Since the late 80s of the 16th century, the dramaturgy of the English Renaissance entered a time of mature mastery. Every new author, almost every new work enriches drama with new ideas and artistic forms.

Dramatic creativity is becoming professional. A galaxy of playwrights appeared, nicknamed "university minds." As the nickname indicates, these were people with university education and advanced degrees. They received a classical education in the humanities, were well-read in Greek and Roman literature, and knew the works of Italian and French humanists. Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe received their BA and MA degrees from Cambridge. John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, George Peel received degrees at Oxford. Only Thomas Kyd did not graduate from university, but he studied at one of the best London schools. By this time, humanism was a fully formed teaching, and all they had to do was accept it.

But Oxford and Cambridge prepared their students only for a priestly career. At best, they could become teachers. But that was not why they read Plautus and Seneca, Boccaccio and

Ariosto to follow this path. Having received their diplomas, they rushed to London. Each of them was full of new ideas and creative aspirations. Soon the printing presses of the capital started working on them. But it was difficult to live on literary income. Poems, novels, pamphlets brought more fame than money. The “stormy geniuses” of that era, who paved new paths in literature and theater, lived hand to mouth at the very bottom of London, mixed with tavern regulars and thieves, huddled in inns and ran away from there when there was nothing to pay the owner. It happened that they ended up in the salon of some noble and wealthy patron of poetry, but here they did not take root.

They were driven to the theater by their love of art and the search for income. With Robert Greene, for example, it happened like this. One day he was wandering the streets penniless and met an old acquaintance who amazed him with his rich suit. Curious about where his friend got so rich, Green heard that he became an actor. The actor, having learned that Green wrote poetry, invited him to write for the theater.

Lily came to writing plays through a different route. He taught Latin to the boys of the singing choir. When another chapel staged performances by boy actors with great success, he decided to write a play and perform it with his students.

But, no matter how random the reasons were that attracted “university minds” to the theater, their arrival there was, in essence, natural. The theater turned out to be the best platform for their ideas, a field in which they could demonstrate their artistic talent.

Most of the "university minds" wrote for the folk theater. From the very beginning, Lily alone was oriented toward the “selected” courtly aristocratic public.

John Lyly (1553 - 1606) penned eight plays: "Alexander and Campaspe" (1584), "Sappho and Phaon" (1584), "Galatea" (1588), "Endymion, or the Man in the Moon" (1588), " Midas" (1589 - 1590), "Mother Bombi" (c. 1590), "Metamorphoses of Love" (c. 1590), "Woman in the Moon" (c. 1594).

It was not for nothing that Lily studied ancient authors. He had a passion for ancient stories and myths. But his plays were by no means academic exercises in imitation of ancient authors. Lily's dramaturgy was quite modern, despite the Greek names of the heroes and heroines. Borrowing plots from ancient history and mythology, equipping them with pastoral elements in the spirit of Italian humanism, Lily gave an allegorical portrayal of Elizabeth's court society in his comedies. In almost every one of his comedies, Queen Elizabeth is depicted under one name or another, glorified as an example of all virtues. Lily's Athens resembles London, and the Arcadian meadows resemble English nature.

In Lily's comedies, love themes predominate, only in "Midas" there were elements of political satire on the Spanish King Philip II and in "Mother Bomba" there were elements of everyday satire. As a rule, Lily's action takes place in a conventional setting. His characters are half bookish, half real. They speak in a very peculiar secular jargon.

Lily was the creator of a special style of “euphuism,” which received its name from Lily’s novel “Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit” (1579). The style of speech developed by Lily was closely related to the ideological concept that underlay all of his work.

Lily was a representative of courtly aristocratic humanism. Fully supporting the existing system, he believed that humanism should be limited to the task of educating an ideal gentleman, endowed with external and internal culture. Based on the treatise of the Italian writer Castiglione “The Courtier,” Lily, in the image of the hero of his novel Euphues, sought to present a concrete embodiment of his ideal. High intelligence and subtle sensitivity should go hand in hand with refined manners. With his novel, Lily wanted to give the aristocrats of Elizabeth's time examples of gallantry. In essence, his novel was, on English soil, one of the early examples of that “precious” style, which subsequently received such significant development in French noble literature of the 17th century and was cruelly ridiculed by Moliere.

Characteristic features of the euphuistic style: rhetoric, an abundance of metaphors and comparisons, antitheses, parallelisms, references to ancient mythology. Not only Lily’s novel, but also his plays were written in similar language. In Lily’s comedy “Endymion,” the hero says about his beloved: “Oh, beautiful Cynthia! Why do others call you fickle when I find you unchangeable? Disastrous time, vicious morals, unkind people, seeing the incomparable constancy of my beautiful beloved, dubbed her fickle, unfaithful , fickle! Can one be called fickle who always goes her own way, without changing her direction for a moment from birth? Aren’t the ebbs and flows of the sea beautiful, and can the moon be called unfaithful because she, obeying the same law, then decreases, then increases? Buds are worth nothing until they give color, and a flower - until it gives a ripe fruit, and shall we call them changeable because from a seed a sprout appears, from a sprout a bud, from a bud a flower ?"

Eufuism had a significant influence on the literary language of the era, including the language of dramatic works. At a certain stage, he played a positive role, contributing to the enrichment and ennoblement of the language. However, the emphasized aristocracy and artificiality of this style could not but cause a reaction from those writers who were guided by the living folk language. Shakespeare, who first paid a certain tribute to euphuism, then repeatedly parodied this style. When Falstaff and Prince Henry (Henry IV, Part 1) stage the meeting of the king and the prince, the fat knight, who throughout the scene parodies a number of dramatic works of the era, imitates the euphuistic style as follows:

“Harry, I am surprised not only by your pastime, but also by the society in which you live. Although the daisy grows faster the more it is trampled on, youth wears out the more quickly the more it is abused. That you are my son is part of me I'm convinced by your mother's assurances, partly by my own opinion, but especially by the roguish look in your eyes and the stupid drooping of your lower lip... Your company defiles a person. I'm telling you this, Harry, not with drunken eyes, but with tears in my eyes, not jokingly , and grieving, not only with words, but also with an aching heart." Polonius's speeches in Hamlet are also euphuistic. But here this is both a parody and a characterization: such were the tastes of the court environment.

Along with artificiality, however, there was real live wit in Lily’s comedies. An example of this is the dialogue between Plato, Aristotle and Diogenes in Alexander and Campaspe, and the conversations of servants in other comedies. From here it is only one step to the wit of Shakespearean comedies.

Lily was the creator of "high" comedy. He was the first to take comedy beyond farce. With the exception of "Mother Bombi", where there are elements of farce, he everywhere depicts romantic situations, building the action on clashes of high passions. In this he is also a direct predecessor of Shakespeare. But the morality with which his comedies are imbued is completely opposite to Shakespeare’s and, in general, to the ethical principles of folk drama. In Lily's comedies, conflict arising from the fact that two people love the same woman is very common ("Alexander and Campaspe", "Sappho and Phaon", etc.). One of them must give up his love. Lily asserts strict moral discipline, insists on the need to suppress his passions, and in this sense, Puritanism is not alien to him. Folk drama by no means cultivated a stoic suppression of passions, feelings and desires. On the contrary, all its pathos was in the depiction of the strength and beauty of powerful passions, in the affirmation of the legitimacy of man’s right to satisfy his aspirations, in the struggle of the good principles of human nature against the bad.

The largest representatives of folk drama before Shakespeare were Greene, Kyd and Marlowe.

Robert Greene (1558 - 1592) was a native of Norwich. He studied at Cambridge University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1578 and a master of arts in 1583. While a bachelor, he traveled around Spain and Italy. Greene's literary activity began while still in Cambridge; it became the main source of his livelihood after 1583, when he settled in London. The eight to nine years that Green lived in the capital were the most stormy and fruitful period of his life. Greene wrote in various genres: poetry, poems, novels, satirical pamphlets and dramas. Intense, poorly paid work, periods of complete need, when Green literally starved, and the succeeding months of prosperity, when he reveled incontinently, squandering his fees - all this undermined his health. He fell ill and died at some inn, owing money to the owner and not even leaving money for the funeral.

Greene's first dramatic experience, Alphonse, King of Aragon (1587), is a play depicting the extraordinary exploits and grandiose victories of a hero who wins the crown and the love of a beautiful girl. The dramatization of “The Furious Roland” (1588) also has a romantic basis. The plot of Ariosto's poem gave Green the opportunity to satisfy the public's love for bright, entertaining action and to bring out heroes endowed with great passions.

“Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay” (1589), like Marlowe’s “Faust,” reflects a characteristic phenomenon of the era - the desire to understand the secrets of nature and subjugate it with the help of science. Like Marlowe, Greene does not separate science from magic. His hero, Friar Bacon, is a warlock with the ability to perform miracles. However, Greene's play is completely devoid of the tragic meaning that Marlowe's play has. There is no titanism in Green's characters, and the whole plot is given a romantic overtones. The Prince of Wales and his courtier Lacy seek the love of the forester's daughter, the beautiful Margaret. The rivalry between two magicians, Bacon and Bongay, is a kind of comic background to this love story.

An essential element of the play is its connection with folklore. Its plot has roots in English folk legends about the medieval scientist Roger Bacon (13th century), who invented glasses and substantiated the principle of constructing a telescope. In the play, he possesses a "magic glass" that allows him to see long distances. Some scenes are based on Bacon looking through this glass, and what he sees is what the audience sees.

"Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay" is one of the most popular plays of the folk theater. It is imbued with undoubted democracy. The heroine of the play, Margarita, is a girl from the people who acts as the embodiment of the ideal of beauty, fidelity and love, as the bearer of free feelings. “Neither the king of England, nor the ruler of all Europe,” she declares, “would make me stop loving the one I love.”

Green's attitude towards science is also imbued with democracy. Monk Bacon uses his magical power not for personal purposes, but to help people. At the conclusion of the play, he pronounces a prophecy about the future of England, which, having gone through the crucible of wars, will achieve a peaceful life:

First, Mars will take possession of the fields, Then the end of the military thunderstorm will come: Horses will graze in the field without fear, Wealth will bloom on the banks, Whose view Brutus once admired, And peace will descend from heaven to the tabernacles...

In James IV (1591), Greene, like other playwrights of the era, used historical plot to treat political problems. Green is a supporter of the "enlightened monarchy." Like Shakespeare later, he raises the question of the personality of the king, believing that it depends on this whether the reign will be fair or unfair. The Scottish king James IV is depicted in the play as a typical embodiment of monarchical tyranny. Because of his love for Ida, the daughter of the Countess of Arran, acting at the instigation of the treacherous courtier Atekin, James IV orders the murder of his wife Dorothea, the daughter of the English king. Warned of the plot, the queen goes into hiding. The news of her apparent death reaches her father, Henry VII, who invades Scotland with an army. Dorothea appears, hiding. James IV repents and everything ends peacefully.

This play, like Greene's other works, is characterized by a combination of socio-political themes with personal conflicts. The evil king James is contrasted with the English king Henry VII, who acts as the guardian of justice and legality. To understand the general spirit of this play, the episode in which a lawyer, a merchant and a priest have a conversation about the causes of social disasters is of great importance. Green makes the priest the spokesman for the most just views. “What can we call such a system in which the poor always loses his case, no matter how fair it is?” the priest is indignant. “Admire the results of your activities: clever people bought up lands from the lords and are now putting pressure on the farmers in every possible way; if the latter decide to complain and they will resort to your help, you will remove the last thread from them and send them with their children around the world. Now the war has begun; the plundered people are worried; we are robbed even without enemies; our own people ruin us and at the same time sentence us: in times of peace the law did not spare us, Now we, in turn, will destroy it."

The hero of the play "George Greene, Wakefield Warden" (1592) is a man of the people, a yeoman, proud of being a commoner, and refusing the title of nobility with which the king wants to bestow him. George Green is hostile to the feudal lords, he captures the rebel lords who rebelled against Edward III. The political direction of the play corresponded to the positions of bourgeois humanists, who saw in the strengthening of the absolute monarchy a means of suppressing the willfulness of the feudal barons. The idea of ​​unity of the people and the king in the fight against the feudal lords runs through the entire play. Such views of Greene were, of course, an illusion that arose at that stage of social development in England, when the absolute monarchy relied in its struggle against the feudal lords on the support of the bourgeoisie and the people.

As in "Monk Bacon", in "The Wakefield Watchman" the connection between Greene's dramaturgy and folklore is clearly felt. Not to mention the fact that one of the characters in the play is the hero of folk ballads Robin Hood, the image of George Green was also borrowed by the author from folk songs. The writer's democratic sympathies are also reflected in the images of the townspeople of Weckfield, in the loving depiction of the life of ordinary people and in the folk humor that colors a number of episodes of the play.

Greene was not at all characterized by tragic pathos. As a rule, his plays have a happy ending. The comic element in them is very significant, which Green organically connected with the main lines of the plot. Greene loved to build complex intrigue and conduct parallel action.

These features of Greene's dramaturgy became firmly established in the practice of the English Renaissance theater.

Thomas Kyd is one of the most interesting and at the same time most mysterious figures of the English Renaissance. Even the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown: it is assumed that he was born in 1557 and died in 1595. What is known is that before becoming a playwright, he was a scribe. Some of his plays were published without the name of the author, others were indicated only by initials. The main source for determining Kid's authorship was the expense books of theater entrepreneur Philip Hensloe, who noted the payment of royalties to the authors of the plays.

According to researchers, Kidd was the author of five plays. The first in time was the "Spanish Tragedy", the popularity of which can be judged by the fact that over the course of a decade it was published four times (1st edition - no date, 2nd - 1594, 3rd - 1599, 4th - 1602). Although the name of the author is not indicated on any publication, all researchers consider the attribution of this play to Kid indisputable. It is believed that Kid wrote the first part of the tragedy "Jeronimo", which depicts the events preceding the "Spanish Tragedy".

Next, Kid is credited with the authorship of the play, the lengthy title of which reads: “The tragedy of Soliman and Persida, which depicts the constancy of love, the fickleness of fate and the bargaining of death.” We can confidently speak about Kid's authorship in relation to the tragedy "Pompeii the Great and the Beautiful Cornelia", because his name is indicated on the title page. It is also indicated here that the play is a translation of the tragedy of the French poet Robert Garnier. Finally, it is believed that Kyd was the author of the pre-Shakespearean tragedy about Hamlet, which is known to have been performed on stage in 1587-1588, although its text has not reached us.

The most remarkable of all these dramas was the "Spanish Tragedy", which laid the foundation for the genre of "bloody drama". It begins with the appearance of the ghost of Andrea, crying out for revenge for his death at the hands of the Portuguese Balthasar. This task is taken on by the friend of the deceased, Horatio, who captures Balthazar and brings him to Spain. But here Balthazar manages to strike up a friendship with the son of the Castilian Duke, Lorenzo. With his assistance, Balthazar is going to marry the bride of the late Andrea, the beautiful Belimperia. But Belimperia loves Horatio. To eliminate their rival, Balthazar and his friend Lorenzo kill Horatio. They hang the dead man's body on a tree in front of his house. Horatio's father, Hieronimo, finds the corpse and vows to find the killers to take revenge on them. Horatio's mother, shocked by grief, commits suicide. Having learned who was the cause of all his misfortunes, Hieronimo comes up with a plan for revenge. He invites his son's killers to participate in the performance of the play at the wedding celebration of the marriage of Balthazar and Belimperia. All the main characters participate in this play. During the course of this play, Hieronimo must kill Lorenzo and Balthasar, which he does. Belimperia commits suicide, Lorenzo's father falls dead, and thus Hieronimo's revenge is carried out. When the king orders Hieronimo to be arrested, he bites off his tongue and spits it out so as not to reveal his secret. Hieronimo then stabs himself with a dagger.

"The Spanish Tragedy" - a drama of court intrigue and cruel revenge - is of significant interest both in its artistic features and in its ideological orientation.

Refusing ready-made plots of ancient or medieval origin, Kid himself invented the plot of his tragedy, the action of which takes place in contemporary Spain, in the 80s of the 16th century. He fills the play with stormy passions, rapidly developing events and pathetic speeches. Skillfully constructing the action, he simultaneously conducts several parallel intrigues, striking the viewer with unexpected coincidences of circumstances and sharp turns in the destinies of the heroes. The characters' characters are outlined sharply, with expressive strokes. Temperament is combined in them with determination, with enormous willpower. He creates images of villains who know no limits to deceit and cruelty. Hieronimo's thirst for revenge turns into an obsession bordering on madness.

Matching the whole color of the tragedy are the female characters, in particular the heroine of the play Belimperia, who is not inferior to men in passion, energy, and determination. Kid's characters pour out their feelings in speeches full of intense emotion, stormy exclamations, and bold hyperbole. In this, Kid's tragedy is similar to many other dramatic works of the era. But there is a feature in The Spanish Tragedy that distinguishes this play from the mass of modern dramatic production. This is her exceptional theatricality and stage presence. Unlike many plays, in which much of the action takes place offstage, in Kid everything happens on stage, in front of the audience. Having overcome the schematism of literary, “academic” drama, Kid seemed to revive on a new basis the elements of visibility and effective spectacle characteristic of the mystery theater. Kid's play creates an exciting spectacle; the events presented in it evoke either pity and compassion, or fear and horror. During the course of The Spanish Tragedy, eight murders and suicides occur, each of which is carried out in its own way; in addition, the audience is shown hanging, madness, tongue biting and other terrible things. Kid's heroes not only made speeches, but performed many different acts, and all this required new acting techniques for that time, the development of facial expressions, gestures, and stage movement. Among the innovative elements of Kyd's dramaturgy, it should also be noted that he introduced the “scene on stage” - a technique that contained rich scenic possibilities and was then repeatedly used by Shakespeare.

Kid's dramatic innovations were not an end in themselves. They are inextricably linked with the ideological orientation of his work. The horrors and atrocities presented in abundance in The Spanish Tragedy reflected Kid's inherent tragic perception of reality.

The accumulation of horrors and atrocities in the bloody drama was a reflection of the rampant individualistic self-will and the collapse of all feudal ties in the conditions of the emerging bourgeois society. The breakdown of old moral norms was expressed in the loss of restraining principles. Malice, deceit, betrayal, predation, violence, murder and other similar phenomena captured in the bloody drama were not an invention of the playwrights, but a reflection of the facts of reality. It is not without reason that a significant number of works were created in the genre of bloody drama, based on contemporary material, and not on borrowed literary or historical plots.

The vast majority of bloody tragedies depicted the life of the upper classes, the court and the nobility. The democratic orientation of the genre was reflected in the fact that, in essence, bloody dramas always condemned the immorality and cruelty of high society.

A special place among bloody dramas is occupied by the work of an unknown author, “Arden of Feversham” (c. 1590). A significant difference between this play and other works of this genre is that the action in it does not take place at court or among the nobility, but in the life of ordinary people. This is the first bourgeois family drama in the English theater. The source of its plot was the real events that took place in 1551.

The play depicts the murder of Arden, a townsman, by his wife Alice and her lover Mosby. Unable to restrain her passions, Alice decides to get rid of her unloved husband, but the implementation of her plan constantly encounters obstacles, and Arden manages to avoid the traps prepared for him over and over again.

Conducting the action with great skill, the playwright unfolds before the viewer pictures of the provincial and metropolitan life of people of average wealth, working people and the scum of society. The dramatic skill with which the plot unfolds has led researchers to speculate that the author of this anonymous play could be Shakespeare or Kyd. These assumptions, however, do not have any serious basis.

The greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors was Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593). The son of a Canterbury shoemaker, who completed a full course of science at Cambridge University, Marlowe received the degree of Master of Liberal Arts in 1587. After settling in London, he was engaged in poetic and dramatic activities, staging plays for public theaters.

While living in London, Marlowe joined a circle of freethinkers led by Walter Raleigh, one of the brightest figures of the English Renaissance; Raleigh was a warrior, navigator, poet, philosopher, historian. Ideologically associated with Raleigh, Marlowe openly professed atheism and republican views. Numerous denunciations against Marlowe, filed by secret police agents, have survived. An investigation was underway into his freethinking. But the authorities decided to do without the usual legal procedure: Marlowe was killed by government agents at an inn in the city of Deptford, and then a version was invented that the cause of the poet’s death was a brawl over a tavern girl. In fact, as researchers have now documented, the playwright fell victim to the police terror of the Elizabethan government.

Marlowe's first play appeared in 1587, and five years later he died. Despite the short duration of his activity, Marlowe left a very significant dramatic legacy.

Marlowe's first tragedy literally shocked his contemporaries. Not a single stage work before that time had such success as “Tamerlane” (part 1 - 1587, part 2 - 1588). The hero of the tragedy is a simple shepherd who becomes a commander and conquers numerous kingdoms of the East.

Tamerlane is a titanic personality: he strives for unlimited domination over the world. This is a man of enormous ambition, an indefatigable thirst for power, and indomitable energy. He does not believe in fate and God, he is his own destiny and his own god. He is unshakably convinced that everything you want is achievable, you just need to really want it and achieve it.

Belief in the power of the mind and will of man is expressed by Marlowe in Tamerlane’s monologue:

We are created from four elements, stubbornly at war with each other. Nature teaches our minds to soar And to cognize with an insatiable soul The wonderful architecture of the world, To measure the complex path of the heavenly bodies And to strive for endless knowledge...

Having achieved one of his first military victories, Tamerlane captures the beautiful Zenocrate, the daughter of the Egyptian Sultan. He falls in love with her with all the power of passion inherent in his nature. Zenocrata is at first frightened by Tamerlane’s indomitability, and then, conquered by his heroic energy, gives him her heart. Tamerlane makes his conquests, wanting to lay the whole world at the feet of his beloved woman. At the end of the first part, Tamerlane enters into battle with Zenocrates' father, the Egyptian Sultan. Zenocrata experiences a split feeling between love for Tamerlane and her father. Tamerlane takes the Sultan prisoner, but returns his freedom, and he blesses his marriage with Zenocrata.

If the first part depicts Tamerlane’s conquest of the East, then in the second we see Tamerlane spreading his conquests to the West. He defeats the Hungarian king Sigismund.

Zenocrata, who managed to give Tamerlane three sons, dies. Tamerlane's grief is limitless. He burns down the city where Zenocrate died. Accompanied by his three sons, Tamerlane, like a whirlwind of death, sweeps with his troops through all the new countries he conquers. He conquers Babylon and Turkey. Here he orders the burning of the Koran. This episode is a challenge to religion by the atheist Marlowe, and it was not difficult for contemporaries to guess that he had the same attitude towards the sacred scriptures of Christianity. Tamerlane dies, ordering himself to be buried next to Zenocrate and bequeathing to his sons to continue the conquest of new lands.

"Tamerlane" by Marlowe is the apotheosis of a strong personality, a hymn to human energy. The hero of the tragedy embodies the spirit of the era when the individual was emancipated from feudal shackles. Tamerlane undoubtedly has features of bourgeois individualism. His highest aspiration is unlimited power over the world and people. He discards old moral principles and believes that the only law is his will.

But there was also a deeply democratic basis in the image of Tamerlane. Marlowe chose as the hero of the drama a man who rises from the very bottom to the pinnacle of power and might. The popular audience of that time should have been impressed by this shepherd, defeating kings and forcing them to serve him. Tamerlane forces one of the captive kings to depict a step at the foot of his throne, he harnesses other kings to a chariot and rides around on it, he puts another king in a cage and carries him along to demonstrate his power.

The democratic spectator, of course, joyfully applauded this spectacle of so many overthrown kings, defeated by a simple shepherd. "Tamerlane" was a challenge to the old world and its rulers. Marlowe seemed to be proclaiming with his play that a new ruler of the world was coming; he has neither titles nor ancestors, but he is powerful, intelligent, energetic, and before his will thrones and altars will fall to dust. This was, in essence, the idea of ​​the play, and this was its pathos, which so captivated its contemporaries.

The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus (1588 - 1589) contained the same challenge. Here the hero is also a titanic personality. But if Tamerlane wanted to achieve unlimited power over the world through military exploits, then Faust strives for the same goal through knowledge. Borrowing a plot from a German folk book about the warlock Doctor Faustus, Marlowe created a typically Renaissance work that reflected the most important feature of the era - the emergence of a new science.

Faust rejects medieval scholasticism and theology, powerless to comprehend nature and discover its laws; they only shackle a person. The revolt against medieval theology and the denial of religion is embodied in the alliance that Faust enters into with the devil. The atheist and atheist Marlowe gives full vent to his hatred of religion here. His hero finds more benefit for himself in communicating with the devil - Mephistopheles, than in obedience to religious dogmas.

In Marlowe's tragedy one senses a powerful impulse for knowledge, a passionate desire to conquer nature and make it serve man. Faust embodies this desire for knowledge. The seekers of new paths in science were brave people who heroically rebelled against medieval religious prejudices, courageously endured the persecution of the church and the persecution of obscurantists, and put their lives on the line in order to achieve their great goal.

Such a heroic personality is Faust, who even agrees to sell his soul to the devil in order to master the secrets of nature and conquer it. Faust composes an enthusiastic hymn to knowledge:

Oh, what a world, a world of wisdom and benefit, Honor, omnipotence and power Open to those who devote themselves to science! Everything that lies between the silent poles is subject to me.

Knowledge is not an end in itself for Faust. For him it is the same means to conquer the whole world as his sword was for Tamerlane. Science should give him wealth and power.

However, there is a difference between Faust and Tamerlane. Tamerlane is an integral personality. He knows no doubts or hesitations. The play about him, in fact, is not a tragedy, but rather a heroic drama, because from beginning to end the viewer sees continuous triumphs of the hero. It's a different matter in Faust. Here from the very beginning we feel the duality of the hero. He has two souls. Faust craves, albeit short-term, but still real power over the world and is ready to sacrifice his “immortal” soul for this. But fear also lives in him, fear for this “soul” of his, which will ultimately have to pay for the violation of the eternal order of things.

At the end of the tragedy, Faust is ready to renounce himself and “burn his books.” What is this - the author's recognition of the defeat of his hero? Refusal of the desire for unlimited freedom and power over the world, reconciliation with everything that Faust first renounced?

It should not be forgotten that in creating the tragedy, Marlowe depended on his source and had to follow the course of events in the legend of Faust. In addition, Marlowe was forced to take into account the prevailing point of view and could not have staged the play if Faustus had not been punished for abandoning religion. But besides these external circumstances that played their role, there was also an internal reason that prompted Marlowe to write such an ending to the tragedy. Faust reflected the duality of the ideal of a free personality to which Marlowe aspired. His hero is a strong man who freed himself from the power of God and the feudal state, but he is at the same time self-centered, trampling on social institutions and moral laws.

“Faust” is the most tragic of Marlowe’s creations, for here we find the dead end into which a person reaches, rejecting all moral norms in his desire for freedom.

“The Jew of Malta” (1592) marks a new stage in the development of Marlowe’s worldview. Unlike the first two dramas, which exalted the individual, here Marlowe criticizes individualism.

The tragedy takes place in Malta. When the Turkish Sultan demands tribute from the Knights of Malta, the commander of the order finds a simple way out. He takes money from the Jews living on the island and pays off the Turks. This arbitrariness outrages the rich Jew Barabas, who refuses to give the money and hides it in his house. Then he is deprived of his property and his house is turned into a nunnery. To save the money hidden there, Barabas forces his daughter to announce her conversion to Christianity and become a nun. But instead of helping her father, Abigail, the daughter of Barabas, becomes a sincere Christian. Then Barabas poisons her. Meanwhile, Malta is besieged by the Turks. Barabas goes over to their side and helps them take possession of the fortress. As a reward for this, the Turks appoint him governor and give the knights he hates into his hands. Wanting to retain the governorship, but realizing that for this he needs to have the support of the inhabitants, Barabas offers the captured knights freedom and promises them to destroy the Turks, provided that the knights then leave the management of the island in his hands and pay him one hundred thousand pounds. Barabas constructs a hatch, under which he places a cauldron of boiling resin. The Turkish military leaders invited by him must fall through this hatch. But the former governor of the island, dedicated to the matter, arranges it so that Barabas falls through the hatch and burns in boiling tar.

In the image of Barabas, Marlowe, as a humanist, denounced the acquisitiveness and greed of the bourgeoisie. Marlowe was the first to create the type of bourgeois predator in English Renaissance drama.

If in his first two plays wealth was portrayed by Marlowe as one of the means to satisfy human needs, then in The Jew of Malta the playwright shows the detrimental effect of gold on character when wealth becomes the goal. The image of Barabas embodies the typical features of the bourgeoisie of the era of primitive accumulation of capital. He laid the foundation of his fortune through usury. Now he is a merchant, sending his ships with goods to different countries. He turns his proceeds into jewelry. With the passion of a treasure collector, he, choking with delight, speaks of his jewelry:

In the bags were opal, sapphire and amethyst, Topaz, emerald and hyacinth, Ruby, sparkling diamonds, precious stones, large, and each weighing many carats. For them, in case of need, I can redeem the great Kings from captivity. This is what my wealth consists of. And this is what, I believe, the income from trade should be converted into; Their price will increase all the time, And in a small box you will save an infinite number of Treasures.

All nature, according to Barabas, should serve the purpose of increasing wealth, in which he sees the highest good, for, as he says: “People are valued only for wealth.” As for conscience and honor, Barabas has his own opinion on this matter:

Those unfortunate people who have a conscience are doomed to live in poverty forever.

Therefore, when Barabas’s property is confiscated, he utters a passion-filled monologue in despair:

I lost all the gold, all the riches! Oh heaven, did I deserve this? Why, stars, did you decide to plunge Me into despair and poverty?

Having become governor, Barabas seeks to use power to his advantage; at the same time, he expresses a typically bourgeois attitude towards power:

I will retain the power gained through treason with a firm hand. I won’t part with her without a profit. The one who, having power, did not acquire Friends or bags full of gold, is like a Donkey in Aesop’s fable: He threw away the baggage with bread and wine and began to gnaw the withered thistles.

Condemning the cruel predation of Barabas, the atheist Marlowe nevertheless did not fail to put into his mouth words exposing the hypocritical religion of Christians:

I know the fruits of their faith: Deception and malice, pride beyond measure, - And this does not agree with their teaching.

Barabas is contrasted as a positive character by the ruler of Malta, Farnese. In his speeches we hear condemnation of usury and other methods of bourgeois accumulation. When Barabas calls the monetary tribute imposed on him by the ruler theft, Farnese objects:

No, we are taking your wealth in order to save many people. For the good of all, let one suffer, Than all others suffer for one.

Thus, Marlowe contrasts the principle of the common good with individualism.

In terms of the depth of social insight, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta approaches Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens.

"Edward II" (1593) is a historical chronicle, rich in political content. Edward II is a weak-willed, pampered king, a slave to his passions, whims, and quirks. Power serves him only as a means of satisfying his own whims. Weak-willed and soft-bodied, he is obedient to his favorites, especially one of them, Gaveston, whose arrogant behavior causes general indignation.

The weak king is opposed by the energetic and ambitious Mortimer, who raises a rebellion in order to seize power into his own hands. He pretends to be the guardian of common interests. In essence, he too sees in power only the satisfaction of his egoism. Having eliminated the king through the murder and become the de facto ruler of the country, he also causes discontent with his rule and falls victim to a noble rebellion.

"Edward II" is an anti-monarchy and anti-nobility play. Marlowe denies the divinity of royal power and shows a picture of a state where arbitrariness and violence reign. This play continues the critique of individualism found in The Jew of Malta. Edward's weakness and Mortimer's strength oppose each other, like two sides of selfishness. The epicurean Edward and the ambitious Mortimer are just two sides of individualism.

"The Parisian Massacre" (1593) is based on the events of St. Bartholomew's Night. Marlowe shows here the consequences of religious intolerance and uses this for his constant criticism of religion. Marlowe's last work - "The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage" (1593) - remained unfinished. It was completed by Thomas Nash.

Marlowe's dramaturgy is one of the most significant phenomena in the development of English drama of the Renaissance. Of all Shakespeare's predecessors, he was the most gifted. An early death cut short his activity in its prime, but what Marlowe managed to do enriched the theater of his time.

In Marlowe's tragedies, the pathos of affirmation of the individual, freed from medieval feudal ties and restrictions, was expressed. The glorification of the power of man, his desire for knowledge and power over the world, the rejection of religion and patriarchal morality are combined in Marlowe’s heroes with the denial of any ethical foundations. The individualism of his mighty heroes was anarchic in nature.

Starting with the idea of ​​asserting personality in Tamburlaine, Marlowe, already in Faust, comes to a partial understanding of the contradictions of individualism, criticism of which becomes the main motive of The Jew of Malta. In this case, of course, one should take into account the difference in the goals of the heroes: for Tamerlane it is power, for Faust it is knowledge, for Barabas it is wealth. Faustus therefore stands out as a hero with truly positive aspirations for all his individualism. Although in Marlowe’s plays there are attempts to create positive characters (Zenocrates in Tamerlane, Farnese in The Jew of Malta), nevertheless, Marlowe did not create images that could ideologically and artistically fully oppose his individualist heroes. This leads to the inconsistency and some one-sidedness characteristic of Marlowe’s dramaturgy. The task of creating titanic characters carrying positive social aspirations was carried out by Shakespeare, who replaced Marlowe, and owed much to his predecessor.

Marlowe made a significant contribution to the development of drama, raising its artistic form to great heights. He gave examples of a more advanced design of dramatic action, to which he gave internal unity, building the development of the plot around the personality and fate of the central character. In his work, the concept of the tragic was further developed. Before Marlowe, the tragic was understood externally, as an image of all kinds of atrocities that cause fear and horror. Marlowe himself took this position when he created Tamerlane and The Jew of Malta. Marlowe's Faust surpasses both of these dramas with a deeper understanding of the tragic, which is expressed here not so much in the external as in the internal conflict in the hero's soul, which culminates in the finale of the play. The image of Faust, in accordance with Aristotle's understanding of the tragic, evokes fear and compassion. At the same time, it should be noted that Marlowe’s realism deepened from play to play, reaching its greatest psychological truth in Edward II.

Marlowe's merit was also the introduction of blank verse into drama. Blank verse had the freedom that was necessary to give naturalness to the speeches of the characters. Of all Shakespeare's predecessors, Marlowe was the most gifted poet. His style was distinguished by pathos, bold comparisons, vivid metaphors, an abundance of hyperbole and best suited the feelings of Marlowe's titanic heroes. The energy and great emotional power of Marlowe's dramatic speech later gave Ben Jonson every reason to talk about "Marlowe's mighty verse."

William Shakespeare is considered a brilliant poet and playwright not only in Great Britain, but throughout the world. It is generally accepted that his works are a kind of encyclopedia of human relationships, they are like a mirror in which people, great and insignificant, are presented in their essence. He wrote 17 comedies, 11 tragedies, 10 chronicles, 5 poems and 154 sonnets. They are studied in schools and higher educational institutions. No playwright could achieve such greatness as Shakespeare achieved after his death. Until now, scientists from different countries are trying to solve the question of how such a creator could appear in the 16th century, whose works remain relevant 400 years later.

There is no consensus about the origins of Shakespeare. The exact date of his birth is unknown. According to generally accepted information, he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, near Birmingham, and was baptized there on April 26, 1564. His father sold meat, had two houses, and was elected mayor. But in Shakespeare’s family, no one dealt with issues of literature or history, much less was interested in theater. There was no environment in Stratford that could educate the future playwright.

Young William went to a school for not very wealthy children, where they taught for free. He graduated from it at the age of 14, and at the age of 18 he was forced to marry the daughter of a rich peasant - supposedly his family was in a difficult financial situation. His wife, Anne Hathaway, was 8 years older than William.

Shakespeare, apparently, was disappointed in his marriage and went to London to earn money. There is information that he joined a group of traveling actors. It was in London that he began to write poetry, poems, dedicating them to influential people. It is likely that by doing this he attracted the attention of rich people. He was recommended to go to the theater. True, he was not accepted as an actor, but was offered to serve the visitors’ horses. He agreed. Then I tried myself as a prompter. He showed literary abilities, and they began to give him various plays for revision: dramas, comedies. It is possible that familiarization with these works and the acting on stage made him want to try himself as an author. And at the age of 25, he wrote his first play about the war between two dynasties. Followed by another and another. Some were accepted into the production, and they were a success with the public.

Shakespeare wrote for the Globe Theater, which was built in 1599 at the expense of actors, including Shakespeare. On the pediment of the building there was a saying of the Roman author Petronius Arbiter: “The whole world is a theater, all the people in it are actors.” The building was destroyed by fire on June 29, 1613.

Shakespeare's plays differed from traditional ones in their deep content. He, like no one before him, introduced exciting intrigue and demonstrated how a changed situation changes people. He showed that a great person in a new situation can act basely and, conversely, an insignificant person can rise to a great deed. He revealed the moral essence of the characters; as the plot developed, each showed his own character, and the audience empathized with what was happening on stage. Shakespeare's dramatic works turned out to have high moral pathos.

But it was not without difficulties: with his plays he deprived other authors of income, the public wanted Shakespeare, they went to see his dramas. He borrowed plots from ancient authors and used historical chronicles. For these borrowings he was nicknamed “a crow in other people’s feathers.”

The plays brought good income to the theater, and Shakespeare himself became rich. He bought a house in his homeland in Stratford, then bought a house in London, lending money at interest. He was a prosperous author and was even awarded a noble coat of arms with an image of a falcon with a spear.

Shakespeare lived for pleasure, and it is believed that he died after a merry party with friends.

People close to Shakespeare, his contemporaries, appreciated the work of their favorite - they predicted his eternal life in the theatrical world. And so it happened. Shakespeare's genius was talked about many years after his death, when his plays entered the repertoire of the world's leading theaters.

His heroes became a symbol of tragic life situations: Romeo and Juliet - selfless love, Lady Macbeth - criminality, Iago and Othello - treachery and gullibility, Falstaff - cowardice and boasting, Hamlet - tossing between feeling and duty.

Shakespeare was a born playwright, he helps the viewer take a new look at himself and the world.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(1564-1616)

Shakespeare's work is the highest achievement of European literature of the Renaissance. If the powerful figure of “Dante” marks the beginning of the Renaissance, this gigantic figure of Shakespeare crowns its end and crowns it in the history of world culture. His legacy has acquired global significance, influenced the work of countless world-famous painters and remains relevant to our time.

The best theaters in the world constantly include his plays in their repertoire, and perhaps not every actor dreams of playing the role of Hamlet.

Despite the global resonance of the dramaturgy of Shakespeare's poetry, not much is known about him himself. The textbook data is as follows. Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in the family of a craftsman and merchant. He studied at a local grammar school, where they studied their native language, also Greek and Latin, since the only textbook was the Bible. According to some sources, he did not finish school, since his father, due to financial burdens, took William to be his assistant. According to others, after graduating from school he was even an assistant to a school teacher.

At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than him. Three years after the wedding he left Stratford. His first printed works appeared exclusively in 1594. Biographers imply that during this period he was for some time an actor in a traveling troupe, D 1590 he worked in various theaters in London, and from 1594 he joined the best London troupe of James Burbage. From the moment Burbage built the Globe Theater, in other words, from 1599 to 1621, his life was connected with this theater, of which he was a shareholder, actor and playwright. His family remained in Stratford all this time, where he returned, having stopped theatrical and creative activities, and where he died on April 23 (his own birthday) 1612 at the age of 52 years.

His dramatic and poetic heritage, according to the “Shakespearean canon” (the first complete edition of Shakespeare’s works, published in 1623), consists of 37 dramas, 154 sonnets and two poems - “Venus and Adoni” and “Lucretia Infamous”. All of Shakespeare's dramatic works are written in blank verse with the introduction of prose. The combination of poetry and prose is a corresponding feature of Shakespearean dramaturgy, determined by both artistic material and aesthetic objectives.

Thousands of books are dedicated to the work of the unsurpassed playwright and brilliant master of the sonnet. It is curious that just one, still unsolved problem, accounts for more than 4,500 works. And this problem, surprisingly, concerns specifically the authorship of Shakespeare’s works: who is their creator - William Shakespeare himself or someone else. To date, there are 58 applicants, including such names as the philosopher Francis Bacon, Lords Southampton, Rutland, the Earl of Derby and even Queen Elizabeth.

More serious doubts about Shakespeare's authorship are raised by the fact that William did not study anywhere, not counting grammar school, and never visited anywhere outside of Great Britain. At the same time, Shakespeare's works amaze with their unsurpassed artistic skill, scale of thinking and philosophical artistic depth of penetration into the most important tasks of existence. They testify not only to the genius of their creator, but also to the encyclopedicism of his knowledge, which none of his contemporaries possessed. Shakespeare's dictionary contains over 20 thousand words, while Francis Bacon has only 8 thousand, Victor Hugo - 9 thousand.

They also testify that he knew French, Italian, Greek, Latin, and was well acquainted with ancient mythology, the works of Homer, Ovid, Plautus, Seneca, Montaigne, Rabelais and many others. In addition, Shakespeare felt at ease in British history, jurisprudence, rhetoric, medicine, the intricacies of court etiquette, and in the life and habits of authority figures. The overwhelming majority of this knowledge in those days could be obtained exclusively in institutions in which, as is clear, Shakespeare never studied.

But no matter who is behind this world-famous name, the indisputable fact is that Shakespeare’s works, in their entirety, with an extraordinary power of expressiveness, reflected the entire palette of Renaissance thoughts and emotions - from the unquestioning praise of a person capable of rising by the power of his own spirit and mind to the level of a god-like creation , to the deepest disappointments and doubts in the divinity of his nature. In this regard, Shakespeare's creative career is usually divided into three periods.

The first period (1590-1600) includes chronicle dramas (9), comedies (10), disasters (3), both poems - “Venus and Adonis” (1592), “Defamed Lucretia” (1593) and sonnets (1953- 1598).

Chronicles, from which Shakespeare began his work, were a popular genre among his predecessors and contemporaries, as they responded to the heightened public enthusiasm for their own history and the political confusions of our time during the period of intense struggle between Great Britain and Spain. One by one, chronicle dramas emerge, the peculiarity of which is the playwright’s ability to depict the era on a large scale with living and colorful colors, combining social media. background with the fate of certain characters: "Henry VI, part 2" (1590), "Henry VI, part 3" (1591), "Henry VI, part 1" (1593), "Richard NI" (1594), "Richard II " (1595), "Lord John" (1596), "Henry IV, part 2" (1597), "Henry IV, part 2" (1598) and "Henry V" (1598).

Along with chronicles, Shakespeare writes a number of comedies: “The Comedy of Errors” (1592), “The Taming of the Opposite” (1593), “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” (1594), “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (1594), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1595), The Venetian Merchant (1596), Much Ado About Nothing (1599), The Entertainers of Windsor (1598), As You Like It (1599) and Twelfth Night (1600), also three disasters: Titus Andronicus (1593), Romeo and Juliet (1594) and Julius Caesar (1598).

The general character of the works of this period can be found as optimistic, colored by a cheerful perception of life in all its diversity, faith in the triumph of the reasonable and the good. Poems and sonnets are also marked with humanistic pathos, which open a new step in the development of Renaissance poetry with the realism of their own poetics. Shakespeare's sonnets form a plot cycle built on the development of relationships between the poet, friend and “dark lady”. The sonnets reveal the complex and prosperous world of the Renaissance man with his comprehensive view of the world, active attitude to life, and a wealth of spiritual emotions and experiences.

The second period of Shakespeare's work (1601-1608) was marked by the poet's deepening into the analysis of the catastrophic contradictions of man, which manifested themselves with all their might at the end of the Renaissance. Even three comedies written at this time (“Troilus and Cressida” (1602); “The End Crowns the Deed” (1603); “The Measure of Measurement” (1603) bear the stamp of a catastrophic worldview. Shakespeare’s dramatic genius manifested itself specifically in the tragedies of this period: Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), Lord Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606), Antony and Cleopatra (1607), Coriolanus (1607), Timon Athenian" (1608).

The quintessence of the catastrophic worldview of these works can be sonnet No. 66, written much earlier.

And, finally, the 3rd, romantic period, which covers 1609 - 1612. At this time, he created four tragicomedies or romantic dramas: “Pericles” (1609), “Cymbeline” (1610), “The Winter Parable” (1611); “The Tempest” (1612) and the historical drama “Henry VIII” In tragicomedy, an atmosphere of fairy-tale-fantastic reigns, in which good and justice are always overcome by the forces of evil. Thus, the “ruler of dramatic poets” (V. Belinsky), until his last work, remains faithful to the bright standards of humanistic art of the Renaissance.

Among Shakespeare's famous tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet have been the most popular over the centuries.

The disaster “Romeo and Juliet” was written in the mid-90s, in the first, so-called, optimistic period of his work, and was more imbued with the Renaissance pathos of faith in man and his endless abilities. At the center of the disaster, as in the comedies written at that time, is the story of the bright, romantically sublime and selfless love of two young heroes, which unfolds against the backdrop of a long-standing bloody feud between their families - the Montagues and the Capulets.

The love that appears between Romeo, a representative of the House of Montague, and Juliet, a representative of the House of Capulet, is depicted by Shakespeare as a beautiful, good and positive force that can break the anti-humane enmity of the old world. Love awakens the highest feelings in Romeo and Juliet, it spiritually enriches them and fills them with a reverent sense of the beauty of life. Shakespeare creates one of the greatest hymns of love.

Often called the national poet of England. The extant works, including some written jointly with other authors, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems and 3 epitaphs. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into all major languages ​​and are performed more often than the works of other playwrights.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: daughter Suzanne and twins Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare's career began between 1585 and 1592, when he moved to London. He soon became a successful actor, playwright, and co-owner of a theater company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.

Around 1613, at the age of 48, he returned to Stratford, where he died three years later. Little historical evidence of Shakespeare's life has been preserved, and theories about his life are created on the basis of official documents and testimonies of his contemporaries, so questions regarding his appearance and religious views are still discussed in the scientific community, and there is also a point of view that the works attributed to him were created by whom something else; it is popular in culture, although rejected by the vast majority of Shakespeare scholars.

Most of Shakespeare's works were written between 1589 and 1613. His early plays are mainly comedies and chronicles, in which Shakespeare excelled considerably. Then came a period of tragedy in his work, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth, which are considered among the best in the English language. At the end of his career, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies and also collaborated with other writers.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's friends, John Heming and Henry Condell, published the First Folio, a collection of all but two of Shakespeare's plays currently included in the canon. Later, various researchers attributed several more plays (or their fragments) to Shakespeare with varying degrees of evidence.

Already during his lifetime, Shakespeare received praise for his works, but he truly became popular only in the 19th century. In particular, the Romanticists and Victorians worshiped Shakespeare so much that they called it “bardolatry,” which translated into English means “bardo-worship.” Shakespeare's works remain popular today and are constantly being studied and reinterpreted to suit political and cultural conditions.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon (Warwickshire) in 1564, baptized on April 26, the exact date of birth is unknown. Tradition places his birth on April 23: this date coincides with the precisely known day of his death. In addition, April 23 marks the day of St. George, the patron saint of England, and legend could specially coincide with this day the birth of the greatest national poet. From English, the surname “Shakespeare” is translated as “shaking with a spear.”

His father, John Shakespeare (1530-1601), was a wealthy artisan (glover) who was often elected to various significant public positions.

In 1565, John Shakespeare was an alderman, and in 1568 he was a bailiff (head of the city council). He did not attend church services, for which he paid large fines (it is possible that he was a secret Catholic).

Shakespeare's mother, born Mary Arden (1537-1608), belonged to one of the oldest Saxon families. The couple had 8 children in total, William was born third.

It is believed that Shakespeare studied at the Stratford “grammar school” (English grammar school), where he was supposed to gain good knowledge of Latin: the Stratford teacher of Latin language and literature wrote poetry in Latin. Some scholars claim that Shakespeare attended King Edward VI's school in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he studied the works of poets such as Ovid and Plautus, but the school's journals have not survived and nothing can be said for sure.

In 1582, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local landowner, who was 8 years his senior. At the time of the marriage, Anne was pregnant.

In 1583, the couple had a daughter, Susan (baptized on May 23), and in 1585, twins: a son, Hamnet, who died at age 11 in August 1596, and a daughter, Judith (baptized on February 2).

There are only assumptions about the further (over seven years) events in Shakespeare's life. The first mention of a London theatrical career dates back to 1592, and the period between 1585 and 1592 is what scholars call Shakespeare's "lost years."

Attempts by biographers to learn about Shakespeare's actions during this period have resulted in many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, believed that he left Stratford to avoid prosecution for poaching the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy.

It is also assumed that Shakespeare took revenge on Lucy by writing several obscene ballads about him.

According to another 18th-century version, Shakespeare began his theatrical career by looking after the horses of London theater patrons. John Aubrey wrote that Shakespeare was a schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars believed that Shakespeare was the teacher of Alexander Naughton from Lancashire, since this Catholic landowner had a certain “William Shakeshaft”. There is little basis for this theory, other than rumors that spread after Shakespeare's death, and, furthermore, "Shakeshaft" is a fairly common surname in Lancashire.

It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing theatrical works and also moved to London, but the first sources that have reached us that speak about this date back to 1592. This year, the diary of entrepreneur Philip Henslowe mentions Shakespeare's historical chronicle Henry VI, which was shown at Henslowe's Rose Theater.

In the same year, a pamphlet by playwright and prose writer Robert Greene was published posthumously, where the latter angrily attacked Shakespeare, without naming his last name, but ironically playing with it - “shake-scene,” paraphrasing a line from the third part of “Henry VI” “ Oh, the heart of a tiger in this woman’s skin!” like “the heart of a tiger in the skin of a performer.”

Scholars disagree as to the exact meaning of these words, but it is generally accepted that Greene accused Shakespeare of trying to catch up with highly educated writers ("university minds") such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash, and Greene himself.

Biographers believe that Shakespeare's career could have begun at any time from the mid-1580s.

Since 1594, Shakespeare's plays have only been performed by a company "The Lord Chamberlain's Men". This troupe also included Shakespeare, who at the end of the same 1594 became its co-owner. The troupe soon became one of the leading theater groups in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the troupe received a royal patent from the new ruler, James I, and became known as the King's Men.

In 1599, a partnership of group members built a new theater on the south bank of the Thames, called "Globe".

In 1608 they also purchased the Blackfriars closed theatre. Records of Shakespeare's real estate purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man. In 1597 he bought the second largest house in Stratford, New Place.

In 1598, his name began to appear on the title pages of publications. But even after Shakespeare became famous as a playwright, he continued to play in theaters. In the 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's works, Shakespeare's name is included in the list of actors who performed the plays Every One Has His Folly (1598) and The Fall of Sejanus (1603). However, his name was absent from the cast lists of Jonson's 1605 play Volpone, which some scholars perceive as a sign of the end of Shakespeare's London career.

However, the First Folio of 1623 names Shakespeare as "the chief actor in all these plays", and some of them were first performed after Volpone, although it is not known for certain what roles Shakespeare played in them.

In 1610, John Davis wrote that "good Will" played "royal" roles.

In 1709, in his work, Rowe recorded the already established opinion that Shakespeare was playing the shadow of Hamlet's father. It was also later claimed that he played the roles of Adam in As You Like It and the Chorus in Henry V, although scholars doubt the veracity of this information.

During his acting and dramatic career, Shakespeare lived in London, but also spent some of his time in Stratford.

In 1596, the year after purchasing New Place, he was residing in the parish of St Helena, Bishopgate, on the north side of the Thames. After the Globe Theater was built in 1599, Shakespeare moved to the other side of the river - to Southwark, where the theater was located.

In 1604 he moved across the river again, this time to the area north of St Paul's Cathedral, where there were a large number of good houses. He rented rooms from a Huguenot Frenchman named Christopher Mountjoy, a manufacturer of women's wigs and hats.

There is a traditional belief that Shakespeare moved to Stratford a few years before his death. The first Shakespeare biographer to convey this opinion was Roe. One reason for this may be that London's public theaters were repeatedly closed due to outbreaks of plague, and actors did not have enough work. Complete retirement was rare in those days, and Shakespeare continued to visit London.

In 1612, Shakespeare testified in the case of Bellot v. Mountjoy, a trial over the wedding dowry of Mountjoy's daughter Mary.

In March 1613 he bought a house in the former parish of Blackfriar. In November 1614 he spent several weeks with his brother-in-law, John Hall.

After 1606-1607, Shakespeare wrote only a few plays, and after 1613 he stopped writing them altogether. He co-wrote his last three plays with another playwright, possibly John Fletcher, who succeeded Shakespeare as chief playwright of the King's Men.

All of Shakespeare's surviving signatures on documents (1612-1613) are distinguished by very poor handwriting, on the basis of which some researchers believe that he was seriously ill at that time.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. It is traditionally believed that he died on his birthday, but there is no certainty that Shakespeare was born on April 23. Shakespeare was survived by his widow, Anne (d. 1623), and two daughters. Susan Shakespeare had been married to John Hall since 1607, and Judith Shakespeare married winemaker Thomas Quiney two months after Shakespeare's death.

In his will, Shakespeare left most of his real estate to his eldest daughter, Susan. After her, it was to be inherited by her direct descendants. Judith had three children, all of whom died without marrying. Susan had one daughter, Elizabeth, who married twice but died childless in 1670. She was the last direct descendant of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's will, his wife is mentioned only briefly, but she was already supposed to receive a third of her husband's entire estate. However, it indicated that he was leaving her “my second best bed,” and this fact led to many different assumptions. Some scholars consider this an insult to Anne, while others argue that the second best bed is the marital bed, and therefore there is nothing offensive about it.

Three days later, Shakespeare's body was buried in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church.

The epitaph is written on his tombstone:

“Good friend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased hear.
Bleste be ye man yt spares the stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones".

"Friend, for God's sake, don't swarm
The remains taken by this earth;
He who is untouched is blessed for centuries,
And cursed is the one who touched my ashes".

Some time before 1623, a painted bust of Shakespeare was erected in the church, showing him in the act of writing. Epitaphs in English and Latin compare Shakespeare to the wise King of Pylos, Nestor, Socrates and Virgil.

There are many statues of Shakespeare around the world, including funerary monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

To mark the quadcentenary of the playwright's death, the Royal Mint issued three two-pound coins (dated 2016), symbolizing the three groups of his works: comedies, chronicles and tragedies.

Shakespeare's literary heritage is divided into two unequal parts: poetic (poems and sonnets) and dramatic. wrote that “it would be too bold and strange to give Shakespeare a decisive advantage over all the poets of mankind, as a poet himself, but as a playwright he is now left without a rival whose name could be put next to his name.”

William Shakespeare. The Greatest Show on Earth

Works of William Shakespeare

Comedies of William Shakespeare

All is well that ends well
How do you like it
Comedy of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for measure
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A dream in a summer night
Much ado about nothing
Pericles
The Taming of the Shrew
Storm
twelfth Night
Two Veronese
Two noble relatives
Winter's Tale

Chronicles of William Shakespeare

King John
Richard II
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Richard III
Henry VIII

Tragedies of William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Timon of Athens
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida
King Lear
Othello
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline

Sonnets of William Shakespeare

Venus and Adonis
Dishonored Lucretia
Passionate Pilgrim
Phoenix and dove
Lover's complaint

Lost works of William Shakespeare

Love's Efforts Rewarded
History of Cardenio

Apocrypha of William Shakespeare

Judgment of Paris
Arden Feversham
George Green
Locrin
Edward III
Musedore
Sir John Oldcastle
Thomas, Lord Cromwell
Cheerful Edmont devil
London Prodigal Son
Puritan
Yorkshire tragedy
Beautiful Emma
Birth of Merlin
Sir Thomas More
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Passionate Pilgrim

By the last decade of the 16th century, English drama had reached its full development. The English theater of the Renaissance traces its origins to the art of traveling actors. At the same time, artisans performed in English theaters along with professional actors. Student theaters have also become widespread. The English drama of that time was characterized by a wealth of genres, high technical mastery, and rich ideological content. But the pinnacle of the English Renaissance is literary activity William Shakespeare. In his work, the master of English drama deepened everything that his predecessors had achieved.

Biography William Shakespeare replete with “white spots”. It is reliably known that the great English playwright was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Awan in the family of a wealthy glover. The date of birth is not documented, but it is assumed that he was born on April 23. His father, John Shakespeare, repeatedly held positions of honor in the town. Mother, Mary Arden, came from one of the oldest families in Saxony. Shakespeare attended a local “grammar” school, where he thoroughly studied Latin and Greek. He started a family very early. And in 1587, leaving his wife and children, he moved to London. Now he visits his family extremely rarely, only to bring the money he earns. At first, Shakespeare worked part-time in theaters as a prompter and assistant director, until in 1593 he became an actor in the best London troupe. In 1599, the actors of this troupe built the Globe Theater, where performances based on Shakespeare's plays were staged. Shakespeare, along with other actors, becomes a shareholder of the theater and receives a certain share of all its income. And if William Shakespeare did not shine with his acting talent, then even before joining the Globe troupe he acquired fame as a gifted playwright, which he has now thoroughly strengthened. For the first decade of the 17th century. his creativity flourished. But in 1612, Shakespeare, for unknown reasons, left London and returned to his family in Stratford, completely abandoning drama. He spends the last years of his life surrounded by his family completely unnoticed and dies peacefully in 1616 on his birthday. The paucity of information about Shakespeare's life gave rise to the emergence in the 70s. XVIII century the hypothesis that the author of the plays was not Shakespeare, but another person who wished to hide his name. At present, perhaps, there is not a single contemporary of Shakespeare who is not credited with the authorship of great plays. But all these speculations are groundless, and serious scientists have repeatedly refuted them.

There are 3 periods Shakespeare's works.

The first is characterized by optimism, the dominance of a bright, life-affirming and cheerful disposition. During this period he created such comedies as: “ A dream in a summer night" (1595), " The Merchant of Venice" (1596), " Much ado about nothing"(1598), " How do you like it" (1599), " twelfth Night"(1600). The first period also includes the so-called historical “chronicles” (plays on historical themes) - “Richard III” (1592), “Richard II” (1595), “Henry IV” (1597), “Henry V” (1599). And also tragedies " Romeo and Juliet"(1595) and "Julius Caesar" (1599).

Illustration for William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" by F. Hayes. 1823

The tragedy "Julius Caesar" becomes a kind of transition to the 2nd period in Shakespeare's works. From 1601 to 1608, the writer poses and resolves the great problems of life, and the plays are now characterized by a certain amount of pessimism. Shakespeare regularly writes tragedies: “Hamlet” (1601), “Othello” (1604), “King Lear” (1605), “Magbeth” (1605), “ Antony and Cleopatra"(1606), "Coriolanus" (1607), "Timon of Athens" (1608). But at the same time, he still succeeds in comedies, but with a touch of tragedy that they can also be called dramas - “Measure for Measure” (1604).

And finally, the 3rd period, from 1608 to 1612, tragicomedies, plays with highly dramatic content, but with a happy ending, predominated in Shakespeare’s work. The most important of them are “Cembeline” (1609), “The Winter's Tale” (1610) and “The Tempest” (1612).

Shakespeare's works distinguished by the breadth of interests and scope of thought. His plays reflected a huge variety of types, positions, eras and peoples. This wealth of imagination, swiftness of action, and strength of passions are typical of the Renaissance. These traits are also found in other playwrights of that time, but only Shakespeare has an amazing sense of proportion and harmony. The sources of his dramaturgy are varied. Shakespeare took a lot from antiquity, some of his plays are imitation of Seneca, Plautus and Plutarch. There are also borrowings from Italian short stories. But to a greater extent, Shakespeare in his work still continues the traditions of folk English drama. This is a mixture of the comic and the tragic, a violation of the unity of time and place. Liveliness, colorfulness and ease of style, all this is more characteristic of folk drama.

William Shakespeare had a huge influence on European literature. And although in Shakespeare's literary heritage there are poems, but V. G. Belinsky wrote that “it would be too bold and strange to give Shakespeare a decisive advantage over all the poets of mankind, as a poet himself, but as a playwright he is now left without a rival whose name could be put next to his name." This brilliant creator and one of the most mysterious writers asked humanity the question “To be or not to be?” and did not give an answer to it, thereby leaving everyone to search for it on their own.

The theme of almost all of Shakespeare's comedies is love, its emergence and development, the resistance and intrigues of others and the victory of a bright young feeling. The action of the works takes place against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes, bathed in moonlight or sunlight. This is how the magical world of Shakespeare's comedies appears before us, seemingly far from fun. Shakespeare has a great ability to talentedly combine the comic (the duels of wit between Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Petruchio and Catharina from The Taming of the Shrew) with the lyrical and even tragic (the betrayals of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the intrigues of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice"). Shakespeare's characters are amazingly multifaceted; their images embody traits characteristic of people of the Renaissance: will, desire for independence, and love of life. The female characters of these comedies are especially interesting - they are equal to men, free, energetic, active and infinitely charming. Shakespeare's comedies are varied. Shakespeare uses various genres of comedy - romantic comedy (A Midsummer Night's Dream), comedy of characters (The Taming of the Shrew), sitcom (The Comedy of Errors).

During the same period (1590-1600) Shakespeare wrote a number of historical chronicles. Each of which covers one of the periods of English history.

About the time of the struggle between the Scarlet and White Roses:

Henry VI (three parts)

About the previous period of struggle between the feudal barons and the absolute monarchy:

Henry IV (two parts)

The genre of dramatic chronicle is characteristic only of the English Renaissance. Most likely, this happened because the favorite theatrical genre of the early English Middle Ages were mysteries with secular motives. The dramaturgy of the mature Renaissance was formed under their influence; and in dramatic chronicles many mysterious features are preserved: a wide coverage of events, many characters, a free alternation of episodes. However, unlike the mysteries, the chronicles do not present biblical history, but the history of the state. Here, in essence, he also turns to the ideals of harmony - but specifically state harmony, which he sees in the victory of the monarchy over medieval feudal civil strife. At the end of the plays, good triumphs; evil, no matter how terrible and bloody its path was, has been overthrown. Thus, in the first period of Shakespeare’s work, the main Renaissance idea was interpreted at different levels - personal and state: the achievement of harmony and humanistic ideals.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two tragedies:

II (tragic) period (1601-1607)

It is considered the tragic period of Shakespeare's work. Dedicated mainly to tragedy. It was during this period that the playwright reached the pinnacle of his creativity:

There is no longer a trace of a harmonious sense of the world in them; eternal and insoluble conflicts are revealed here. Here the tragedy lies not only in the clash between the individual and society, but also in the internal contradictions in the soul of the hero. The problem is brought to a general philosophical level, and the characters remain unusually multifaceted and psychologically voluminous. At the same time, it is very important that in Shakespeare’s great tragedies there is a complete absence of a fatalistic attitude towards fate, which predetermines tragedy. The main emphasis, as before, is placed on the personality of the hero, who shapes his own destiny and the destinies of those around him.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two comedies:

III (romantic) period (1608-1612)

It is considered the romantic period of Shakespeare's work.

Works of the last period of his work:

These are poetic tales that lead away from reality into the world of dreams. A complete conscious rejection of realism and a retreat into romantic fantasy is naturally interpreted by Shakespeare scholars as the playwright’s disappointment in humanistic ideals and recognition of the impossibility of achieving harmony. This path - from a triumphantly jubilant faith in harmony to tired disappointment - was actually followed by the entire worldview of the Renaissance.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

The incomparable worldwide popularity of Shakespeare's plays was facilitated by the playwright's excellent knowledge of the theater from the inside. Almost all of Shakespeare's London life was in one way or another connected with the theater, and from 1599 - with the Globe Theater, which was one of the most important centers of cultural life in England. It was here that R. Burbage’s troupe of “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men” moved into the newly rebuilt building, just at the time when Shakespeare became one of the shareholders of the troupe. Shakespeare played on stage until about 1603 - in any case, after this time there is no mention of his participation in performances. Apparently, Shakespeare was not particularly popular as an actor - there is information that he played minor and episodic roles. Nevertheless, he completed stage school - working on stage undoubtedly helped Shakespeare more accurately understand the mechanisms of interaction between the actor and the audience and the secrets of audience success. Audience success was very important for Shakespeare both as a theater shareholder and as a playwright - and after 1603 he remained closely associated with the Globe, on the stage of which almost all the plays he wrote were staged. The design of the Globus hall predetermined the combination of spectators from a variety of social and property classes at one performance, while the theater could accommodate at least 1,500 spectators. The playwright and actors faced the most difficult task of holding the attention of a diverse audience. Shakespeare's plays met this task to the maximum extent, enjoying success with audiences of all categories.

The mobile architectonics of Shakespeare's plays were largely determined by the peculiarities of theatrical technology of the 16th century. - an open stage without a curtain, a minimum of props, extremely conventional stage design. This forced us to concentrate on the actor and his stagecraft. Each role in Shakespeare's plays (often written for a specific actor) is psychologically voluminous and provides enormous opportunities for its stage interpretation; the lexical structure of speech changes not only from play to play and from character to character, but also transforms depending on internal development and stage circumstances (Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, etc.). It is not without reason that many world-famous actors shone in the roles of Shakespeare’s repertoire.

The glorious history of Shakespeare's Globe Theater began in 1599, when in London, which was distinguished by its great love for theatrical art, public theater buildings were built one after another. During the construction of the Globe, building materials were used that were left over from the dismantled building of the very first public theater in London (it was called the “Theatre”). The owners of the building, a troupe of famous English actors, the Burbages, had their land lease expired; So they decided to rebuild the theater in a new location. The leading playwright of the troupe, William Shakespeare, who by 1599 had become one of the shareholders of Burbage's "Lord Chamberlain's Men" theater, was undoubtedly involved in this decision.

Theaters for the general public were built in London mainly outside the City, i.e. - outside the jurisdiction of the City of London. This was explained by the puritanical spirit of the city authorities, who were hostile to the theater in general. The Globe was a typical public theater building of the early 17th century: an oval room in the shape of a Roman amphitheater, enclosed by a high wall, without a roof. The theater got its name from the statue of Atlas supporting the globe that adorned its entrance. This globe (“globe”) was surrounded by a ribbon with the famous inscription: “The whole world is acting” (lat. Totus mundus agit histrionem; better known translation: “The whole world is a theater”).

The stage was adjacent to the back of the building; above its deep part rose the upper stage platform, the so-called. "gallery"; even higher there was a “house” - a building with one or two windows. Thus, there were four places of action in the theater: the proscenium, which jutted deep into the hall and was surrounded by the public on three sides, on which the main part of the action was played out; the deep part of the stage under the gallery, where interior scenes were played out; a gallery that was used to depict a fortress wall or balcony (the ghost of Hamlet's father appeared here or the famous scene on the balcony in Romeo and Juliet took place); and a “house”, in the windows of which actors could also appear. This made it possible to build a dynamic spectacle, incorporating various locations of action into the dramaturgy and changing points of audience attention, which helped maintain interest in what was happening on the set. This was extremely important: we must not forget that the attention of the auditorium was not supported by any auxiliary means - the performances were performed in daylight, without a curtain, under the continuous roar of the audience, animatedly exchanging impressions in full voice.

The Globe auditorium accommodated, according to various sources, from 1200 to 3000 spectators. It is impossible to establish the exact capacity of the hall - there were no seats provided for the bulk of commoners; They were crowded into the stalls, standing on the dirt floor. Privileged spectators were accommodated with some comforts: along the inner side of the wall there were boxes for the aristocracy, above them there was a gallery for the wealthy. The richest and most noble sat on the sides of the stage, on portable three-legged stools. There were no additional amenities for spectators (including toilets); physiological needs, if necessary, were easily met during the performance - right in the auditorium. Therefore, the absence of a roof could be regarded more as a benefit than as a disadvantage - the influx of fresh air did not allow devoted fans of theatrical art to suffocate.

However, such simplicity of morals fully corresponded to the rules of etiquette of that time, and the Globe Theater very soon became one of the main cultural centers of England: all the plays of William Shakespeare and other outstanding playwrights of the Renaissance were staged on its stage.

However, in 1613, during the premiere of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, a fire broke out in the theater: a spark from a stage cannon shot hit the thatched roof above the back of the stage. Historical evidence states that there were no casualties in the fire, but the building burned to the ground. The end of the “first Globe” symbolically marked a change in literary and theatrical eras: around this time, William Shakespeare stopped writing plays.

Letter about the fire at Globus

"And now I will entertain you with the story of what happened this week at Bankside. His Majesty's actors were performing a new play called All is True (Henry VIII), representing the highlights of the reign of Henry VIII. The production was decorated with extraordinary pomp, and even the covering on the stage was amazingly beautiful. Knights of the Order of George and the Garter, guards in embroidered uniforms, etc. - everything was more than enough to make the greatness recognizable, if not ridiculous. So, King Henry arranges a mask in the house of Cardinal Wolsey: he appears on the stage , several welcome shots are heard. One of the bullets, apparently, got stuck in the scenery - and then everything happened. At first, only a small smoke was visible, to which the audience, captivated by what was happening on the stage, did not pay any attention; but through what "In a split second, the fire spread to the roof and began to spread rapidly, destroying the entire building to the ground in less than an hour. Yes, those were disastrous moments for this solid building, where only wood, straw and a few rags burned. True, one of the men’s trousers caught fire, and he could easily have been fried, but he (thank heavens!) guessed in time to put out the flames with ale from a bottle.”

Sir Henry Wotton

Soon the building was rebuilt, this time from stone; the thatched ceiling above the deep part of the stage was replaced with tiles. Burbage's troupe continued to play at the "second Globe" until 1642, when the Puritan Parliament and Lord Protector Cromwell issued a decree closing all theaters and prohibiting all theatrical entertainment. In 1644, the empty “second Globe” was rebuilt into premises for rent. The history of the theater was interrupted for more than three centuries.

The idea of ​​a modern reconstruction of the Globe Theater belongs, oddly enough, not to the British, but to the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker. He came to London for the first time in 1949, and for about twenty years, together with his like-minded people, he collected materials about the theaters of the Elizabethan era bit by bit. By 1970, Wanamaker had founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust to rebuild the lost theater and create an educational center and permanent exhibition space. Work on this project continued for more than 25 years; Wanamaker himself died in 1993, almost four years before the opening of the reconstructed Globe. The guideline for the reconstruction of the theater was the excavated fragments of the foundation of the old Globe, as well as the nearby Rose Theater, where Shakespeare’s plays were staged in “pre-Globe” times. The new building was built from green oak wood, processed in accordance with the traditions of the 16th century. and is located almost in the same place as before - the new one is 300 meters away from the old Globus. Careful reconstruction of the appearance is combined with modern technical equipment of the building.

The new Globe opened in 1997 under the name Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Since, according to historical realities, the new building was built without a roof, performances are held in it only in spring and summer. However, tours of London's oldest theater, the Globe, are conducted daily. Already in this century, next to the restored Globe, a theme park museum dedicated to Shakespeare was opened. It houses the world's largest exhibition dedicated to the great playwright; A variety of themed entertainment events are organized for visitors: here you can try to write a sonnet yourself; watch a sword fight, and even take part in a production of a Shakespeare play.

Shakespeare's language and stage devices

In general, the language of Shakespeare's dramatic works is unusually rich: according to research by philologists and literary scholars, his vocabulary contains more than 15,000 words. The characters' speech is replete with all sorts of tropes - metaphors, allegories, periphrases, etc. The playwright used many forms of 16th-century lyric poetry in his plays. - sonnet, canzone, album, epithalam, etc. Blank verse, which is mainly used to write his plays, is flexible and natural. This explains the enormous appeal of Shakespeare's work for translators. In particular, in Russia, many masters of literary text turned to translations of Shakespeare's plays - from N. Karamzin to A. Radlova, V. Nabokov, B. Pasternak, M. Donskoy and others.

The minimalism of the stage means of the Renaissance allowed Shakespeare's dramaturgy to organically merge into a new stage in the development of world theater, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. - director's theater, focused not on individual actor's work, but on the overall conceptual solution of the performance. It is impossible to even list the general principles of all numerous Shakespearean productions - from detailed everyday interpretation to extreme conditional symbolic; from farcical-comedy to elegiac-philosophical or mystery-tragedy. It is curious that Shakespeare's plays are still aimed at audiences of almost any level - from aesthetic intellectuals to undemanding audiences. This, along with complex philosophical issues, is facilitated by intricate intrigue, a kaleidoscope of various stage episodes, alternating pathetic scenes with comedic ones, and the inclusion of fights, musical numbers, etc. in the main action.

Shakespeare's dramatic works became the basis for many musical theater performances (the operas Othello, Falstaff (based on The Merry Wives of Windsor) and Macbeth by D. Verdi; the ballet Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev and many others).

Shakespeare's departure

Around 1610 Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. Until 1612 he did not lose touch with the theater: in 1611 the Winter's Tale was written, in 1612 - the last dramatic work, The Tempest. The last years of his life he retired from literary activity and lived quietly and unnoticed with his family. This was probably due to a serious illness - this is indicated by Shakespeare's surviving will, clearly drawn up hastily on March 15, 1616 and signed in a changed handwriting. On April 23, 1616, the most famous playwright of all times died in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The influence of Shakespeare's work on world literature

The influence of the images created by William Shakespeare on world literature and culture is difficult to overestimate. Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet - these names have long become household names. They are used not only in works of art, but also in ordinary speech as a designation of some human type. For us, Othello is a jealous person, Lear is a parent deprived of the heirs whom he himself blessed, Macbeth is a usurper of power, and Hamlet is a person torn apart by internal contradictions.

Shakespeare's images had a huge influence on Russian literature of the 19th century. The plays of the English playwright were addressed to I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and other writers. In the 20th century, interest in the inner world of man intensified, and the motives and heroes of Shakespeare’s works again worried poets. We find them in M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak, V. Vysotsky.

In the era of classicism and the Enlightenment, Shakespeare was recognized for his ability to follow “nature,” but was condemned for ignorance of the “rules”: Voltaire called him a “brilliant barbarian.” English educational criticism valued Shakespeare's life-like truthfulness. In Germany, Shakespeare was raised to an unattainable height by J. Herder and Goethe (Goethe’s sketch “Shakespeare and the End of Him,” 1813-1816). During the period of romanticism, understanding of Shakespeare’s work was deepened by G. Hegel, S. T. Coleridge, Stendhal, and V. Hugo.

In Russia, Shakespeare was first mentioned in 1748 by A.P. Sumarokov, however, even in the 2nd half of the 18th century, Shakespeare was still little known in Russia. Shakespeare became a fact of Russian culture in the 1st half of the 19th century: writers associated with the Decembrist movement (V.K. Kuchelbecker, K.F. Ryleev, A.S. Griboedov, A.A. Bestuzhev, etc.) turned to him. , A. S. Pushkin, who saw the main advantages of Shakespeare in his objectivity, truth of characters and “true depiction of time” and developed the traditions of Shakespeare in the tragedy “Boris Godunov”. In the struggle for realism in Russian literature, V. G. Belinsky also relies on Shakespeare. The importance of Shakespeare especially increased in the 30-50s of the 19th century. By projecting Shakespearean images onto modern times, A. I. Herzen, I. A. Goncharov and others helped to better understand the tragedy of the time. A notable event was the production of “Hamlet” translated by N. A. Polevoy (1837) with P. S. Mochalov (Moscow) and V. A. Karatygin (St. Petersburg) in the title role. In the tragedy of Hamlet, V. G. Belinsky and other progressive people of the era saw the tragedy of their generation. The image of Hamlet attracts the attention of I. S. Turgenev, who discerned in him the features of “superfluous people” (article “Hamlet and Don Quixote”, 1860), F. M. Dostoevsky.

In parallel with the understanding of Shakespeare's work in Russia, familiarity with Shakespeare's works themselves deepened and expanded. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, mainly French adaptations of Shakespeare were translated. Translations of the 1st half of the 19th century were guilty of either literalism (Hamlet, translated by M. Vronchenko, 1828) or excessive freedom (Hamlet, translated by Polevoy). In 1840-1860, translations by A. V. Druzhinin, A. A. Grigoriev, P. I. Weinberg and others revealed attempts at a scientific approach to solving problems of literary translation (the principle of linguistic adequacy, etc.). In 1865-1868, edited by N.V. Gerbel, the first “Complete Collection of Shakespeare’s Dramatic Works Translated by Russian Writers” was published. In 1902-1904, under the editorship of S. A. Vengerov, the second pre-revolutionary Complete Works of Shakespeare was published.

The traditions of advanced Russian thought were continued and developed by Soviet Shakespeare studies on the basis of deep generalizations made by K. Marx and F. Engels. In the early 20s, lectures on Shakespeare were given by A. V. Lunacharsky. The art historical aspect of studying Shakespeare's heritage comes to the fore (V.K. Muller, I.A. Aksyonov). Historical and literary monographs (A. A. Smirnov) and individual problematic works (M. M. Morozov) appear. A significant contribution to modern scholarship on Shakespeare is made by the works of A. A. Anikst, N. Ya. Berkovsky, and the monograph by L. E. Pinsky. Film directors G. M. Kozintsev and S. I. Yutkevich interpret the nature of Shakespeare’s work in a unique way.

Criticizing allegories and lush metaphors, hyperboles and unusual comparisons, “horrors and buffoonery, reasoning and effects” - characteristic features of the style of Shakespeare’s plays, Tolstoy took them as signs of exceptional art, serving the needs of the “upper class” of society. Tolstoy at the same time points out many advantages of the plays of the great playwright: his remarkable “ability to lead scenes in which the movement of feelings is expressed,” the extraordinary stage quality of his plays, their genuine theatricality. The article on Shakespeare contains Tolstoy's deep judgments about dramatic conflict, characters, the development of action, the language of characters, the technique of constructing drama, etc.

He said: “So I allowed myself to blame Shakespeare. But with him, every person acts; and it is always clear why he acts that way. He had pillars with the inscription: moonlight, house. And thank God, because all attention was focused on the essence of drama, but now it’s completely the opposite.” Tolstoy, who “denied” Shakespeare, placed him above the playwrights - his contemporaries, who created ineffective plays of “moods”, “riddles”, “symbols”.

Recognizing that under the influence of Shakespeare the entire world drama developed, which did not have a “religious basis,” Tolstoy attributed his “theatrical plays” to it, noting that they were written “by chance.” Thus, the critic V.V. Stasov, who enthusiastically greeted the appearance of his folk drama “The Power of Darkness,” found that it was written with Shakespearean power.

In 1928, based on her impressions from reading Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” M. I. Tsvetaeva wrote three poems: “Ophelia to Hamlet,” “Ophelia in Defense of the Queen,” and “Hamlet’s Dialogue with Conscience.”

In all three poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, one can distinguish a single motive that prevails over others: the motive of passion. Moreover, the role of the bearer of the ideas of a “warm heart” is Ophelia, who in Shakespeare appears as a model of virtue, purity and innocence. She becomes an ardent defender of Queen Gertrude and is even identified with passion.

Since the mid-30s of the 19th century, Shakespeare has occupied a large place in the repertoire of Russian theater. P. S. Mochalov (Richard III, Othello, Lear, Hamlet), V. A. Karatygin (Hamlet, Lear) are famous performers of Shakespearean roles. The Moscow Maly Theater created its own school of theatrical embodiment - a combination of stage realism with elements of romance - in the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which produced such outstanding interpreters of Shakespeare as G. Fedotova, A. Lensky, A. Yuzhin, M. Ermolova . At the beginning of the 20th century, the Moscow Art Theater turned to the Shakespearean repertoire ("Julius Caesar", 1903, staged by Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko with the participation of K. S. Stanislavsky; "Hamlet", 1911, staged by G. Craig; Caesar and Hamlet - V. I. Kachalov

And:

Did Shakespeare exist? The assertion that Shakespeare was not the creator of his great works has long become commonplace due to the paucity of information about the poet’s life. In the 70s of the 18th century, a hypothesis arose that the author of the plays was not William Shakespeare, but another person who wished to remain anonymous. Over the two centuries of debate and debate, dozens of hypotheses have been put forward, and now, perhaps, there is not a single more or less famous contemporary of Shakespeare who is not credited with the authorship of brilliant plays. Maria Molchanova gives reasons for and against the Shakespearean issue.

There are more than a dozen contenders for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

The circumstances of the life of the great English playwright William Shakespeare are relatively little known, because he shared the fate of the vast majority of other authors of his era, whose personality his contemporaries were not particularly interested in. Speaking about the study of the playwright’s biography, it is worth first of all to highlight a group of “non-Stratfordian” scientists, whose members deny the authorship of the actor Shakespeare from Stratford and believe that this is the name under which another person or group of persons was hiding, and, most likely, the real actor Shakespeare He himself gave permission to use his name. Rejection of the traditional view has been known since 1848, although there is no consensus among non-Stratfordians as to who exactly was the real author of Shakespeare's works.

Portrait of William Shakespeare

Proponents of this theory believe that the known facts about the Stratford actor Shakespeare contradict the content and style of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Numerous theories have been put forward regarding the alleged candidates, and to date there are several dozen of them.

Shakespeare's family was illiterate, and instead of a signature they put a cross

The Globe Theater in London, where Shakespeare's plays were staged

The lexical dictionary of William Shakespeare's works contains 15 thousand different words, while the contemporary English translation of the King James Bible contains only 5 thousand. However, Shakespeare's contemporaries (Marlowe, Johnson, John Donne) were of no less humble origin (by the way, Shakespeare's father from Stratford was rich and was one of the city's governors), but their learning surpassed Shakespeare's.

Among his contemporaries, Shakespeare was considered a gifted, self-taught writer.

Among his contemporaries, Shakespeare the playwright was never considered highly educated, rather an intuitively gifted, self-taught writer.

Queen Elizabeth I in a palanquin during a procession, c. 1601 Robert Peake, XVII century.

Portrait of Francis Bacon

Another contender for authorship was Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. The 17th Earl of Oxford was the court poet of Queen Elizabeth I and served as Chamberlain of England. His poems are similar to Shakespeare's poem "Venus and Adonis". In addition, the count's coat of arms is a lion shaking with a broken spear, and the famous aristocrat of his era was aware of the palace intrigues reflected in many of Shakespeare's plays.

Shakespeare's editions contain secret messages about the English court

Portrait of Edward de Vere

Another candidate is Shakespeare's contemporary, playwright Christopher Marlowe. There is an assumption that he created the pseudonym “Shakespeare” so that after his faked death in 1593 he could continue to work as a playwright.

Portrait of Christopher Marlowe (1585)

Another candidate is Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland. In college, Rutland was nicknamed "Spearshaker," and he later studied at the University of Padua with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (the characters in Hamlet).

Portrait of Roger Manners

The last of the most popular contenders is William Stanley, Earl of Derby. His older brother maintained his own acting troupe, in which, some believe, actor William Shakespeare began his career.

The new dramaturgy, which replaced the theater of the Middle Ages - mystery plays, allegorical morality plays and primitive folk farces, developed gradually.

Back in the thirties of the 16th century, Bishop Bayle, a zealous Protestant, wrote a play directed against Catholicism. He illustrated his thoughts with an example from the history of England - the struggle of King John the Landless (reigned from 1199 to 1216) against the Pope. In reality, this king was an insignificant person, but he was dear to the heart of the Protestant bishop because he was at enmity with the pope. Bayle wrote a morality play in which personified virtues and vices were at play. The central figure of the play was called Virtue. But at the same time it was called King John. Among the gloomy figures personifying vices, the name of one was Illegally Seized Power, aka the Pope; the name of the other is Incitement to Riot, she is also the legate of the Pope. Bayle's "King John" is a unique play in which the allegories of an old medieval morality play were combined with that new historical genre, which later found its flowering in Shakespeare's historical plays. Literary historians compared Bayle’s “King John” to a cocoon: it is no longer a caterpillar, but not yet a butterfly.

At the same time, in the thirties of the 16th century, the so-called “school” drama began to develop in England. It is called so because it was created within the walls of universities and schools: plays were written by professors and teachers, and performed by students and schoolchildren. But we can call it a “school” drama in the sense that the playwrights who created it themselves still learned to write plays by studying ancient authors and imitating them. In the thirties of the 16th century, the first comedy in English, “Ralph Royster-Doyster”, was written; its author was the then famous teacher Nicholas Yudl, headmaster of Eton School. In the fifties, the first tragedy in English, “Gorboduc,” was written by learned lawyers Sackville and Norton.

But all this was just “school”. Real dramatic works full of life appeared only when people from universities - “university minds” - began to give their plays to professional actors. This happened in the eighties of the 16th century.

In 1586, two plays appeared that deserve special attention. The author of the first is Thomas Kyd (who also wrote the first play about Hamlet, which, unfortunately, has not reached us).

Kid's play is a typical “tragedy of thunder and blood,” as they said then. The title itself is eloquent - “The Spanish Tragedy”. This is an attempt, still primitive, to depict the strength of human feelings. A terrible figure of Revenge appears on the stage, reminiscent of images from an ancient morality play. Immediately the Spirit of the murdered Andrea comes out, who, complaining about the vile murderers, calls out to his terrible companion. The action begins. The young man Horatio loves the beautiful girl Belimperia, and she loves him. But Balthazar, the son of the Portuguese king, also loves Belimperia. Belimperia's brother, the criminal Lorenzo, undertakes to help Balthazar. On a moonlit night, when young people, sitting in the garden, declare their love to each other, masked killers appear on the stage and kill Horatio with daggers. On the English stage of that time they loved to depict murders and other “horrors”: a bottle of red vinegar was placed under the actor’s white cloak; the dagger pierced the bubble, and red spots appeared on the white cloak. Having stabbed Horatio with daggers, the killers hang his corpse on a tree - apparently in order to more clearly show the audience the blood-stained corpse. Belimperia is then forcibly taken away by the killers. At her screams, Horatio's father, old Hieronimo, runs out, wearing only his shirt, with a sword in his hands. Seeing the corpse of his son hanging on a tree, he pronounces a thunderous monologue, calling for revenge... Everything that happens on the stage is observed by Revenge and the Spirit of the murdered Andrea, who, jubilantly, awaits vengeance, for Horatio’s killers are also his killers. But old Hieronimo hesitates: it is not easy to take revenge on the king’s son. The unfortunate old man sadly thinks about life. “Oh world! - he exclaims. “No, not peace, but a collection of crimes!” He compares himself to a lonely traveler who has lost his way on a snowy night... Andrea's spirit is filled with anxiety. He turns to Revenge, but sees that she is sleeping. "Wake up, Vengeance!" - he exclaims in despair. Revenge awakens. And then a thought dawns on old Jeronimo. To achieve his goal, he plans to stage a play at court (the reader has already noticed some similarities between this tragedy and Shakespeare’s Hamlet; let us recall once again that Kid was the author of the first play about Hamlet). The play, staged by Hieronimo, features Belimperia, initiated into his plan, as well as Balthasar and Lorenzo. As the play progresses, the characters must kill each other. Old Hieronimo arranges it so that instead of “theatrical” murders, real murders take place. The performance ends, but the actors do not get up from the ground. The Spanish king demands an explanation from Hieronimo. Hieronimo refuses to answer and, to confirm his refusal, bites off his tongue and spits it out. Then the king orders him to give him a pen so that he can write an explanation. Hieronimo asks with signs to give him a knife to sharpen the pen, and stabs himself with this knife. A jubilant Revenge appears above a pile of bloody corpses, which suggests that true retribution is yet to come: it begins in hell.

Everything in this play is thoroughly theatrical, conventional, and melodramatic. “The Spanish Tragedy” by Thomas Kyd is the founder of that “romantic” movement in the drama of the Shakespearean era, which gave rise to such tragedies as, for example, “The White Devil” or “The Duchess of Malfi” by Shakespeare’s contemporary Webster.

Also in 1586, a play of a completely different kind was written. Its title is “Arden of the City of Feversham” (its author is unknown to us). This is a drama from family life. It tells how a young woman, Alice Arden, and her lover, Moseby, murdered Alice's husband. The murder itself is depicted with great force, as Alice tries in vain to wash away the blood stains (this motif was developed with great force by Shakespeare in that famous scene in which Lady Macbeth wanders, half-asleep, overcome by memories). Everything in this play is vital and realistic. And the plot itself was borrowed by the author from real life. In the epilogue, the author asks the audience to forgive him for the fact that there are no “decorations” in the play. According to the author, “simple truth” is enough for art. This play can be called the ancestor of that movement in the drama of the Shakespearean era, which sought to depict everyday life, such as Thomas Heywood’s wonderful drama “A Woman Killed by Kindness.” Shakespeare's work combines both movements - romantic and realistic.

This was the prologue. Real events begin with the appearance of Christopher Marlowe's plays on the London stage. Marlowe was born, like Shakespeare, in 1564 and was only two months older than him. Marlowe's homeland was the ancient city of Canterbury. Christopher Marlowe's father owned a shoe shop. His parents sent their son to Cambridge University, hoping to make him a priest. However, after graduating from university, Marlowe, instead of the church altar, found himself on the stage of the London stage. But he was not destined to become an actor. According to legend, he broke his leg and had to quit acting. Then he started writing plays. His grandiose epic in two parts and ten acts, Tamerlane the Great, appeared in 1587–1588. In this epic, Marlowe talks about the life, wars and death of the famous 14th century commander.

“The Scythian shepherd”, “the robber from the Volga” are called Tamerlane in Marlowe’s play by the eastern kings, whom he overthrows from the throne, seizing their kingdoms. Tamerlane's army, according to Marlowe, consists of "simple village guys." Marlowe portrays Tamerlane as a muscular giant. This is a man of phenomenal physical strength, indestructible will and spontaneous temperament. It is reminiscent of the mighty figures created by Michelangelo's chisel. The motif of glorifying earthly life, so typical of the Renaissance, sounds loudly in this grandiose dramatic epic; the words are heard from the stage: “I think that heavenly pleasures cannot compare with the royal joy on earth!”

Tamerlane, like Marlowe himself, is a passionate freethinker. In one of his stormy thunderous monologues, he says that the goal of man is “eternally to rise to infinite knowledge and to be eternally in motion, like the restless heavenly spheres.” This fabulous hero is full of excess strength. He rides onto the stage in a chariot, which, instead of horses, is harnessed to the kings he has captured. “Hey, you spoiled Asian nags!” - he shouts, urging them on with his whip.

Marlowe's next play was The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus. This was the first dramatic adaptation of the famous legend. Marlowe's play reflected man's desire to conquer the forces of nature, so characteristic of the Renaissance. Faust sells his soul to Mephistopheles in order to “obtain the golden gifts of knowledge” and “penetrate the treasury of nature.” He dreams of surrounding his hometown with a copper wall and making it inaccessible to the enemy, changing the flow of rivers, throwing a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean, filling up Gibraltar and connecting Europe and Africa into a single continent... “How grandiose this is all!” - noted Goethe, who used some features of Marlowe's tragedy for his Faust.

The grandiose scope of fantasy, the powerful pressure of seemingly barely restrained forces characterize Marlowe’s work. "Marlowe's powerful verse," wrote Ben Jonson. Shakespeare also speaks of Marlowe’s “powerful saying.”

The Puritans, who created the code of new bourgeois morality, were indignant at the passionate freethinker who openly preached his views. One after another, denunciations came to the Queen's Privy Council. And the common people, although Marlowe’s plays enjoyed great success among them, sometimes looked at what was happening on stage not without superstitious fear. There was even such a rumor in London. One day, after the performance of Faust, it turned out that the actor playing the role of Mephistopheles was ill and did not go to the theater. Who, then, played Mephistopheles on this day? The actors rushed to the costume room, and only then did they realize from the smell of sulfur that the devil himself was performing on the London stage that day.

Marlowe wrote several more plays (his best play for the vividness of the human portraits he created is the historical chronicle “King Edward II”). But his amazing talent was not destined to develop to its full potential. On May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe, in his thirtieth year, was murdered in a tavern. The Puritans rejoiced. “The Lord has placed this barking dog on the hook of vengeance,” wrote one of them.

Many legends have developed around Marlowe's death. Some legends said that Marlowe died in a drunken brawl, having quarreled with his killer over a prostitute; others - that he fell defending the honor of an innocent girl. These legends were taken seriously until recently. And only in 1925, the American professor Leslie Hotson managed to find documents in English archives that shed new light on the circumstances of Marlowe’s death (Hotson’s discoveries were outlined in his book: Leslie Hotson. The Death of Christopher Marlowe, 1925). And it turned out that Marlowe's murder was the work of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council; During the murder of Marlowe, a certain Fields, an agent of the Privy Council, was present.

This is how the “father of English drama” Christopher Marlowe died without fully revealing his creative powers. And just in the same year when his star set, burning with a bright, passionate and uneven brilliance, the star of William Shakespeare began to rise in the theatrical sky of London. Unlike his predecessors, who were men of university education, “university minds,” this new playwright was a simple actor.

We have mentioned only a few of Shakespeare's predecessors. In fact, Shakespeare made extensive use of the entire literary past of his homeland. He borrowed a lot from Chaucer (for example, Shakespeare's poem "Lucretia" with its plot roots takes us to Chaucer's work "Legends of Good Women"; the images of Theseus and Hippolyta in the comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" were probably inspired by "The Knight's Tale" from Chaucer's famous "Canterbury Tales"; Chaucer's poem "Troilus and Cressida" influenced Shakespeare's comedy of the same name, etc.). Shakespeare owed much to Edmund Spenser, the author of The Faerie Queene, and other poets of his school. From Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" Shakespeare borrowed the plot, which he embodied in the image of Gloucester, betrayed by his son Edmund ("King Lear") - Shakespeare also paid tribute to euphuism. Finally, among Shakespeare's predecessors, we should mention the nameless narrators of English folk ballads. It is in the English folk ballad that that tragic drama of action, which is so typical of the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, originates. Many thoughts and feelings that have long existed among the people and were reflected in folk ballads and songs found a brilliant artistic embodiment in the works of Shakespeare. The roots of this creativity go deep into the folk soil.

Of the works of foreign literature, Shakespeare was primarily influenced by the Italian short stories of Boccaccio and Bandello, from whom Shakespeare borrowed a number of plots for his plays. A collection of Italian and French short stories translated into English under the title “The Chamber of Pleasures” was Shakespeare’s reference book. For his "Roman tragedies" (Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra), Shakespeare took plots from Plutarch's Lives of Famous Men, which he read in North's English translation. His favorite books also included Ovid's Metamorphoses in Golding's English translation.

Shakespeare's work has been prepared by many poets, writers and translators.

Marlo Christopher

(Marlow) - the most famous of the English playwrights who preceded Shakespeare (1564-1593). A poor man, the son of a shoemaker, he received his initial education in Canterbury and at the age of 16 entered the University of Cambridge. In 1583 he graduated from the University with a bachelor's degree and went to London to seek his fortune. There is news that before acting as a dramatic writer, he was an actor, but broke his leg and had to give up his stage career forever. While living in London, M. became acquainted with poets and playwrights and was more or less on friendly terms with Greene, Chapman, Sir Walter Rayleigh and Thomas Ours, with whom they wrote the tragedy “Dido.” In 1587, Marlowe received a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge and staged his first tragedy, Tamerlane. Of the two dominant styles of dramatic art in his time, classical and folk, Marlowe chose the latter in order to transform it. Before M., folk drama was an alternation of bloody events and buffoonish episodes, in which clowns were even allowed to improvise. Already in the prologue to “Tamerlane,” one notices the author’s conscious intention to pave new paths for dramatic art, to interest the public in the depiction of world-historical events, pictures of the fall of kingdoms and peoples. In addition, Marlowe was the first to make an attempt to put action on a psychological basis, to comprehend it with internal motives. In the person of Tamerlane, he brought out the type of ambitious person, burning with an insatiable thirst for power; the unity of the tragedy lies in the fact that all persons are brought into connection with this tragic character trait of the eastern conqueror, rise and perish through it. M. followed the same psychological manner in his other works. The hero of another drama by M., Faust, (1588), not satisfied with medieval science, wants, with the help of magic, to penetrate the secrets of nature; not satisfied with the prescriptions of medieval asceticism, he languishes with the thirst for life and its pleasures characteristic of the Renaissance man - and for the satisfaction of these two aspirations he is willingly ready to give his soul to the devil. - The psychological motive underlying Marlowe’s third drama, The Jew of Malta (1589-1590), is the Jew’s thirst for revenge on Christians for all the injustices and oppression to which his compatriots were subjected over the centuries by Christians. M.’s task was to depict the gradual hardening and moral savagery of a person under the influence of persecution and injustice that befell him. The mistake of the English playwright is that the hero of the play does not endure to the end the role of an inexorable avenger for his people and in the last act allows himself to be carried away by self-interest. Marlowe's most mature work is his dramatic chronicle Edward II, which served as a model for Shakespeare's Richard II. And in this type of work he was just as much a reformer as in others. Before Edward II, the plays of national history were, with very few exceptions, nothing more than chronicles transposed into dialogical form. In contrast to the authors of these works, M. treated his material like a true artist: he took what he needed for his dramatic purposes, discarded what was unnecessary, unraveled the internal motives of the actions of the characters, and created whole characters from unclear hints. Thanks to such techniques, which reveal a true artist in Marlowe, the dramatic chronicle turned under his hand into a real historical drama, with correct, meaningful internal motives for the development of actions, with grateful dramatic situations and masterfully outlined characters. The reform of English drama conceived by M. was greatly facilitated by the poetic meter he introduced, which completely changed dramatic diction. The replacement of rhyme with blank verse was very important in the history of the development of English drama. Mandatory rhyme, as can be seen in the example of the French so-called. false classical tragedy, constrained the poet’s imagination, forced him to sacrifice thought to form at every step, while the flexible and smooth white iambic pentameter introduced by M. immediately gave English. folk drama naturalness, simplicity and freedom. M.'s brilliant dramatic career was interrupted in the most tragic way. While he was in Depford, a small town on the Thames, he quarreled in a tavern, at dinner, with his drinking companion Archer. The hot-tempered M. pulled out a dagger and rushed at Archer, who parried the blow and pointed M.'s dagger at his own eye. The poet died a few hours later, in terrible agony. If we consider that Marlowe died before reaching thirty years of age, at an age when Shakespeare had not yet written any of his great works, then one cannot help but be surprised at the power of his genius and the fact that in a short time he managed to accomplish so much for the development of English drama. Without exaggeration, we can say that he cleared the way for Shakespeare himself.

A summary of information about Malo can be found in N. Storozhenko’s book, “Shakespeare’s Predecessors,” and in the 20th edition of “The History of General Literature” by Korsh and Kirpichnikov. see also Ward, "English Dramatic Literature" ( T . I, 1875); Saintsbury,"Elizabeth Literature" ( L ., 1887); Symonds, "Shakspeares Predecessors" (1884); Ulrici, "Shakspeare's Dramatische Kunst" (1- y t .); Fiscker, "Zur Charakteristik der Dramen Marlowe" ( LPC ., 1889); Heinemann, "An Essay towards a Bibliography of Marlowe's Fauslus" ( L ., 1884); Faligan, "De Marlowianis Fabulis" ( P ., 1888); Kellner, "Zur Sprache Christopher Marlowe" ( Vienna, 1888). M.'s works were published many times; their best edition belongs to Deis ("Marlowe's Works", L., 1850). In Russian there is a translation of Faust made by Minaev - too free ("Delo", 1876, May), and a very satisfactory translation of Edward II, owned by Mrs. Radislavskaya (magazine "Art" for 1885). The contents of "The Jew of Malta" are presented very thoroughly and with many extracts in Uvarov's article about M. ("Russian Word", 1859, Nos. 2 and 3).