Great Britain is a very interesting country and it has quite a lot of famous people. One of them is world known writer William Shakespeare. I like his poems very much, thatТs why my report is devoted to this wonderful writer.

April 23-rd is St. GeorgeТs Day Ц the Saint of England- and this is the day on which Shakespeare was born, and also the day on which he died. In April 1564 a son was born to John and Mary Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. His mother was the daughter of a farmer. His father was a rich citizen whose business was marking and selling leather gloves. The parents didnТt guess that their son, William, was going to be such a famous figure in English poetry and drama, and that his plays would still be acted four hundred years later- not only in England, but all over the world. While still a teenager of nineteen, William married Anne Hathaway, a farmerТs daughter some years older than himself. We donТt know how he earned his living during these early years. He may have helped his father in the family business or he may have been a counry schoolmaster for a time. During these years his three children were born. In 1587 Shakespeare went to work in London, leaving Anne and the children at home. Shakespeare soon began to act and to write plays. By 1592 he was an important member of a well Ц known acting company, and in 1599 the famous Globe Theatre was built on the south bank of the river Thames. It was in this theatre that most of his plays were performed and, like all Elizabethan theatres, it was a round building with the stage in the center open to the sky. If it rained, the actors got wet. If the weather was too bad, there was no performance.  By 1603, the year when Queen Elizabeth I died, Shakespeare was already the leading poet and dramatist of his time. He continued to write for the next ten years, but in 1613 he finally stopped writing and went to live in Stratford where he died in 1616. He is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on- Avon. Ivan Turgenev, the famous Russian writer, said: лWe, Russians, hold ShakespeareТs memory dear, as he has become part of our life.╗ He probably first visited the theatre when he was still a schoolboy. The Earl of Leicester entertained the Queen with a series of theatrical representations during her visit to his castle. There can be not doubt that ShakespeareТs father was present at the performances, and bearing in mind the allusion made by Shakespeare in his л Midsummer NightТs Dream╗ we can believe that his son accompanied him. William was still a boy when he began to set and produce plays. He was not more than eighteen years old when he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer. The cottage in which he lived, now inhabited by his direct descendants, is still to be seen. There are reasons to believe that his married life was not a happy one for within five years after marriage he left his home for London, his wife and children remaining behind.After his arrival to London Shakespeare joined Richard Burbage`s company of players who soon began to perform at лThe Globe.╗ He became a part- proprietor of the theatre and adopted a double profession of actor and dramatist. He was a very good actor but he seldom had a chance to play the principial roles even in his own plays. Richard Burbage, a far worse actor, was always the first Othello and the first Hamlet. He was a very good actor but he seldom had a chance to play the principial roles even in his own plays. Richard Burbage, a far worse actor, was always the first Othello and the first Hamlet. We are told that Shakespeare himself only played the Ghost of HamletТs father and sometimes he even played by men. Although the beginning of his career was troublous and difficult, he soon became the favourite dramatist of his age. The Queen showed her admiration of his genius, some noblemen passed away their time in London going to his plays every day. лThe Globe╗ prospered. Although the audience favoured his own plays most, Shakespeare as an honest manager never refused to read the plays of younger playwrights. It was he who first recommended the play of Ben Jonson to the public and the plays of this author are still on the stade of British theatres. Ben Jonson and Shakespeare became friends. Before the terrible plague that raged through England, ShakespeareТs plays were notable for their light wit and optimism. His comedies such as лTwo Gentlemen of Verona╗, лThe Comedy of Errors╗, лAllТs Well That Ends Well╗, лThe Tamining of the Shrew╗ are written in his playful manner and the bright spirit of the Renaissance. The heroes are the creators of their own fate and the scene is laid mostly in Italy.    These plays enjoy great popularity with the audience until now. But at the same time he produces some of his historical plays, telling about the War of the Roses full of dramatic tension. Shakespeare took his plots from history, old legends, novels and poems, he also used Plutarch`s лHistorical Portraits╗. The plot of лOthello╗ and лTwelfth Night╗ was taken from Italian novels and those of лHamlet╗ and лKing Lear╗ - from early English authors.But every borrowed plot began to live a new life in his plays.  ShakespeareТs literary work may be divided into four periods. The first period, dating from the beginning of his career to 1594, may be called the period of apprenticeship. The plays of that period were written under the influence of the University Wits and are cruder in their stade-craft and  psychology than his later works. However, we must admit that one play written during that time, лRichard III╗ , remains one of his most popular and most frequently staged works. During the second period, from the 1594-1595 season up to 1600, Shakespeare wrote plays belonging mainly to two dramatic genres: histories and comedies. The two tragedies written during those years, лRomeo and Juliet╗ and лJulius Caesar╗, differ greatly from his mature tragedies. The former, one of his most popular and frequently produced plays, is a true masterpiece; but its treatment of the material places it  apart from his great tragedies. лJulius Caesar╗ in its construction resembles a history rather than a tragedy. The third period. During the third period of his literary career, from 1600 to 1608, Shakespeare wrote the great tragedies that were the peak of his achievement, and made him truly immortal.  During the same period he became a consummate master of tragedy, creating the finest examples of the genre. His depictions of human character and psychology are unsurpassed. In the Middle Ages a tragedy meant a literary work dealing with the heroТs transition from fortune to misfortune and ending with his death. Some Elizabethan tragedies also fall into this category. Shakespeare brought something new to the tragedy; this new element was first introduced by Marlowe, but it was Shakespeare who carried it to perfection. The hero of any Shakespearian tragedy perishes by reason of some trait of character that makes him either prefer some positive ideal to life, or else makes him betray an ideal and hence, meet his doom. All the tragic characters of Shakespeare are shown in their development; a hero at the end of the tragedy isnТt the man he was at the beginning, his soul having undergone great changes. This is the first innovation introduced by Shakespeare. ShakespeareТs second innovation is his way of explaining the evolution of his heroes by the social factors that form their psychology and influence their lives. The problems raised in ShakespeareТs great tragedies still produce a terrific impression on our emotions and on our intellect. As we remarked before, the last years of ShakespeareТs career as a playwright are characterized by a considerable change in the style of the drama. Beaumont and Fletcher became the most popular dramatists, and the plays of Shakespeare written during his fought period are modeled after their dramatic technique. All of them are written around a dramatic conflict, but the tension in them is not so great as in the tragedies; all of them have happy endings. In many of his views Shakespeare was far ahead of his time. He rejected feudalism, but was sober and shrewd enough to see the evils and vices of growing capitalism.  He did not point out any definite means towards the achievement of his ideals, which were rather vague, he could give no concrete answers to the problems he put forth, but he was a truly great inquirer, and his unparallelled  penetration into life gives us, his true heirs, an opportunity to answer his questions better than he could himself. His works are truly immortal, and will   retain their immortality as long as the human race exists. It is only natural that the greatest minds of the world admired Shakespeare and acknowledged his unsurpassed merit; among them were Karl Marx, Frederic Engels, Goethe, Pushkin, Victor Hugo, and many others.  A writer is a true classic, if every new generation finds new and hitherto unperceived aspects of his works; such is the case with Shakespeare. His popularity all over the world grows from year to year. Performances of major Shakespearian parts are a kind of actors, examination for the right to be called great. Productions of Shakespeare, translations of Shakespeare, and critical works on Shakespeare are an indicator of the cultural level of any given nation. The Soviet Union has good cause to be proud of having given many valuable contributions to world Shakespeariana.

Literature :

      1.  T.D Volosova, M.J Hecker, V.V Rocoff: лENGLISH LITERATURE╗

2. Internet

3. Magazine л Foreigh Language╗

Ivleva Zhenva

9 лA╗ form
OKHA 2002