The tragedy of Hamlet opens the second period of Shakespeare's work (1601-1608).

Storm clouds seem to hang over Shakespeare's work. One after another, great tragedies are born - "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth", "Timon of Athens". Coriolanus also belongs to the tragedies; The ending of "Antony and Cleopatra" is tragic. Even the comedies of this period - "The End is the Crown" and "Measure for Measure" - are far from the immediate youthful cheerfulness of earlier comedies, and most researchers prefer to call them dramas.

The second period was the time of Shakespeare’s complete creative maturity and, at the same time, the time when he was faced with big, sometimes insoluble questions for him, when his heroes, from being the creators of their fate, as in early comedies, increasingly became its victims. This period can be called tragic.

The story of Hamlet was first recorded at the end of the 12th century by the Danish chronographer Saxo Grammaticus. In 1576, Belfort reproduced this ancient legend in his " Tragic tales". For Belfore, as for Saxo Grammar, the plot was based on the implementation of blood feud. The story ends with the triumph of Hamlet. “Tell your brother, whom you killed so cruelly, that you died a violent death,” Hamlet exclaims, having killed his uncle, “ may his shadow be reassured by this news among the blessed spirits and free me from the debt that forced me to avenge my own blood" (Belfore).

In the 80s of the 16th century, a play about Hamlet was staged on the London stage. This play has not reached us. Its author appears to have been Thomas Kyd. In Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy", the old man Jeronimo and Belimperia, people of feeling, are opposed by the "Machiavellians" - the son of the Portuguese king and Belimperia's brother. Old man Hieronimo, whose son was killed, hesitates, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, to take revenge. Like Hamlet, he feels his loneliness. He compares himself to a companion standing in a “winter storm on the plain.” A cry bursts from his lips: “O world! - no, not peace, but a crowd of untruths: chaos of murders and crimes.”

In the atmosphere of these feelings and thoughts, knowing Kyd’s play, lost to us, and, of course, his “Spanish Tragedy,” as well as Belfort’s French novella and, probably, the story of Saxo Grammar, Shakespeare created his “Hamlet.” There is reason to believe that Hamlet was performed by amateur students at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The tragedy took place, of course, on the stage of the Globe.

The basis of the ancient story was blood feud. Shakespeare "took" this motif from Hamlet and "gave" it to Laertes. Blood feud required only the fulfillment of filial duty. The murderer of his father must be revenged, at least with a poisoned blade, - this is how Laertes argues, according to his feudal morality. We know nothing about whether Laertes loved Polonius. The ghost calls for revenge in a different way: “If you loved your father, avenge his murder.” This is revenge not only for his father, but also for the man whom Hamlet loved and highly valued. “I once saw your father,” said Horatio, “he was a handsome king.” “He was a man,” Hamlet corrects his friend. And all the more terrible for Hamlet is the news of his father’s murder - news that reveals to him all the crime of the “cruel world.” The task of personal revenge grows for him into the task of correcting this world. Hamlet sums up all the thoughts, impressions, and feelings drawn from the meeting with the ghost of his father in the words about a “dislocated eyelid” and about the heavy duty calling him to “straighten this dislocation.”

The central point of the tragedy is the monologue “to be or not to be.” “Which is better,” Hamlet asks himself, “to bear silently the slings and arrows of furious fate, or to take up arms against a sea of ​​disasters?” Hamlet, an active person by nature, cannot silently and resignedly contemplate. But for a single person to take up arms against a whole sea of ​​disasters means death. And Hamlet moves on to the thought of death (“Die. Fall asleep.”). The “sea of ​​disasters” here is not just an “extinct metaphor”, but a living picture: a sea along which countless rows of waves run. This picture seems to symbolize the background of the entire tragedy. Before us is the image of a lonely man standing with a naked sword in his hand in front of the waves running after each other and ready to swallow him up.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most multifaceted characters. If you like, he is a dreamer, because he had to carry within himself a dream of some other, better human relationship in order to be so indignant at the lies and ugliness around him. He is also a man of action. Didn’t he throw the entire Danish court into confusion and deal with his enemies - Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius? But his powers and capabilities are inevitably limited. No wonder he opposes himself to Hercules. The feat that Hamlet dreamed of could only be accomplished by Hercules, whose name is the people. But the mere fact that Hamlet saw the horror of those around him" Augean stables", - the fact that at the same time he, the humanist Hamlet, rated man so highly constitutes his greatness. Hamlet is the most brilliant of Shakespeare's characters. And one cannot but agree with commentators who noted that of all Shakespeare's heroes, Hamlet alone could write Shakespeare's works.

The plot of the tragedy "King Lear" takes us to the distant past. The story of the old British king and his ungrateful daughters was first written down in Latin at the beginning of the 12th century. During the 16th century, this story was retold several times in both verse and prose. We find variants of it in Golinshed’s “Chronicles”, and in “The Mirror of Rulers” and in Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene”. Finally, in the early 90s of the 16th century, a play about King Lear appeared on the London stage. Unlike Shakespearean tragedy, pre-Shakespearean Lear in all its variants leads events to a happy ending. Lear and Cordelia are ultimately rewarded. In their well-being, they seem to merge with the reality around them, assimilate with it.

On the contrary, the positive heroes of Shakespeare's tragedies rise above this reality. This is their greatness and, at the same time, their doom. If the wound inflicted by Laertes’s poisoned sword had not been fatal, Hamlet still would not have been able to reign over the world of the Osrics, the new Rosencrants, the Guildensterns and the Polonievs, just as he would not have been able to return to peaceful Wittenberg. If a feather had moved at Cordelia’s lips and she had come to life, Lear, who had “seen much,” as the Duke of Albany says about him in the final words of the last act, would still not be able to return to that magnificent hall of the royal castle where we saw him at the beginning tragedy. He, wandering bareheaded in the storm and rain through the night steppe, where he remembered the “poor naked unlucky ones,” could not have been content with the secluded, serene shelter that Cordelia would have created for him.

From "King Lear" threads stretch to the ancient tragedy "Gorboduc", written back in the 50s of the 16th century by Sackville and Norton. King Gorboduc divided power between his two sons, which led to internecine war, torrents of blood and great disasters for the country. So Lear, having divided power between his two daughters, almost made the “fractured kingdom” the prey of foreigners, as Kent says about it.

But Shakespeare's tragedy differs from its sources, first of all, in the formulation of a humanistic, truly Shakespearean problem. Lear on the throne, the “Olympian”, surrounded by the splendor of the court (the opening scene is undoubtedly the most magnificent in the entire tragedy), is far from the terrible reality outside the castle walls. The crown, royal robe, titles are in his eyes sacred attributes and have the fullness of reality. Blinded by servile worship for for long years of his reign, he took this external shine for his true essence.

But underneath the external splendor of the “ceremonial” there was nothing. “Out of nothing comes nothing,” as Lear himself says. He became “a zero without a number,” as the jester says. The royal robe fell from his shoulders, the scales fell from his eyes, and for the first time Lear saw the world of unvarnished reality, a cruel world over which the Regans, Gonerils and Edmunds ruled. In the night steppe, realizing reality for the first time, Lear begins to see clearly.

The scene in the steppe is the moment of Lear's complete fall. He found himself thrown out of society. “An unequipped man,” he says, “is just a poor, naked, two-legged animal.” And at the same time, this scene is his greatest victory. Torn out of the network of social relations that entangled him, he was able to rise above them and comprehend his surroundings. He understood what the jester, who had long known the truth, understood from the very beginning.

No wonder Lear calls him a “bitter jester.” “Fate, harlot of harlots,” sings the jester, “you never open your doors to the poor.” Life around, as the jester sees it, is ugly distorted. Everything about her needs to change. “Then the time will come - who will live to see it! - when they will begin to walk with their feet,” sings the jester. He is a "fool". Meanwhile, unlike Lear’s courtiers, he retains to the end human dignity. Following Lear, the jester shows true honesty and is himself aware of it. “That master,” the jester sings, “who serves for profit and seeks profit, and who only in appearance follows his master, will run away when the rain begins and leave you in the storm. But I will stay; the fool will not leave; let him flee.” the sage; the fleeing scoundrel looks like a jester, but the jester himself, by God, is not a scoundrel." So, the jester already possessed the freedom that Lear gained by throwing off the royal mantle and crown.

The same freedom is gained by Edgar wandering the steppe under the mask of a madman, as well as by the blinded Gloucester, who, in his own words, “stumbled when he was sighted.” Now, blind, he sees the truth. Addressing Edgar, whom he does not recognize and takes for a homeless poor man, he says: “Let the man who owns excess and is satiated with luxury, who has turned the law into his slave and who does not see because he does not feel, quickly feel your power, then distribution will destroy surplus, and everyone will have enough to live on." Indignation at the unfair distribution of earthly goods coincides with the moment of highest tension in this deepest tragedy by Shakespeare.

The fate of Gloucester, shown in parallel with the fate of Lear, is of decisive importance in ideological composition works. The presence of two parallel developing and largely similar plots gives the work universality. What could be taken as a special case becomes, thanks to a parallel plot, typical.

To more later works The world theater has turned to Shakespeare relatively rarely, and this is no coincidence. Shakespeare's full-blooded realism acquires a psychological coloring that is largely alien to him in "Antony and Cleopatra", creates a powerful but monotonous image of Coriolanus and, with the exception of individual monologues, does not reach its former artistic heights in "Timon of Athens", although this tragedy has great importance to understand Shakespeare's worldview. The comedies of the second period, with the exception of Measure for Measure, belong to the weakest works of Shakespeare artistically. Even in such works of the last period as " Winter's Tale" and "The Storm" - magnificent in brightness of colors, picturesque images and richness of language, imbued with an unshakable faith in life and love for it - sometimes one feels a certain slowness of action.

The first is characterized by optimism, the dominance of a bright feeling of life, cheerful tones. This primarily includes a number of Shakespeare's cheerful and picturesque comedies, often colored with deep lyricism, for example, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), The Merchant of Venice (1596), Much Ado About Nothing (1598), As You Like It "(1599), "Twelfth Night" (1600), etc.

At the same time, Shakespeare creates a series of his “chronicles” (plays based on plots from English history): “Richard III” (1592), “Richard II” (1595), two parts of “Henry IV” (1597), “Henry V” (1599), etc. Although these plays often depict very dark and cruel pictures, nevertheless, faith in life, in the victory of the good principle, prevails in them.

The tragedies “Romeo and Juliet” (1595) and “Julius Caesar” (1599) also belong to this period. The first of them, despite its tragic plot, is written in light and cheerful colors and contains many funny scenes reminiscent of Shakespeare's comedies that appeared at the same time. The second, more severe, is the transition to the second period.

In this second period, from 1601 to 1608, Shakespeare poses and resolves the great tragic problems of life, and a stream of pessimism is added to his faith in life.

Almost regularly, one a year, he writes his tragedies one after another: “Hamlet” (1601), “Othello” (1604), “King Lear” (1605), “Macbeth” (1605), “Antony and Cleopatra” (1606), “Coriolanus” (1607), “Timon of Athens” (1608). He did not stop composing comedies at this time, but all the comedies he wrote during this period, with the exception of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (1601 - 1602), no longer have the previous character of carefree fun and contain such a strong tragic element that , using modern terminology, it would be convenient to call them “dramas”: such, for example, is the play “Measure for Measure” (1604).

Finally, in the third period, from 1608 to 1612, Shakespeare wrote almost exclusively “tragicomedies” (plays with intensely dramatic content, but with a happy ending), in which a dreamy, lyrical attitude towards life is manifested. The most important are Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale (1610), and The Tempest (1612).

During the first period of Shakespeare's work, he wrote the best of his comedies, striking us with their liveliness and sparkling wit.

“In the first act of The Wishes of Windsor alone,” Engels wrote to Marx in 1875, “there is more life and reality than in the whole German literature; Lance alone with his dog Kreb is worth more than all German comedies put together” 1. (1 Marx K. and Engels F. Soch. Ed. 2, vol. 33, p. 89.)

However, underneath this gaiety, which reflects the vitality characteristic of the Renaissance, Shakespeare poses big problems and expresses deep thoughts.

One of his earliest comedies, Love's Labour's Lost, depicts how the King of Navarre and several of his associates decide to renounce love and immerse themselves in the study of philosophy. But the arrival of the French princess and her ladies-in-waiting upsets their plans, as they all fall in love with the young ladies who arrive.

In this play, Shakespeare criticizes the old, scholastic understanding of wisdom as something separate from real life. At the same time, he ridicules the euphuistic style that was fashionable in his time. Shakespeare himself paid tribute to this florid style, echoes of which can be heard even in his tragedies; but from the very beginning Shakespeare tries to overcome it in the name of healthy naturalness and simplicity. At the end of the play, one of the courtiers, Biron, renounces verbal tinsel and vows from now on to be simple and truthful in expressing feelings. In another monologue, the same Biron reveals the absurdity of the ascetic renunciation of love for the sake of philosophy, declaring that love is the best incentive for the development of the mind.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the rights of free, self-determining love are affirmed, which defeats paternal power, the “ancient right” of parents to control the lives of their children. The action takes place in the lap of nature, the charms of which favor lovers. Developing in this play the genre of “masks” (plays of a decorative and fantastic nature), Shakespeare at the same time reforms it, replacing the conventional figures of ancient deities with images of folk English beliefs (elves, the prankster Peck), personifying the good forces of nature.

In the comedy "Twelfth Night" the simple-minded and completely real love Viola's smart and courageous love for Orsino is contrasted with Orsino's contrived, slightly rhetorical passion for Olivia. At the same time, the stupid, secretly ambitious pedant Malvolio, who looks like a Puritan, is ridiculed, the enemy of careless fun, embodied in the images of Olivia’s dissolute, but good-natured and witty uncle, Sir Toby, her frisky maid and other servants.

"The Merchant of Venice" goes beyond the theme of love. Two worlds confront each other here: the world of joy, beauty, friendship, generosity (Antonio and his friends, Bassanio, Portia, Nerissa, Jessica) and the world of acquisitiveness, stinginess, malice (Shylock and his friends). Antonio, always ready to help his friends and lending money without interest, embodies Shakespeare’s dreamed ideal of an active man and at the same time a humanist, receptive to the “music of the heavenly spheres” (Act V), which is inaccessible to Shylock’s gloomy soul. Portia’s famous speech at the trial about “mercy” as a complement and adornment of every law is deeply consonant with this ideal. The fetish of “law,” which guards Shylock’s bourgeois rights, is overturned in this play by the highest law of humanity.

At the same time, the dialectical nature of Shakespeare’s approach to human characters was manifested in the fact that, while depicting the “blackness” of Shylock’s soul, he at the same time shows the deep tragedy of Shylock, whom the surrounding society made him what he is. Shakespeare's Shylock is both a product and a victim, on the one hand, of the private property relations prevailing in his contemporary society, on the other, of the offensive injustice towards the Jews of this “brilliant” Renaissance society, i.e. the same Antonio, Bassanio, etc. .

One of the most remarkable comic characters created by Shakespeare is Falstaff, portrayed first in a number of scenes in Henry IV, and then again in the same year in the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. In his image, Shakespeare captured and generalized the most characteristic features of the social process taking place in his era. By origin, Falstaff is a nobleman. He enters the court, he scatters knightly oaths right and left, he tries to seduce the half-philistine Windsor woman with his title (“Sir”), he flaunts all the “knightly” noble prerogatives and “knightly” habits; finally, the entire famous gang with him (Nim, Bardolph, etc.), which does not receive a salary from him, but serves him on a “vassal” basis - for food and a share of the looted booty - is a brilliant parody of the feudal squads of the medieval barons. But at the same time, this is not a feudal lord of the old, classical type, but an opportunist, a feudal lord who has rebuilt himself, having perfectly, in his own words, “adopted the spirit of the times,” that is, all the worst skills of the era of primitive accumulation. Falstaff freed himself from all illusions of his class.

When he says “we, the knights of the night, the foresters of Diana, the cavaliers of darkness,” hinting at his nocturnal exploits on the roads, he cynically mocks all feudal-knightly concepts. His reasoning on the battlefield about knightly honor is especially expressive:

“What if honor sends me to the next world? What then? Can honor put its foot down? Or a hand? Or heal a wound? No... What then is honor? Word. What is contained in this word? Air... Who owns the honor? The one who died on Wednesday.”

For the crushing, declassed feudal lord Falstaff, “perestroika” is cast in the forms of roguery, petty pirate adventurism. He goes so far as to live at the expense of the landlady of a suspicious inn, and the end of his career is shown in The Merry Wives of Windsor: he is thrown out of the dirty laundry basket into the river like unnecessary trash.

Nevertheless, there is also something positive in Falstaff, also associated with the “spirit of the times”: this is his brilliant wit, which delights us because it is based on complete freedom of mind from all prejudices and restrictions. This allows Falstaff to laugh equally cheerfully at others and at himself. Such free and disinterested laughter constitutes Falstaff's main value and is partly his justification. The dissolute pastime in Falstaff's company also had good results for Prince Henry, developing his mind and accustoming him to freedom of judgment. If Falstaff uses his freedom from prejudice for evil, then the very fact of such liberation of thought is a positive phenomenon. Falstaff is one of Shakespeare's most complex and artistically developed characters.

Shakespeare's comic is extremely diverse both in its character and in its focus. In his comedies you can find whole line shades of comedy - from subtle humor to farcical, sometimes rude for our taste, but always bright and funny witticisms. Very often Shakespeare's jokes simply express an excess of cheerfulness. But often his laughter serves the purpose of exposing human stupidity or vulgarity.

The roles of jesters are very significant in Shakespeare. This name combines characters of two kinds. Firstly, Shakespeare often portrays professional jesters who, according to the plot of the play, serve nobles for their amusement; such are the jesters in As You Like It, in Twelfth Night, and also in the tragedy King Lear.

But in addition, in his plays he sometimes introduces peasant servants who amuse the audience with their mistakes or foolishness. These are actually not “clowns”, but “clown characters”; such, for example, is Shylock's servant Launcelot Gobbo or Doctor Caius' servant in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Shakespeare's real jesters are much more varied and interesting. Under the guise of a joke, they often express deep and bold thoughts, mocking prejudices, denouncing all kinds of stupidity and vulgarity.

The plots of Shakespeare's comedies are always entertaining and picturesque; they are full of all sorts of adventures, accidents, misunderstandings, and coincidences. The idea of ​​fate dominates in them.

It is especially clearly expressed in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night; however, it is present to a greater or lesser extent in all of Shakespeare's other comedies. This “fate” has nothing to do with the idea of ​​an irresistible “fate” that makes any resistance on the part of man useless. It is understood by Shakespeare in the sense of “fortune” or “luck”, and expresses the feeling, characteristic of the people of the Renaissance, of the boundless expanse of life and the impossibility of foreseeing and taking into account everything in advance.

This idea of ​​“fortune” calls a person not to passivity, but, on the contrary, to activity; it awakens in a person the desire to experience his happiness. Shakespeare's comedies show that the most daring attempts, if undertaken by gifted people who love life, end in success.

In the first years of the 17th century, a noticeable change took place in Shakespeare's work. Cheerful motives give way to deep thoughts about the most painful contradictions of life, and he creates works filled with a tragic attitude.

This change of mood in no way means a decline in Shakespeare's work. On the contrary, the time is coming for his greatest achievements as an artist. He creates "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth" - these four masterpieces, thanks to which Shakespeare gained recognition as an artist of world significance, stepping beyond the boundaries of his era into eternity.

The change in Shakespeare's work occurred gradually. The chronology of his works shows that there was no sharp line between the second and third periods. Almost simultaneously, Shakespeare creates the cheerful comedies As You Like It and Twelfth Night and the tragedy Julius Caesar. If the dating of The Merry Wives of Windsor, as claimed by Chambers (1600-1601), is correct, then, having created Hamlet, Shakespeare was able to write another part of the Falstafiade.

This is the actual picture of Shakespeare's work in the years 1598-1601. The works created by Shakespeare at this time allow us to talk about the gradual transition of the playwright to a new genre and to new problems.

The third period of Shakespeare's work covers eight to nine years. Its beginning is usually dated to "Hamlet" (1600-1601), and its end is "Timon of Athens" (1607-1608). The works created by the playwright during these years are heterogeneous, and within the third period at least three stages can be distinguished.

The first one was transitional. Tragic motives characteristic of this time are found already in “Julius Caesar” (1599). Therefore, for the purpose of a concentrated consideration of Shakespeare’s ideological evolution, we consider this tragedy together with the tragedies of the third period. In terms of plot, it is close to such plays as Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. She is similar to them in terms of style. These three dramas form a cycle of Shakespeare's Roman tragedies, to which the early Titus Andronicus also belongs.

In ideological terms, some motifs make Julius Caesar similar to Hamlet *. Brutus, like the Prince of Denmark, faces the same problem of choosing effective means in the fight against evil. Like Hamlet, Julius Caesar is a socio-philosophical tragedy.

* (For parallel motives of both tragedies, see: K. Fisher, Shakespeare's Hamlet, M. 1905, pp. 159-162.)

Both tragedies do not have as their subject the depiction of passions, which is the content of other Shakespearean tragedies. Neither Brutus nor Hamlet is moved by the impulses that characterize the behavior of Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Antony, Coriolanus or Timon. People of reason, not passion, they face the need to ethically resolve the most pressing issues of life and themselves are aware of the fundamental nature of their task. These tragedies can rightfully be called problematic.

They are followed by three plays that do not belong to the tragedy genre - “Troilus and Cressida”, “The End is the Crown of the Deed” and “Measure for Measure”. The first of them is close in nature to tragedy, but it lacks the usual tragic outcome for Shakespeare. The hero, experiencing a mental crisis no less profound than Hamlet, however, does not die. "Troilus and Cressida" can be considered a tragicomedy, but this play is even closer to what later poetics defined as drama, that is, a play of serious content without a bloody ending.

The other two plays are formally comedies, but they differ from Shakespeare's other comedies. With the exception of The Merchant of Venice, not a single comedy of the first two periods went beyond problems belonging to the sphere of personal relationships. In “The End is the Crown of the Deal,” the personal theme is placed in direct connection with a social problem (Elena’s love for Bertram and the inequality of their social status), and in “Measure for Measure” the personal fates of the characters are directly dependent on a whole complex of problems of public morality. The seriousness of the issues raised in them, as well as the secondary importance of the comic elements in the plot, gave reason to call these plays "dark" or "problematic" comedies. They truly form a special group of plays. They are united by the richness and significance of their ideological content and the social importance of the issues raised in them. The name problematic is therefore most suitable for these three plays. Together with the tragedies "Julius Caesar" and "Hamlet" they form a large group of Shakespeare's problematic dramas.

This is the first stage of this period.

The second includes three tragedies - "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth", written in the triennium of 1604-1606. These are the greatest tragedies of passion, imbued with a deep moral, philosophical and social meaning. It has long been recognized that Hamlet and these three dramas are the greatest tragedies Shakespeare created. "Great tragedies" is a term in Shakespeare studies that refers specifically to these four plays. They constitute the pinnacle of tragedy in Shakespeare and, at the same time, in all world drama.

For the reason stated above, we consider “Hamlet” somewhat separately from the other three great tragedies, which are closer to each other in terms of dramatic motives and the ideological and emotional impact produced by them.

"Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth" are truly heartbreaking tragedies, which cannot be said about "Hamlet". The intensity of the heroes' passions reaches the highest limit, their suffering is immeasurable, and if "Hamlet" is a tragedy of grief from the mind *, then "Othello", "King Air" and "Macbeth" are tragedies where the suffering of the heroes is caused, on the contrary, by the fact that their mind was darkened and they acted under the influence of passions.

* (See G. Kozintsev, Our contemporary William Shakespeare, L. - M. 1962, pp. 210-270.)

Great tragedies are full of bitter observations about life. They are the most classic examples of the tragic in art since antiquity. Here Shakespeare achieved the highest synthesis of thought and artistic skill, for he dissolved his vision of the world in images so integral and organic that their vitality does not raise any doubts.

At the third stage, "Antony and Cleopatra", "Coriolanus" and "Timon of Athens" were created. About the first of these tragedies, Coleridge said that in terms of artistic merit it is no lower than the four great tragedies. "Coriolanus", always interested in its political issues, did not arouse great enthusiasm, perhaps because the spiritual dryness of the hero did not arouse in anyone the desire to feel into his spiritual world. "Timon of Athens" was not completed by Shakespeare. Although in thought this is a very significant work, it lacks the perfection inherent in Shakespeare's tragic masterpieces.

However, it is not aesthetic assessments that prompt us to single out these three tragedies as a special group. Their peculiarity is that the center of gravity of the tragic action here is somewhat shifted compared to great tragedies. There, the contradictions of life, society, state, and morality were revealed most fully in the characters of the heroes and through their spiritual world. Here the outside world becomes the center of tragic contradictions. "Antony and Cleopatra" occupies an intermediate position in this regard, transitional position. But “Coriolanus” and “Timon of Athens” are already fully similar in structure. It is not the psychological process itself, but only its external result that we see here. And this also applies to "Antony and Cleopatra", where the variability of feelings of the triumvir and the Egyptian queen is presented dotted line, and we are sometimes left to guesswork to determine the motives for their behavior. Coriolanus and Timon are characterized rather by the excessive simplicity of emotional reactions, their elementary extremes. But what art here loses in revealing the dialectics of the human heart is compensated by discoveries in the field of dialectics of social relations.

37. Shakespeare question and biography of Shakespeare. Periodization of creativity.

And the result, and the pinnacle of theater development. Philosophical basis- Renaissance humanism. Since the entire revival fit into a person’s life, he experiences both optimism and crisis. For the first time he poses the question “What is bourgeois morality?”

Shakespeare did not solve this problem. Its end is connected with utopia.

Shakespeare's personality is legendary. Shakespeare's question - did he exist, did he write it.

Born in Stratford-on-Avon, married. There are a lot of biographies of Shakespeare, but nothing significant; we know more about his father. Father John owned a glove factory, but was not a nobleman. The mother is an impoverished noblewoman. There is no regular education, a grammar school in Stratford.

Shakespeare's information about antiquity is very fragmentary.

Marries Anna Hasaway, 8 years older, lived for three years, children, Shakespeare disappears. 1587-1588 approximately. 1592 - information about him, he is already a famous playwright. The share of Shakespeare's income in theater companies is known. The first professional playwright.

The state attitude towards the theater was very dismissive. They could only move if they obeyed. "The Lord Chamberlain's Men."

The quality of plays before Shakespeare was low, except from "university minds". Either the rich wrote and paid for the production, or the acting troupes themselves. Low quality.

Shakespeare was an immediate success. There are 1592 articles for and against it. Green “With a penny of intelligence bought for a million repentance”, “An upstart, a crow adorned with our feathers, the heart of a tiger in the shell of an actor.”

The story of Hamlet was developed by the UU, but of very low quality. Ability to use material from others. He wrote plays with a specific audience in mind.

After the emergence of the first theater, a decree arose from the Puritans, who believed that theaters had no right to be located within the city. London's border is the Thames. There are 30 theaters in London, wooden, at first there was no floor or roof. The theater was based on different figures: a circle, a square, a hexagon. The stage is completely open to the viewer. Trapezoid. People were sitting on the floor. There was a jester on the front stage, distracting the audience. They are smart. The costumes did not match the era. Tragedy - the black flag was raised, comedy - blue. The troupe consisted of 8-12 people, rarely 14. There were no actresses. 1667 women appeared on the stage. The first play is Othello. Shakespeare wrote for this specific scene. He also took into account the fact that there was no stable text of the play, there was no copyright, and we know many plays from pirated records. The first edition of Shakespeare's plays appeared 14 years after his death. 36 plays, not all set precisely.

Several theories of the Shakespearean question. One of them connects Shakespeare with Christopher Marlowe. He was killed shortly before Shakespeare appeared. He also has tragedies and historical chronicles. The type of hero is a titanic personality, amazing abilities, capabilities, etc. He doesn’t know where to put it all, there are no criteria for good and evil.

"Tamerlane the Great". A simple shepherd, he achieved everything on his own. Shakespeare will find criteria for goodness and activity. The CM was an informer, then he stopped. Tavern fight. The legend of his hideout.

Francis Bacon's theory still lives on. It is believed that FB encrypted his biography in Shakespeare's plays. The main code is “Storm”.

Shakespeare is uneducated, unlike Bacon. In 1613 the Globe burned down.

Shakespeare's handwriting is like a will written by a very petty man. The story continues in the 19th century,

Delia Bacon in America, claims her ancestor's rights to all of Shakespeare's works. DB has gone crazy. 1888 - book by Donnelly, who fascinatingly tells that he has found the key to Shakespeare's plays. At first everyone was interested, and then laughed at the pamphlet.

Another Shakespeare candidate. Galilov "The Game of William Shakespeare" - Lord Rutland. His wife Mary Retland is also in the circle. Shakespeare was, as it were, on salary, there are documents. In Hamlet there are reminiscences, names, etc. In Shakespeare's sonnets too. After the death of the Retlands, Shakespeare stops writing and leaves for Stratford. It is believed that there is one lifetime portrait Shakespeare. Galilov believes that he is a figment of the imagination because he is unrealistic. Before us is a mask with empty eye sockets, half of the camisole is given from the back.

3 periods: 1. 1590 – 1600. 2. 1600 – 1608. 3. 1609-1613.

1. Optimistic, since it coincides with the period of early revival, and early revival associated with humanism. Everything leads to good; humanists believe in the triumph of harmony. Historical chronicles and comedies predominate.

At the turn of period 1-2, the only tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” is created. This tragedy is not entirely grim. The setting is sunny, a bright atmosphere of general joy. What happened to the heroes happened by chance - the murder of Mercutio, Romeo kills Tybalt. When R and D are secretly married, the messenger is accidentally late. Shakespeare shows how a series of accidents lead to the death of heroes. The main thing is that the world's evil does not come into the souls of the heroes, they die clean. Shakespeare wants to say that they died as latest victims Middle Ages.

Historical chronicles: “Henry VI”, “Richard III”, “King John”, “Henry IV”, Henry V". The chronicles are very voluminous. Although the darkest events take place in them, the basis is optimistic. A triumph over the Middle Ages.

Shakespeare is a supporter of the monarchy and in his chronicles tries to create the image of a strong, intelligent and moral monarch. Historians and Shakespeare have focused on the individual in history.

In "Henry IV" Henry is fair, honest, but comes to power by overthrowing the monarch, bloody way. But there is no peace in the state. He thinks about it and comes to the conclusion that it is because he came to power through dishonest means. Henry hopes that everything will be fine for his sons.

In Richard III, when Richard is worried, he needs the support of the people, but the people are silent. A positive image appears in the chronicles.

The image that defines the positive program of the chronicles is time. The off-stage image of time is present in all chronicles. Shakespeare was the first to talk about the connection between the past, present and future. Time will put everything in its place.

Life and the history of England do not provide the opportunity to create the image of an ideal monarch. The audience sympathizes with Richard III because he is an active hero. In creating Richard III, Shakespeare approached the concept of the tragic and the deliberative state of a new hero. Richard III does evil. Scholars argue whether Shakespeare created his chronicles according to a single plan or spontaneously. When Shakespeare created the first chronicles, there was no plan, but later he created consciously. All chronicles can be considered as a multi-act play. With the death of one character, the plot does not end, but moves on to the next play. Henry V is an ideal monarch, impossible to watch and read because he is fictional. Henry IV is interesting to watch. Comedy. Shakespeare is ahead of his time. Shakespeare's comedies are a special thing; they are created on different principles. This

comedy of humor and joy. There is no satirical, accusatory beginning. They are not household ones. The background against which the action takes place is quite conventional.

The action takes place in Italy. For Londoners it was a special world of sunshine and carnival. No one is making fun of anyone, they are just eavesdropping.

Shakespeare's comedies are comedies of situation. The comic effect is created by hypertrophy of character or feelings.

"Much ado about nothing". The squabble between Benedict and Beatrice is humorous. Jealousy is a conflict.

“12th Night” Hypertrophy of feelings. The Countess mourns her marriage, but death crosses all boundaries. Shakespeare first came up with the idea that the comic and the tragic come from the same point, two sides of the same coin. 12th night. The butler's ambition is hypertrophied. Macbeth is a tragedy of ambition; his human kingship is not crowned with a royal crown. All events can turn out to be comical or tragic.

Almost all comedies were written in the first period: “The Taming of the Shrew”, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “The 12th Night”. The following comedies are inferior to these.

Comedies raise the same important issues as tragedies and chronicles. Positive heroes, which are triumphant, are not so positive and vice versa. Main conflict revolves around money.

2. Associated with the development of the tragedy genre. Shakespeare creates mostly only tragedies. Shakespeare very soon understands that bourgeois morality is no better than medieval morality.

Shakespeare struggles with the problem of what evil is. The tragic is understood idealistically. What horrifies Shakespeare is that tragedy comes from the same thing that comedy comes from. Shakespeare begins to observe how the same quality leads to good and bad.

Hamlet is a tragedy of the mind. Here evil has not yet completely penetrated Hamlet’s soul. Hamletism is a soul-corroding inaction associated with reflection.

Hamlet is a Renaissance humanist.

"Othello" - written on the plot of an Italian short story. The conflict is based on the confrontation between two Renaissance personalities. Humanist - Othello, Renaissance idealist - Iago. Othello lives for others. He is not jealous, but very trusting. Iago plays on this gullibility. Othello, killing Desdemona, kills the world's evil in a beautiful guise. Tragedies do not end hopelessly.

And the result, and the pinnacle of theater development. The philosophical basis is Renaissance humanism. Since the entire revival fit into a person’s life, he experiences both optimism and crisis. For the first time he poses the question “What is bourgeois morality?” Shakespeare did not solve this problem. Its end is connected with utopia. Shakespeare's personality is legendary. Shakespeare's question - did he exist, did he write it. Born in Stratford-on-Avon, married. There are a lot of biographies of Shakespeare, but nothing significant; we know more about his father. Father John owned a glove factory, but was not a nobleman. The mother is an impoverished noblewoman. There is no regular education, a grammar school in Stratford. Shakespeare's information about antiquity is very fragmentary. Marries Anna Hasaway, 8 years older, lived for three years, children, Shakespeare disappears. 1587-1588 approximately. 1592 - information about him, he is already a famous playwright. The share of Shakespeare's income in theater companies is known. The first professional playwright. The state attitude towards the theater was very dismissive. They could only move if they obeyed. 2The Lord Chamberlain's Men." The quality of plays before Shakespeare was low, except from "university minds". Either the rich wrote and paid for the production, or the acting troupes themselves. Low quality.

Shakespeare was an immediate success. There are 1592 articles for and against it. Green “With a penny of intelligence bought for a million repentance”, “An upstart, a crow adorned with our feathers, the heart of a tiger in the shell of an actor.” The story of Hamlet was developed by the UU, but of very low quality. Ability to use material from others. He wrote plays with a specific audience in mind.

After the emergence of the first theater, a decree arose from the Puritans, who believed that theaters had no right to be located within the city. London's border is the Thames. There are 30 theaters in London, wooden, at first there was no floor or roof. The theater was based on different figures: a circle, a square, a hexagon. The stage is completely open to the viewer. Trapezoid. People were sitting on the floor. There was a jester on the front stage, distracting the audience. They are smart. The costumes did not match the era. Tragedy - the black flag was raised, comedy - the blue one. The troupe consisted of 8-12 people, rarely 14. There were no actresses. 1667 women appeared on the stage. The first play is Othello. Shakespeare wrote for this specific scene. He also took into account the fact that there was no stable text of the play, there was no copyright, and we know many plays from pirated records. The first edition of Shakespeare's plays appeared 14 years after his death. 36 plays, not all set precisely.

Several theories of the Shakespearean question. One of them connects Shakespeare with Christopher Marlowe. He was killed shortly before Shakespeare appeared. He also has tragedies and historical chronicles. The type of hero is a titanic personality, amazing abilities, capabilities, etc. He doesn’t know where to put it all, there are no criteria for good and evil.

"Tamerlane the Great". A simple shepherd, he achieved everything on his own. Shakespeare will find criteria for goodness and activity. The CM was an informer, then he stopped. Tavern fight. The legend of his hideout. Francis Bacon's theory still lives on. It is believed that FB encrypted his biography in Shakespeare's plays. The main code is “Storm”. Shakespeare is uneducated, unlike Bacon. In 1613, the Globe burned down. Shakespeare's handwriting is like a will written by a very petty man. The story continues in the 19th century, Delia Bacon in America, lays claim to her ancestor for all of Shakespeare's works. DB has gone crazy. 1888 - book by Donnelly, who fascinatingly tells that he has found the key to Shakespeare's plays. At first everyone was interested, and then laughed at the pamphlet.

Another Shakespeare candidate. Galilov "The Game of William Shakespeare" - Lord Rutland. His wife Mary Retland is also in the circle. Shakespeare was, as it were, on salary, there are documents. In Hamlet there are reminiscences, names, etc. In Shakespeare's sonnets too. After the death of the Retlands, Shakespeare stops writing and leaves for Stratford. It is believed that there is one lifetime portrait of Shakespeare. Galilov believes that he is a figment of the imagination because he is unrealistic. Before us is a mask with empty eye sockets, half of the camisole is given from the back.

Periodization of Shakespeare's work. In Russian Shakespeare studies, it is customary to distinguish three periods in Shakespeare’s work, in Anglo-American studies - four, which is probably more accurate: 1) the period of apprenticeship (1590-1592); 2) “optimistic” period (1592-1601); 3) the period of great tragedies (1601-1608); 4) the period of “romantic dramas” (1608-1612). L.E. Pinsky about the peculiarities of the poetics of Shakespeare's plays. The famous Russian Shakespeare scholar L.E. Pinsky identified several elements of poetics that are common to all the main genres of Shakespearean drama - chronicle, comedy and tragedy. Pinsky included the main plot, the dominant reality of the action and the type of relationship between the characters and the dominant reality. The main plot is the initial situation for all works of a given genre, varying in each of them. There is a main plot of chronicles, comedies and tragedies. Dominant reality. In a number of Shakespeare's plays, the source of action is not the conflict in the relationships of the characters, but some factor standing behind and above them. He endows the actors with functions that determine their stage behavior. This dependence is true for chronicles and comedies, but does not apply to the protagonists of tragedies.

1. Optimistic, since it coincides with the period of the early revival, and the early revival is associated with humanism. Everything leads to good; humanists believe in the triumph of harmony. Historical chronicles and comedies predominate. At the turn of period 1-2, the only tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” is created. This tragedy is not entirely grim. The setting is sunny, a bright atmosphere of general joy. What happened to the heroes happened by chance - the murder of Mercutio, Romeo kills Tybalt. When R and D are secretly getting married, the messenger is accidentally late. Shakespeare shows how a series of accidents leads to the death of heroes. The main thing is that the world's evil does not come into the souls of the heroes; they die clean. Shakespeare wants to say that they died as the last victims of the Middle Ages.

Historical chronicles: “Henry 6”, “Richard 3.2”, “King John”, “Henry 4.5”. The chronicles are very voluminous. Although they contain some of the darkest events, the foundation is optimistic. A triumph over the Middle Ages. Shakespeare is a supporter of the monarchy and in his chronicles tries to create the image of a strong, intelligent and moral monarch. Historians and Shakespeare have focused on the individual in history.

In Henry 4, Henry is just, honest, but comes to power by overthrowing the monarch, through bloody means. But there is no peace in the state. He thinks about it and comes to the conclusion that it is because he came to power through dishonest means. Henry hopes that everything will be fine for his sons. In Richard 3, when Richard is worried, he needs the support of the people, but the backgammon is silent. A positive image appears in the chronicles.

The image that defines the positive program of the chronicles is time. The off-stage image of time is present in all chronicles. Shakespeare was the first to talk about the connection between the past, present and future. Time will put everything in its place.

Life and the history of England do not provide the opportunity to create the image of an ideal monarch. The audience sympathizes with Richard 3 because he is an active hero. In creating Richard 3, Shakespeare approached the concept of the tragic and the contemplation of the condition by a new hero. Richard 3 does evil. Scholars argue whether Shakespeare created his chronicles according to a single plan or spontaneously. When Shakespeare created the first chronicles, there was no plan, but later he created consciously. All chronicles can be considered as a multi-act play. With the death of one character, the plot does not end, but moves on to the next play. Henry 5 is an ideal monarch, impossible to watch and read because he is fictional. Henry 4 is interesting to watch.

2. Comedy. Shakespeare is ahead of his time. Shakespeare's comedies are a special thing; they are created on different principles. This is a comedy of humor and joy. There is no satirical, accusatory beginning. They are not household ones. The background against which the action takes place is quite conventional. The action takes place in Italy. For Londoners it was a special world of sunshine and carnival. No one is making fun of anyone, they are just eavesdropping. Shakespeare's comedies are comedies of situation. The comic effect is created by hypertrophy of character or feelings. "Much ado about nothing". The squabble between Benedict and Beatrice is humorous. Jealousy is a conflict. “12th Night” Hypertrophy of feelings. The Countess mourns her marriage, but death crosses all boundaries. Shakespeare first came up with the idea that the comic and the tragic come from the same point, two sides of the same coin. 12th night. The butler's ambition is hypertrophied. Macbeth is a tragedy of ambition; his human kingship is not crowned with a royal crown. All events can turn out to be comical or tragic. Almost all comedies were written in the first period. “The Taming of the Shrew” “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” “The Merchant of Venice” “The 12th Night.” The following comedies are inferior to these. Comedies raise the same important issues as tragedies and chronicles. "The Merchant of Venice". Positive heroes who triumph are not so positive and vice versa. The main conflict is around money.

3. Associated with the development of the tragedy genre. Shakespeare creates mostly only tragedies. Shakespeare very soon understands that bourgeois morality is no better than medieval morality. Shakespeare struggles with the problem of what evil is. The tragic is understood idealistically. What horrifies Shakespeare is that tragedy comes from the same thing that comedy comes from. Shakespeare begins to observe how the same quality leads to good and bad. Hamlet is a tragedy of the mind. Here evil has not yet completely penetrated Hamlet’s soul. Hamletism is a soul-corroding inaction associated with reflection. Hamlet is a Renaissance humanist. "Othello" - written on the plot of an Italian short story. The conflict is based on the confrontation between two Renaissance personalities. Humanist - Othello, Renaissance idealist - Iago. Othello lives for others. He is not jealous, but very trusting. Iago plays on this gullibility. Othello, killing Desdemona, kills the world's evil in a beautiful guise. Tragedies do not end hopelessly.