SHAKESPEARE (GENERALE)
THE FIRST FOLIO: Shakespeare’s works were publicated in 1623 by two actors of his company in a complete
edition called “The First Folio”, which contains 36 plays in all. They’re not given in chronological order, but
according to genre, so we have 3 types of plays : comedies, historical plays and tragedies.
DRAMATIC WORKS: Shakespeare also wrote 38 dramatic plays and it’s possible that he wrote other
dramatic plays in collaboration, as a common habit of his time. There are three types of dramatic works in
his career: tragedies, hystory plays and comedies (or romance). We can divide Shakespeare’s career in 4
most important phases:
-The years of apprenticeship
-The years of hystory plays and love comedies
-The years of great tragedies and dark comedies
-The years of romances
1) THE YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIP: First of all, we have to say that he was just young and so he started
experimenting with dramas, so he wasn’t an “apprentice” in the real sense of the word. At the beginning,
he experimented with lots of dramatic genres, so we have:
-HYSTORICAL OR CHRONICAL PLAYS: They consist in plays which have English Hystorical characters or
events as main subject of the play. (Example: Richard III or Henry VI)
-TRAGEDIES OF HORROR: They’re based on Seneca’s Latin tragedies, so there are murders and physical
violence.
-REFINED LOVE COMEDIES: They’re characterized by the use of love conventions of his time and they show
the Shakespeare’s familiarity with the habits of nobiliarity. (Example: Romeo and Juliet, The two gentlemen
of Verona and Love’s labour lost)
It’s during this years that he wrote two of his masterpieces: Romeo and Juliet (tragedy) and A Midsummer
night’s dream (comedy).
2) HISTORY PLAYS AND LOVE COMEDIES: In this phase of his career (1590-1600) , Shakespeare
experimented the most with these two kind of plays. Here he describes not only a character, such as
Richard III or Henry IV, but also crucial periodo of English history, for examole The Wars of Roses. His plays
can be considered ‘frescoes’ of the struggle for power,love and property. There are 10 different English
hystorical figures described in his plays (from John to Henry VIII) and classical hystory characters (Julius
Caesar,Mark Anthony) .
During this period we can find comedies too. They’re different from comedies of early years because all the
characters are complex, love conventions are exploited ,so Shakespeare uses phychology of love and plays
a language in less obvious manner. (Examples: The merchant of Venice,Much Ado About Nothing, The
twelfth night, As you like it)
THE IMPORTANCE OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS FOR HYSTORICAL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS:
Tudor propaganda
Show the dangers of civil war and celebrate the founders of the Tudor dynasty
