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 87
Page
... Stratford, making a good marriage to Mary Arden, a farmer's daughter, well left. Rising through the ranks in the village corporation, he was chosen Stratford's bailiff or mayor. But at the height his fortunes fell. Tradition says that ...
... Stratford, making a good marriage to Mary Arden, a farmer's daughter, well left. Rising through the ranks in the village corporation, he was chosen Stratford's bailiff or mayor. But at the height his fortunes fell. Tradition says that ...
Page
... Stratford garden where it functioned as a water cistern, it stands on a pedestal near Shakespeare's grave, much beaten about but there for all to see. The record of Shakespeare's baptism survives too, entered in the parish register of ...
... Stratford garden where it functioned as a water cistern, it stands on a pedestal near Shakespeare's grave, much beaten about but there for all to see. The record of Shakespeare's baptism survives too, entered in the parish register of ...
Page
... Stratford church, he read the First Epistle of Peter: “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” Stratford's life was the land, not inert but ...
... Stratford church, he read the First Epistle of Peter: “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” Stratford's life was the land, not inert but ...
Page
... Stratford, or Bartonon-the-Heath, sixteen miles away. Aunt Joan, his mother Mary's sister, lived in Barton-on-the-Heath, married to Edmund Lambert. Shakespeare's younger sister Joan is named for this aunt Lambert. The aunt had a ...
... Stratford, or Bartonon-the-Heath, sixteen miles away. Aunt Joan, his mother Mary's sister, lived in Barton-on-the-Heath, married to Edmund Lambert. Shakespeare's younger sister Joan is named for this aunt Lambert. The aunt had a ...
Page
... Stratford churchwardens reported this in 1592. Seven years later, Shakespeare, escaped from Stratford and absolute despot in his little world of theater, had this Bardolph hanged for stealing a “pax,” a paten stamped with the crucifix ...
... Stratford churchwardens reported this in 1592. Seven years later, Shakespeare, escaped from Stratford and absolute despot in his little world of theater, had this Bardolph hanged for stealing a “pax,” a paten stamped with the crucifix ...
Other editions - View all
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