Shakespeare: A Life in ArtShakespeare: A Life in Art brings together in a single volume Fraser's previously published two-volume biography (Young Shakespeare, 1988, and Shakespeare: The Later Years, 1992). This volume includes a new introduction, which looks back on the author's lifelong commitment to Shakespeare's work and seeks to find the pattern in his carpet.Fraser's approach places Shakespeare's work first but shows how the life and art interpenetrate, like the yolk and white of one shell. What Shakespeare was doing in Stratford and London underlies what he was writing, or more exactly, the two flow together. Most of the book is devoted to Shakespeare the man and artist, but it simultaneously throws light on his literary and personal relations with contemporaries such as Jonson, Marlowe, and others known as the University Wits. His experience as an actor and man of theater is absorbingly recounted here, as well as his relations to well-born patrons like the Earl of Southampton and Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon (England's Lord Chamberlain). In 1603 when James I ascended the throne, the Chamberlain's Men became the King's Men, passing under the sovereign's protection. How Shakespeare responded to his ambiguous role--he was both servant to the great and their remorseless critic--is another of Fraser's subjects. In short, Fraser's principal purpose is to advance our understanding of Shakespeare, at the same time throwing light on the work of the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul. John Dryden, Shakespeare's first great critic, said that, and Fraser tries to estimate what he meant. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 81
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... England's king. But he works a seachange on his material. For example, the allegorical pageant that went with the baptismal ceremonies. It should have featured a lion drawing a cart, but you couldn't bring in a fearful beast like a lion ...
... England's king. But he works a seachange on his material. For example, the allegorical pageant that went with the baptismal ceremonies. It should have featured a lion drawing a cart, but you couldn't bring in a fearful beast like a lion ...
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... England, on or about April 23,1564. John Shakespeare, his father, came in from the country to the town. A leather worker and dealer in fleece, he cut an important figure in Stratford, making a good marriage to Mary Arden, a farmer's ...
... England, on or about April 23,1564. John Shakespeare, his father, came in from the country to the town. A leather worker and dealer in fleece, he cut an important figure in Stratford, making a good marriage to Mary Arden, a farmer's ...
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... George's Day fell three days earlier, Sunday the 23 rd. Tradition, honoring England's patron saint and best poet together, says that Shakespeare was born on this day. Then there are the plays, approximately half of them published.
... George's Day fell three days earlier, Sunday the 23 rd. Tradition, honoring England's patron saint and best poet together, says that Shakespeare was born on this day. Then there are the plays, approximately half of them published.
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... England before the Reformation, a God-bitten country, made a third place between heaven and hell, “middle earth.” Victorians, getting on with it, demolished old St. Peter's, and Sir Gilbert Scott, a Gothic revivalist, helped build the ...
... England before the Reformation, a God-bitten country, made a third place between heaven and hell, “middle earth.” Victorians, getting on with it, demolished old St. Peter's, and Sir Gilbert Scott, a Gothic revivalist, helped build the ...
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... England, a world turned upside down. Shakespeare's forcing house, it left him damaged goods but resilient. Cultural shock was his element, one blow succeeding another “like the waves that make toward the pebbled shore.” His evasive art ...
... England, a world turned upside down. Shakespeare's forcing house, it left him damaged goods but resilient. Cultural shock was his element, one blow succeeding another “like the waves that make toward the pebbled shore.” His evasive art ...
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Common terms and phrases
actors Antony Blackfriars blood Burbage Caesar called Chamberlain’s church comedy comic Coriolanus Court Cymbeline dark daughter death died doesn’t Duke Earl Elizabeth England English Essex Falstaff famous father fellow Garden Globe God’s Hamlet hand Henry VIII hero’s heroine history plays honor isn’t John Shakespeare Jonson King Lear King’s knew later lived London looks Lord Love’s Macbeth man’s Marlowe Marlowe’s master means Measure for Measure Midsummer Night’s Dream moral nature Othello Paul’s perhaps play’s players playhouse playwright plot poem poet Puritans Queen readers remembered Richard Richard II Romeo says scene Shakespeare’s characters Shakespeare’s hero Shakespeare’s play Snitterfield sonnets Southampton stage story Stratford Street tale tells theater things thinks Thomas thought Titus Andronicus took tragedy Troilus and Cressida truth turned Twelfth Night villain wanted William words wrote young Shakespeare