The works of William Shakespeare bears no comparison in the history of humanities. He was a versatile English poet, playwright and dramatist. He has written closely 38 acts, 154 sonnets and innumerous poems between 1582–1612, which are read and discussed even up to now. They had important contribution on English literature and western theatre. All his works have been translated into all known languages and they have been performed around many countries more than a million times.
Although many of his writings target the English audience the appeal was comprehensive. Christopher Marlowe greatly influenced his writing style. In 1594, Shakespeare became part-owner of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a drama play company. By then he had even started acting, along with writing plays. Under his presence the company became popular the reason why King James acquire the company and then it was named as King’s men.
His works revolved around tragedy, romance, comedy, and history. He started working with other writers which was common at that time. Since then he helped the playwrights to finish their work fast. Like Hamlet was the new adaptation of a lost play named Ur-Hamlet and King Lear was the new version of King Leir. His plays on history were inspired by the Greek, Roman and English history. Plays like Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and Raphael Holinshed’s The Chronicle of England inspired plays like Macbeth and King Lear. Tempest was his original work.
Shakespeare’s early works of 1590s were based on romantic comedies and historic nostalgia which were the storyline of works like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV, Part I. After the plague, he started incorporating rhyming couplets and dramatic dialogues in his work. His middle period works revolved around betrayal, murder, egoism, power, ambition, lust, tragedy and comedy. Plays like Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida were based on them. His later works were mostly romantic and fantasies such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. His works were also published in press as a series of quartos. Two actors named John Heminges and Henry Condell started First Folio to honor and publish Shakespeare’s work exclusively in 1623. Categories such as comedies, tragedies and histories were made in First Folio. Modern critics have added up categories like tragic-comedies and problem-play.
The chronology of his plays is not known and has always been the subject of an argument as at his time, plays weren’t authoritatively printed. Many of his plays had many different blueprints and because of technical glitches like printing errors and reading mistakes, so the identifying his original work is a problem. Many words and spellings were invented by Shakespeare. One of the peculiarities of his works is his habit of writing them a number of times using different words and spellings. After he died, speculations have risen about the authenticity of Shakespeare’s work. There are only few available details on the accounts of his life and nor even his will gives details regarding his ownership of the Globe theater. There were rumors that they might be writings of Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon.
The works that have been lost are Love’s Labour’ Won, Cardenio and Quixote. Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Richard III are some the critically acclaimed works of William Shakespeare.
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