situation, resulting from the attraction of the poets friend tothe dark lady, is treated with passionate intensity and psychological insight.Shakespeares modern reputation, however, is based primarily on the 38 playsthat he apparently wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Although generallypopular in his time, these plays were frequently little esteemed by his educatedcontemporaries, who considered English plays of their own day to be onlyvulgar entertainment.Shakespeares professional life in London was marked by a number offinancially advantageous arrangements that permitted him to share in theprofits of his acting company, the Chamberlains Men, later called the KingsMen, and its two theaters, the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars. His playswere given special presentation at the courts of Queen Elizabeth I and KingJames I more frequently than those of any other contemporary dramatist. It isknown that he risked losing royal favor only once, in 1599, when his companyperformed “the play of the deposing and killing of King Richard II” at therequest of a group of conspirators against Elizabeth. In the subsequent inquiry,Shakespeares company was absolved of complicity in the conspiracy.After about 1608, Shakespeares dramatic production lessened and it seemsthat he spent more time in Stratford, where he had established his family in animposing house called New Place and had become a leading local citizen. Hedied in 1616, and was buried in the Stratford church.WorksAlthough the precise date of many of Shakespeares plays is in doubt, hisdramatic career is generally divided into four periods: (1) the period up to 1594,(2) the years from 1594 to 1600, (3) the years from 1600 to 1608, and (4) theperiod after 1608. Because of the difficulty of dating Shakespeares plays andthe lack of conclusive facts about his writings, these dates are approximateand can be used only as a convenient framework in which to discuss hisdevelopment. In all periods, the plots of his plays were frequently drawn fromchronicles, histories, or earlier fiction, as were the plays of other contemporarydramatists.First PeriodShakespeares first period was one of experimentation. His early plays, unlikehis more mature work, are characterized to a degree by formal and ratherobvious construction and by stylized verse.Chronicle history plays were a popular genre of the time, and four playsdramatizing the English civil strife of the 15th century are possiblyShakespeares earliest dramatic works (see England: The Lancastrian andYorkist Kings). These plays, Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (1590?-1592?) andRichard III (1593?), deal with evil resulting from weak leadership and fromnational disunity fostered for selfish ends. The four-play cycle closes with thedeath of Richard III and the ascent to the throne of Henry VII, the founder ofthe Tudor dynasty, to which Elizabeth belonged. In style and structure, theseplays are related partly to medieval drama and partly to the works of earlierElizabethan dramatists, especially Christopher Marlowe. Either indirectly(through such dramatists) or directly, the influence of the classical Romandramatist Seneca is also reflected in the organization of these four plays,especially in the bloodiness of many of their scenes and in their highly colored,bombastic language. The influence of Seneca, exerted by way of the earlierEnglish dramatist Thomas Kyd, is particularly obvious in Titus Andronicus( ...