Shakespeare Also Spelled SHAKSPERE, Byname BARD OF AVON, Or SWAN OF AV

Shakespeare also spelled SHAKSPERE, byname BARD OF AVON, or SWAN OF AVON English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers; but no writer's living reputation can compare with that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time, has been fulfilled. It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity, perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus Shakespeare's merits can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of Elizabethan England. Next ** Contents of this article: Introduction Shakespeare the man Life Early life in Stratford Career in the theatre Private life Early posthumous documentation The tributes of his colleagues Anecdotes and documents Portraits The poet and dramatist The intellectual background Poetic conventions and dramatic traditions Changes in language Shakespeare's literary debts Theatrical conditions Chronology of Shakespeare's plays Publication Poetic and dramatic powers The early poems The sonnets The order of the poems Artistic invention or real experience Human experience in the poems The early plays Henry VI, 1, 2, and 3 The Comedy of Errors Titus Andronicus The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Love's Labour's Lost Romeo and Juliet The histories The Tragedy of King Richard III The Tragedy of King Richard II 1 Henry IV; 2 Henry IV King John Henry V The Roman plays Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus The great, or middle, comedies The outsider Wit and ambiguity The great tragedies Hamlet Othello King Lear Macbeth Timon of Athens The dark comedies Troilus and Cressida All's Well That Ends Well; Measure for Measure The late plays Pericles Cymbeline The Winter's Tale The Tempest Henry VIII Collaborative and attributed plays Shakespeare's reading Understanding Shakespeare Sympathetic exploration of the texts Causes of difficulty Questions of authorship The claims put forward for Bacon Other candidates The case for Shakespeare Linguistic and historical problems Textual and editorial problems Overcoming some difficulties The contribution of textual criticism Historical, linguistic, and dramatic studies Literary criticism Literary critics and the theatre The progress of Shakespeare criticism Shakespeare's influence Major Works Plays Poems Bibliography Modern editions Bibliographies Textual studies Biographies and background studies Critical studies Tools E-mail this article Print this article More About This Topic Article Images Index Entry Internet Links Maps