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
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... remembered how an alewife's house went up in flames when she brewed on St. Mark's Day, “a gentle warning to them that violate and profane forbidden days!” Shakespeare's parents, warned, skipped St. Mark's, going to church a day later ...
... remembered how an alewife's house went up in flames when she brewed on St. Mark's Day, “a gentle warning to them that violate and profane forbidden days!” Shakespeare's parents, warned, skipped St. Mark's, going to church a day later ...
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... fourteenth-century work, the professions appear, a mitred bishop, a knight, a lawyer, perhaps a scholar wearing a close-fitting hood. In the early years of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare remembered this church. His.
... fourteenth-century work, the professions appear, a mitred bishop, a knight, a lawyer, perhaps a scholar wearing a close-fitting hood. In the early years of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare remembered this church. His.
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A Life in Art Russell Fraser. years of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare remembered this church. His heroine Helena in AW s Well That Ends Well, leaving France for Florence, goes on pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James the Great in ...
A Life in Art Russell Fraser. years of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare remembered this church. His heroine Helena in AW s Well That Ends Well, leaving France for Florence, goes on pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James the Great in ...
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... remembered how “I buckled his harness when he went unto Blackheath Field.” An independent yeoman, he sent his son to Cambridge, dowered his daughters and married them off. “He kept hospitality for his poor neighbors, and some alms he ...
... remembered how “I buckled his harness when he went unto Blackheath Field.” An independent yeoman, he sent his son to Cambridge, dowered his daughters and married them off. “He kept hospitality for his poor neighbors, and some alms he ...
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... remembered his roots. Meaning to spend his last years in Stratford, he built a large brick and timber house, New Place. Later Shakespeare, ambitious like Clopton, lived in this house. Across the street from New Place, the local guild ...
... remembered his roots. Meaning to spend his last years in Stratford, he built a large brick and timber house, New Place. Later Shakespeare, ambitious like Clopton, lived in this house. Across the street from New Place, the local guild ...
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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