o \William Shakespeare
was born in 1564 at Stratford, a market town on the river Avon in Warwickshire.
Little known about his life in between 1579 and 1592. Died in 1616.
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The Catalogue of ‘the
First Folio’ of Shakespeare’s plays, published by his fellow actors Heminges
and Condell in 1623, in which eighteen of the plays were printed for
the first time. Cymbeline is listed as a tragedy rather than a comedy.
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Folio-Leaf of paper. A
printer’s term for a largeformat book made of leaves of 14" by
20", folded once to make 2 leaves (4 pages). In a quarto book each
leaf is folded twice, making 4 leaves (8 pages).
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The Folio is prefaced by
a poem by Ben Jonson (1572-16), who in 1616 had published his own Works as
if he were a classical author. In To the memory of my beloved, the author
Mr William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us.
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First purpose based
permanent public theatre was built by James Burbage, a
carpenter-actor-impression, The Theatre for the Earl of Leicester’s players.
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Shakespeare wrote ten
English Histories.
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First instant of female
cross dressing found in The Two Gentleman of Verona.
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The Comedy of Errors based
on Roman comedy Plutus (245-184 BC)
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A midsummer Night’s Dream,
a play involving four marriages. The source for the Athenian parts of the story
is Chaucer’s knight tale. Puck, servant to the classical Oberon and Titania is
a creature from English folklore. Thisbe and Pyramus, a love-tragedy from
Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
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Problem plays- Measure
for Measure and Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
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In 1593-4 Shakespeare wrote
Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece both these are narrative
verse of sexual passion.
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Julius Caesar is
based on Thomas North’s 1579 version’s Plutarch’s the Noble Grecious and
Romans.
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Closet drama- written
to be read, not performed.
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Nahum Tate had
adapted Lear in 1681 to give it a happy ending in which Edgar marries
Cordelia.
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Evelyn Waugh’s A Hand of dust (1934), the hero
is forced to read aloud to a madman in the jungle the complete works of
Dickens. After that he read Shakespeare.
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