Shakespeare's humanistic ideas are briefly the most important. William Shakespeare - England's greatest humanist playwright

William Shakespeare -humanist, playwright and renaissance man

450 years birthday William Shakespeare

No one has surpassed Shakespeare as a playwright. The role of Hamlet, created back in the 16th century - all actors dream of it, like athletes dream of a gold medal at the Olympics. Shakespeare's plays are still being staged, film studios are making films based on his works, and regardless of whether the characters are dressed in historical costumes or modern clothes, all dialogues and thoughts sound very relevant. What explains the phenomenon of Shakespeare as a poet and playwright? First of all, by the fact that even then, in the Renaissance, he touched upon universal values. He literally "blew up" the dramaturgy of that time when he showed the inner world of a person on the stage, turning edifying and farcical plots into immortal works. William Shakespeare was a humanist. The ideals of the Renaissance, where the Man was the main thing, his ability to love and the strength of his personality, he transferred to the stage. There is different information about his biography. At various times, "anti-Shakespearean" campaigns were started, where his authorship was disputed. But this only emphasizes the significance of his work.
William Shakespeare was born in the family of a craftsman and merchant, who at one time was the mayor. From the age of 11 he entered a grammar school, where grammar, logic, rhetoric and Latin were taught. That was the end of Shakespeare's education. In the comedy As You Like It (1599), Shakespeare shares his school memories: "a whiny schoolboy with a book bag, with a ruddy face, reluctantly, like a snail, crawling to school." Little is known about Shakespeare's youth: in 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than her husband, in 1583 they had a daughter, Susan, in 1585, twins - son Hamnet and daughter Judith.
In 1585 Shakespeare left his native city. From the end of the 1580s. - an actor of the royal troupe, since 1594 - a shareholder and actor of the troupe "Servants of the Lord Chamberlain", with which he was associated throughout his creative life. Shakespeare and his comrades founded the Globe Theater (1596), which staged almost all of his plays. On the flag that was raised before the performance over the theater building, Hercules was depicted holding a globe in his hands, and inscribed in Latin: “The whole world is acting” (the saying of the Roman writer Petronius). The round building with a diameter of 25 m had a roof only over a part of the stage, four galleries for spectators were placed around, spectators could also stand in front of the stage. There were almost no scenery - the main decoration of the performance was the costumes. Due to lack of space, only 12 actors could fit on the small stage. The performance was accompanied by music performed by a small orchestra. At the end of the performance, a small humorous farce with singing and dancing was often played. The audience was very different - from commoners to high-born lords. Permanent actors worked in the Globe, which made it possible to maintain a high quality of stage performance. The female roles were played by young men. After the accession to the throne of James I (1603), there is no information about Shakespeare's performances on the stage, but he continued to write plays for his troupe, which from that time was called the troupe of the king.
In 1612, Shakespeare, without explaining anything to anyone, returns to Stratford-upon-Avon and, as if nothing had happened, continues a quiet family life with his wife Anne. By that time, he was already a fairly wealthy person with a title of nobility. The reason for the unexpected termination of such a successful career as a playwright and the departure from the capital was, apparently, an illness. In March 1616, Shakespeare draws up and signs a will, which later will cause so much confusion about his personality, authorship and will become an occasion for what will be called the "Shakespearean question." It is generally accepted that Shakespeare died on the same day that he was born - April 23. Two days later there followed a burial in the altar of the Church of the Holy Trinity on the outskirts of Stratford, in whose register of birth this entry was made.
The global significance of Shakespeare's work is explained by the fact that in a fascinating and dynamic stage action, with large strokes, he created a whole gallery of vivid, memorable images. Among them are powerful, straight to the goal, endowed with strong passions, characters, and types prone to constant reflection and hesitation, wise men and scoffers, criminals and simpletons, brave friends and cunning traitors. Both the main and many secondary characters of Shakespeare became household names: Hamlet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, Othello, Desdemona, Iago, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Falstaff. Shakespeare, with his thoughts, themes, motives and images, gave impetus to the creation of many works of literature, painting, sculpture, music; his most significant works have been repeatedly filmed.
Shakespeare's work constitutes a whole epoch in the development of world drama. Shakespeare achieved the greatest depth for his time in depicting great historical contradictions, the struggle between the old and the new. Therefore, his works do not lose their sharpness and are always perceived by readers and viewers with great interest and excitement.

Works by W. Shakespeare, available in the district library
Selected in the best translations of famous Russian poets [Text] / transl. with B. Pasternak, M. Kuzmin, I. Evsa. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - 352 p.: ill. – (World classic)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark [Text]: tragedy / transl. from English. B. Pasternak. - St. Petersburg: IG "Azbuka-classika", 2009. - 224 p.
Historical dramas [Text] / transl. from English. - L .: Lenizdat, 1990. - 767 p.: ill.
How you like it. Measure for measure [Text]: plays / transl. from English. T. Shchepkina-Kupernik. - M .: LLC "Publishing house AST", 2003. - 315p.
Comedy [Text] / transl. from English. – M.: Eksmo, 2010. – 576s. - (Foreign classics)
Comedies, chronicles, tragedies [Text]: in 2 volumes / per. from English. ; enter. Art. and comment. D. Urnova. – M.: Artist. lit., 1989. - T.1. - 783s.; T. 2 - 670s.
King Lear. Much ado about nothing. A Midsummer Night's Dream [Text] / transl. from English. T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik. - M .: Profizdat, 2005. - 416 p. - (Literary masterpieces)
Lyrics [Text]. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - 480s. - (World Poetry Library)
Measure for measure. King Lear [Text]: plays / transl. from English. foreword O. Magpies. - M .: Izvestia, 1990. - 256 p.
Romeo and Juliet [Text]: tragedy / trans. from English. B. Pasternak. – M.: Eksmo, 2012. – 192p.
Sonnets [Text] / per. from English. S.Ya. Marshak. - St. Petersburg: IG Azbuka-classika, 2009. - 224 p.
Tragedies [Text] / transl. from English. - M.: Eksmo, 2010. - 704 p. - (Foreign classics)

Project author

Litvinva Inga Sergeevna 4th year student of PSU named after S.M.Kirov Faculty of Foreign Languages, Pskov

Project name

Project: William Shakespeare - England's greatest humanist playwright

Subject, class

9-10 grades, English

Research topic

Biography and work of William Shakespeare

Research questions

Fundamental question

What secrets does William Shakespeare's personality hide?

Problematic issues

What facts related to the biography of William Shakespeare are known? What are the most famous works of William Shakespeare? What are the most popular William Shakespeare quotes?

Research progress

preliminary work

Search for information

Create a booklet and student presentation

Analysis of the collected material and works of art

Final step: project wiki article

Beginning of work

William Shakespeare is a great English playwright, poet and actor. His work is the pinnacle of world drama, the pinnacle of Renaissance literature. There is nothing surprising in the fact that in our time the plays of Shakespeare do not leave the stage of the theaters of the world. The great playwright spoke about the eternal and unchanging - about man, so he is always modern and in demand by the viewer. Little information has been preserved about the life of the great playwright. Shakespeare (1564-1616) did not write memoirs and did not keep a diary. We do not have his correspondence with his contemporaries. No manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays have survived. Only a few documents have come down to us, in which various circumstances of his life are mentioned. Each of these documents, even if they contain only a few words about Shakespeare, has been examined and interpreted. The rarest historical values ​​are those few pieces of paper on which a few lines are written by Shakespeare's hand or simply bears his signature.

Pupil Publication

Student presentation

Main article

Metric church records show that he was baptized at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, on April 26, 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, prospered in commerce and became mayor of Stratford in 1568. His mother, Maria, was the daughter of a prosperous landowner. History knows little about Shakespeare's school years: it is only known that, according to his contemporary Ven Jonson, he knew a little Latin and even less Greek. There are many tense moments in his horoscope that complicate his life. Difficulties with women are most pronounced - the Moon is in conjunction with the Black Moon and in opposition to Pluto, and therefore the figure of the "grumpy wife" and the theme of death are very well represented in his work. But the conjunction of Venus with Neptune makes you idealize love a little and, because of the opposition with Uranus, come up with sharp upheavals in love stories. But all this does not explain his prominent position in History. He did not study at the university. According to two common legends, the young Shakespeare was first a butcher's mate and subsequently had to leave Stratford for killing a deer in Sir Thomas Lucy Charlicote's estate. It is authentically known that on November 27, 1582, the 18-year-old Shakespeare got married. His fiancée, Anne Hathaway, was apparently already pregnant, as the church book records the baptism of their daughter Susannah. Judging by the inscription on the tombstone, Anne Hathaway was eight years older than Shakespeare. Church records testify to the birth of two more of their children - the twins Hamnet and Judith. There is no data on Shakespeare's life in the next 7-8 years, and only in 1592 is he mentioned in a pamphlet by the London playwright Robert Green, who warns his friends about an actor who has the audacity to write plays himself. In Shakespeare's horoscope there is an amazing, rare conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the "royal conjunction". This enables a person to change the program of an entire generation. This cosmic phenomenon gives a new look at society and its laws. Under this connection, such titans as Pascal, Dostoevsky, Galileo Galilei, Nostradamus, Flammarion, Paganini, Academician Sakharov, Nekrasov, Lennon, Bruce Lee are born. Since 1595, Shakespeare has been mentioned as the leader and co-owner of the "Lord Chamberlain Company" (later it became known as the "Royal Company of James I"). There is no record of what roles or plays Shakespeare played in, although it is believed that he played supporting roles, like the ghost in Hamlet. In 1599 he became a co-owner of the Globe Theatre, and in 1608 a co-owner of the Dominican Theatre. Four or five years later he returned to Stratford and took up residence in a house he had bought with his theatrical earnings in 1597. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, as he was at that time seriously ill. Three days later, Shakespeare's body was buried under the altar of the Stratford church. An epitaph is written on his tombstone:

“Friend, for the sake of the Lord, not a swarm of Remains taken by this earth; Untouched is blessed for centuries, And cursed is the one who touched my ashes.

Throughout the twenty years of Shakespeare's stay in London, Anne Hathaway lived in Stratford. In his will, he left her "a second and better bed", and ordered a curse to be written on his tombstone, which fulfilled its purpose - to prevent his wife from being buried next to him. Created more than three centuries ago, Shakespeare's tragedies, historical chronicles and comedies still live, excite and shake the imagination of the audience. The best theaters of the world and outstanding actors still consider it their test and happiness to stage and play a Shakespearean performance. After seeing such a performance or just reading a Shakespeare play, you might want to know more about who created these works. But it's not that easy. A lot of work had to be put in so that we could now read about Shakespeare what every educated person should know about him. William Shakespeare was born on April 21, 1564 in the small English town of Stratford, located on the River Avon. His father was an artisan and merchant. The story of Shakespeare's childhood and youth is full of colorful details. However, science cannot recognize them as completely reliable. When Shakespeare was a little over 20 years old, he had to suddenly leave Stratford. The young Shakespeare went to London. Finding himself in an unfamiliar city without funds, without friends and acquaintances, according to popular legends, at first he earned his living by guarding horses near the theater, on which noble gentlemen came. Later, Shakespeare began to serve in the theater. He made sure that the actors went on stage on time, rewrote the roles, it happened that he replaced the prompter. In a word, long before the great playwright brought his heroes to the stage, he knew the difficult backstage life of the theater. Several years have passed. Shakespeare began to entrust small roles in the theater, later called the Globe, whose performances were a success in London. Shakespeare never became an actor, but his statements about acting, and most importantly, his excellent skill in building a play, testify to his amazing knowledge of the laws of the stage. However, Shakespeare wrote not only plays. His poems - sonnets captivated contemporaries and continue to captivate descendants with the power of feelings, depth of thought, grace of form. Shakespeare's skill as a playwright is enormous. The language of his tragedies is distinguished by extraordinary richness and brilliance. His dramaturgy occupies an honorable place in the repertoire of theaters around the world. The jubilant joy of life, the glorification of a healthy, strong, courageous, brightly feeling, boldly thinking person - this is the main thing in Shakespeare's first plays - comedies: "The Taming of the Shrew", "Comedy of Errors", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Much Ado About Nothing" , "Twelfth Night", written in 1593-1600. They express an important idea for the Renaissance: a person should be judged not by dress, not by knowledge, not by estate and wealth, but by his behavior and personal qualities. Shakespeare is the author of 37 plays, 2 poems, as well as 154 sonnets, distinguished by a passionate feeling, saturated with thought. Shakespeare's work is one of the pinnacles of the artistic culture of the Renaissance. In 1612, Shakespeare wrote his last play, The Tempest. He soon left the theatre. It may be that Shakespeare experienced disappointment in the English theater, which deviated from the great path along which he led it. Or maybe during the years of silence, he hatched the ideas of new brilliant creations that were never destined to appear.

The entire history of Shakespeare's life and work is conducted in the subjunctive mood. The first biography of Shakespeare was written when none of his contemporaries were already dead. The paucity of biographical data has led to the emergence of so-called anti-Shakespearean theories, i.e., assumptions that the actor William Shakespeare was not actually the author of the plays known by his name, that they were written by one or another of his aristocratic contemporaries who paid Shakespeare for the right to sign his name. Proponents of these theories attributed Shakespeare's works to various persons, such as the outstanding English scientist and philosopher Bacon or the Earl of Rutland, in whose biography a number of facts coincide with some moments of Shakespeare's plays. All works devoted to the problem of the authorship of Shakespeare's works indicate that Shakespeare scholars are divided into two camps: the Stratfordians, i.e. those who believe that the man who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, played in the theater in London and was buried there, in Stratford, in 1616, is the same Shakespeare, and the non-Stratfordians, i.e. . those who believe that the author of the plays, poems and sonnets is another author or authors.

conclusions

Belief in the mysteries and mysteries of history is one of the amazing inclinations of our mind, a healthy intellectual need to see things more complex than they seem at first glance, to discover the unusual behind the seemingly flat and mundane. This is our rebellion against banality. While the mystery teases the mind, we will continue to look for answers to questions we have posed or invented, and along the way, discover and better understand the era of Shakespeare, whoever he may be. Interest in Shakespeare is steadily growing. More and more people are becoming familiar with his works, and in connection with this, naturally, the circle of those who want to know about his life and what kind of person he was is expanding.

Used resources

Other documents

Printed Materials:

M. Morozov, Shakespeare. M.:. Young Guard (Series ZHZL), 1947

Humanism- the ideology of the Renaissance, which took shape in the XIV century in Italy (F. Petrarch, D. Boccaccio and others). Humanists, in search of support for a new view of the world, turn to antiquity, study the works of ancient thinkers. But it's not just a return to old values. Humanism is characterized by the combination of ancient anthropocentrism (“Man is the measure of all things”), which applied only to free people, with the medieval idea of ​​equality arising from theocentrism (“All people are equal before God”). Pico de la Mirandola considered man not just a measure of all things, but a miracle of nature. This idea is repeated by Shakespeare's Hamlet: “What a miracle of nature is man! How nobly speaks! What endless possibilities! How precise and striking in structure and movements! In actions how close to an angel! In views, how close to God! The beauty of the universe! The crown of all living! ”, But ends like this:“ And what is this quintessence of dust to me? (“Hamlet”, d. 2, scene 2, per. B. Pasternak). The polar characteristics of man - from the "crown of all living things" to the "quintessence of dust" indicate that by the beginning of the 17th century the humanistic concept of the world and man was in a state of crisis. In the future, the crisis deepened (for example, in the art of the Baroque, in pre-romanticism, in modernism), then humanism was revived in new forms (for example, in Corneille and Racine, in the art of the Enlightenment, among the romantics, in the realism of the twentieth century, etc.) .

The glorification of man in Renaissance humanism also had its downside, about which A.F. Losev wrote in detail, with a large number of examples, in The Aesthetics of the Renaissance. The appearance of a galaxy of geniuses, titans of thought is adjacent to unbridled egoism, freedom from any moral restrictions, cruelty, deceit, unthinkable atrocities. The reverse side of Renaissance titanism can be judged from the famous book by the Italian humanist Niccolo Machiavelli "Prince", which depicts the ideal ruler as a person who, in order to strengthen his power, must cynically disdain all moral obligations, stop at nothing, even when it comes to murder, treason , lawlessness.

Renaissance Machiavellianism was embodied with amazing force by W. Shakespeare in the image of the villainous king Richard III and in Iago. But the great English playwright became one of the most profound exponents of the bright side of humanism, which triumphs in his comedies as the victory of love and intelligence over the vicissitudes of fate, and in later plays as the restoration of the ideal in human life. In the tragedies of Shakespeare, tragic humanism found its highest expression, the ability of a person to sacrifice his life for the sake of higher humanistic values. His heroes may make mistakes (Othello, King Lear, Macbeth), but the author does not make mistakes, becoming a teacher of the world in understanding the human essence, in depicting man as the highest value.

By the middle of the XIV century, a new philosophical trend appeared in Europe - humanism, which marked a new era in the development of human society called the Renaissance. Medieval Europe at that time was under the heavy burden of church prejudice,

Any free thought was brutally suppressed. It was at that time in Florence that the philosophical doctrine was born, which made us look at the crown of God's creation in a new way.

The humanism of the Renaissance is a set of teachings representing a thinking person, able not only to go with the flow, but also able to resist and act independently. Its main direction is interest in each individual, faith in his spiritual and physical capabilities. It was the humanism of the Renaissance that proclaimed other principles of personality formation. Man in this teaching is presented as a creator, he is individual

And not passive in their thoughts and actions.

The new philosophical direction took ancient culture, art and literature as a basis, focusing on the spiritual essence of man. In the Middle Ages, science and culture were the prerogative of the church, which was very reluctant to share its accumulated knowledge and achievements. Renaissance humanism lifted this veil. First in Italy, and then gradually throughout Europe, universities began to form, in which, along with theosophical sciences, secular subjects began to be studied: mathematics, anatomy, music and the humanities.

The most famous humanists of the Italian Renaissance are: Pico della Mirandola, Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Francesco Petrarca, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi and Michelangelo Buanarotti. England gave the world such giants as William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon. France gave Michel de Montaigne and Francois Rabelais, Spain gave Miguel de Cervantes, and Germany gave Erasmus of Rotterdam, Albrecht Dürer and Ulrich von Hutten. All these great scientists, educators, artists forever turned the worldview and consciousness of people and showed a reasonable, beautiful soul and thinking person. It is to them that all subsequent generations are indebted for the gifted opportunity to look at the world differently.

Humanism in the Renaissance put the virtues that a person possesses at the head of everything, and demonstrated the possibility of their development in a person (independently or with the participation of mentors).

Anthropocentrism differs from humanism in that a person, according to this trend, is the center of the universe, and everything that is located around should serve him. Many Christians, armed with this doctrine, proclaimed man the highest creature, while heaping on him the greatest burden of responsibility. Anthropocentrism and humanism of the Renaissance are very different from each other, so you need to be able to clearly distinguish between these concepts. An anthropocentrist is a person who is a consumer. He believes that everyone owes him something, he justifies exploitation and does not think about the destruction of wildlife. Its main principle is the following: a person has the right to live as he wants, and the rest of the world is obliged to serve him.

The anthropocentrism and humanism of the Renaissance were later used by many philosophers and scientists such as Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Hobbes and others. These two definitions have been repeatedly taken as a basis in various schools and trends. The most significant, of course, for all subsequent generations was humanism, which in the Renaissance sowed the seeds of goodness, enlightenment and reason, which even today, several centuries later, we consider the most important for a reasonable person. We descendants today enjoy the great achievements of the literature and art of the Renaissance, and modern science is based on many teachings and discoveries that originated in the 14th century and still exist. Renaissance humanism tried to make a person better, to teach him to respect himself and others, and our task is to be able to preserve and increase his best principles.

The heyday of English drama began in the late 1580s, when a galaxy of writers appeared, now called "university minds": Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), Robert Greene (c. 1560-1592), John Lily (c. 1554-1606) and several others. The milestones marking the beginning of this heyday were two tragedies - “Tamerlane the Great” (1587) by K. Marlo and “Spanish Tragedy” by T. Kdda (c. 1587). The first marked the beginning of the bloody drama, the second - the genre of revenge tragedies.

There is every reason to believe that Shakespeare began his dramatic work c. 1590. In the first period of his work, he created a number of bloody historical dramas - the trilogy "Henry VI" and "Richard III" and the tragedy of revenge "Titus Andronicus". Shakespeare's first comedies, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew, were notable for their rather crude comedy, close to farces.

In 1593-1594, there was a turning point. Although Shakespeare never abandoned farce and clowning, in general his new comedies The Two Veronas, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night , "The Merry Wives of Windsor" are distinguished by subtle humor. They are dominated by adventurous and adventurous motives and dominated by the theme of love.

Most of the historical plays of this period are colored by faith in the triumph of the best beginnings in public life, which is especially noticeable in three chronicle plays - "Henry IV" (two parts) and "Henry V". Although in them a dramatic struggle between the feudal lords is an indispensable element of action, a fair amount of humor is noteworthy in them. It is in "Henry IV" that the image of Falstaff appears - a masterpiece of Shakespeare's comedy.

The only tragedy of this period, which lasts until the end of the 16th century, is Romeo and Juliet (1595). Its action is imbued with deep lyricism, and even the death of young heroes does not make this tragedy hopeless. Although Romeo and Juliet die, reconciliation of the warring families of Montagues and Capulets takes place over their corpses, love wins a moral victory over the world of evil.

The tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" embodies Shakespeare's optimistic mood in the second period. In comedies and the only tragedy of these years, humanity triumphs over the bad beginnings of life.

At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, a new turning point took place in Shakespeare's mindset. The first signs of it are felt in the historical tragedy "Julius Caesar" (1599). Her true hero, however, is not a great commander, but another Roman figure - Brutus, the sworn enemy of tyranny. He joins a conspiracy against Caesar, striving for sole despotic power, and participates in his assassination. Adherents of Caesar, and first of all Mark Antony, deceive the people with demagogic speeches, the Romans expel Brutus. The noble hero is defeated and commits suicide. Victory goes to the supporters of tyranny. The tragedy is that the people (namely, they play a decisive role in this tragedy) have not matured to understand who are their true and who are imaginary friends. Historical conditions have developed unfavorably for those who wished to establish noble ideals in life, and this is expressed in Julius Caesar.

Like other representatives of the new worldview, Shakespeare believed that the best beginnings should triumph over evil. However, he and his generation had to make sure that life went a different way. For three centuries European humanism has developed, preaching the need to reorganize life on new, more human principles. It is time to see the consequences of this. Instead, the negative traits of bourgeois development became more and more apparent in all aspects of life. The all-destroying power of gold was added to the remnants of the previous feudal-monarchical injustices.

Shakespeare felt with all his heart that humanistic ideals could not be realized in life. This is expressed in Sonnet 66. Although his translations by S. Marshak and V. Pasternak are more famous, I give another version:

* I call death, I can’t look anymore,
* How a worthy husband dies in poverty,
* And the villain lives in beauty and hall;
* How the trust of pure souls tramples,
* As chastity is threatened with disgrace,
* How honors are given to scoundrels,
* How strength droops before the insolent gaze,
* As everywhere in life the rogue triumphs,
* How arbitrariness mocks art,
* How thoughtlessness rules the mind,
* How painfully languishes in the clutches of evil
* All that we call good.
* If not for you, my love, I would have long ago
* I was looking for rest under the shadow of the coffin.
* Translation by O. Rumer

The sonnet was probably written in the late 1590s, when the turning point in Shakespeare's mentality began, leading to the creation of the tragedy Hamlet. It was created, apparently, in 1600-1601. Already in 1603 the first edition of the tragedy appeared. It was released without the permission of the author and the theater in which the play was being played, and was called the quarto of 1603.