The many genres that william shakespeare wrote

Some time beforea 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 NestorSocratesand Virgil. Shakespeare's plays and William Shakespeare's collaborations Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays by an unknown 19th-century artist Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, and critics agree that Shakespeare did the same, mostly early and late in his career.

I'm not exactly sure why. It doesn't present many of the elements generally admired in drama. Not much scintillating wit. William Shakespeare, if that was his real name, was an obscure writer of Elizabethan entertainments about whom little is known The poet and playwright generally considered the greatest ever is also one of the least known of all literary figures.

His works were indeed created for the popular entertainment of his day with little thought to their immortality. Shakespeare did not take any steps to preserve his writings past their immediate use. Fortunately his friends did. With all the academic study of Shakespeare and the trappings of fine culture that have been wrapped around productions of his dramas over the centuries, we often forget what a rollicking, bawdy, violent and entertaining spectacle his plays presented to their original audiences—and still can to modern audiences, in the right hands.

Not that his writing is not also profound and deeply moving. Like Chaucer before him and later great English writers like Henry Fielding and Charles DickensShakespeare was able to engage the mind, the heart and more primitive parts of the human psyche all at once.

So first a little of what we know about Shakespeare's life and career, then we'll get into what his work was all about. What we know of Shakespeare's life and career Shakespeare was born and raised at Stratford-upon-Avon, the eldest son of a glover and a member of the local gentry.

Contrary to those who claim such an ignorant country bumpkin could not write the plays attrributed to him, he likely had a good education for his time, attending a local grammar school giving him a grounding in the Latin classics and in British literature and history, from which many of his dramatic plots are taken.

At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna born and the twins Hamnet and Judith born He may have worked as a schoolmaster until moving to London in the late s on his own under unknown circumstances, possibly to flee poaching charges, according to one legend—or possibly running off with a travelling theatrical troupe to escape the confines of smalltown, domestic life.

Nothing is known about how he became involved in the theatre and became a writer, but he apparently was becoming known as an actor and playwright byjudging by a comment from a rival then about an "upstart crow".

Shakespeare's Plays: Common Questions about Shakespeare's Plays

From the early s untilShakespeare wrote at least 36 plays—more if you count collaborations and plays that may have been lost—plus at least two long poems and one collection of poetry. The plays are traditionally divided into three categories: These groupings are rough approximations however.

Several of the so-called comedies are dark enough to be considered tragicomedies. The "tragedies" taking place in the ancient world are thematically similar to "histories", but the latter term is reserved for British subject matter.

And some of the "histories" are quite comical. His earliest plays to be produced in London to some acclaim are thought to be the last two or all three parts of Henry VI around — It is not certain whether he wrote all or just parts of these inferior histories.

These first efforts may have been followed by the first part of Henry VI, written as a prequel to the other two parts, and several more early plays, including the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, the still-controvesial comedy The Taming of the Shrew, and the durable history Richard III.

His first published works, however, were the long poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece His famous Sonnets were also likely begun in the early s, though they were not collected and published together until Inhis son Hamnet died at age eleven.

It is unknown how closely Shakespeare had been in contact with his family or how deeply he was affected by the death of his only son, though the heaviness of his plays to come may not be coincidental.

Over the next nine years were performed the renowned tragedies Julius CaesarHamlet the similarity of the name to that of Shakespeare's has been notedOthelloKing LearMacbethAntony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, as well as the ever-popular light comedy Twelfth Night; and several of his ambiguously dark comedies like Measure for Measure.

In they took over the indoor Blackfriars Theatre, for which Shakespeare wrote his last romantic comedies, probably with some collaboration from other playwrights: Pericles, Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale. The final play written entirely by Shakespeare before retirement at the ripe old age of 47 is The Tempest in It is thought he then returned to Stratford-on-Avon, presumably to live the life of a provincial gentleman with his surviving family in the town's second-biggest house purchased with his theatrical earnings.

He does seem to have continued to spend some time in London drama circles though, helping to write Henry VIII and possibly two other plays in For the theatre, Shakespeare wrote comedies, tragedies, and histories. He also wrote poetry, including a famous series OS sonnets.

William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. [2] He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: All 37 plays, sonnets and 5 poetry books - Ebook written by William Shakespeare, General Press.

genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Instead of centering on love for a particular person, as has many other sonneteers, he wrote an. William "Old Billy Shakey" Shakespeare, also known as Darth Shakespeare, Destroyer of worlds by his German name Wilhelm Scheißehosen, was a writer and poet who wrote text books for generations of bored regardbouddhiste.com are called 'Comedies', 'Tragedies', 'Histories' and 'Sonnets' but all add up to hours of boredom, incomprehension and derision when taught in class.

There are three main categories that William Shakespeare's work can be divided into: sonnets, plays and poems. There are four sub-categories that the plays can be divided into: comedies, tragedies, romances and historical pieces.

The romance category encompasses the smallest group of plays.

While. No matter what they were named, William Shakespeare’s plays would still be great works of art, so it may not matter what we call them.

Generally though, Shakespeare wrote three types of plays: Tragedy, Comedy, and History. These names help us understand the .