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Elective English—IV

Notes A few scholars do not agree with the interpretation of this criticism. However, a majority of
them believe that it was Greene’s way of saying that William Shakespeare was becoming successful
and was reaching above his rank, in order to match educated and well-known playwrights such
as Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe or Greene himself.
Documents show that by the early 1590s, William Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s
company of actors which was a popular acting company in London. He then joined a group of
Chamberlain’s Men in 1599 as a managing partner. This group formed an organisation to build
and operate a new playhouse: the Globe. The Globe became the most famous theatre of its time.
William Shakespeare was finally able to buy house in Stratford called New House for his family
from what he earned from the Globe. It was a long four-day ride by horse from Stratford to
London, so It is believed that William Shakespeare spent a majority of his time in the city acting
and writing visited home only once in a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theatres
in London were closed. After the crowning of King James I, in 1603, the company’s name got
changed to the King’s Men. This company became extremely popular. Records indicate that
William Shakespeare had his works published and sold as famous literature. In 16th century,
theatre culture was not appreciated much in England. Still a majority of aristocrats were good
patrons of the performing arts and were friends with actors. In the beginning of his career,
Shakespeare was able to befriend Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. William dedicated
his first two published poems: “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594) to
Henry. In 1605, William Shakespeare bought leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds.
This doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. Besides being a renowned artist,
Shakespeare also became an entrepreneur. These investments allowed him to write his
masterpieces without being interrupted. Fifteen of the 37 plays written by William Shakespeare
were published by 1597.

2.1.5 Writing Style

Popularly known as ‘The Bard of Avon’, English poet and playwright William Shakespeare
wrote the famous 154 Sonnets and several highly successful often quoted dramatic works. William
Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day. The complicated
metaphors and rhetorical phrases did not always go well with the story’s characters or its plot.
Still, Shakespeare was very innovative and created a free flow of words. With very small degrees
of difference, Shakespeare mainly used a metrical pattern that included lines of unrhymed
iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to write his plays. At the same time, several passages in all
the plays deviate from pattern and use various forms of poetry or simple prose.

In all his plays and poems, William Shakespeare invented several words, usually by combining
or twisting French, Latin and native roots. According to the Oxford English Dictionary,
Shakespeare’s remarkable expansion of English language, comprises of words like birthplace,
arch-villain, bloodsucking, stillborn, dewdrop, fanged, heart sore, courtship, hunchbacked,
misquote, leapfrog, zany, pageantry, downstairs, radiance, schoolboy and watchdog.

2.2 William Shakespeare’s Major Works

2.2.1 Poetry

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was considered to be a notable dramatist of his time. Evidence
shows that both he and his contemporaries wanted to attain fame by writing poetry, not
playwriting. It is believed that a majority of the Shakespearean Sonnets were composed between
1593 and 1601, but weren’t published till 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, includes
154 sonnets. All these sonnets were written in the form of three quatrains and a couplet that is
now accepted as Shakespearean. These sonnets can be categorised into two groups: sonnets

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