Shakespeare's Sources
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. During the span of his life he worked mainly as an actor and principal playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. His company went on to build the famous Globe Theater and were later named the King's Men, by James I. As a writer he wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. Shakespeare is not to be discredited as an author, but the simple fact of the matter does remain. Although William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest playwright of all time, much of the framework of his plays is not originally his ideas, but modeled after the works of numerous authors. These plays were all written by Shakespeare, but were not originated by Shakespeare. Shakespeare took interesting plot lines from various sources and transformed them into his own unique play. He transformed the originals by giving the characters new description, adding new characters completely, adding new scenes, and attaching new episodes for comedic relief. One fluctuating factor throughout these plays is the amount of sources that were used by Shakespeare. Most of the plays have borrowed plot from several different stories, very few are drawn out from one chief source. It
worth a fraction of the trouble she has caused." Both of their plays are clear and simple and no characters in either show any respectable moral values. There are practically no differences between Shakespeare and Chaucer's version, only that Shakespeare added in many new scenes, making his more descriptive and longer. (Thompson 13-17, 64-68) History of Troilus and Cressida is yet another play that derives from several sources. The bulk of the story derives from Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde. Shakespeare was probably familiar with its sequel as well, The Testament of Cresseid, because of its popularity during the time. In terms of historical facts, on the Greek and Trojan societies, instead of plot, there are many books that Shakespeare may have consulted. The most likely include the first installment of Homer, as translated by Chapman, Virgil's Aeneid, Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy, Lydgate's Troy Book and Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Although these are all the leading candidates as sources for Shakespeare, the most striking similarities come from the Orestes, plays written by Euripides about the Trojan war. Both Euripides and Shakespeare saw the Trojan war as "an expense of spirit in a waste of shame" and they view Helen as "a vain and light-minded flirt...not ! The last of the "Great Tragedies" is Macbeth. Much like the histories, Macbeth borrows from Holinshed's Chronicles, but Shakespeare handled the information very differently than the histories. He chose a span of history much longer than usual, shortened the actual time period of the play, and used Chronicles mainly for sensationalism and witchery. From Chronicles, Shakespeare chose the murder of Duff and of Duncan. From the Duff stories he took the character's witch-ridden illness, the witches of Forres, the murder of the king, under circumstances closely resembling Macbeth, and fearful signs of nature in aftermath of murder. From the Duncan section he uses Macbeth and Banquo meeting with the witches, Duncan's decision to have Malcolm succeed him, the ambitious Lady Macbeth, Malcolm flight to England, murder of Banquo and Macduff's family, witches prophecies of Birnam Wood and Macbeth not fearing "any man born of woman," and Macduff killing Macbeth. There are no differe! t to include any of this, which gives the play a more "fairy-tale quality." (Evan et al. 399) nces because Macbeth comes from one source that is basically a history book. Shakespeare just took these stories from the book, wove them together and gave the characters life.(Satin 533-535) The first of the "Great Tragedies" is Hamlet. In terms of the source used by Shakespeare himself, scholars believe it was an earlier play entitled Ur-Hamlet by an unknown author. The most accepted author is Thomas Kyd, whose Spanish Tragedy, just like Shakespeare's Hamlet, contains a ghost demanding revenge, real or simulated madness of the avenger, death of an
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