William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's works have been a major influence on subsequent theatre.
Not only did Shakespeare create some of the most admired plays in Western
literature, Shakespeare also transformed English theatre by expanding
expectations about what could be accomplished through characterisation,
plot, action, language, and genre. His poetic artistry helped raise the
status of popular theatre, permitting it to be admired by intellectuals as
well as by those seeking pure entertainment.
Theatre was changing when Shakespeare first arrived in London in the
late 1580s or early 1590s. Previously, the most common forms of popular
English theatre were the Tudor morality plays. These plays, which blend
piety with farce and slapstick, were allegories in which the characters are
personified moral attributes who validate the virtues of Godly life by
prompting the protagonist to choose such a life over evil. Characters and
plot situations are symbolic rather than realistic. As a child, Shakespeare
would likely have been exposed to this type of play (along with mystery
plays and miracle plays). Meanwhile, at the universities, academic plays
were being staged based on Roman closet dramas. These plays, often performed
in Latin, used a more exact and academically respectable poetic style than
the morality plays, but they were also more static, valuing lengthy speeches
over physical action.
By the late 16th century, the popularity of morality and academic plays
waned as the English Renaissance took hold, and playwrights like Thomas Kyd
and Christopher Marlowe began to revolutionise theatre. Their plays blended
the old morality drama with academic theatre to produce a new secular form.
The new drama had the poetic grandeur and philosophical depth of the
academic play and the bawdy populism of the moralities. However, it was more
ambiguous and complex in its meanings, and less concerned with simple moral
allegories. Inspired by this new style, Shakespeare took these changes to a
new level, creating plays that not only resonated on an emotional level with
audiences but also explored and debated the basic elements of what it means
to be human.
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