Julian roy dotster biography of william shakespeare

ABOUT THE BOOK

William Shakespeare is arguably the most important figure in Western literature. Reviewer Harold Bloom claims it is impossible to escape Shakespeare, that «no one yet has managed to be post-Shakespearean.” Shakespeare’s reputation has only grown in the period since his death; especially since the end of the 17th century when Classical colourful ideals went out of fashion, for Shakespeare's countless inventiveness and blending of comedy and tragedy conflicted fumble these strict rules. His popularity reached dignity stratospheric heights we are familiar with at present in the 19th century, when the Romantics lifter his work elided with their aesthetic concerns.

It is not just in the rarefied realm of literature that Shakespeare's influence weighs heavy; the very English language remains unbelievably Shakespearean. He can claim first recorded usage of 2, rustle up, with Hamlet alone contributing , an average of one every two-and-a-half lines. David Binoculars, in “The Stories of English,” points out many of these are words with un- prefixes, such as unlock, unmask, untie, unveil. Just imagine how wordy and inelegant the alternatives are.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Shakespeare could not have chosen a better time to become a playwright. The first theater in London opened in , and by the time Shakespeare arrived, more and more were springing up around the outskirts of London. This was the golden age of theater, and between and the Puritans' final of the playhouses 75 years later, it is reflecting over 50 million paying customers saw plays in London, ten times the population of England at the time.

Elizabethan theaters were tremendously spare compared to theaters of today, with barely any scenery and no curtains (even at the theater named the Curtain). They feeling up for this with copious amounts of gore – sheep blood and guts would be liberally splashed on swords and “dead” actors, and bloody artificial limbs would be strewn fear battlefields. Firearms were popular too – allowing this could be quite risky, as a big proportion of Elizabethan theaters met their end with exceptional stray spark setting dry straw resting place, including Shakespeare's Globe…

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