The Renaissance

wroteThe Taming of the Shrew, in which
the author combines Italian and English
plot devices, the fantasy playA Midsum-
mer Night’s Dream,aswellasThe Mer-
chant of VeniceandMuch Ado About Noth-
ing. On a request from Queen Elizabeth
that he write a romantic story for Falstaff,
a character of the two historical plays of
Henry IV, Shakespeare wroteThe Merry
Wives of Windsor. Other comedies from
this period include As YouLikeItand
Twelfth Night.

In 1593, the theaters of London were
closed due to an outbreak of plague, and
Shakespeare turned to the writing of po-
etry. For his patron, the Earl of Southamp-
ton, he wroteThe Rape of Lucrece. Both
this poem andVenus and Adonisare con-
sidered masterpieces in the tradition of
the long narrative epic. He also wrote a se-
ries of 154 sonnets, fourteen-line poems
in which the author explored a wide range
of emotions and moods, and described a
mysterious “dark lady” whom historians
have yet to identify.

Around 1600 Shakespeare wrote trag-
edies includingRomeo and Juliet, Julius
Caesar, and Hamlet, his most famous
single work. He treated the ancient Trojan
War inTroilus and Cressida, and also wrote
a bittersweet play of love and sex inMea-
sure for Measure. In 1603, on the accession
of King James I, the Lord Chamberlain’s
Men won the support of the crown and
became the King’s Men. The last produc-
tive years of Shakespeare’s life saw the
writing of historical playsAntony and Cleo-
patra, Timon of Athens, andCoriolanus,all
based on short biographies by the Greek
historian Plutarch, as well as three of
Shakespeare’s most famous plays,Macbeth,
Othello, andKing Lear. These plays, based
on traditional English historical tales, re-
veal a more cynical and pessimistic author,

who describes characters alienated from

their surroundings, and who are controlled

and ultimately destroyed by their passions

and desires.The Tempest,believedtobe

Shakespeare’s final play, describes the ship-

wreck of the magician Prospero, who rep-

resents an author looking back on his own

works as the strange, magical creations of

a powerful imagination.

Shakespeare returned to Stratford at

the end of his life and lived a comfortable,

prosperous retirement. After his death in

1616, his reputation as poet and play-

wright spread rapidly in England and on

the European continent. In 1623 all of his

plays were collected and printed from the

author’s own manuscripts, a rare act in

Renaissance England, where plays were

widely considered to be disposable works

meant only for the temporary amusement

of a mass audience. In all, Shakespeare

wrote thrity-eight plays, including many

that are still considered the pinnacle of the

dramatic art:Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello,

King Lear, and The Tempest.Hisworks

have been translated into many languages,

have been performed all over the world,

and have been remade into operas and

movies. Hundreds of lines and phrases

from his plays became familiar expressions

that have survived into the twenty-first

century. In the meantime, Shakespeare be-

came emblematic of the literary achieve-

ments of the English Renaissance during

which, partially through the popularity of

his own works, a relatively obscure and

little-used language emerged to become

the national tongue of a great empire.

SEEALSO: Elizabeth I; James I of England;

Marlowe, Christopher; theater

ships and shipbuilding ......................

As frontiers of knowledge expanded dur-

ing the Renaissance, new vessels made it

ships and shipbuilding