Биография Вильяма Шекспира (SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM), подробный обзор его творчества.

Учебный материал РОССИЙСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ РЕФЕРАТОВ с 1996 httpreferat.students.ru httpwww.referats.net httpwww.referats.com SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM Shakespeare the man LIFE Although the amount of factual knowledge available about Shakespeare is surprisingly large for one of his station in life, many find it a little disappointing, for it is mostly gleaned from documents of an official character.

Dates of baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials wills, conveyances, legal processes, and payments by the court these are the dusty details. There are, however, a fair number of contemporary allusions to him as a writer, and these add a reasonable amount of flesh and blood to the biographical skeleton. Early life in Stratford. The parish register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, shows that he was baptized there on

April 26, 1564 his birthday is traditionally celebrated on April 23. His father, John Shakespeare, was a burgess of the borough, who in 1565 was chosen an alderman and in 1568 bailiff the position corresponding to mayor, before the grant of a further charter to Stratford in 1664. He was engaged in various kinds of trade and appears to have suffered some fluctuations in prosperity. His wife, Mary Arden, of Wilmcote, Warwickshire, came from an ancient family and was

the heiress to some land. Given the somewhat rigid social distinctions of the 16th century, this marriage must have been a step up the social scale for John Shakespeare. Stratford enjoyed a grammar school of good quality, and the education there was free, the schoolmasters salary being paid by the borough. No lists of the pupils who were at the school in the 16th century have survived, but it would be absurd to suppose the bailiff of the town did not send his son

there. The boys education would consist mostly of Latin studies learning to read, write, and speak the language fairly well and studying some of the classical historians, moralists, and poets. Shakespeare did not go on to the university, and indeed it is unlikely that the tedious round of logic, rhetoric, and other studies then followed there would have interested him. Instead, at the age of 18 he married. Where and exactly when are not known, but the episcopal registry

at Worcester preserves a bond dated November 28, 1582, and executed by two yeomen of Stratford, named Sandells and Richardson, as a security to the bishop for the issue of a license for the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway of Stratford, upon the consent of her friends and upon once asking of the banns. Anne died in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare.

There is good evidence to associate her with a family of Hathaways who inhabited a beautiful farmhouse, now much visited, two miles from Stratford. The next date of interest is found in the records of the Stratford church, where a daughter, named Susanna, born to William Shakespeare, was baptized on May 26, 1583.

On February 2, 1585, twins were baptized, Hamnet and Judith. The boy Hamnet, Shakespeares only son, died 11 years later. How Shakespeare spent the next eight years or so, until his name begins to appear in London theatre records, is not known. There are stories given currency long after his death of stealing deer and getting into trouble with a local magnate,

Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Stratford of earning his living as a schoolmaster in the country of going to London and gaining entry to the world of theatre by minding the horses of theatregoers it has also been conjectured that Shakespeare spent some time as a member of a great household and that he was a soldier, perhaps in the Low Countries. In lieu of external evidence, such extrapolations about Shakespeares life have often been made from the internal evidence of his writings.

But this method is unsatisfactory one cannot conclude, for example, from his allusions to the law that Shakespeare was a lawyer for he was clearly a writer, who without difficulty could get whatever knowledge he needed for the composition of his plays. Career in the theatre. The first reference to Shakespeare in the literary world of London comes in 1592, when a fellow dramatist, Robert

Greene, declared in a pamphlet written on his deathbed There is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. It is difficult to be certain what these words mean but it is clear that they

are insulting and that Shakespeare is the object of the sarcasms. When the book in which they appear Greenes groats-worth of witte, bought with a million of repentance, 1592 was published after Greenes death, a mutual acquaintance wrote a preface offering an apology to Shakespeare and testifying to his worth. This preface also indicates that Shakespeare was by then making important friends. For, although the puritanical city of

London was generally hostile to the theatre, many of the nobility were good patrons of the drama and friends of actors. Shakespeare seems to have attracted the attention of the young Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd earl of Southampton and to this nobleman were dedicated his first published poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. One striking piece of evidence that Shakespeare began to prosper early and tried to retrieve the family fortunes and establish its gentility

is the fact that a coat of arms was granted to John Shakespeare in 1596. Rough drafts of this grant have been preserved in the College of Arms, London, though the final document, which must have been handed to the Shakespeares, has not survived. It can scarcely be doubted that it was William who took the initiative and paid the fees.

The coat of arms appears on Shakespeares monument constructed before 1623 in the Stratford church. Equally interesting as evidence of Shakespeares worldly success was his purchase in 1597 of New Place, a large house in Stratford, which as a boy he must have passed every day in walking to school. It is not clear how his career in the theatre began but from about 1594 onward he was an important

member of the company of players known as the Lord Chamberlains Men called the Kings Men after the accession of James I in 1603. They had the best actor, Richard Burbage they had the best theatre, the Globe they had the best dramatist, Shakespeare. It is no wonder that the company prospered. Shakespeare became a full-time professional man of his own theatre, sharing in a cooperative enterprise

and intimately concerned with the financial success of the plays he wrote. Unfortunately, written records give little indication of the way in which Shakespeares professional life molded his marvellous artistry. All that can be deduced is that for 20 years Shakespeare devoted himself assiduously to his art, writing more than a million words of poetic drama of the highest quality.

Private life. Shakespeare had little contact with officialdom, apart from walking dressed in the royal livery as a member of the Kings Men at the coronation of King James I in 1604. He continued to look after his financial interests. He bought properties in London and in Stratford. In 1605 he purchased a share about one-fifth of the Stratford tithes a fact that explains why he was eventually buried in the chancel of its parish church.

For some time he lodged with a French Huguenot family called Mountjoy, who lived near St. Olaves Church, Cripplegate, London. The records of a lawsuit in May 1612, due to a Mountjoy family quarrel, show Shakespeare as giving evidence in a genial way though unable to remember certain important facts that would have decided the case and as interesting himself generally in the

familys affairs. No letters written by Shakespeare have survived, but a private letter to him happened to get caught up with some official transactions of the town of Stratford and so has been preserved in the borough archives. It was written by one Richard Quiney and addressed by him from the Bell Inn in Carter Lane, London, whither he had gone from

Stratford upon business. On one side of the paper is inscribed To my loving good friend and countryman, Mr. Wm. Shakespeare, deliver these. Apparently Quiney thought his fellow Stratfordian a person to whom he could apply for the loan of 30 a large sum in Elizabethan money. Nothing further is known about the transaction, but, because so few opportunities of seeing into Shakespeares private life present themselves, this begging letter becomes

a touching document. It is of some interest, moreover, that 18 years later Quineys son Thomas became the husband of Judith, Shakespeares second daughter. Shakespeares will made on March 25, 1616 is a long and detailed document. It entailed his quite ample property on the male heirs of his elder daughter, Susanna. Both his daughters were then married, one to the aforementioned

Thomas Quiney and the other to John Hall, a respected physician of Stratford. As an afterthought, he bequeathed his second-best bed to his wife but no one can be certain what this notorious legacy means. The testators signatures to the will are apparently in a shaky hand. Perhaps Shakespeare was already ill. He died on April 23, 1616. No name was inscribed on his gravestone in the chancel of the parish church of

Stratford-upon-Avon. Instead these lines, possibly his own, appeared Good friend, for Jesus sake forbearTo dig the dust enclosed here.Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones. EARLY POSTHUMOUS DOCUMENTATION Shakespeares family or friends, however, were not content with a simple gravestone, and, within a few years, a monument was erected on the chancel wall.

It seems to have existed by 1623. Its epitaph, written in Latin and inscribed immediately below the bust, attributes to Shakespeare the worldly wisdom of Nestor, the genius of Socrates, and the poetic art of Virgil. This apparently was how his contemporaries in Stratford-upon-Avon wished their fellow citizen to be remembered.

CHRONOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARES PLAYS Despite much scholarly argument, it is often impossible to date a given play precisely. But there is a general consensus, especially for plays written 1585-1601, 1605-07, and 1609 onward. The following list of first performances is based on external and internal evidence, on general stylistic and thematic considerations, and on the observation that an output of no more than two plays a year seems to have been established in those periods when dating is rather clearer

than others. 1589-92 Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 1592-93 Richard III, The Comedy of Errors 1593-94 Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew 1594-95 The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Loves Labours Lost, Romeo and Juliet 1595-96 Richard II, A Midsummer

Nights Dream 1596-97 King John, The Merchant of Venice 1597-98 Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 1598-99 Much Ado About Nothing c. 1599 Henry V 1599-1600 Julius Caesar, As You Like It 1600-01 Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor 1601-02 Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida 1602-03

Alls Well That Ends Well 1604-05 Measure For Measure, Othello 1605-06 King Lear, Macbeth 1606-07 Antony and Cleopatra 1607-08 Coriolanus, Timon of Athens 1608-09 Pericles 1609-10 Cymbeline 1610-11 The Winters Tale c. 1611 The Tempest 1612-13 Henry VIII, The Two Noble

Kinsmen Shakespeares two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, can be dated with certainty to the years when the Plague stopped dramatic performances in London, in 1592 and 1593-94, respectively, just before their publication. But the sonnets offer many and various problems they cannot have been written all at one time, and most scholars set them within the period 1593-1600.

The Phoenix and the Turtle can be dated 1600-01. PUBLICATION During Shakespeares early career, dramatists invariably sold their plays to an actors company, who then took charge of them, prepared working promptbooks, and did their best to prevent another company or a publisher from getting copies in this way they could exploit the plays themselves for as long as they drew an audience. But some plays did get published, usually in small books called quartos.

Occasionally plays were pirated, the text being dictated by one or two disaffected actors from the company that had performed it or else made up from shorthand notes taken surreptitiously during performance and subsequently corrected during other performances parts 2 and 3 of the Henry VI 1594 and 1595 and Hamlet 1603 quartos are examples of pirated, or bad, texts. Sometimes an authors foul papers his first complete draft or his fair copy or a transcript of either

of these got into a publishers hands, and good quartos were printed from them, such as those of Titus Andronicus 1594, Loves Labours Lost 1598, and Richard II 1597. After the publication of bad quartos of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet 1597, the Chamberlains Men probably arranged for the release of the foul papers so that second good quartos could supersede

the garbled versions already on the market. This company had powerful friends at court, and in 1600 a special order was entered in the Stationers Register to stay the publication of As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and Henry V, possibly in order to assure that good texts were available. Subsequently Henry V 1600 was pirated, and Much Ado About Nothing was printed from foul papers

As You Like It did not appear in print until it was included in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories Tragedies, published in folio the reference is to the size of page by a syndicate in 1623 later editions appearing in 1632 and 1663. The only precedent for such a collected edition of public theatre plays in a handsome folio volume was Ben Jonsons collected plays of 1616. Shakespeares folio included 36 plays,

22 of them appearing for the first time in a good text. For the Third Folio reissue of 1664, Pericles was added from a quarto text of 1609, together with six apocryphal plays. The First Folio texts were prepared by John Heminge and Henry Condell two of Shakespeares fellow sharers in the Chamberlains, now the Kings, Men, who made every effort to present the volume worthily.

Only about 230 copies of the First Folio are known to have survived. The following list gives details of plays first published individually and indicates the authority for each substantive edition. Q stands for Quarto Q2, Q3, Q4, etc stand for reprints of an original quarto. F stands for the First Folio edition of 1623. Henry

VI, Part 2 Q 1594 a reported text. F from revised fair copies, edited with reference to Q. Titus Andronicus Q 1594 from foul papers. F from a copy of Q, with additions from a manuscript that had been used as a promptbook. Henry VI, Part 3 Q 1595 a reported text. F as for Henry VI, Part 2. Richard III Q 1597 a reconstructed text prepared for use as a promptbook.

F from reprints of Q, edited with reference to foul papers and containing some 200 additional lines. Loves Labours Lost Q is lost. Q2 1598 from foul papers, and badly printed. F from Q2. Romeo and Juliet Q 1597 a reported text. Q2 from foul papers, with some reference to Q. F from a reprint of Q2. Richard II Q 1597 from foul papers and missing the abdication scene.

Q4 1608, with reported version of missing scene. F from reprints of Q, but the abdication scene from an authoritative manuscript, probably the promptbook of which traces appear elsewhere in F. Henry IV, Part 1 Q 1598 from foul papers. F from Q5, with some literary editing. A Midsummer Nights Dream Q 1600 from the authors fair copy. F from

Q2, with some reference to a promptbook. The Merchant of Venice Q 1600 from foul papers. F from Q, with some reference to a promptbook. Henry IV, Part 2 Q 1600 from foul papers. F from Q, with reference to a promptbook. Much Ado About Nothing Q 1600 from the authors fair papers. F from Q, with reference to a promptbook. Henry V

Q 1600 a reported text. F from foul papers possibly of a second version of the play. The Merry Wives of Windsor Q 1602 a reported and abbreviated text. F from a transcript, by Ralph Crane scrivener of the Kings Men, of a revised promptbook. Hamlet Q 1603 a reported text, with reference to an earlier play. Q2 from foul papers, with reference to Q. F from Q2, with reference to a promptbook, with theatrical

and authorial additions. King Lear Q 1608 from an inadequate transcript of foul papers, with use made of a reported version. F from Q, collated with a promptbook of a shortened version. Troilus and Cressida Q 1609 from a fair copy, possibly the authors. F from Q, with reference to foul papers, adding 45 lines and the Prologue. Pericles Q 1609 a poor text, badly printed with both auditory and graphic errors.

Othello Q 1622 from a transcript of foul papers. F from Q, with corrections from another authorial version of the play. The plays published for the first time in the First Folio of 1623 are Alls Well That Ends Well From the authors fair papers, or a transcript of them. Antony and Cleopatra From an authorial fair copy.

Henry VI, Part 1 As You Like It From a promptbook, or a transcript of it. The Comedy of Errors From foul papers. Coriolanus From an authorial fair copy, edited for the printer. Cymbeline From an authorial copy, or a transcript of such, imperfectly prepared as a promptbook. Henry VIII From a transcript of a fair copy, made by the author, prepared for reading.

Julius Caesar From a transcript of a promptbook. King John From an authorial fair copy. Macbeth From a promptbook of a version prepared for court performance. Measure for Measure From a transcript, by Ralph Crane, of very imperfect foul papers. The Taming of the Shrew From foul papers. The Tempest From an edited transcript, by Ralph Crane, of the authors papers.

Timon of Athens From foul papers, probably unfinished. Twelfth Night From a promptbook, or a transcript of it. The Two Gentlemen of Verona From a transcript, by Ralph Crane, of a promptbook, probably of a shortened version. The Winters Tale From a transcript, by Ralph Crane, probably from the authors fair copy.

The texts of Venus and Adonis 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece 1594 are remarkably free from errors. Shakespeare presumably furnished a fair copy of each for the printer. He also seems to have read the proofs. The sonnets were published in 1609, but there is no evidence that Shakespeare oversaw their publication. POETIC AND DRAMATIC

POWERS The early poems. Shakespeare dedicated the poem Venus and Adonis to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton, whom he further promised to honour with some graver labour perhaps The Rape of Lucrece, which appeared a year later and was also dedicated to Southampton. As these two poems were something on which

Shakespeare was intending to base his reputation with the public and to establish himself with his patron, they were displays of his virtuosity diploma pieces. They were certainly the most popular of his writings with the reading public and impressed them with his poetic genius. Seven editions of Venus and Adonis had appeared by 1602 and 16 by 1640 Lucrece, a more serious poem, went through eight editions by 1640 and there are numerous allusions to

them in the literature of the time. But after that, until the 19th century, they were little regarded. Even then the critics did not know what to make of them on the one hand, Venus and Adonis is licentiously erotic though its sensuality is often rather comic while Lucrece may seem to be tragic enough, the treatment of the poem is yet somewhat cold and distant. In both cases the poet seems to be displaying dexterity rather than being sincere.

But Shakespeares detachment from his subjects has come to be admired in more recent assessments. Above all, the poems give evidence for the growth of Shakespeares imagination. Venus and Adonis is full of vivid imagery of the countryside birds, beasts, the hunt, the sky, and the weather, the overflowing Avon these give freshness to the poem and contrast strangely with the sensuous love scenes.

Lucrece is more rhetorical and elaborate than Venus and Adonis and also aims higher. Its disquisitions upon night, time, opportunity, and lust, for example anticipate brilliant speeches on general themes in the plays on mercy in The Merchant of Venice, suicide in Hamlet, and degree in Troilus and Cressida. There are a few other poems attributed to

Shakespeare. When the Sonnets were printed in 1609, a 329-line poem, A Lovers complaint, was added at the end of the volume, plainly ascribed by the publisher to Shakespeare. There has been a good deal of discussion about the authorship of this poem. Only the evidence of style, however, could call into question the publishers ascription, and this is conflicting. Parts of the poem and some lines are brilliant, but other parts seem poor in a way that

is not like Shakespeares careless writing. Its narrative structure is remarkable, however, and the poem deserves more attention than it usually receives. It is now generally thought to be from Shakespeares pen, possibly an early poem revised by him at a more mature stage of his poetical style. Whether the poem in its extant form is later or earlier than Venus and Adonis and Lucrece cannot be decided. No one could doubt the authenticity of

The Phoenix and the Turtle, a 67-line poem that appeared with other poetical essays by John Marston, George Chapman, and Ben Jonson appended to Robert Chesters poem Loves Martyr in 1601. The poem is attractive and memorable, but very obscure, partly because of its style and partly because it contains allusions to real persons and situations whose identity can now only be guessed at. The sonnets. In 1609 appeared

SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before Imprinted. At this date Shakespeare was already a successful author, a country gentleman, and an affluent member of the most important theatrical enterprise in London. How long before 1609 the sonnets were written is unknown. The phrase never before imprinted may imply that they had existed for some time but were now at last printed. Two of them nos. 138 and 144 had in fact already appeared in a slightly different form in an

anthology, The Passionate Pilgrime 1599. Shakespeare had certainly written some sonnets by 1598, for in that year Francis Meres, in a survey of literature, made reference to his sugared sonnets among his private friends, but whether these sugared sonnets were those eventually published in 1609 cannot be ascertained Shakespeare may have written other sets of sonnets, now lost. Nevertheless, the sonnets included in The Passionate

Pilgrime are among his most striking and mature, so it is likely that most of the 154 sonnets that appeared in the 1609 printing belong to Shakespeares early 30s rather than to his 40s to the time when he was writing Richard II and Romeo and Juliet rather than when he was writing King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra. But, of course, some of them may belong to any year of Shakespeares life as a poet before 1609. The early plays.

Although the record of Shakespeares early theatrical success is obscure, clearly the newcomer soon made himself felt. His brilliant two-part play on the Wars of the Roses, The Whole Contention between the two Famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke, was among his earliest achievements. He showed, in The Comedy of Errors, how hilariously comic situations could be shot through with wonder

and sentiment. In Titus Andronicus he scored a popular success with tragedy in the high Roman fashion. The Two Gentlemen of Verona was a new kind of romantic comedy. The world has never ceased to enjoy The Taming of the Shrew. Loves Labours Lost is an experiment in witty and satirical observation of society. Romeo and Juliet combines and interconnects a tragic situation with comedy and gaiety.

All this represents the probable achievement of Shakespeares first half-dozen years as a writer for the London stage, perhaps by the time he had reached 30. It shows astonishing versatility and originality. The histories. For his plays on subjects from English history, Shakespeare primarily drew upon Raphael Holinsheds Chronicles, which appeared in 1587, and on

Edward Halls earlier account of The union of the two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre and York 1548. From these and numerous secondary sources he inherited traditional themes the divine right of royal succession, the need for unity and order in the realm, the evil of dissension and treason, the cruelty and hardship of war, the power of money to corrupt, the strength of family ties, the need for human understanding and careful calculation, and the power of

Gods providence, which protected his followers, punished evil, and led England toward the stability of Tudor rule. The Roman plays. After the last group of English history plays, Shakespeare chose to write about Julius Caesar, who held particular fascination for the Elizabethans. Then, for six or seven years Shakespeare did not return to a

Roman theme, but, after completing Macbeth and King Lear, he again used Thomas Norths translation of Plutarch as a source for two more Roman plays, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, both tragedies that seem as much concerned to depict the broad context of history as to present tragic heroes. The great, or middle, comedies. The comedies written between 1596 and 1602 have much in common and

are as well considered together as individually. With the exception of The Merry Wives of Windsor, all are set in some imaginary country. Whether called Illyria, Messina, Venice and Belmont, Athens, or the Forest of Arden, the sun shines as the dramatist wills. A lioness, snakes, magic caskets, fairy spells, identical twins, disguise of sex, the sudden conversion

of a tyrannous duke or the defeat offstage of a treacherous brother can all change the course of the plot and bring the characters to a conclusion in which almost all are happy and just deserts are found. Lovers are young and witty and almost always rich. The action concerns wooing and its conclusion is marriage, beyond which the audience is scarcely concerned. Whether Shakespeares source was an Italian novel The

Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing, an English pastoral tale As You Like It, an Italian comedy the Malvolio story in Twelfth Night, or something of his own invention probably A Midsummer Nights Dream, and parts of each, always in his hands story and sentiments are instinct with idealism and capable of magic transformations. In some ways these are intellectual plays.

Each comedy has a multiple plot and moves from one set of characters to another, between whom Shakespeare invites his audience to seek connections and explanations. Despite very different classes of people or immortals in different strands of the narrative, the plays are unified by Shakespeares idealistic vision and by an implicit judgment of human relationships, and all their characters are brought together with certain significant exceptions at, or near, the end.

The great tragedies. It is a usual and reasonable opinion that Shakespeares greatness is nowhere more visible than in the series of tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Julius Caesar, which was written before these, and Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, which were written after, have many links with the four. But, because of their rather strict relationship with the historical materials, they are best dealt

with in a group by themselves. Timon of Athens, probably written after the above-named seven plays, shows signs of having been unfinished or abandoned by Shakespeare. It has its own splendours but has rarely been considered equal in achievement to the other tragedies of Shakespeares maturity. The dark comedies. Before the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 the country was ill at ease the

House of Commons became more outspoken about monopolies and royal prerogative, and uncertainty about the succession to the throne made the future of the realm unsettled. In 1603 the Plague again struck London, closing the theatres. In 1601 Shakespeares patron, the Earl of Southampton, was arrested on charges of treason he was subsequently released, but such scares did not betoken confidence in the new reign.

About Shakespeares private reaction to these events there can be only speculation, but three of the five plays usually assigned to these years Troilus and Cressida, Alls Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure have become known as dark comedies for their distempered vision of the world. Only during the 20th century have these plays been frequently performed in anything like Shakespeares texts, an indication that their questioning, satiric, intense, and shifting

comedy could not please earlier audiences. The late plays. Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII, written between 1608 and 1612, are commonly known as Shakespeares late plays, or his last plays, and sometimes, with reference to their tragicomic form, they are called his romances. Works written by an author in his 40s hardly deserve to be classified

as late in any critical sense, yet these plays are often discussed as if they had been written by a venerable old author, tottering on the edge of a well-earned grave. On the contrary, Shakespeare must have believed that plenty of writing years lay before him, and indeed the theatrical effectiveness and experimental nature of Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, and The Tempest in particular make them very unlike the fatigued work of

a writer about to break his staff and drown his book. The contribution of textual criticism. The early editors of Shakespeare saw their task chiefly as one of correction and regularization of the faulty printing and imperfect texts of the original editions or their reprints. Many changes in the text of the quartos and folios that are now accepted derive from

Nicholas Rowe 1709 and Alexander Pope 1723-25, but these editors also introduced many thousands of small changes that have since been rejected. Later in the 18th century, editors compiled collations of alternative and rejected readings. Samuel Johnson 1765, Edward Capell 1767-68, and Edmund Malone 1790 were notable pioneers. Their work reached its most comprehensive form in the

Cambridge edition in nine volumes by W.G. Clark, J. Glover, and W.A. Wright, published in 1863-66. A famous one-volume Globe edition of 1864 was based on this Cambridge text. Romeo and Juliet, play by William Shakespeare, performed about 1594-95 and first published in a bad quarto in 1597. The characters of Romeo and Juliet have been depicted in literature, music, dance, and

theatre. The appeal of the young hero and heroine whose families, the Montagues and Capulets, respectively, are implacable enemies is such that they have become, in the popular imagination, the representative type of star-crossed lovers. Shakespeares principal source for the plot was The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet 1562, a long narrative poem by the

English poet Arthur Broke d. 1563. Broke had based his poem on a French translation of a tale by the Italian Matteo Bandello 1485-1561. Shakespeare set the scene in Verona, Italy, during July. Juliet and Romeo meet and fall instantly in love at a masked ball of the Capulets and profess their love when Romeo later visits her at her private balcony in her familys home.

Because the two noble families are enemies, the couple is married secretly by Friar Laurence. When Tybalt, a Capulet, kills Romeos friend Mercutio in a quarrel, Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished to Mantua. Juliets father insists on her marrying Count Paris, and Juliet goes to consult the friar. He gives her a potion that will make her appear to be dead

and proposes that she take it and that Romeo rescue her she complies. Unaware of the friars scheme, Romeo returns to Verona on hearing of Juliets apparent death. He encounters Paris, kills him, and finds Juliet in the burial vault. There he gives her a last kiss and kills himself with poison. Juliet awakens, sees the dead Romeo, and kills herself.

The families learn what has happened and end their feud. The most complex of Shakespeares early plays, Romeo and Juliet is far more than a play of young love or the worlds typical love-tragedy. Weaving together a large number of related impressions and judgments, it is as much about hate as love. It tells of a family and its home as well as a feud and a tragic marriage.

The public life of Verona and the private lives of the Veronese make up the setting for the love of Juliet and Romeo and provide the background against which their love can be assessed. It is not the deaths of the lovers that conclude the play but the public revelation of what has happened, with the admonitions of the Prince and the reconciliation of the two families.

Shakespeare enriched an already old story by surrounding the guileless mutual passion of Romeo and Juliet with the mature bawdry of the other characters the Capulet servants Sampson and Gregory open the play with their fantasies of exploits with the Montague women the tongues of the Nurse and Mercutio are seldom free from sexual matters but the innocence of the lovers is unimpaired. Romeo and Juliet made a strong impression on contemporary audiences.

It was also one of Shakespeares first plays to be pirated a very bad text appeared in 1597. Detestable though it is, this version does derive from a performance of the play, and a good deal of what was seen on stage was recorded. Two years later another version of the play appeared, issued by a different, more respectable publisher, and this is essentially the play known today, for the printer was working from a manuscript fairly close to Shakespeares own.

Yet in neither edition did Shakespeares name appear on the title page, and it was only with the publication of Loves Labours Lost in 1598 that publishers had come to feel that the name of Shakespeare as a dramatist, as well as the public esteem of the company of actors to which he belonged, could make an impression on potential purchasers of playbooks. Bibliographies. WALTER EBISCH and LEVIN L. SCHЬCKING,

A Shakespeare Bibliography 1931, reprinted 1968, and a supplement for the years 1930-35 1937, reissued 1968, are comprehensive. They are updated by GORDON ROSS SMITH, A Classified Shakespeare Bibliography, 1936-1958 1963. JAMES G. McMANAWAY, A Selective Bibliography of Shakespeare Editions, Textual Studies, Commentary 1975, covers more than 4,500 items published between 1930 and 1970,

mainly in English. LARRY S. CHAMPION, The Essential Shakespeare An Annotated Bibliography of Major Modern Studies, 2nd ed. 1993, includes works in English published from 1900 through 1984. STANLEY WELLS ed Shakespeare, new ed. 1990, provides bibliographies on topics ranging from the poet to the text to the performances. Shakespeare Quarterly publishes an annual classified bibliography.

Shakespeare Survey quarterly publishes annual accounts of Contributions to Shakespearian Study, as well as retrospective articles on work done on particular aspects. A selection of important scholarly essays published during the previous year is collected in Shakespearean Criticism annual.