Why Did Shakespeare Write Tragedies

Tragedies written by William Shakespeare

Shakespearean tragedy is the designation given to about tragedies written by playwright William Shakespeare. Many of his history plays share the qualifiers of a Shakespearean tragedy, but considering they are based on real figures throughout the history of England, they were classified equally "histories" in the First Folio. The Roman tragedies—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—are also based on historical figures, but because their sources were foreign and ancient they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories. Shakespeare'south romances (tragicomic plays) were written late in his career and published originally equally either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of tragedy, insofar as they characteristic a high-condition central character, but they end happily like Shakespearean comedies. Almost three centuries after Shakespeare'south death, the scholar F. S. Boas also coined a fifth category, the "problem play," for plays that do not fit neatly into a single classification because of their subject affair, setting, or ending.^[1] ^[2] The classifications of sure Shakespeare plays are still debated amid scholars.

Chronology [edit]

Below is the list of Shakespeare'southward plays listed every bit tragedies in the First Folio, forth with the date range in which each play is believed to have been written.^[i] ^[iii]

Play	Terminus
Play	post quem	dues quem
Titus Andronicus	1591	1593
Romeo and Juliet	1594	1595
Julius Caesar	1599	1600
Hamlet	1600	1601
Troilus and Cressida ^[a]	1601	1602
Othello	1604	1605
King Lear	1605	1606
Macbeth	1605	1606
Timon of Athens	1605	1608
Antony and Cleopatra	1606	1607
Coriolanus	1607	1608

Influences and sources [edit]

The English Renaissance, when Shakespeare was writing, was fueled by a renewed interest in Roman and Greek classics and neighboring renaissance literature written years earlier in Italian republic, France, and Spain.^[ane] Shakespeare wrote the bulk of his tragedies nether the rule of James I, and their darker contents may reflect the general mood of the country post-obit the death of Elizabeth I, also every bit James' theatrical preferences.^[1] Shakespeare, as was customary for other playwrights in his day, used history, other plays, and not-dramatic literature as sources for his plays. In Elizabethan England there were no copyright or protections against plagiarism, and then characters, plots, and fifty-fifty whole phrases of poetry were considered mutual property.^[4] The majority of Shakespeare's tragedies are based on historical figures, with the exception of Measure for Measure and Othello, which are based on narrative fictions by Giraldi Cintio.^[1] The historical basis for Shakespeare's Roman plays comes from The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch,^[5] whereas the source of Shakespeare's United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland based plays and Village (based on the Danish Prince Amleth)^[half-dozen] derive from Holinshed'southward Chronicles.^[1] Furthermore, the French author Belleforest published The Hystorie of Hamblet, Prince of Denmarke in 1582 which includes specifics from how the prince counterfeited to be mad, to how the prince stabbed and killed the King's counsellor who was eavesdropping on Hamlet and his mother behind the arras in the Queen'south chamber.^[6] The story of Lear appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regium Britanniae c. 1135, and then in John Higgins' poem The Mirror for Magistrates in 1574, besides as appearing in Holinshed'south Chronicles in 1587.^[7] Some events that happen in Shakespeare'southward Rex Lear were inspired by various episodes of Philip Sidney'south Arcadia from 1590, while the nonsensical musings of Edgar's "poor Tom" heavily reference Samuel Harsnett's 1603 book, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.^[vii]

Gimmicky tragedy [edit]

Tragedies from these eras traced their philosophical essence dorsum to Senecan tragedy,^[1] grounded in nobles who accept a tragic flaw or commit a grave error (hamartia) which leads to their reversal of fortune (peripeteia). (However, some critics take argued that the "pseudo-Aristotelian" concept of the tragic flaw does non apply to Shakespeare's tragic figures.^[8]) Revenge tragedy was as well of increasing popularity in this historic period; Shakespeare's Village is one example of this.^[2] ^[3] Plays of this age were also decidedly secular,^[i] in contrast to the religious morality plays which by this fourth dimension were outlawed by Elizabeth I. One marked departure between English language renaissance tragedies and the classics that inspired them, was the utilize and popularity of violence and murder on stage.^[1]

Select exemplary (non-Shakespearean) Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies:^[vi]

The Castilian Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe
Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe
Doctor Faustus past Christopher Marlowe
Antonio's Revenge by John Marston
The Revenger's Tragedy past Thomas Middleton
'Tis Pity She'southward a Whore by John Ford

Notes and references [edit]

Notes [edit]

^ Troilus and Cressida was listed as a comedy in the Starting time Folio, but is now classified as a tragedy.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^east ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Dunton-Downer & Riding 2004.
^ ^a ^b Boas 1910, pp. 344–408.
^ ^a ^b Brockett & Hildy 2007, p. 109.
^ Bryson 2007, p. 99.
^ Mowat & Werstine 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hoy 1992.
^ ^a ^b Foakes 1997.
^ "Shakespeare and the Tragic Virtue". www.jsu.edu . Retrieved 3 May 2018.

Sources [edit]

Boas, Frederick S. (1910). Shakespere and his Predecessors. University manuals. John Murray. OCLC 939680633.
Brockett, Oscar G.; Hildy, Franklin J. (2007). History of Theatre (ninth ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. ISBN978-0205358786.
Bryson, Bill (2007). Shakespeare: The Globe as Phase. Eminent Lives. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN978-0-06-074022-1. OCLC 136782567.
Dunton-Downer, Leslie; Riding, Alan (2004). Essential Shakespeare Handbook. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN978-0789493330.
Foakes, R. A., ed. (1997). King Lear . Arden Shakespeare, third serial. Cengage Learning. ISBN1903436591.
Hoy, Cyrus, ed. (1992). Hamlet . Norton disquisitional editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN978-0-393-31642-one.
Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2013). The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. New York: Folger Shakespeare Library. ISBN978-one-4391-9671-vii.

External links [edit]

Shakespearean tragedies at the British Library