Shakespeare in a nutshell
Shakespeare
in a nutshell by bunpeiris
to have lived in the golden age [Queen Elizabeth’s reign: 1558–1603] of
English history, or was it the golden age that was fortunate to have him?
the best of the literary works comes into life in the worst of times: the
living testimony towards such a persuasion comes in the form of no less than the glorious
literature of Russia. The best of the literary works of Russia [Crime &
Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1866; War and peace by Tolstoy in 1869] had all
sprung up during the worst of its times [czarist autocracies: reign of
Alexander 111 1845-1894; reign of Nicholas 11 1894-1917].
Shakespeare lived in the worst of times, would he have even surpassed his unparalleled
achievements as those stand today? Would he have infused still greater depth of
suffering in the heart of King Lear at the death of his beloved daughter,
Cordelia?
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all?
King Lear (5.3.13)
bunpeiris
A
hush has descebded on the Globe Theatre. Th packed audience of three
thousand-lords, ladies, gentlemen, merchants, tradesmen, sailors, lawyers,
servants, apprentices, schoolboys, prostitutes, brothel keepers, many of whom
have paid only one penny to stand as “groundlings” in front of the stage-are
watching a brand –new play in broad spring daylight.. Richard burbage enters as
the old King Lear. In his arms in his daughter, Cordelia, played by a boy actor.
Burbage fills the rapt silence with sounds of torment even more painful than
his cries of madness on the heath an hour or so earlier. His beloved Cordlia is
“dead as earth”. Nothing as unremittingly bleak has ever been seen on the
English stage. Departing radically from previous telling of the story. Willaim
Shakespeare, the play’s 42 year old author, has been brave to let Cordelia die.
By doing so he has raised stark questions about the nature of existence,
questions raised afreash each time King Lear is performed. Arguably the
greatest of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear is also one of humanity’s finest
artistic achievements.
Stanley Wells: Shakespeare off the record
theater, and his dyer’s hand was steeped in the social and spiritual
contradictions of an age poised between the medieval and the modern.”
the ascension of Elizabeth [1533-1603] to the throne, significant concessions
were extended to the Catholics in appeasement; following the defeat of Spanish
Armada in 1588, England established herself as the leading maritime &
commercial power of the world.
Furthermore, importance of the arts to the life and legacy of her nation was
recognized by Queen Elizabeth [reign: 1558-1603]. The Queen being fond of the
theater, extended Royal patronage to establish professional theaters attracting
15,000 theatergoers per week in London, a city of 150,000 to 250,000. Marlowe’s Doctor
Faustus, Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queen, and Sir
Philip Sidney’s Defence of
Poesie were all
written during this golden age. And Shakespeare was the favourite dramatist
of the queen.
again, following the death of Queen Elizabeth, King James [reign: 1603-1635] heartened the hearts & buoyed up the lives of the dramatists. The king’s men were
frequently summoned to playact at
Whitehall, at Greenwhich, or at Richmond. Shakespeare, who was beieved to had never travelled overseas, probably lend his ears to Sir Fracnis Drake [1540 –1596], who circumnavigated [1577 -1580] only for the second time in mankind, was the second-in-command of the English fleet that blasted off the mighty Spanish Armada in 1588 and to Sir Walter Raleigh [1554 –1618], the
English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, politician,
courtier, spy, and explorer.
James elevated Shakespeare’s theater company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men to the
status of the King’s Men. Will was the enlightening light; Will was the all
consuming fire; Will was the soul enhancing music; Will was the life giving water. He
said it all: all about humanity, human heart being his workshop. Since then he
has been all those & more.
draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;
While I confess thy writings to be such
As neither man nor muse can praise too much;
To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. WilliamShakespeare by Ben Jonson [1572- 1637].
The literary humanist
To
his friend and rival dramatist Ben Jonson, Shakespeare was the Sweet Swan of Avon and not of an age, but for all time, man for all ages. Since Ben Jonson, a stream of literary lumineries have articulated his concise words in longer versions: here goes Joeph Fiennes [born 1970].
When I was preparing to play him in the film Shakespeare in Love, my starting point was that he was an incredible observer of the people around him, soaking up their characteristic like blotting paper. The key is that Will Shakespeare was Everyman; politically his views ranged across the board: in religious matters he was non-committal; sexually he was able to inhabit all points of view. He could deal with everyone from street urchins to monarchs, and he had the same problems as his characters. Being aware of his own doubts & contradictions made him intensly human.
Shakespeare is for all ages, all cosmos
Joseph Fiennes goes on
Despite the huge thrust of technological advance
since the Elizabethen era, the human condition Shakepeare wrote about remains
timeless. We still fall in love &get angry and avaricious; we are
materiliastic or fanatical or seek spoirtually. Here was a man who understood
all the pain of being human, yet loved life & humour& fun. Put simply,
he was one of the greatest-ever literary humanists.
emotion Stanley Wells: Shakespeare off the record
Over the past four centuries, Shakespeare’s iconic status as a poet & dramatist
has come to represent what it means to be a genius, and his words have provided
a language of self expression for every human emotion. Shakepeare is cited as
an athourity in moral, political and cultural contexts that even he could have
never dreamed of. His very name can stimulate approval, challenge, argument,
lunacy, brilliance and, occassinlay, especially among schoolchildren, boredom.
Shakespeare’s legacy represents more than the story of a life & its age; it
has dominated artistic & cultural endeavour in every generation that has
followed him.
light of Shakepearan works, Harold Bloom [born 1930] 1930 would go further: Shakespeare
“essentially invented human personality as we continue to know and value
it.”
“Before Hamlet taught us not to have faith
either in language or in ourselves, being human was much simpler for us but
also rather less interesting,” Bloom writes. “Shakespeare, through
Hamlet, has made us skeptics in our relationships with anyone, because we have
learned to doubt articulateness in the realm of affection.”
