world history
WORLD, HISTORY
The Northern Renaissance
William Shakespeare The most famous writer of the Elizabethan Age was William Shakespeare. Many people regard him as a greatest playwright of all time. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford –upon – Avon, a small town about 90miles northwest of London. By 1592 he was living in London and writing poems and plays, and soon he would be performing at the Globe Theater.
Like many Renaissance writers, Shakespeare revered the classics and drew on them for inspiration and plots. His works display a masterful command of the English language and deep understanding of human being. He revealed the souls of men and women through scenes of dramatic. Many of these plays examine human flaws. However, Shakespeare also had one of his characters deliver a speech that expresses the Renaissance’s high view of human nature:
Shakespeare’s most famous plays include the tragedies Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet , and King Lear, and the comedies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Taming of the Shrew.
PRIMARY SOUCE
What a price of work is a man, how noble in reason , infinite in faculties, and from and moving , how express and admirable ; in action how like in an angel, in apprehension [understanding ] how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet (Act2, Scene2)
European Renaissance and Reformation 483