Shakespeare

Shakespeare

Table of contents

• History -> King Richard II

-> background -> summary -> construction and style

• Comedy -> Twelf Night

-> background -> summary -> construction and style

• Diffrence between history & comedy

King Richard II.

Background

• -> royal drama
• -> was written down around 1595 & premiered
• -> 1597 printed for the first time
• -> first piece of the Lancaster tetralogy
• -> A genre of its own, in which English history is illuminated
• -> first contribution to the Tudor myth
• -> in which the accession to the throne of the House of Tudor is glorified
• -> was written down around 1595 & premiered

King Richard II.

Background

• -> important source was Raphael Chronicle of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1587
• -> Drama was repeatedly banned out of fear
• -> leans heavily on the historical events at the end of the reign of Richard II.
• -> and his murder in 1400

King Richard II.

Summary

• ->King Richard II expels his cousin out of the country.
• ->He returns a short time later with an army and many allies.
• ->Richard is forced to cede the throne to Bolingbroke.
• ->He becomes King Henry IV.
• ->Richard is murdered by a rebel in the dungeon.

King Richard II.

construction and style

• ->The play is divided into five acts
• shows a two-pronged action
• -> which on the one hand the decline of Richard II.
• ->on the other hand describes the rise of Bolingbrokes, later King Henry IV
• ->The two narrative threads meet in the third act of the drama
• ->dissolve in the confrontation of the two main characters.
• -> written in verse form -> contains no prose
• ->Richard speaks very flowery and with many metaphors
• ->Bolingbroke speaks more prosaically and clearer, more direct words.
• ->Emotions are conveyed through excessive rhetoric

Twelf Night

Background

• -> the comedy written at the beginning of the 17th century
• -> during the last years under Queen Elizabeth I
• -> 1602 listed for the first time -> earliest document
• -> in the Middle Temple Hall of the Temple Church in London
• -> Main source an Italian play entitled Gl'ingannati
• -> the story Apollonius and Silla by Barnabe Riche from 1581 as a further template.
• -> resorted to his own plays, such as his Comedy of Errors
• -> “Twelf Night” -> maker the end of the traditional Christmas season
• -> symbolic for carnivalesque
• -> High points in Shakespeare's comedies -> is one of the most played works

Twelf Night

Summary

• ->Viola loves Duke Orsino,
• ->Countess loves Olivia,
• ->Olivia loves Cesario -> but Cesario is Viola disguised as a man,
• Complicated-> because neither Orsino nor Olivia know that Cesario is a woman
• -> it gets more complicated when Viola's missing twin brother turns up
• -> In the end there is a double wedding

Twelf Night

construction and style

• -> classic structure in five acts
• -> last act consists of one scene
• -> Typical features of an Elizabethan romantic comedy are present:
• -> Confusion, the motif of the separated twins and disguises
• -> Verses with many interspersed prose passages
• -> musical interludes: A total of six
• -> mannered choice of words of the duke
• -> clear and at the same time majestic choice of words Tone Olivia

Diffrence between history & comedy

Comedy

• Exaggerated and lighthearted depiction of human weaknesses
• Triggering liberating laughter in the audience

• Presentation of a conflict that is often only apparent but can always be resolved

• Contrast between appearance and reality or hoped for and achieved
• Playing with expectations and the non-fulfillment of these expectations
• Deceptions and Entanglements
• Happy ending (happy ending)

Diffrence between history & comedy

history

• - no clear genus
• - Insight into history
• - Feature-> episodic structure
• -> Historical ind ividual scenes are historically brought to the stage

source index

• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Was_ihr_wollt- Insight into history
• https://www.getabstract.com/de/zusammenfassung/was-ihr-wollt/14189
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night#Performance_history
• https://www.getabstract.com/de/zusammenfassung/koenig-richard-ii/22514?st=RELATED&si=14189
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historie#Shakespeares_Historien-Dramen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II_(play)#/media/File:The_Entry_of_Richard_and_Bolingbroke_into_London_(from_William_Shakespeare's_'Richard_II',_Act_V,_Scene_2)_James_Northcote_(1746–1831)_Royal_Albert_Memorial_Museum.jpg

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