Overview
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is known as the greatest writer in the English language and dramatist to the world. He wrote over 35 plays, including histories, comedies, and tragedies. His sonnets are a collection of 154, published in 1609. They contain some of the most beautiful love poetry ever written.
Histories
Shakespeare wrote historical dramas that appeared in the First Folio collection. Most of these plays dealt with English history, such as King John and Henry VIII, and a complete series of plays about the Wars of the Roses: Richard II, Richard III, Henry IV parts I and II, Henry V, and Henry VI, parts I, II, and III. As Shakespeare was living during the reign of Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, he wrote to advance the Tudor cause and the Tudor dynasty. Richard III is seen as a monster, and the just end of the York line, Henry VIII ends with the birth of Elizabeth I. Many of his plays that he called comedies and some of his plays that he called tragedies are also historical in nature.
Comedies
In Shakespeare’s time, comedies were plays with happy endings, sometimes with happy marriages, and they were more lighthearted in tone than the histories or tragedies. Some of those comedies include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado about Nothing, and Twelfth Night. Some of his later plays, such as The Tempest, Cymbeline, and A Winter’s Tale came to be known as romances. Plays such as All’s Well that Ends Well and Measure for Measure were also known as problem plays, as they mixed humor and tragedy in an unusual way.
Tragedies
Tragedies present characters in plots that blend death, madness, and murder. Some of Shakespeare’s great tragedies were based on historical Roman figures, such as Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanus. Romeo and Juliet and Othello used Italian narratives as sources, and King Lear was derived from tales about ancient kings. Hamlet was a prince in Denmark, and Macbeth was believed by many to carry a curse, as murder, intrigue, and deception are throughout the play.
Sonnets
The Sonnets are a collection of 154 poems, published in 1609. The first 126 sonnets were addressed to a young man (The Fair Youth), and the last 28 were addressed to a woman (The Dark Lady). From the time that they were first printed, readers wondered to whom they were dedicated. Were the Fair Youth, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet real people, characterizations, or aspects of Shakespeare’s culture? Critics have specified many different opinions on their nature.
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