164-531: Edmund Kean (4 November 1787 – 15 May 1833) was a British Shakespearean actor, who performed, among other places, in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris. He was known for his short stature, tumultuous personal life, and controversial divorce. Kean was born in Westminster , London . His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect 's clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of
328-717: A funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor , Socrates , and Virgil . In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio , the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey . Most playwrights of
492-651: A playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men , later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance , his sexuality , his religious beliefs and even certain fringe theories as to whether
656-427: A Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy . Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been
820-484: A campaign to present himself as the true heir to the throne, pretending to be a modest and devout man with no pretensions to greatness. Edward's Lord Chamberlain , who objects to Richard's accession, is arrested and executed on a trumped-up charge of treason. Richard and Buckingham spread the rumour that Edward's two sons are illegitimate and therefore have no rightful claims, assisted by certain allies. The other lords are thus cajoled into accepting Richard as king, despite
984-402: A change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of Romeo and Juliet , Richard II , and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of
1148-546: A comeback role at Drury Lane, but the play was not a success. He turned down Alfred the Great by James Sheridan Knowles , a role that went to William Macready He took over the management of the Richmond Theatre, Surrey in 1831, continuing in that role until his death two years later. He resided in a house next to the theatre. His last appearance on the stage was at Covent Garden on 15 March 1833, when he played Othello to
1312-596: A country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire , a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area. It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on
1476-562: A few scenes and speeches from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3 and Cibber's rewrite of Shakespeare's play, but cuts entirely the characters of Queen Margaret and the Duchess of York, and Richard's soliloquy after seeing the ghosts of his victims. Olivier has Richard seduce Lady Anne while mourning over the corpse of her husband rather than her father-in-law as in the play. Olivier's rendition has been parodied by many comedians, including Peter Cook and Peter Sellers . Sellers, who had aspirations to do
1640-416: A finger-ring that had once belonged to Kean, and used it as a literary muse for the writing of the second volume of his autobiography Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice (1997). O'Toole delivered the line, "dying is easy; comedy is hard" and attributed it to the last words of Kean in the 1982 movie My Favorite Year . Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)
1804-505: A hindrance to his career. As a result of his relationship with Charlotte Cox, the wife of a City of London alderman, Kean was sued by Mr. Cox for damages for criminal conversation (adultery). Damages of £800 were awarded against him by a jury that had deliberated for just 10 minutes. The Times launched a violent attack on him. The adverse decision in the criminal conversation case of Cox v. Kean on 17 January 1825 caused his wife to leave him, and aroused against him such bitter feeling that he
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#17330847495071968-451: A large pile of rubble. In 1996, Al Pacino made his directoral debut and played the title role in Looking for Richard , analysing the plot of the play and playing out several scenes from it, as well as conducting a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture . Also in 1996, a pristine print of Richard III (1912), starring Frederick Warde in
2132-409: A leading actress, on 17 July. His wife gave birth to two sons, one of whom was the actor Charles Kean . For several years his prospects were very gloomy, but in 1814 the committee of Drury Lane Theatre , which was on the verge of bankruptcy, resolved to give him a chance among the "experiments" they were making to win a return of their popularity. When the expectation of his first appearance in London
2296-596: A missing prompt book . The Folio is regarded as having much higher authority than the Quarto, but because the Folio edition was collated by the printers against a Quarto (probably Q3), some errors from the Quarto found their way into the Folio. Some parts of the Folio (the beginning of Act III and much of Act V) are clearly copied, with little change, direct from the Quarto. The Folio also has its own corruptions and omissions, and corrections have to be supplied, where possible, from
2460-448: A more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen , probably with John Fletcher . Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies , histories , and tragedies . Two plays not included in
2624-450: A naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd Upon the sightless couriers of the air." However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks
2788-788: A persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint . Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle , printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr , mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove . In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim , published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission. Published in 1609,
2952-748: A playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson 's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone , although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down
3116-588: A practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed . He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in
3280-611: A production at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1845. In 2011 film actor Kevin Spacey starred in an Old Vic production which subsequently toured the United States, directed by stage and film director Sam Mendes . Spacey had played the role of Richard's henchman, the Duke of Buckingham, in the Pacino film. Basil Rathbone played Richard III in the 1939 Universal horror film Tower of London , which
3444-621: A rich source for filmmakers; Akira Kurosawa adapted Macbeth and King Lear as Throne of Blood and Ran , respectively. Other examples of Shakespeare on film include Max Reinhardt 's A Midsummer Night's Dream , Laurence Olivier 's Hamlet and Al Pacino 's documentary Looking For Richard . Orson Welles , a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, directed and starred in Macbeth , Othello and Chimes at Midnight , in which he plays John Falstaff , which Welles himself called his best work. Richard III (play) The Tragedy of Richard
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#17330847495073608-599: A spirit of charity, but many audiences subjected him to insults and even violence. In Quebec City , he was much impressed with the kindness of some Huron Indians who attended his performances, and he was purportedly made an honorary chief of the tribe, receiving the name Alanienouidet . Kean's last appearance in New York was on 5 December 1826 in Richard III , the role in which he was first seen in America. He returned to England and
3772-605: A tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It , and the Chorus in Henry V , though scholars doubt the sources of that information. Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare
3936-495: A traveling theatre company, the rumor of his abilities reached George III , who commanded him to appear at Windsor Castle . He subsequently joined Saunders's circus, where in the performance of an equestrian feat he fell and broke both legs, the accident leaving traces of swelling in his insteps throughout his life. At about this time, he picked up music from Charles Incledon , dancing from James Harvey D'Egville , and fencing from Henry Angelo . In 1807, he played leading parts in
4100-531: A wall plaque that was originally on the outside, but was moved inside and heavily renovated during restoration work in 1904. He is buried in the parish church of All Saints, in the village of Catherington , Hampshire. His last words were alleged to have been "dying is easy; comedy is hard." In Dublin, Gustavus Vaughan Brooke took up the part of William Tell vacated by Kean. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition , it
4264-461: A woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3 , along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius". Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from
4428-487: A worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes." John Milton , considered by many to be
4592-457: Is George) is placed under arrest. (Edward interpreted the prophecy as referring to G eorge, but it could just as easily refer to Richard of G loucester.) Speaking to Clarence as he is escorted along to the Tower of London , Richard blames the queen, Elizabeth , and says that he will try to help Clarence. Richard describes to the audience his plot to marry Lady Anne, despite being responsible for
4756-648: Is a 1956 Italian dramatization of the life of Kean. It is based on the drama play Kean (1836) by Alexandre Dumas and its 1953 adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre. It was screened at the Locarno Film Festival in 1957. The film's sets were designed by the art director Gianni Polidori. Much of the film was shot at the Teatro Valle in Rome. Several theatrical works have been based on Kean's life: The acclaimed latter 20th-century British theatre and film actor Peter O'Toole owned
4920-515: Is believed to have been written c. 1592 –1594. Although Richard III was entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company on 20 October 1597 by the bookseller Andrew Wise , who published the first Quarto (Q1) later that year (with printing done by Valentine Simmes ), Christopher Marlowe 's Edward II , which cannot have been written much later than 1592 (Marlowe died in 1593),
5084-620: Is charming and amusing for the audience. In the earlier acts of the play, too, the role of the antagonist is filled by that of the old Lancastrian queen, Margaret, who is reviled by the Yorkists and whom Richard manipulates and condemns in Act ;I, Scene III. However, after Act I, the number and quality of Richard's asides to the audience decrease significantly, as well as multiple scenes are interspersed that do not include Richard at all, but average Citizens (Act II, Scene III), or
Edmund Kean - Misplaced Pages Continue
5248-577: Is definitively classed as a tragedy. It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592–93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch , north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see
5412-513: Is difficult as the audience not to sympathise with them. When Richard enters to bargain with Queen Elizabeth for her daughter's hand—a scene whose form echoes the same rhythmically quick dialogue as the Lady Anne scene in Act I—he has lost his vivacity and playfulness for communication; it is obvious he is not the same man. By the end of Act IV everyone else in the play, including Richard's own mother,
5576-421: Is explained as "slangy and impetuous". Richard's casualness in speech is also noted by another writer. However, Lull does not make the comparison between Richmond and Richard as Haeffner does, but between Richard and the women in his life. However, it is important to the women share the formal language that Richmond uses. She makes the argument that the difference in speech "reinforces the thematic division between
5740-440: Is from Act IV that Richard really begins his rapid decline into truly being the antagonist. Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt notes how Richard even refers to himself as "the formal Vice, Iniquity" (3.1.82), which informs the audience that he knows what his function is; but also like Vice in the morality plays, the fates will turn and get Richard in the end, which Elizabethan audiences would have recognised. In addition,
5904-437: Is implied, marriage) as he promises to repent for the murder. Richard exults at having won her over and tells the audience that he will discard her once she has served his purpose. The atmosphere at Edward's court is poisonous. The established nobles are at odds with the upwardly mobile relatives of Elizabeth, a hostility fuelled by Richard's machinations. Queen Margaret , Henry VI's widow, returns, though banished, and she warns
6068-417: Is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe , Thomas Nashe , and Greene himself (the so-called " University Wits "). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in
6232-409: Is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time. Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of
6396-404: Is not taken in by his eloquence, and stalls by saying that she will let him know her daughter's answer in due course. The increasingly paranoid Richard loses what popularity he had. He faces rebellions, led first by Buckingham and subsequently by Richmond's invading forces. Buckingham is captured and executed. Both sides arrive for a final battle at Bosworth Field , prior to which Richard, asleep,
6560-437: Is not true, as Richard uses a gentle façade to seize the throne. The second definition concerns "the person's true nature ... Richard will indeed use Hastings kindly—that is, just as he is in the habit of using people—brutally". Haeffner also writes about how speech is written. He compares the speeches of Richmond and Richard to their soldiers. He describes Richmond's speech as "dignified" and formal, while Richard's speech
6724-525: Is often used. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term " problem plays " to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well , Measure for Measure , Troilus and Cressida , and Hamlet . "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet
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6888-421: Is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he
7052-427: Is set in a fictional fascist England in the 1930s, and based on an earlier highly successful stage production. Only about half the text of the play is used. The first part of his "Now is the winter of our discontent..." soliloquy is a public speech, while the second part is a private monologue. The famous final line of Richard's "A horse, my kingdom for a horse" is spoken when his jeep becomes trapped after backing up into
7216-425: Is the question ". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, Othello and Lear are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In Othello , Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In King Lear ,
7380-428: Is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Despite this new era of peace and joy, Richard is an ugly and unloved hunchback who is therefore "determined to prove a villain ". Due to a prophecy that " G of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be", Richard and Edward's brother Clarence (whose given name
7544-466: Is thought to have been influenced by it. A second Quarto (Q2) followed in 1598, printed by Thomas Creede for Andrew Wise, containing an attribution to Shakespeare on its title page. Q3 appeared in 1602, Q4 in 1605, Q5 in 1612, and Q6 in 1622, the frequency attesting to its popularity. The First Folio version followed in 1623. The Folio is longer than the Quarto and contains some fifty additional passages amounting to more than two hundred lines. However,
7708-471: Is using Richard to state "the tragic conception of the play in a joke. His primary meaning is that he controls his own destiny. His pun also has a second, contradictory meaning—that his villainy is predestined—and the strong providentialism of the play ultimately endorses this meaning". Literary critic Paul Haeffner writes that Shakespeare had a great understanding of language and the potential of every word he used. One word that Shakespeare gave potential to
7872-497: Is visited by the ghosts of his victims, each telling him to "Despair and die". They likewise wish for Richmond's victory. Richard wakes, screaming for Jesus, then realises that he is all alone and cannot even pity himself. At the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), Richmond's stepfather Lord Stanley and his followers desert Richard, whereupon Richard calls for the execution of Stanley's son: a young hostage. This does not happen, however, as
8036-575: The Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that
8200-461: The Complete Works of Shakespeare in an attempt to maintain enough heat to keep him alive. When challenged, Rimmer claims he can quote from it and embarks upon the soliloquy: "Now! ... That's all I can remember. You know! That famous speech from Richard III – 'now, something something something something'." In the 1967 film Billion Dollar Brain , Harry Palmer is told to use the verse as
8364-504: The First Folio , a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson , a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time". Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare , an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire , and Mary Arden ,
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#17330847495078528-557: The Iago of his son, Charles Kean, who was also an accomplished actor. At the words "Villain, be sure," in scene 3 of act iii, he suddenly broke down, and crying in a faltering voice "O God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles," fell insensible into his son's arms. He died a few weeks later in Surrey, and is commemorated in the Parish Church , where there is a floor plaque marking his grave, as well as
8692-662: The King's Men . All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts ... In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames , which they named the Globe . In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre . Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with
8856-559: The Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England. It is the second longest play in the Shakespearean canon and is the longest of the First Folio , whose version of Hamlet , otherwise the longest, is shorter than its quarto counterpart. The play is often abridged for brevity, and peripheral characters removed. In such cases, extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere to establish
9020-519: The Shrew ' s story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences. Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy,
9184-490: The end of lines , with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet . Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind: Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than
9348-511: The 18th-century composer and playwright Henry Carey . Kean made his first appearance on the stage at age four as Cupid in Jean-Georges Noverre 's ballet of "Cymon." As a child, his vivacity, cleverness and ready affection made him a universal favourite, but his harsh circumstances and lack of discipline fostered self-reliance and wayward tendencies. About 1794 a few benevolent persons paid for him to go to school, where he did well; finding
9512-460: The Belfast theatre with Sarah Siddons , who began by calling him "a horrid little man." Upon further experience of his ability, she said that he "played very, very well," but that "there was too little of him to make a great actor." He made an early appearance with Mrs. Baker 's company. In 1808, he joined the provincial troupe of the actor Samuel Butler , going on to marry Mary Chambers of Waterford ,
9676-484: The Duchess of York and Clarence's children (Act II, Scene II), who are as moral as Richard is evil. Without Richard guiding the audience through the dramatic action, the audience is left to evaluate for itself what is going on. In Act IV, Scene IV, after the murder of the two young princes and the ruthless murder of Lady Anne, the women of the play—Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, and even Margaret—gather to mourn their state and to curse Richard; and it
9840-399: The Duchess, has turned against him. He does not interact with the audience nearly as much, and the inspiring quality of his speech has declined into merely giving and requiring information. As Richard gets closer to seizing the crown, he encloses himself within the world of the play; no longer embodying his facile movement in and out of the dramatic action, he is now stuck firmly within it. It
10004-499: The Duke of Buckingham's report on his attempt to persuade the Londoners to accept Richard ("I bid them that did love their country's good cry, God save Richard, England's royal king!" Richard: "And did they so?" Buckingham: "No, so God help me, they spake not a word ...") Puns, a Shakespearean staple, are especially well represented in the scene where Richard tries to persuade Queen Elizabeth to woo her daughter on his behalf. One of
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#173308474950710168-500: The First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre , are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio. In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances , and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies , Dowden's term
10332-470: The God-ordained goodness embodied in the new rule of Henry VII". Scholar Victor Kiernan writes that this interpretation is a perfect fit with the English social perspective of Shakespeare's day: "An extension is in progress of a privileged class's assurance of preferential treatment in the next world as in this, to a favoured nation's conviction of having God on its side, of Englishmen being ...
10496-495: The King's Men, published the First Folio , a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. The others had already appeared in quarto versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies". Alfred Pollard termed some of
10660-421: The London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year: ... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide , supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum ,
10824-404: The Quarto contains some twenty-seven passages amounting to about thirty-seven lines that are absent from the Folio. The two texts also contain hundreds of other differences, including the transposition of words within speeches, the movement of words from one speech to another, the replacement of words with near-synonyms, and many changes in grammar and spelling. At one time, it was thought that
10988-426: The Quarto represented a separate revision of the play by Shakespeare. However, since the Quarto contains many changes that can only be regarded as mistakes, it is now widely believed that the Quarto was produced by memorial reconstruction . It is thought likely that the Quarto was collectively produced by a company of actors remembering their lines. It is unknown why the actors did this, but it may have been to replace
11152-428: The Quarto. Unlike his previous tragedy Titus Andronicus , the play avoids graphic demonstrations of physical violence; only Richard and Clarence are shown being stabbed on-stage, while the rest (the two princes, Hastings, Brackenbury, Grey, Vaughan, Rivers, Anne, Buckingham, and King Edward) all meet their ends off-stage. Despite the villainous nature of the title character and the grim storyline, Shakespeare infuses
11316-624: The Queen's birthday. Colley Cibber produced the most successful of the Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare with his version of Richard III , at Drury Lane starting in 1700. Cibber himself played the role till 1739, and his version was on stage for the next century and a half. It contained the lines "Off with his head; so much for Buckingham" – possibly the most famous Shakespearean line that Shakespeare did not write – and "Richard's himself again!". The original Shakespearean version returned in
11480-510: The Shrew , and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories , which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland , dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty . The early plays were influenced by
11644-485: The Third , often shortened to Richard III , is a play by William Shakespeare . It was probably written c. 1592–1594 . It is labelled a history in the First Folio , and is usually considered one, but it is sometimes called a tragedy , as in the quarto edition. Richard III concludes Shakespeare's first tetralogy (also containing Henry VI, Part 1 , Henry VI, Part 2 , and Henry VI, Part 3 ) and depicts
11808-499: The act of writing, began to infuse each other". In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays " Measure for Measure , Troilus and Cressida , and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies . Many critics believe that Shakespeare's tragedies represent the peak of his art. Hamlet has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins " To be or not to be; that
11972-473: The action with comic material, as he does with most of his tragedies. Much of the humour rises from the dichotomy between how Richard's character is known and how Richard tries to appear. Richard himself also provides some dry remarks in evaluating the situation, as when he plans to marry Queen Elizabeth's daughter: "Murder her brothers, then marry her; Uncertain way of gain ..." Other examples of humour in this play include Clarence's reluctant murderers, and
12136-458: The actor at supper, speaks of his "unassuming manner ... partaking in some degree of shyness" and of the "touching grace" of his singing. Kean's delivery of the three words "I answer—No!" in the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in The Iron Chest , cast Macready into an abyss of despair at rivalling him in this role. So full of dramatic interest is the life of Edmund Kean that it formed the subject for
12300-594: The age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596. After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe , Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted
12464-482: The audience after Clarence's exit—is the exact opposite of what he plans to do. Scholar Michael E. Mooney describes Richard as occupying a "figural position"; he is able to move in and out of it by talking with the audience on one level, and interacting with other characters on another. Each scene in Act I is book-ended by Richard directly addressing the audience. This action on Richard's part not only keeps him in control of
12628-405: The audience to keep the audience attuned to him and his objectives. In 1.1, Richard tells the audience in a soliloquy how he plans to claw his way to the throne—killing his brother Clarence as a necessary step to get there. However, Richard pretends to be Clarence's friend, falsely reassuring him by saying, "I will deliver you, or else lie for you" (1.1.115); which the audience knows—and Richard tells
12792-405: The battle is in full swing, and Richard is at a disadvantage. Richard is unhorsed on the field, and cries out, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse". Richmond kills Richard and claims the throne, becoming Henry VII . Richard III is believed to be one of Shakespeare's earlier plays , preceded only by the three parts of Henry VI and perhaps Titus Andronicus and a handful of comedies. It
12956-476: The blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air ..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity. Shakespeare combined poetic genius with
13120-475: The central themes of Richard III is the idea of fate, especially as it is seen through the tension between free will and fatalism in Richard's actions and speech, as well as the reactions to him by other characters. There is no doubt that Shakespeare drew heavily on Sir Thomas More 's account of Richard III as a criminal and tyrant as inspiration for his own rendering. This influence, especially as it relates to
13284-410: The character of Richmond enters into the play in Act V to overthrow Richard and save the state from his tyranny, effectively being the instantaneous new protagonist. Richmond is a clear contrast to Richard's evil character, which makes the audience see him as such. The earliest certain performance occurred on 16 or 17 November 1633, when Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria watched it on
13448-464: The character. Jane Austen refers to his popularity in a letter to her sister Cassandra dated 2 March 1814: "Places are secured at Drury Lane for Saturday, but so great is the rage for seeing Kean that only a third and fourth row could be got." Successive appearances in Richard III , Hamlet , Othello , Macbeth and King Lear demonstrated his mastery of the range of tragic emotion. His triumph
13612-518: The characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus , in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted. "And pity, like
13776-434: The coin, noting that Richard "boasts to us of his finesse in dissembling and deception with bits of Scripture to cloak his 'naked villainy' (I.iii.334–348) ... Machiavelli, as Shakespeare may want us to realise, is not a safe guide to practical politics". Kiernan suggests that Richard is merely acting as if God is determining his every step in a sort of Machiavellian manipulation of religion as an attempt to circumvent
13940-439: The company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place , and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford. Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages . Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as
14104-561: The continued survival of his nephews (the Princes in the Tower ). Richard asks Buckingham to assassinate the princes, but Buckingham hesitates. Richard instead recruits an assassin who kills both children. When Richard denies Buckingham a promised land grant, Buckingham turns against Richard and defects to the side of Henry VI's nephew, the Earl of Richmond , who is currently in exile. Richard has his eye on
14268-487: The daughter of an affluent landowning family . He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon , where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day . This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens , has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. He was the third of eight children, and
14432-482: The day, as well as taking into account new theologies of divine action and human will becoming popular in the wake of the Protestant Reformation , sought to paint Richard as the final curse of God on England in punishment for the deposition of Richard II in 1399. Irving Ribner argued that "the evil path of Richard is a cleansing operation which roots evil out of society and restores the world at last to
14596-476: The death of her father and her husband . Anne attends the corpse of the late king, Henry VI , lamenting. When Richard appears, Anne berates him and says that "Henry's wounds [...] bleed afresh ". He confesses to murdering the king, saying her beauty motivated it, and she spits at him. He proclaims his feelings for her and offers his sword for her to kill him, but she drops it. He then offers to kill himself, but she instead accepts his ring unhappily (and, it
14760-415: The drama itself. Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse , composed in iambic pentameter . In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at
14924-432: The dramatic action of the play, but also of how the audience sees him: in a somewhat positive light, or as the protagonist. Richard actually embodies the dramatic character of "Vice" from medieval morality plays —with which Shakespeare was very familiar from his time—with his "impish-to-fiendish humour". Like Vice, Richard is able to render what is ugly and evil—his thoughts and aims, his view of other characters—into what
15088-464: The eldest surviving son. Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text
15252-467: The end of each clause". One example of the epistrophe can be found in Margaret's speech in Act I, Scene III. Haeffner refers to these as few of many "devices and tricks of style" that occur in the play, showcasing Shakespeare's ability to bring out the potential of every word. Throughout the play, Richard's character constantly changes and shifts and, in doing so, alters the dramatic structure of
15416-415: The equally romantic The Merchant of Venice , contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock , which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing , the charming rural setting of As You Like It , and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After
15580-665: The famous Richard Burbage , William Kempe , Henry Condell and John Heminges . Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III , Hamlet , Othello , and King Lear . The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing , among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin , who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and
15744-466: The famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar —based on Sir Thomas North 's 1579 translation of Plutarch 's Parallel Lives —which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro , in Julius Caesar , "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on
15908-511: The first part of Henry IV , Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest ... and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre , the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark . The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of
16072-634: The first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet , Othello, and King Lear . After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James . Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice . After 1608, they performed at
16236-633: The first time in New York City as Richard III at the Anthony Street Theatre . The success of his visit to America was unequivocal, although he fell into a vexatious dispute with the press. In 1821, he appeared in Boston with Mary Ann Duff in The Distrest Mother by Ambrose Philips , an adaptation of Racine's Andromaque . On 4 June 1821, he returned to England. Kean was the first to restore
16400-472: The fool in King Lear . In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell , two of Shakespeare's friends from
16564-484: The great exponent of these roles. Kean's talent and interesting countenance caused a Mrs. Clarke to adopt him, but he took offence at the comments of a visitor and left her house suddenly, returning to his old surroundings. At age 14, he obtained an engagement to play leading characters for 20 nights in the York Theatre, appearing as Hamlet , Hastings and Cato. Shortly afterwards, while a member of Richardson's Theatre ,
16728-425: The house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned down during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward ,
16892-432: The incident, including excerpts from correspondence between the involved parties, which was later challenged in two books, The Assailant Assailed and A Defense of Edmund Kean, Esq . The result was loss of face on both sides, and the play being performed anyway on 3 April 1819 to a disastrous reception, thanks to the controversy already surrounding the play and Kean's previous conduct. On 29 November 1820, Kean appeared for
17056-544: The indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques , allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline , for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees." The actors in Shakespeare's company included
17220-475: The king. Executive producer Pippa Harris commented, "By filming the Henry VI plays as well as Richard III , we will allow viewers to fully appreciate how such a monstrous tyrant could find his way to power, bringing even more weight and depth to this iconic character." The 2010 film, The King's Speech , features a scene where the king's speech therapist Lionel Logue , as played by Geoffrey Rush , auditions for
17384-424: The last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines , irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In Macbeth , for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "... pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding
17548-426: The last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances ) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest , and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell , two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as
17712-429: The later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances , he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre. Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation , plot, language , and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet , for example, romance had not been viewed as
17876-501: The lyrical Richard II , written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2 , and Henry V . Henry IV features Falstaff , rogue, wit and friend of Prince Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet ,
18040-473: The marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna , baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith , followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at
18204-426: The mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre , in Shoreditch , only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men , a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I , and changed its name to
18368-431: The moral conscience of those around him. Therefore, historical determinism is merely an illusion perpetrated by Richard's assertion of his own free will. The Machiavellian reading of the play finds evidence in Richard's interactions with the audience, as when he mentions that he is "determinèd to prove a villain" (I.i.30). However, though it seems Richard views himself as completely in control, Lull suggests that Shakespeare
18532-902: The most important English poet after Shakespeare, wrote in tribute: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment/ Hast built thyself a live-long monument." Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy , William Faulkner , and Charles Dickens . The American novelist Herman Melville 's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero , inspired by King Lear . Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works, including Felix Mendelssohn 's overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sergei Prokofiev 's ballet Romeo and Juliet . His work has inspired several operas, among them Giuseppe Verdi 's Macbeth , Otello and Falstaff , whose critical standing compares with that of
18696-428: The most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon , Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway , with whom he had three children: Susanna , and twins Hamnet and Judith . Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of
18860-414: The murderers explains that Richard hates him and indeed sent them. Clarence pleads again but is stabbed and drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine (the year 1478). The compacted nobles pledge absent enmities before Edward, and Elizabeth asks him to pardon his brother Clarence. Richard reveals that Clarence is dead on the king's own orders. Edward, who is ill and near death, is much upset by this news, expecting
19024-433: The mutines in the bilboes. Rashly— And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well ... After Hamlet , Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In
19188-416: The nature of the characters' relationships. A further reason for abridgment is that Shakespeare assumed his audiences' familiarity with his Henry VI plays, frequently referring to these plays. The play begins with Richard of Gloucester, the youngest brother of King Edward IV of England , describing Edward's re-accession to the throne (implying the year is 1471, after the Battle of Tewkesbury ): Now
19352-416: The new Chosen People". However, historical fatalism is merely one side of the argument of fate versus free will . It is also possible that Shakespeare intended to portray Richard as "a personification of the Machiavellian view of history as power politics". In this view, Richard is acting entirely out of his own free will in brutally taking hold of the English throne. Kiernan also presents this side of
19516-496: The night. He was presented with a tame lion with which he might be found playing in his drawing-room. The prize-fighters Mendoza and Richmond the Black were among his visitors and Henry Grattan was his devoted friend. In his earlier days, François Talma said of him, "He is a magnificent uncut gem; polish and round him off and he will be a perfect tragedian." William Macready , who was much impressed by Kean's Richard III and met
19680-548: The old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia . According to the critic Frank Kermode , "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In Macbeth , the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth , to murder
19844-503: The order of execution to have been stopped in time, and Richard openly blames those attending Edward. When Edward dies, Richard becomes Protector (1483). Several prominent officials in Edward's court have been imprisoned. His two young boys, including the uncrowned Edward V , are coaxed by Richard into an extended stay at the Tower of London . Assisted by his cousin Buckingham , Richard mounts
20008-463: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI , written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama . Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus , The Comedy of Errors , The Taming of
20172-581: The play "Kean" by Jean-Paul Sartre as well as a play by Alexandre Dumas , entitled Kean, ou Désordre et génie , in which the actor Frédérick Lemaître achieved one of his greatest triumphs. In 1924 director Alexandre Volkoff adapted the Dumas play into a French silent feature film starring Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine , who was then living in Paris. Kean: Genius or Scoundrel (Italian: Kean - Genio e sregolatezza) co-written, directed by and starring Vittorio Gassman,
20336-478: The pre-1623 versions as " bad quartos " because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the others . The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers . In some cases, for example, Hamlet , Troilus and Cressida, and Othello , Shakespeare could have revised
20500-452: The published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with
20664-427: The restraint intolerable, however, he went to sea as a cabin boy at Portsmouth . Finding life at sea even more restricting, however, he pretended to be both deaf and lame so skillfully that he deceived the doctors at Madeira . On his return to England, he sought the protection of his uncle, Moses Kean, a mimic, ventriloquist and general entertainer who, besides continuing his pantomimic studies, introduced him to
20828-466: The rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus , contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot . Eliot wrote, "Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from
20992-465: The role by reciting the lines, "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York". Shakespeare critic Keith Jones believes that the film in general sets up its main character as a kind of antithesis to Richard III. The same antithesis was noted by conservative commentator Noah Millman. In the Red Dwarf episode " Marooned ", Rimmer objects to Lister 's burning of
21156-477: The role of divine punishment in Richard's rule of England, reaches its height in the voice of Margaret. Janis Lull suggests that "Margaret gives voice to the belief, encouraged by the growing Calvinism of the Elizabethan era, that individual historical events are determined by God, who often punishes evil with (apparent) evil". Thus it seems possible that Shakespeare, in conforming to the growing "Tudor Myth" of
21320-670: The role straight, appeared in a 1965 TV special on the Beatles ' music by reciting " A Hard Day's Night " in the style of Olivier's Richard III. The first episode of the BBC television comedy Blackadder in part parodies the Olivier film, visually (as in the crown motif), Peter Cook's performance as a benevolent Richard, and by mangling Shakespearean text ("Now is the summer of our sweet content made o'ercast winter by these Tudor clouds ...") Richard Loncraine's 1995 film , starring Ian McKellen ,
21484-475: The sexual advances of Venus ; while in The Rape of Lucrece , the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin . Influenced by Ovid 's Metamorphoses , the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint , in which a young woman laments her seduction by
21648-400: The sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart". Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate ... The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe , whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor
21812-702: The source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites , while William Hogarth 's 1745 painting of actor David Garrick playing Richard III was decisive in establishing the genre of theatrical portraiture in Britain. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli , a friend of William Blake , even translated Macbeth into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature. Shakespeare has been
21976-436: The squabbling nobles about Richard, cursing extensively. The nobles, all Yorkists , unite against this last Lancastrian and ignore her warnings. Richard orders two murderers to assassinate Clarence. The murderers arrive at the Tower with a warrant and, while they ponder how to carry out the deed, Clarence wakes and pleads for his life, telling them to go to Richard, who will reward them better for having kept him alive. One of
22140-489: The stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008: Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yͭ moves my bones. Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones. Some time before 1623,
22304-590: The story. Richard immediately establishes a connection with the audience with his opening monologue. In the soliloquy he admits his amorality to the audience but at the same time treats them as if they were co-conspirators in his plotting; one may well be enamored of his rhetoric while being appalled by his actions. Richard shows off his wit in Act I, as seen in the interchanges with Lady Anne (Act I, Scene II) and his brother Clarence (Act I, Scene I). In his dialogues in Act I, Richard knowingly refers to thoughts he has only previously shared with
22468-437: The study of Shakespeare . At the same time, Charlotte Tidswell , an actress who had been especially kind to him from infancy, taught him the principles of acting. On the death of his uncle, she took charge of him, and he began the systematic study of the principal Shakespearean characters, displaying the peculiar originality of his genius with interpretations entirely different from those of John Philip Kemble , then considered
22632-457: The terrific dramatic illusion. His main disadvantage as an actor was his small stature. Coleridge said, "Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." His eccentricities at the height of his fame were numerous. For example, he chose his dinner according to the role he was to play: for a tyrant he would eat pork, for a murderer beef and for a lover mutton. Sometimes he would ride recklessly on his horse, Shylock, throughout
22796-654: The texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear , however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion. In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague , Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece . He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton . In Venus and Adonis , an innocent Adonis rejects
22960-479: The title role, was discovered by a private collector and donated to the American Film Institute . The 55-minute film is considered to be the earliest surviving American feature film. In the out-take interviews of the 1983 Brian De Palma classic Scarface , writer Oliver Stone indicated that his pre-script influences had included William Shakespeare's Richard III. In 2002 the story of Richard III
23124-540: The tragic ending to Shakespeare's King Lear , which since 1681 had been replaced on stage by Nahum Tate 's happy ending adaptation The History of King Lear . Kean had previously acted Tate's Lear, but told his wife that the London audience "have no notion of what I can do till they see me over the dead body of Cordelia." Kean played the tragic Lear for a few performances. They were not well received, though one critic described his dying scene as "deeply affecting"; with regret, Kean reverted to Tate. Kean's lifestyle became
23288-402: The vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton . Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From
23452-504: The whole British Museum ." In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline , The Winter's Tale , and The Tempest , as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre . Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of
23616-401: The women's identification with the social group and Richard's individualism". Haeffner agrees that Richard is "an individualist, hating dignity and formality". Janis Lull also takes special notice of the mourning women. She suggests that they are associated with "figures of repetition as anaphora—beginning each clause in a sequence with the same word—and epistrophe—repeating the same word at
23780-429: The works attributed to him were written by others . Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet , Othello , King Lear and Macbeth , all considered to be among the finest works in English. In
23944-459: The works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe , by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca . The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it has an identical plot but different wording as another play with a similar name. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona , in which two friends appear to approve of rape,
24108-482: The world's stage to the grave's tiring room." He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney , a vintner , two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas
24272-544: The young Elizabeth of York , Edward IV's next remaining heir, and kills Lady Anne by poison so he can be free to woo this younger Elizabeth. Richard's mother, the Duchess of York , and the older Elizabeth mourn the princes' deaths. As prophesied, Queen Elizabeth asks Queen Margaret for help in cursing Richard. Later, the Duchess applies this lesson and curses her only surviving son before fleeing. Richard asks Queen Elizabeth to help him win her daughter Elizabeth's hand in marriage. She
24436-405: Was "joy". This is employed in Act I, Scene III, where it is used to show "deliberate emotional effect". Another word that Haeffner points out is "kind", which he suggests is used with two different definitions. The first definition is used to express a "gentle and loving" man, which Clarence uses to describe his brother Richard to the murderers that were sent to kill him. This definition
24600-633: Was an English playwright , poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon " (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations , consist of some 39 plays , 154 sonnets , three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably
24764-539: Was booed and pelted with fruit when he re-appeared at Drury Lane, nearly compelling him to retire permanently into private life. For many years, he lived at Keydell House , Horndean . He also used Walnut Tree Cottage as his residence in the Middlesex village of North End , much closer to London. A second visit to America in 1825 was largely a repetition of the persecution which he had suffered in England. Some cities showed him
24928-530: Was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy , a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall . After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher , who succeeded him as
25092-433: Was close upon him, he was so feverish that he exclaimed, "If I succeed I shall go mad." As he was unable to afford medical treatment for some time, his elder son died the day after he signed the three-year Drury Lane contract. His opening at Drury Lane on 26 January 1814 as Shylock roused the audience to almost uncontrollable enthusiasm. Contemporaries recognized that Kean had brought dignity and humanity to his portrayal of
25256-474: Was directed by Rowland V. Lee . The film was later remade by Roger Corman in 1962 with Vincent Price (who had played Clarence in Lee's film) in the lead role. While both films are influenced by the characterisation and structure of Shakespeare's play, neither includes any dialogue from it. The most famous player of the part in recent times was Laurence Olivier in his 1955 film version . Olivier's film incorporates
25420-495: Was in the impersonation of the great creations of Shakespeare's genius that the varied beauty and grandeur of the acting of Kean were displayed in their highest form, although probably his most powerful character was Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger 's A New Way to Pay Old Debts , the effect of his first performance of which was such that the pit rose en masse, and even the actors and actresses themselves were overcome by
25584-563: Was living in the parish of St Helen's , Bishopsgate , north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear. Nicholas Rowe
25748-470: Was not big enough for him. Then, after a performance in February 1819 where Kean went out of his way to botch the opening night of Switzerland , a play by historical novelist Jane Porter , for whom Kean had had a personal dislike, Bucke pulled the play out of contempt for Kean's conduct. After much cajoling by the theater staff to perform the play, Mr. Bucke then later had it republished with a preface concerning
25912-552: Was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family. Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who
26076-535: Was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into
26240-473: Was re-told in a movie about gang culture called King Rikki (also known as The Street King ). In 2017, Italian director Roberta Torre realized a musical drama film, inspired by Shakespeare's play, named Bloody Richard . The BBC Television Shakespeare version, first broadcast in 1983, starred Ron Cook as Richard. BBC Two aired a new adaptation of Richard III in 2016 as part of The Hollow Crown series, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing
26404-407: Was so great that he himself said on one occasion, "I could not feel the stage under me." In 1817, a local playwright named Charles Bucke submitted his play The Italians, or; The Fatal Accusation to Drury Lane, for which Kean was to play the lead. The play was well received by both council and actors until Kean seemed to have a change of heart and began to make several offhand remarks that his part
26568-460: Was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway . The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded
26732-536: Was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnson , that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans , the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges , Condell , Shakespeare, etc.". However, it
26896-429: Was ultimately received with favour, but by now he was so dependent on the use of stimulants that the gradual deterioration of his gifts was inevitable. Still, his great powers triumphed during the moments of his inspiration over the absolute wreck of his physical faculties. His appearance in Paris was a failure owing to a fit of drunkenness. He appeared in the title part of Ben Nazir by Thomas Colley Grattan in 1827 as
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