Elements Of A Shakespearean Tragedy

Tragedies written by William Shakespeare

Shakespearean tragedy is the designation given to most tragedies written past playwright William Shakespeare. Many of his history plays share the qualifiers of a Shakespearean tragedy, but because they are based on real figures throughout the history of England, they were classified as "histories" in the First Folio. The Roman tragedies—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—are too based on historical figures, but considering their sources were foreign and ancient they are well-nigh always classified equally tragedies rather than histories. Shakespeare'south romances (tragicomic plays) were written belatedly in his career and published originally as either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of tragedy, insofar as they feature a high-status central character, merely they terminate happily like Shakespearean comedies. Almost three centuries after Shakespeare's death, the scholar F. Due south. Boas besides coined a fifth category, the "problem play," for plays that practise not fit neatly into a single nomenclature because of their subject area affair, setting, or ending.^[one] ^[two] The classifications of certain Shakespeare plays are still debated amongst scholars.

Chronology [edit]

Below is the listing of Shakespeare's plays listed as tragedies in the First Folio, along with the date range in which each play is believed to have been written.^[ane] ^[3]

Play	Terminus
Play	post quem	ante 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 involvement in Roman and Greek classics and neighboring renaissance literature written years earlier in Italian republic, French republic, and Spain.^[1] Shakespeare wrote the majority of his tragedies under the dominion of James I, and their darker contents may reflect the general mood of the country following the death of Elizabeth I, likewise as James' theatrical preferences.^[1] Shakespeare, as was customary for other playwrights in his twenty-four hours, used history, other plays, and non-dramatic literature every bit sources for his plays. In Elizabethan England there were no copyright or protections against plagiarism, and so characters, plots, and even whole phrases of verse were considered common property.^[4] The bulk of Shakespeare's tragedies are based on historical figures, with the exception of Measure for Mensurate and Othello, which are based on narrative fictions by Giraldi Cintio.^[1] The historical footing for Shakespeare'southward Roman plays comes from The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch,^[5] whereas the source of Shakespeare'due south Britain based plays and Hamlet (based on the Danish Prince Amleth)^[6] derive from Holinshed'due south 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'due south counsellor who was eavesdropping on Hamlet and his mother behind the arras in the Queen'due south bedchamber.^[vi] The story of Lear appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regium Britanniae c. 1135, and so in John Higgins' poem The Mirror for Magistrates in 1574, as well every bit appearing in Holinshed's Chronicles in 1587.^[7] Some events that happen in Shakespeare's Rex Lear were inspired by diverse episodes of Philip Sidney's Arcadia from 1590, while the nonsensical musings of Edgar'southward "poor Tom" heavily reference Samuel Harsnett's 1603 book, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.^[vii]

Contemporary tragedy [edit]

Tragedies from these eras traced their philosophical essence dorsum to Senecan tragedy,^[one] grounded in nobles who take a tragic flaw or commit a grave error (hamartia) which leads to their reversal of fortune (peripeteia). (Even so, some critics have argued that the "pseudo-Aristotelian" concept of the tragic flaw does not apply to Shakespeare's tragic figures.^[eight]) Revenge tragedy was also of increasing popularity in this age; Shakespeare'due south Hamlet is one example of this.^[2] ^[3] Plays of this age were as well decidedly secular,^[1] in contrast to the religious morality plays which by this time were outlawed past Elizabeth I. One marked difference between English language renaissance tragedies and the classics that inspired them, was the use and popularity of violence and murder on stage.^[1]

Select exemplary (not-Shakespearean) Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies:^[6]

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

Notes and references [edit]

Notes [edit]

^ Troilus and Cressida was listed every bit a comedy in the First Folio, but is now classified every bit a tragedy.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^{due east} ^f ^chiliad ^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 South. (1910). Shakespere and his Predecessors. University manuals. John Murray. OCLC 939680633.
Brockett, Oscar One thousand.; Hildy, Franklin J. (2007). History of Theatre (ninth ed.). Boston: Pearson Teaching. ISBN978-0205358786.
Bryson, Nib (2007). Shakespeare: The World as Stage. 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). Rex Lear . Arden Shakespeare, third serial. Cengage Learning. ISBN1903436591.
Hoy, Cyrus, ed. (1992). Hamlet . Norton critical editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN978-0-393-31642-1.
Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2013). The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. New York: Folger Shakespeare Library. ISBN978-ane-4391-9671-7.