The first issue (1590 ~ 1600) is mainly about writing historical dramas and comedies, including 9 historical dramas, 2 comedies and 2 tragedies. Of the nine historical dramas, except King John, which tells the history of England at the beginning of the 65438+3rd century, the other eight are all two tetralogy: the first, middle and last three of Henry VI and Richard III; Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, these historical dramas summed up the turmoil in British history for more than a hundred years, shaped a series of positive and negative monarchies, and reflected Shakespeare's humanistic political and moral ideals of opposing feudal separatism, supporting centralization, condemning tyrants and tyrannies, demanding enlightened monarchies to carry out top-down reforms and establishing harmonious social relations. 10 Most comedies, The Wrong Comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The futility of love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much ado about nothing, All Happy and Twelfth Night, are all about it. Praise progress and beautiful new features, but also gently expose and ridicule the decay and ugliness of old things, such as the wrong correction of asceticism, the hypocrisy of Puritans and the greed of usurers. The basic tone of Shakespeare's drama creation in this period is optimistic and clear, full of confidence in solving social contradictions with humanistic ideals, so that the tragedy Romeo and Juliet written in this period is also full of comedy atmosphere. Although the hero died of double suicide, the ideal of love overcame death and got the reconciliation of feudal feud. However, the mature comedy The Merchant of Venice in the later period of this period contains melancholy and tragic factors. While advocating kindness, friendship and sincere love, it reflects the class oppression and racial discrimination of the law of the jungle in Christian society, which shows that the author has gradually realized that there is an intractable contradiction between ideal and reality.
The second issue (160 1 ~ 1607) is mainly about tragedies, with three Roman plays, five tragedies and three "black comedies" or "problem plays". The Roman plays Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Cory Ollanu are historical plays adapted from Plutarch's biographies of Greek and Roman heroes. These four tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Timon of Athens, mark the author's deep thinking about the times and life, and strive to shape some tragic protagonists in the new era: they woke up from the imprisonment and ignorance of the Middle Ages and developed or improved themselves ambitiously under the dawn of modern times, but they could not overcome the limitations of the times and themselves, and finally found themselves in the same environment and inner hostile forces. In order to avenge his father, Hamlet found that "the whole era was out of tenon" and decided to take on the responsibility of "rectifying Gankun". As a result, he was too ambitious to return to heaven. Othello is honest and simple, and people hate him. He killed his wife at the mercy of traitors, and was punished for pursuing perfection. King Lear lost his nature and reason in the honor, pride and self-confidence brought by power. He fantasized that by dividing power into different countries to prove that he was not a king, he could be as great as ordinary people, so he suffered painful hardships. Macbeth is a hero with meritorious service, and there are goodness and beauty in his character. Driven by the temptation and ambition of the throne, he degenerated into a "bloody to bloody" sinner and regretted the world. The tragedies of these characters profoundly reveal all kinds of social ugliness and bourgeois egoism that began to appear in primitive accumulation of capital period, and show the irreconcilable contradiction between humanistic ideal and cruel reality, which has a high degree of generalization significance. Due to the enhancement of the ideological depth and realism depth of dramas in this period, comedies such as troilus, Cressida, All ends well, and Tit for Tit also showed a dark side, shrouded in the evil shadow of treachery and conspiracy, so they were called "problem dramas" or "black comedies".
The main works of the third issue (1608 ~ 16 13) are four tragicomedy or legendary dramas, Prince Ricci of Tyre, cymbeline, Winter Story and The Tempest. Most of these works are about separation, reunion, framing and revenge. Although we still adhere to the ideal of humanism and expose the dark reality, the solution of contradictions mainly depends on magic, fantasy, coincidence and accidental events, and ends with preaching forgiveness, tolerance, compromise and reconciliation.
Shakespeare also collaborated with Fletcher to write the historical drama Henry VIII and the legendary drama Two Noble Relatives, which has been included in the existing Shakespeare plays in recent years.
Most of Shakespeare's plays are based on old scripts, novels, chronicles or folklore, but they have been rewritten with their own ideas, giving new, rich and profound contents to the old themes. In artistic expression, he inherited and developed the three traditions of ancient Greek and Roman drama, medieval England and Renaissance European drama, and made creative innovations in content and form. His plays are not bound by the three laws, break through the boundary between tragedy and comedy, strive to reflect the true nature of life, and dig deep into the inner mysteries of characters, thus shaping many typical characters with complex and diverse personalities and vivid images, and depicting a broad and colorful picture of social life, which is famous for its profoundness, poetry and philosophy.
Shakespeare's plays are popular plays written for the British stage and audience at that time. Therefore, in the18th century, it was criticized by the classicists represented by Voltaire, and was arbitrarily deleted during the performance, because it was a blend of sadness and joy, appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and free in time and space, trying to mobilize the imagination of the audience and make up for the simplicity of the stage. It was not until the beginning of19th century that the real value of Shakespeare's plays began to be known under the discussion of critics such as Coleridge and Khazri. However, Shakespeare's performances at that time were still often included in the model of five-act drama. At the end of 19, W. Bohr and H. glanville-Barker strongly opposed the spectacular tradition of Shakespeare's performances at that time, and advocated that there was no set performance in Elizabethan theaters to restore their inherent characteristics.
Since the beginning of17th century, Shakespeare's plays have been introduced to Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Northern Europe, and then gradually spread to the United States and even the rest of the world, which has had a great and far-reaching impact on the development of drama in various countries and has become an important link and source of inspiration for the development and exchange of world culture. China began to introduce and translate Shakespeare's plays at the beginning of this century, and published 1 1 Volume The Complete Works of Shakespeare based on Zhu Shenghao's translation. 1902, students from St. John's College in Shanghai performed The Merchant of Venice in English for the first time. According to incomplete statistics, there are 65 professional and amateur performing groups in China, which have performed 265,438+0 Shakespeare plays, including most of his important works, in five languages: English, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Cantonese, in six forms: civilized drama, modern drama, traditional drama, radio drama, ballet and puppet show. Shakespeare's plays have become the teaching materials of middle schools, universities, especially drama schools in China. The important role of Shakespeare's plays has opened up a vast world for the cultivation and improvement of actors in China.