III.The main stages of creativity. The main stages of creativity Shakespeare’s creative path is divided into

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Shakespeare's entire career spanned the period from 1590 to 1612. usually divided into three periods:

I (optimistic) period (1590-1600)

The general character of the works of the first period can be defined as optimistic, colored by a joyful perception of life in all its diversity, faith in the triumph of the smart and the good. During this period, Shakespeare mostly wrote comedies:
Comedy of errors
· The Taming of the Shrew
· Two Veronese
· A dream in a summer night
· Twelfth Night

The theme of almost all of Shakespeare's comedies is love, its emergence and development, the resistance and intrigues of others and the victory of a bright young feeling. The action of the works takes place against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes, bathed in moonlight or sunlight. This is how the magical world of Shakespeare's comedies appears before us, seemingly far from fun. Shakespeare has a great ability to talentedly combine the comic (the duels of wit between Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Petruchio and Catharina from The Taming of the Shrew) with the lyrical and even tragic (the betrayals of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the intrigues of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice"). Shakespeare's characters are amazingly multifaceted; their images embody traits characteristic of people of the Renaissance: will, desire for independence, and love of life. The female characters of these comedies are especially interesting - they are equal to men, free, energetic, active and infinitely charming. Shakespeare's comedies are varied. Shakespeare uses various genres of comedy - romantic comedy (A Midsummer Night's Dream), comedy of characters (The Taming of the Shrew), sitcom (The Comedy of Errors).

During the same period (1590-1600) Shakespeare wrote a number of historical chronicles. Each of which covers one of the periods of English history.

About the time of the struggle between the Scarlet and White Roses:

· Henry VI (three parts)
· Richard III

About the previous period of struggle between the feudal barons and the absolute monarchy:

· Richard II
· Henry IV (two parts)
· Henry V

The genre of dramatic chronicle is characteristic only of the English Renaissance. Most likely, this happened because the favorite theatrical genre of the early English Middle Ages were mysteries with secular motives. The dramaturgy of the mature Renaissance was formed under their influence; and in dramatic chronicles many mysterious features are preserved: a wide coverage of events, many characters, a free alternation of episodes. However, unlike the mysteries, the chronicles do not present biblical history, but the history of the state. Here, in essence, he also turns to the ideals of harmony - but specifically state harmony, which he sees in the victory of the monarchy over medieval feudal civil strife. At the end of the plays, good triumphs; evil, no matter how terrible and bloody its path was, has been overthrown. Thus, in the first period of Shakespeare’s work, the main Renaissance idea was interpreted at different levels - personal and state: the achievement of harmony and humanistic ideals.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two tragedies:

· Romeo and Juliet

· Julius Caesar

II (tragic) period (1601-1607)

It is considered the tragic period of Shakespeare's work. Dedicated mainly to tragedy. It was during this period that the playwright reached the pinnacle of his creativity:

· King Lear

· Antony and Cleopatra

There is no longer a trace of a harmonious sense of the world in them; eternal and insoluble conflicts are revealed here. Here the tragedy lies not only in the clash between the individual and society, but also in the internal contradictions in the soul of the hero. The problem is brought to a general philosophical level, and the characters remain unusually multifaceted and psychologically voluminous. At the same time, it is very important that in Shakespeare’s great tragedies there is a complete absence of a fatalistic attitude towards fate, which predetermines tragedy. The main emphasis, as before, is placed on the personality of the hero, who shapes his own destiny and the destinies of those around him.

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two comedies:

· The end is the crown of the matter

Measure for measure

III (romantic) period (1608-1612)

It is considered the romantic period of Shakespeare's work.

Works of the last period of his work:
· Cymbeline
· Winter's Tale
· Storm

These are poetic tales that lead away from reality into the world of dreams. A complete conscious rejection of realism and a retreat into romantic fantasy is naturally interpreted by Shakespeare scholars as the playwright’s disappointment in humanistic ideals and recognition of the impossibility of achieving harmony. This path - from a triumphantly jubilant faith in harmony to tired disappointment - was actually followed by the entire worldview of the Renaissance.

The tragedy of Hamlet opens the second period of Shakespeare's work (1601-1608).

Storm clouds seem to hang over Shakespeare's work. One after another, great tragedies are born - "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth", "Timon of Athens". Coriolanus also belongs to the tragedies; The ending of "Antony and Cleopatra" is tragic. Even the comedies of this period - "The End is the Crown" and "Measure for Measure" - are far from the immediate youthful cheerfulness of earlier comedies, and most researchers prefer to call them dramas.

The second period was the time of Shakespeare’s complete creative maturity and, at the same time, the time when he was faced with big, sometimes insoluble questions for him, when his heroes, from being the creators of their fate, as in early comedies, increasingly became its victims. This period can be called tragic.

The story of Hamlet was first recorded at the end of the 12th century by the Danish chronographer Saxo Grammaticus. In 1576, Belfore reproduced this ancient legend in his “Tragic Tales”. For Belfore, as for Saxo Grammar, the plot was based on the execution of blood feud. The story ends with Hamlet's triumph. “Tell your brother, whom you killed so cruelly, that you died a violent death,” cries Hamlet, having killed his uncle, “let his shadow rest with this news among the blessed spirits and free me from the debt that forced me to avenge my own blood” (Belfore ).

In the 80s of the 16th century, a play about Hamlet was staged on the London stage. This play has not reached us. Its author appears to have been Thomas Kyd. In Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy", the old man Jeronimo and Belimperia, people of feeling, are opposed by the "Machiavellians" - the son of the Portuguese king and Belimperia's brother. Old man Hieronimo, whose son was killed, hesitates, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, to take revenge. Like Hamlet, he feels his loneliness. He compares himself to a companion standing in a “winter storm on the plain.” A cry bursts from his lips: “O world! - no, not peace, but a crowd of untruths: chaos of murders and crimes.”

In the atmosphere of these feelings and thoughts, knowing Kyd’s play, lost to us, and, of course, his “Spanish Tragedy,” as well as Belfort’s French novella and, probably, the story of Saxo Grammar, Shakespeare created his “Hamlet.” There is reason to believe that Hamlet was performed by amateur students at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The tragedy took place, of course, on the stage of the Globe.

The basis of the ancient story was blood feud. Shakespeare "took" this motif from Hamlet and "gave" it to Laertes. Blood feud required only the fulfillment of filial duty. The murderer of his father must be revenged, at least with a poisoned blade, - this is how Laertes argues, according to his feudal morality. We know nothing about whether Laertes loved Polonius. The ghost calls for revenge in a different way: “If you loved your father, avenge his murder.” This is revenge not only for his father, but also for the man whom Hamlet loved and highly valued. “I once saw your father,” said Horatio, “he was a handsome king.” “He was a man,” Hamlet corrects his friend. And all the more terrible for Hamlet is the news of his father’s murder - news that reveals to him all the crime of the “cruel world.” The task of personal revenge grows for him into the task of correcting this world. Hamlet sums up all the thoughts, impressions, and feelings drawn from the meeting with the ghost of his father in the words about a “dislocated eyelid” and about the heavy duty calling him to “straighten this dislocation.”

The central point of the tragedy is the monologue “to be or not to be.” “Which is better,” Hamlet asks himself, “to bear silently the slings and arrows of furious fate, or to take up arms against a sea of disasters?” Hamlet, an active person by nature, cannot silently and resignedly contemplate. But for a single person to take up arms against a whole sea of disasters means death. And Hamlet moves on to the thought of death (“Die. Sleep.”). The “sea of disasters” here is not just an “extinct metaphor”, but a living picture: a sea along which countless rows of waves run. This picture seems to symbolize the background of the entire tragedy. Before us is the image of a lonely man standing with a naked sword in his hand in front of the waves running after each other and ready to swallow him up.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most multifaceted characters. If you like, he is a dreamer, because he had to carry within himself a dream of some other, better human relationship in order to be so indignant at the lies and ugliness around him. He is also a man of action. Didn’t he throw the entire Danish court into confusion and deal with his enemies - Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius? But his powers and capabilities are inevitably limited. No wonder he opposes himself to Hercules. The feat that Hamlet dreamed of could only be accomplished by Hercules, whose name is the people. But the mere fact that Hamlet saw the horror of the “Augean stables” surrounding him - the fact that at the same time he, the humanist Hamlet, appreciated the man so highly, constitutes his greatness. Hamlet is the most brilliant of Shakespeare's characters. And one cannot but agree with commentators who noted that of all Shakespeare’s heroes, Hamlet alone could write Shakespeare’s works.

The plot of the tragedy "King Lear" takes us to the distant past. The story of the old British king and his ungrateful daughters was first written down in Latin at the beginning of the 12th century. During the 16th century, this story was retold several times in both verse and prose. We find variants of it in Golinshed’s “Chronicles”, and in “The Mirror of Rulers” and in Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene”. Finally, in the early 90s of the 16th century, a play about King Lear appeared on the London stage. Unlike Shakespearean tragedy, pre-Shakespearean Lear in all its variants leads events to a happy ending. Lear and Cordelia are ultimately rewarded. In their well-being, they seem to merge with the reality around them, assimilate with it.

On the contrary, the positive heroes of Shakespeare's tragedies rise above this reality. This is their greatness and, at the same time, their doom. If the wound inflicted by Laertes’s poisoned sword had not been fatal, Hamlet still would not have been able to reign over the world of the Osrics, the new Rosencrants, the Guildensterns and the Polonievs, just as he would not have been able to return to peaceful Wittenberg. If a feather had moved at Cordelia’s lips and she had come to life, Lear, who had “seen much,” as the Duke of Albany says about him in the final words of the last act, would still not be able to return to that magnificent hall of the royal castle where we saw him at the beginning tragedy. He, wandering bareheaded in the storm and rain through the night steppe, where he remembered the “poor naked unlucky ones,” could not have been content with the secluded, serene shelter that Cordelia would have created for him.

From "King Lear" threads stretch to the ancient tragedy "Gorboduc", written back in the 50s of the 16th century by Sackville and Norton. King Gorboduc divided power between his two sons, which led to internecine war, torrents of blood and great disasters for the country. So Lear, having divided power between his two daughters, almost made the “fractured kingdom” the prey of foreigners, as Kent says about it.

But Shakespeare's tragedy differs from its sources, first of all, in the formulation of a humanistic, truly Shakespearean problem. Lear on the throne, the “Olympian”, surrounded by the splendor of the court (the opening scene is undoubtedly the most magnificent in the entire tragedy), is far from the terrible reality outside the castle walls. The crown, royal robe, titles are in his eyes sacred attributes and have the fullness of reality. Blinded by servile worship during the long years of his reign, he mistook this external shine for his true essence.

But underneath the external splendor of the “ceremonial” there was nothing. “Out of nothing comes nothing,” as Lear himself says. He became “a zero without a number,” as the jester says. The royal robe fell from his shoulders, the scales fell from his eyes, and for the first time Lear saw the world of unvarnished reality, a cruel world over which the Regans, Gonerils and Edmunds ruled. In the night steppe, realizing reality for the first time, Lear begins to see clearly.

The scene in the steppe is the moment of Lear's complete fall. He found himself thrown out of society. “An unequipped man,” he says, “is just a poor, naked, two-legged animal.” And at the same time, this scene is his greatest victory. Torn out of the network of social relations that entangled him, he was able to rise above them and comprehend his surroundings. He understood what the jester, who had long known the truth, understood from the very beginning.

No wonder Lear calls him a “bitter jester.” “Fate, harlot of harlots,” sings the jester, “you never open your doors to the poor.” Life around, as the jester sees it, is ugly distorted. Everything about her needs to change. “Then the time will come - who will live to see it! - when they will begin to walk with their feet,” sings the jester. He is a "fool". Meanwhile, unlike Lear’s courtiers, he retains human dignity to the end. Following Lear, the jester shows true honesty and is himself aware of it. “That master,” the jester sings, “who serves for profit and seeks profit, and who only in appearance follows his master, will run away when the rain begins and leave you in the storm. But I will stay; the fool will not leave; let him flee.” a sage; a scoundrel running away looks like a jester, but the jester himself, by God, is not a scoundrel." So, the jester already possessed the freedom that Lear gained by throwing off the royal mantle and crown.

The same freedom is gained by Edgar wandering the steppe under the mask of a madman, as well as by the blinded Gloucester, who, in his own words, “stumbled when he was sighted.” Now, blind, he sees the truth. Addressing Edgar, whom he does not recognize and takes for a homeless poor man, he says: “Let the man who owns excess and is satiated with luxury, who has turned the law into his slave and who does not see because he does not feel, quickly feel your power, then distribution will destroy surplus, and everyone will have enough to live on." Indignation at the unfair distribution of earthly goods coincides with the moment of highest tension in this deepest tragedy by Shakespeare.

The fate of Gloucester, shown in parallel with the fate of Lear, is of decisive importance in the ideological composition of the work. The presence of two parallel developing and largely similar plots gives the work universality. What could be taken as a special case becomes, thanks to a parallel plot, typical.

World theater has turned to Shakespeare's later works relatively rarely, and this is no coincidence. Shakespeare's full-blooded realism acquires a psychological coloring that is largely alien to him in "Antony and Cleopatra", creates a powerful but monotonous image of Coriolanus and, with the exception of certain monologues, does not reach its former artistic heights in "Timon of Athens", although this tragedy is of great importance to understand Shakespeare's worldview. The comedies of the second period, with the exception of Measure for Measure, belong to the weakest works of Shakespeare artistically. Even in such works of the last period as “The Winter's Tale” and “The Storm” - magnificent in brightness of colors, picturesque images and richness of language, imbued with an unshakable faith in life and love for it - sometimes one feels a certain slowness of action.

1564-1616. Around 1587 - moved to London. He worked as an assistant director in various theater companies. 1593 - entered the best London troupe, headed by James Burbage. 1599 - members of this troupe built the Globe Theater. 1593 - poems, sonnets published in 1609 belong to the same period. 1612 - moved to Stratford, leaving the theater.

There are three periods of creativity: first, distinguished. cheerfulness, comedy (faith in life prevails, good beginnings: the comedy “The Taming of the Shrew” (1593), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1596), “Much Ado About Nothing” (1598), the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet" (1595) and historical chronicles (the main theme is the feudal unrest of the 14th-15th centuries, the War of the Roses.), and "Julius Caesar" (the transitional period).

1601-1608 – second period. He writes tragedies one after another. Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606). Socio-political issues are typical for the so-called “Roman” tragedies: “Julius Caesar” (1599), “Antony and Cleopatra” (1607), “Coriolanus” (1607).

The third period is tragicomedy, “The Tempest”. The search for an optimistic solution to social tragedies led to the creation of romantic dramas "Cymbeline" (1610), "The Winter's Tale" (1611), "The Tempest" (1612), which have the tinge of a kind of instructive parable

The problem of education in the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Image of Panurge.

Gargantua and Pantagruel

In 1532, a folk book was published about the giant Gargantua and his glorious son Pantagruel. The book had no author, woven from proverbs and sayings - a typically French book, because it was daring in its thought, a book that claimed that man is a giant. Those. it was not a metaphor, it said that man is great and omnipotent. In the same year, Francois Rabelais came up with a pseudonym for himself, which was an anagram of his name - Francofribas Nasier and published under this name an appendix/continuation of the folk book about Gargantua. And in particular, about the fearless exploits of Gargantua’s son, Pantagruel. Over the course of 20 years, 5 books have been published, which are generally called “Gargantua and Pantagruel”.

In the 19th century, the idea arose that a novel is a plausible reflection of life, a serious work. And in the 16th century, during the happy times of Boccaccio, Cervantes and Rabelais, the novel was not understood as a wise work. The novel was understood as a game with the reader, as the omnipotence of this person standing at the center over the world.

In Rabelais's novel, the hero creates fantastically incredible feats, is born from his mother's ear, tears off the bells from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, travels around the world and talks with an oracle who is supposed to give a harbinger in a mysterious bottle. The bottle ultimately pronounces the most important thing in life: to marry or not to marry, whether he will be a cuckold when he marries or not. When Pantagruel finds this oracle, this meeting speaks of thirsty people taking from this life all that it can give.

Laughter is the main character of the novel. There is verisimilitude, and allegory, and satire, and giants.

The modern novel, which began in the 16th century and came into the 21st, begins with Rabelaisianism.

Rabelaisianism – In modern literature it is generally accepted that the novel of modern times was created by Rabelais. A novel in which truth and fiction, the boundless freedom of man, were affirmed in the folk element of laughter, which, according to tradition, came from the comedy of Aristophanes and received its most vivid embodiment in the novels of the 21st century, in which the element of laughter declares the relativity of all norms and rules and is the most important rule.

Rabelais, based on the national French tradition farce, creates a special synthesis, which is now called a novel of modern times.

Even with Aristophanes, the element of frivolity comes first; this Aristophanic philosophy of life is continued in the works of Rabelais.

Rabelaisianism – this is a philosophy coming from Aristophanes’ vision of the world - a philosophy of accepting all gifts and pleasures and a philosophy in which a person’s intellect, his heart and flesh equally thirst for new joys of life.

Rabelais' giants come from folk tradition, but are reinterpreted in a Renaissance way, i.e. the giant is the all-powerful man of the Renaissance, for whom grief and war are only minor obstacles in his life.

One of the first wars (back in the state of Gargantua): bakers and bakers were delivering rolls and it turned out that they had quarreled among themselves, fought, and ruined the bread. War has been declared by a certain king Pekrashol, who imagines himself great in this world, imagines that he will conquer not only the state of Gargantua, but also his great wars (Captain Zru, Molokosos, Field Marshal Frufrou) dream of how they will conquer the world. The war has not yet begun, but mentally King Pecrashol owns the whole world and at this seriousness of the war, at this seriousness of claims, Rabelais laughs, revivalistically understanding that this claim is exaggerated. The entire great army of Pecrashol is drowning because the horse Gargantua fulfills its natural needs.
This is not a satire of war, but rather an assertion that war is ridiculous.

One of the main themes of the novel- an affirmation of the stupidity, the absurdity of any wars before the greatness of life, and the vanquished are dealt with in a renaissance manner: not evil.

When Pantagruel wages war, King Anarch, who also dreams of world domination, fights with him. When Pantagruel defeats the Anarch, he does not execute him. He is trying to make him a decent person - he wants to make him a green sauce seller and marry him to yesterday's whore who constantly beats him. Kings, their wars and claims to own the world are nothing before the wisdom of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Laughter - precisely the laughter, and not the flagellating element - becomes one of the most important.

Another of the main themes of the novel is caricature of Medieval treatises, teachings, sciences. Medieval scholastic science is shown in laughter from the fullness of life (in the moment where Gargantua learns to read the alphabet from both sides); Scholastic science is opposed to Renaissance science, which is also talked about lightly, although it seems to be an ideal.

The program of revivalist education is proclaimed in one of the letters to his son Pantagruel, Gargantua writes: “So that there is not a sea, a river, or a spring in the world whose fish you do not know. All the birds of the air, all the trees, bushes and shrubs, all the grass on the earth, all its depths - study everything, let nothing be unknown to you.” We have before us a broad program of thirst for knowledge. Study everything that is in the world - this is the program of the Renaissance.

A special place in the novel is occupied by the so-called. Tellem Abbey. Tellem – translated as desire. A certain folk hero (not a giant, but a giant in his perception of life) brother Jean is building a new abbey. Proclaims, instead of a vow of chastity, poverty and obedience, that in their abbey monks have the right to marry, be rich and free. The slogan “Do what you want” is written on the abbey gates. Tellem Abbey is a new revivalist structure of society, a brotherhood where everyone is beautiful, thirsty for knowledge and happy, regardless of whether you are a monk, a knight or a maiden.

Rabelais' ideal there becomes a government system in which it is beneficial for a person to be happy. This state structure is opposed by the numerous island-states that Pantagruel visits. He travels the world to find the oracle of the sacred bottle. Visits many islands with telling names (for which the book was burned): Islands of Papefigs and Papemans; islands of Clergo, Cardengo, Monago, Abego, Papego.

One of the most important characters in the novel is Poork. A thief, a lost one, but he speaks all European languages. The image of Ponurka is one of the first in world literature to be a universal, all-encompassing image of a person who combines in himself the greatest virtues and vices of a person, not an ideal, but a real, real one. Rabelais managed to combine Rabelaisian laughter, folk carnival elements and realism.

Bakhtin's studies of the novel emphasize, on the one hand, the typically national French element of the work and, on the other hand, the European universalism of the novel. Those. Rabelais is understood by Bakhtin as the creator of new prose, a new novel, the traditions of which we see in Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Gogol, and Swift, and Mark Twain, and Balzac, but most of all in the novel of the 21st century ( even from the same Kundera).

The structure of the world in The Divine Comedy. Pushkin about the genius of Dante's plan.

Dante Alighieri

Born in 1265, died in 1321.

Vita nova comedy divina. Trade, banking, and crafts flourished in Florence - Florence became the most prosperous city. The rich surrounded themselves with artists and poets who glorified them.

Dante was a Florentine, belonged to the guild of apothecaries (educated, sacred people), most likely studied law in Bologna. Dante's life is shrouded in darkness; not everything is known from his biography.

He loved Florence very much and could not imagine his existence outside of Florence. He enjoyed authority as a poet, philosopher and politician. He took part in public life, was elected to the position of prior (he was one of the governors of Florence). Party passions were in full swing in Florence - there were two parties Guelphs And Ghibellines. Basically, the Guelph party included wealthy people, owners of factories and banks. The Ghibellines were basically the Florentine aristocracy. And between these two parties there was a merciless struggle for power. Dante himself also took part in these party feuds, which were further complicated by the fact that the Guelph party was divided into white and black Guelphs. Dante's misfortune was that his opponents won. Dante was expelled from Florence by his political opponents. We do not know exactly what year he left Florence, but apparently it happened at the very beginning of the 14th century. By that time, Dante had already gained fame and glory, and in exile he was received with honors in different cities of Italy, but he dreamed of returning to Florence. To do this, it was necessary to perform a rite of repentance. He had to put on a white robe and walk around the whole of Florence with a candle during the day. Dante did not want to repent and continued to engage in creativity in exile.

Dante's main work "The Divine Comedy".

"New life" - which Dante worked on in the 90s of the 13th century. NJ is the poet's first autobiography. New Life is written in both poetry and prose; prose text is combined with poetic text. NJ tells about Dante's meeting and love for Beatrice (“the bestower of bliss”). This is a real young girl, apparently, she did not know that Dante was in love with her, for Dante’s love for her is also a kind of love from afar, love is exclusively platonic, spiritual, sublime. He interprets the image of Beatrice as the earthly incarnation of Madonna. He worships her, bows before her, admires her. Biatrice symbolizes everything that is most important in Dante's life: nobility, faith, kindness, beauty, wisdom, philosophy, heavenly bliss. A new life began with a meeting with Beatrice. The first time he saw her was when she was 9 years old. She was wearing a red dress (everything is full of symbolism and red is a symbol of passion). He saw her a second time nine years later, when she was eighteen and wearing a white dress (purity). And the happiest moment in Dante’s life, when Beatrice smiled at him slightly. When he saw her for the third time, he rushed towards her, and she pretended that she did not recognize him. He realized that he should show restraint and should not reveal his feelings. And alas, this was their last meeting, because soon Beatrice died and the poet’s heart was pierced by grief and he took a vow to glorify Beatrice, in this he saw the meaning of life.

Everything is filled with some inner meaning. In addition to what he sets out here very prosaically, he captures the most intense moments of his spiritual life in poetry. The New Life includes 25 sonnets, 3 canzones and 1 ballad.

Sonnet – 14 lines. the main lyric genre in Renaissance poetry. The sonnet is the most common expression of thoughts and feelings. Sonnets were written about love, about the immortality of creativity, simply about life, about death. Those. A sonnet is always a poem of a philosophical nature. The sonnet most likely originated in Italy in the 12th century, possibly in Sicily. 14 lines. Consists of two quatrains and two tercets (4+4, 3+3).

The popularity of the Sonnet genre came with the poetry of Dante; he demonstrated to the world the beauty of sonnet forms.

“...The stern Dante did not despise the sonnet

Petrarch poured out the heat of love in him...” (c) Pushkin.

Treatise "Feast". The name is borrowed from Plato. Of course, it has an allegorical meaning - a feast of knowledge, a feast of the mind.

Treatise "On the Monarchy". Dante was a supporter of imperial power; he believed that spiritual power should belong to the pope, and secular power to the emperor. Separated spiritual and secular power. His sympathies were with the emperor.

Traktar “On Folk Eloquence”. This treatise is written in Latin, but Dante argues that literature should exist in Italian. The Italian language – “the language of Tuscany (region of Italy) – is the barley bread of poetry.” Latin was appropriate in this treatise, because. he was more scientific.

The Divine Comedy

It was created in the 14th century and Dante worked on it for about 20 years. Wrote the work "Comedia". Comedies were works that began with dramatic events and ended with a happy ending. Comedy is not necessarily a dramatic work. If we define the genre of the “Divine Comedy”, then it is poem. This is a vision of the afterlife. "BK" is a work of transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. “BK” begins with verses:

“Having completed half of my earthly life

I found myself in a dark forest

"BK" is written in stanzas that consist of three lines. A-B-A > B-C-B > etc. It turns out to be a kind of chain. Mandelstam noted in the essay that the weaving is so complex that it is impossible to single out individual lines. Compared with the Cathedral (equally slender and majestic). Pushkin said that even one plan of BC testifies to the genius of Dante.

“The Divine Comedy” consists of three parts: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”. This is how the world order seemed to be. It seemed that the human soul went through three stages. Hell, Purgatory and Heaven consist of 33 songs. And there is one introductory song. The resulting figure is 100 - for the literature of that period - a number denoting greater integrity. In the Divine Comedy, a special role is played by the number “3” and its multiple of three (the soul undergoes three stages; the divine trinity; 3 is a sacred number).

The Divine Comedy is the most complex work of world literature. The difficulty is that everything is full of allegorical meaning. “I found myself in a dark forest” - the forest is a symbol of wandering. There are three animals in this forest: a lion (pride), a she-wolf (greed), and a panther (lust). These three animals that he met in the dark forest symbolize the main human vices. But Beatrice, Dante canonizes her, declares her a saint of her own poetic will, seeing Dante’s wanderings in earthly life, wants to show him another, afterlife. To discover what awaits a person there, in another world. And he sends Virgil to meet him. Virgil is also a symbolic image - this is the earthly mind, this is the poet, this is the guide through the circles of hell. While Beatrice embodies divine wisdom. Beatrice herself is in heaven.

The architecture of hell was not invented by Dante, this is how hell was imagined in the Middle Ages. Hell is divided into 9 circles;

“Limbo” - unbaptized babies, ancient poets and philosophers are deprived of heavenly bliss, but they do not suffer. They did not exist joyfully, but there was no particular suffering. They cannot go to heaven through no fault of their own.
Voluptuousness is punished. Surrendered to the whirlwind of passion. One of the most wonderful songs is canto five, which tells the story of Francesca da Rimini and the love of Paolo. This is a true story that was widely known. Francesca tells this story. The Divine Comedy is distinguished by its laconic style. This story is told very briefly. The principle of Dante's poetry is “According to sin and retribution.” Dante makes the lovers Francesco and Paolo in the first and second circles rotate in a whirlwind, i.e. the metaphorical expression “whirlwind of passion” takes on a literal meaning. Francesca tells how she fell in love with Paolo (her husband's brother) and how they were passionate about each other, that they read a chivalric romance about Lancelot together and Francesca very briefly says: “We read no more that day.” Their crime becomes known, the husband commits reprisals, and they die. Dante punishes them in hell, punishes them severely (i.e. acts like a medieval man), but after listening to Francesca’s story, he himself has compassion for them. He feels immensely sorry for the suffering Francesco and Paolo.
Gluttons are punished. Here he depicts the famous gluttons in Florence.
Misers and spendthrifts are punished. Dante believes that spenders and misers have lost their sense of proportion - and this is one sin.
Angry and envious.
Heretics. Here he acts like a Medieval poet. A crime against God, against faith and religion is one of the most terrible.
Rapists. People who have committed murder, suicide; The image of suicides is very expressive. They turned into dry branches, and when the poet, led by Virgil, accidentally broke the branch, blood began to ooze from it.
Deceivers, seducers, cunning people. For Dante, deception is also a terrible crime.
Traitors. Traitors. The worst crime is betrayal. The traitors are Judas, who betrayed Christ, and Brutus, who betrayed Caesar, which once again reminds us that Dante was a supporter of strong imperial power.

With Dante everything is symmetrical. 9 circles of Hell and he makes 7 purgatories. And the human soul rises through the steps, is freed from the 7 deadly sins, sins disappear from the human body and it approaches heaven.

There is more abstraction in Paradise and Purgatory. In Hell the images are more earthly. In Paradise, of course, Dante meets Beatrice and Dante tastes heavenly bliss.

“The Divine Comedy” is translated into Russian by Lazinsky.

DZ: Draw hell.

Dante. "The Divine Comedy".

Dante died in 1265 in Florence. The plot is from medieval “walkings”. Of particular importance is the Aeneid. The afterlife is not opposed to earthly life, but, as it were, its continuation. Each image can be interpreted in different ways.

The action begins in the forest. This song contains a combination of concrete and allegorical meaning. The forest is an allegory of the delusion of the human soul and the chaos in the world. All subsequent images of the prologue are also allegorical. D. meets 3 animals: a panther, a lion, a she-wolf. Each of them personifies a certain type of moral evil and def. negative social force. Panther – voluptuousness and oligarchic government. Leo - pride and violence and the tyranny of a cruel ruler. The she-wolf is greed and the Roman Church, which is mired in greed.

All together are forces that hinder progress. The top of the hill that D strives for is salvation (moral elevation) and a state built on moral principles. Virgil is an allegory of man. wisdom. The embodiment of the knowledge to which humanists devoted themselves. Beatrice – the connection of the image with the “New Life”.

1 lap. Pagans and unbaptized infants. Dante meets Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan there, as well as a lot of ancient mythical and real creatures: Hector, Aeneas, Cicero, Caesar, Socrates, Plato, Euclid, etc. In this circle, only sighs are heard: they are not particularly tormented.

2nd circle: Minos sits in the second circle and decides who to send to which circle. Here, overly loving personalities rush around in a whirlwind, incl. Paolo, Francesca, Cleopatra, Achilles (!), Dido, etc.

3rd circle: gluttons suffer in the icy rain. I won’t list them further by name, you won’t remember them anyway, but I’ll have to look for them at scrap. There are mostly Dante's contemporaries. Cerberus lives in the same circle.

4: misers and spendthrifts. They collide with each other, shouting “What are you saving for?” or “What should I throw?” Here is the Stygian swamp (regarding the water surfaces in Hell: the river Acheron encircles 1 circle of Hell, falling down, forms the Styx (Stygian swamp), which surrounds the city of Dita (Lucifer). Below the waters of the Styx transform into the blazing river Phlegethon, and he, already in the center it turns into the icy lake Cocytus, where Lucifer is frozen.)

5: The angry ones sit in the Stygian swamp.

6: heretics. They lie in burning tombs.

7: three belts in which rapists of different types are tormented: over people, over themselves (suicides) and over a deity. In the first belt, D. meets centaurs. In the same circle there are moneylenders as rapists against nature.

8: 10 evil crevices where they languish: pimps and seducers, flatterers who sold the church. positions, soothsayers, astrologers, sorceresses, bribe-takers, hypocrites, thieves, treacherous advisers (here Ulysses and Diomedes), instigators of discord (Mohammed and Bertrand de Born), counterfeiters, posing as other people, lying with words.

9: Belts: Kaina – those who betrayed their relatives (named Kaina). Antenora are traitors to like-minded people (here Ganelon). Tolomea - traitors to friends.. Giudecca (named after Judas) - traitors to benefactors. Here Lucifer chews Judas. This is the very center of the earth. Following the wool of L. Dante and Virgil are selected to the surface of the Earth from the other side.

Hell - 9 circles. Purgatory – 7, + pre-purgatory, + earthly paradise, paradise – 9 heavens. Geometric symmetry of the Earth and symmetry in the composition: 100 songs = 1 introductory song + 33 each for Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. This construction was a new phenomenon in literature. D. relied on medieval symbolism of number (3 - Trinity and its derivative 9). In building a model of Hell, D. follows Aristotle, who classifies the sins of intemperance into category 1, violence into category 2, and deception into category 3. D. has 2-5 circles for intemperate people, 7 for rapists (6 I don’t know where, it’s not said, think for yourself), 8-9 for deceivers, 8 for simply deceivers, 9 for traitors. Logic: the more material the sin, the more forgivable it is. Punishment is always symbolic. Deception is worse than violence because it destroys spiritual connections between people:

The origin of Greek tragedy and its structure. The role of theater in Greek society.

Greek comedy arose in the 6th century from the following 4 elements: 1) noisy and funny everyday scenes of a parody and caricature nature (especially common among the Dorians); 2) dramatized songs of an accusatory nature among the villagers who went to the city on the holidays of Dionysus to ridicule the local inhabitants; 3) orgiastic-sacrificial cult of Dionysus; 4) songs in honor of the gods of fertility at Dionysus festivals.

There is unclear information about Megara, where it seems as if already at the beginning of the 6th century. was a primitive comedy, consisting of small comic scenes. In Sicily, the so-called. mime, i.e. comic reproduction of everyday life in folk scenes.

Attic comedy uses typical masks (“boastful warrior”, “scientific charlatan”) The object of comedy is not the mythological past, but living modernity, current, sometimes even topical issues of political and cultural life. The comedy is essentially political and accusatory. Freedom of personal mockery of individual citizens with open naming of names. (In Aristophanes - Cleon, Socrates, Euripides) "Ancient" comedy usually does not individualize its characters, but creates generalized caricature images. The plot is mainly fantastic in nature (in Aristophanes the hero makes peace for himself and his family during the Peloponnesian War).

a kind of symmetrical division. The chorus - 24 people, split into two, sometimes warring camps. The following can be considered typical for “ancient” comedy. construction. The prologue provides an exposition of the play and sets out the hero’s fantastic project. This is followed by a chorus introduction, a live scene, often accompanied by a scrum, where the actors also participate. After the agon, the goal is usually achieved (the fight between the two characters). Then - the parabass (the chorus says goodbye to the actors and addresses directly the audience). The second half of the comedy is characterized by farce-type scenes in which the good consequences of the project are depicted and various aliens who violate this bliss are chased away. The choir here no longer takes part in the action and only borders the scenes with their songs. The comedy ends with a procession of komos (choir). The typical structure allows for various deviations, options for rearranging individual parts, but the comedies of the 5th century known to us. one way or another they gravitate towards her.

The works of D. Defoe.

Daniel Defoe

An amazing personality who wrote in all genres, politician, publicist, creator journalism, founder of English journalism. One of those who brought William of Orange (the pamphlet “The Complete Englishman,” which said that the English nation was born from the combination of many others and one cannot talk about the purity of English blood) to the throne. They carried out a civil execution (placed in the pillory) because he wrote pamphlets directed against the aristocrats of his time - he wrote “Hymn to the Pillory” (if there are thinking people in England, then they stand in the pillory). He was a hosiery manufacturer, he was the first to invent white stockings (he failed because it was considered indecent). He went to debtor's prison and there, in order to repay his debts, he wrote a novel about Robinson Crusoe. The novel that made his name famous.

Robinson Crusoe

1719 That children's edition of Robinson Crusoe, which we all know, is only one part of the novel about Robinson, and there is also Robinson, who returns to his island, who makes it a colony and knocks everything he can out of it, and the third volume is Robinson's notes from an old man who remembers own life. Those. what we know from children's publications is only one of three parts.

A travel novel, a novel about educating a person through life, a parable novel.

First of all, the work of a person is glorified, a person who managed not to go crazy after so many years of loneliness. Robinson has the idea that reason rules the world. It has survived because the mind is the strongest. For the first time when he entered the uninhabited land and when he left, it was an established subsistence economy, where there were even slaves (Friday). Those. A hymn to pain and the mind of a person is one thing. But we are talking about something else.

That novel, which was understood in the 18th century as a philosophical novel, has now become children's reading. Why? Those who read it not so long ago and those who remember the text will remember that 2 pages are devoted to the description of the traces of a person that he saw. The description of his encounter with wild animals is 2 pages long. What is the rest of the text about? The rest of the text works. It is not the scary that comes to the fore, but the process of creativity, because it turns weaving a fence and building a house into creativity. Labor - his work - is described so deliciously that it is understood as creativity. This is all incredibly interesting for a child. The point is that the first basket in the world is being woven, the first house in the world is being built. In the process of reading, the reader is also the first to weave and build.

Robinsonade

This is a hymn to the mind and a hymn to the hands. A hymn to human creativity. This is intelligence combined with creativity.

Why is the novel a parable? Economists, historians, and philosophers have a term "Robinsonade". What does Robinson do on the island? What stages does he go through in the development of the island? What do they remind you of? As for the first time, humanity is mastering fishing, agriculture, hunting, cattle breeding... he is going through the stages of human development. The idea that a person alone, under extreme conditions, can repeat human history is commonly called “Robinsonade.” But Daniel Defoe creates a “Robinsonade” and destroys it. At the same time, the author gives Robinson (from the ship) the necessary things. Those. he uses what humanity invented before him. Those. Robinsonade is impossible, man will not be able to repeat the history of mankind.

This parable is about how, on the one hand, man is omnipotent, and on the other, he is just a part of all humanity, the fruits of whose labors he enjoys.

A person, no matter where he is, is not alone. He is alone on the island, but the items he takes from the ship are what humanity made before him. Man is always part of humanity.

Why hide money on a desert island? He lives for so many years, but every 4-5 years he buries money in a new place. This practicality of Robinson is a typical feature of the 18th century.

And what kind of scores he has with God - business and practical - he writes down: He prays to God. God for him - rain. Practical English Relationships. Even in spiritual relationships.

He saves Friday. There are already 2 people on the desert island, but one is Master (the first word that Friday learned), and the second is a slave. And this is also an 18th century Englishman. Practical, businesslike, ... and more.

The second part tells how this great pioneer who formed the colony... how he becomes a colonizer, how he squeezes money out of his colony. But this is most vivid in the story of the Little Arab, a little Arab boy who helped him escape from captivity. And when Robinson hears that the captain of the ship needs a sailor and gives good money for it, he sells the little black to the captain of the ship (that is, the one who saved his life). If he can squeeze out a profit, he will sell. Practical, sober.

This is a parable novel about humanity, which is beautiful. About a man who cannot live alone. About the fact that “Robinsonade” is impossible. This is the glorification of man.

Shakespeare's first period (1590 - 1600)

Chronicle plays from the history of England

From the very beginning, Shakespeare's work is characterized by the breadth of its depiction of reality. During the first decade of his dramatic activity, he created a large series of historical chronicles, which covered the country's past over three centuries. The play "King John" depicts events that took place at the beginning of the 13th century. Richard III ends with the establishment of the Tudor monarchy in 1485. Henry VIII depicts events from the early 16th century.

Using Holinshed's Chronicles of England and Scotland (1577) as his source, Shakespeare reproduces in his plays chronicles some of the most dramatic moments of English history during the period of feudalism. “...The death of former classes, for example, chivalry,” wrote Marx, “could provide content for grandiose tragic works of art” *. This theme forms the basis of the entire cycle of Shakespeare's historical dramas in the first period of his work. The chronicles depict the internecine struggle that the feudal lords waged both among themselves and against the royal power. The second and third parts of Henry VI, as well as Richard III, depict the period of the Wars of the Scarlet and White Roses (second half of the 15th century). Richard II and both parts of Henry IV depict the struggle between the monarchy and the feudal barons in the early 15th century. In King John, the struggle takes place between the king, on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic Church and the feudal lords, on the other. The first part of Henry VI and Henry V depict the two climaxes of the Hundred Years' War between England and France - the period marked by the activities of Joan of Arc and the Battle of Agincourt.

* (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. VIII, p. 270.)

All of Shakespeare's chronicles are imbued with the idea of the need for state unity; they reflect the process of formation of the English nation and the formation of the English absolute monarchy. Shakespeare shows the destructive nature of feudal civil strife and its harm to the people.

O disastrous sight! O time of bloody disasters! Royal lions Fight for their lairs, And poor frightened sheep Bear the entire burden of strife... ("Henry VI", part 3. Translation by A. Sokolovsky)

The entire cycle of historical chronicles is imbued with the idea of the inevitability of the victory of centralized state power over feudal anarchy.

The cycle of chronicles breaks up into two tetralogies, each of which covers a significant period of English history. The first of them - the three parts of "Henry VI" and "Richard III" - shows feudal anarchy reaching its apogee, until finally a monarch appears, putting an end to all strife and establishing strong power. A similar picture is painted by the second tetralogy, which includes the plays “Richard II”, “Henry IV” (two parts) and “Henry V”. Here also the struggle between the feudal barons and the absolute monarchy is crowned with the victory of the latter.

Shakespeare showed great interest in the question of the personality of the monarch. His plays provide portraits of various kings. In Shakespeare, as in other humanists, the political problem of power acquired a moral overtones.

Shakespeare condemns the weak will of Henry VI, who is unable to protect the country from anarchy. Another weak-willed king, Richard II, is bad because he views England as his fiefdom and uses power as a means to satisfy his private interests. Richard III is the other extreme. He is a strong king, but excessively cruel, and his cruelty is not justified by state expediency; he sees in his power only a means of satisfying personal aspirations. King John has the advantage over him that he sets as his goal the destruction of dual power and seeks to get rid of the participation of the church in governing matters. But he also does not correspond to the ideal of a monarch, for he maintains his power through brutal reprisals and the murder of possible rivals. Henry IV is already approaching the humanistic ideal. But he is burdened with guilt for the murder of his predecessor, Richard II. Therefore, although he acts as a bearer of the principle of centralization and national unity, he does not fully correspond to the moral ideal of humanists.

Shakespeare presents Henry V as an ideal monarch. His goal is the unity of all classes in the struggle for the common interests of the country. In the chronicle of Henry V, Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the archbishop a description of a beehive, which is a prototype of an ideal class monarchy.

The ideal class monarchy was, of course, an illusion of the humanists. Shakespeare believed in it only for the time being. Yes. and in his chronicles it is not these illusions that are significant, but the real picture that he paints. And this picture contradicts the ideal. And this was explained not only by the historical material that Shakespeare used when creating his chronicles, but also by the modern reality that he saw around him.

An essential feature of Shakespeare's historical chronicles is that the reproduction of the historical past was combined in them with a reflection of modern reality. Shakespeare was generally faithful to the facts gleaned from history. In general, he correctly conveyed the essence of the political conflicts of the depicted era. But even in feudal costumes, his heroes acted out dramas that were quite modern for the 16th century. This, in essence, was what Engels pointed out when he wrote: “One cannot help but consider it artificial the attempt to find Romantic-medieval roots in Corneille or to approach Shakespeare on a similar scale (with the exception of the raw material that he borrowed from the Middle Ages).” *

* (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. II, p. 86.)

Shakespeare chose historical material that allowed him to combine the depiction of the conflicts that took place in the feudal era with the revelation of the psychology of the people of the Renaissance. Therefore, the heroes of the chronicles are bearers of feudal self-will to the same extent as bourgeois individualism.

An example of this is Richard III, one of the most striking images of all of Shakespeare's early drama. Richard, Duke of York is an ugly hunchback; he is full of burning hatred for people because he is deprived of the pleasures of life available to everyone.

And I am offended by my height and slenderness, Disfigured by a deceitful nature, Unfinished, twisted and ahead of schedule I am thrown into a troubled world... ...That is why, having no hope of whileing away these days in lovers, I cursed our idle amusements And threw myself into the villainous affairs * .

* (Translation by A. Druzhinin.)

Richard is the son of that century when, rejecting medieval asceticism, some rushed into the thick of life to pluck the fruits of luck, wealth, power, others devoted themselves to creativity, science, creation. Richard is obsessed with the desire to establish his personality, to prove that, despite all his ugliness, he is not only no worse than other people, but even higher than them. The authorities must help him ensure that people bow before him and recognize his superiority. Richard's boundless ambition is not restrained by any moral principles. All people are enemies for him, and he does not stop at any crime. He litters his path to the throne with the corpses of his killed rivals and possible contenders for the crown. Richard has a huge mind, but all his thoughts are directed towards one goal. By deception and cunning, he achieves that he becomes a king. But it’s not just the goal that captivates him. He delights in the very process of struggle, when he refines his mind with insidious inventions and bold plans. He loves to challenge himself and enjoys his success. So, he gets Lady Anna, whose father and husband he killed, to agree to become his wife. Not loving anyone and not trusting anyone, he even kills his favorite Buckingham, his faithful assistant in his bloody deeds.

As a politician, Richard understands the need to support the people. When he has already eliminated all his rivals and the crown is actually in his hands, he wants it to be handed over to him at the request of the people. Pretending that worldly concerns are alien to him, he pretends that he is going to become a monk, but a deputation sent by himself appears to him, begging him to become king. But this is not enough for Richard, he wants the people to welcome his accession to the throne. By his order, the townspeople of London are driven out of their houses, but when Richard III rides through the streets, rare voices of sent people can be heard from the crowd shouting: “Long live the king!” The people are silent.

Richard's atrocities cause widespread outrage. A rebellion led by the Earl of Richmond rises against him.

On the night before the decisive battle against the rebels, Richard appears in a dream the ghosts of all the people he killed and tortured. But repentance is alien to Richard's cruel soul. No powers of heaven or hell can stop him. And only one thing depresses him - the feeling of his loneliness.

Despair gnaws at me. No one of all people can love me. I will die... Who will cry for me?

Even when Richard sees that everyone has turned against him, he does not intend to give up. He tries to inspire his troops with a warlike speech. Richard fights against his enemies with fierce courage and, having lost his horse, rushes across the battlefield, exclaiming:

Horse! Horse! The whole kingdom is for the horse!

Not reconciled with the world, faithful to his cruel ambition to the last breath, he dies, and the play ends with Richmond becoming king under the name of Henry VII.

Shakespeare's chronicles are included in the general system of his work as the first sketches of those pictures of life that will later be captured with the highest perfection in the tragic works of the second period. We feel in the chronicles the spirit of the adventurous spirit of the Renaissance, we see in their heroes people who are not constrained by the old feudal morality. Through the feudal veneer, something new, contemporary to Shakespeare, is visible everywhere. Already here, for the first time, those conflicts are outlined that will later unfold in a more complete form in Hamlet, Lear and Macbeth. But there are significant qualitative differences between chronicles and tragedies. First of all, the characters in the tragedies are revealed in a deeper, more multifaceted way. Shakespeare's understanding of social contradictions is also deeper. The struggle of interests of individuals, the clash of nobility and selfishness, honor and treachery - these and other conflicts are resolved in the chronicles in the triumph of the principle of absolute monarchy. The state acts here as a restraining force in relation to the arbitrariness of not only individuals, but also entire social groups. Therefore, Shakespeare's ideal monarchy is a fairly organized government that satisfies and reconciles conflicting private interests. At the time of his writing, Shakespeare harbored illusions about the possibility of an absolutist state becoming such a power. Subsequently, he realized that the state of his time could not be an organization that unites all people, nor a moral force that curbs selfishness.

The action of the chronicles covers both individual conflicts and conflicts in which large social forces are at work - estates, classes, even entire states fighting each other. The monarchy, the church, the feudal nobility, the nobility, townspeople, peasants - all these forces of society of that time are represented in the chronicles in all their breadth. It is not individuals who act on stage, but entire groups of people with diverse personal interests, generally representing a certain estate or class of society. Shakespeare's realism is manifested with great force in the fact that he depicts not only the “official elements of the then movement,” as Engels calls them, but also the “unofficial plebeian and peasant elements” * who participated in the class struggle. In Shakespeare, the masses constitute the active background of the conflict between the monarchy and the nobility playing out on the foreground. In a number of cases, Shakespeare gives a vivid image of the struggle of the masses. Thus, in the second part of “Henry VI” he shows the uprising of artisans and peasants demanding the destruction of the feudal state and the establishment of a system in which “the state will become a common property.”

* (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. XXV, p. 260.)

Shakespeare did not sympathize with the attempts of peasants and artisans to independently solve issues of social order. However, unlike Greene, who painted the relationship between royalty and the people in an idyllic form, Shakespeare saw the special interests of the people and showed in his historical plays that the people themselves were aware of these interests, which put them in opposition to the dominant forces of feudal-noble society.

In his correspondence with Lassalle regarding his tragedy “Franz von Sickingen,” Engels, characterizing the social situation of the Renaissance, pointed to the presence of “the then amazingly motley plebeian public.” “What amazingly characteristic images this era of the disintegration of feudal ties does not provide in the person of wandering beggar kings, begging landsknechts and all kinds of adventurers - truly a Falstaffian background...” *

* (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. XXV, pp. 260 - 261.)

"Falstaff's background" forms an essential part of the picture painted by Shakespeare in his chronicles. He is especially expressive in the chronicle “Henry IV” (two parts). While the dramatic struggle between King Henry IV and his rebellious feudal lords is playing out at the forefront of the historical action, a very motley group of people often gathers at the Boar's Head tavern. It includes the dissolute Crown Prince Henry, fleeing the stiffness of the court, and the impoverished knight Sir John Falstaff, and the commoners Nim and Bardolph. They rob merchants on the highways, and the money obtained in this way is squandered in taverns. The soul of this company is Falstaff. Pushkin gave a vivid description of this image: “...Nowhere, perhaps, was the multifaceted genius of Shakespeare reflected with such diversity as in Falstaff, whose vices, one connected with the other, form a funny, ugly chain, similar to an ancient bacchanalia. Analyzing the character of Falstaff , we see that his main feature is voluptuousness; from a young age, probably, crude, cheap red tape was his first concern, but he is already over fifty, he has become fat and decrepit; gluttony and wine have noticeably taken over Venus. Secondly, he a coward, but, having spent his life with young rakes, constantly exposed to their ridicule and pranks, he covers up his cowardice with evasive and mocking insolence. He is boastful out of habit and calculation. Falstaff is not at all stupid, on the contrary. He also has some of the habits of a person, often " *.

* (A. S. Pushkin, Collection. cit., vol. VII, p. 517.)

Such types are born at turning points in history. Two centuries later, on the eve of the French bourgeois revolution, Diderot will show us a descendant of Falstaff - Rameau's nephew.

This is Falstaff in Henry IV. He will meet again in The Witches of Windsor, but in the comedy he will turn out to be somewhat different. Here he is presented as trying to adapt to the life of the townspeople. But nothing comes of either his attempt to marry the daughter of a wealthy burgher, or his calculated flirtation with the prankish townswomen.

Falstaff's behavior in Henry IV is characterized by his opposition to the "official" society, whose concerns and interests he does not want to share. In "The Wives of Windsor" O "puts on the guise of a man belonging to court circles and trumps his nobility. He needs this in order to be received with honor among the townspeople. And here it is clearly revealed that Falstaff is not able to neither to live like a nobleman, because he has no means for this, nor to adapt to the bourgeois environment. And the very attempt to adapt to this world leads to the loss of that inner freedom that was previously characteristic of him. Therefore, if earlier, by virtue of this, he freedom could laugh at everything and everyone, now others laugh at him. Having lost freedom and shame, Falstaff loses his humor; repeatedly deceived, he cannot laugh at his ridiculous situation, and only at the end of the comedy, realizing the futility of his attempts, he again acquires the gift of humor and participates in the general fun. The image of Falstaff connects Shakespeare's chronicles with comedies.

Shakespeare's entire career spanned the period from 1590 to 1612. usually divided into three or four periods.

I (optimistic) period (1590-1600)

- "Comedy of Errors"
- "The Taming of the Shrew",
- “Two Veronese”,
- "Love's Labour's Lost"
- "A dream in a summer night",
- "The Merry Wives of Windsor"
- “Much ado about nothing”
- “As you like it”,
- "Twelfth Night".

The theme of almost all of Shakespeare's comedies is love, its emergence and development, the resistance and intrigues of others and the victory of bright young feelings. The action of the works takes place against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes, bathed in moonlight or sunlight. This is how the magical world of Shakespeare's comedies appears before us, seemingly far from fun. Shakespeare has a great ability to talentedly combine the comic (the duels of wit between Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Petruchio and Catharina from The Taming of the Shrew) with the lyrical and even tragic (the betrayals of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the intrigues of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice"). Shakespeare's characters are amazingly multifaceted; their images embody traits characteristic of people of the Renaissance: will, desire for independence, and love of life. The female characters of these comedies are especially interesting - they are equal to men, free, energetic, active and infinitely charming. Shakespeare's comedies are varied. Shakespeare uses various genres of comedy - romantic comedy (A Midsummer Night's Dream), comedy of characters (The Taming of the Shrew), sitcom (The Comedy of Errors).

During the same period (1590-1600) Shakespeare wrote a number of historical chronicles. Each of which covers one of the periods of English history.

About the time of the struggle between the Scarlet and White Roses:

- “Henry VI” (three parts),
- "Richard III".

About the previous period of struggle between the feudal barons and the absolute monarchy:

- "Richard II"
- “Henry IV” (two parts),
- "Henry V".

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two tragedies:

- "Romeo and Juliet",
- "Julius Caesar".

II (tragic) period (1601-1607)

It is considered the tragic period of Shakespeare's work. Dedicated mainly to tragedy. It was during this period that the playwright reached the pinnacle of his creativity:

- “Hamlet” (1601),
- “Othello” (1604),
- “King Lear” (1605),
- “Macbeth” (1606),
- “Antony and Cleopatra” (1607),
- “Coriolanus” (1607).

During the same period, Shakespeare wrote two comedies:

- “The end is the crown of the matter,”
- “Measure for measure.”

III (romantic) period (1608-1612)

It is considered the romantic period of Shakespeare's work.

Works of the last period of his work:

- "Cymbeline"
- “Winter's Tale”,
- “Storm”.

These are poetic tales that lead away from reality into the world of dreams. A complete conscious rejection of realism and a retreat into romantic fantasy is naturally interpreted by Shakespeare scholars as the playwright’s disappointment in humanistic ideals and recognition of the impossibility of achieving harmony. This path - from a triumphantly jubilant faith in harmony to tired disappointment - actually followed the entire worldview of the Renaissance.

Shakespeare, the author of the chronicles, had predecessors and teachers, but the poet occupied his special place here from the very beginning. And his technique is not only original for a poet of the 16th century, but exceptional in general in the field of historical drama.

The prologue to Henry VIII promises the public to depict exclusively the truth and true history in the chronicle, without resorting to “spectacular scenes” and “absurd battles”... Henry VIII does not belong entirely to Shakespeare, but the prologue quite correctly characterizes him as the author of the chronicles. The poet, with amazing dedication and tact, obeys his sources, often literally borrows scenes and monologues from Holinshed’s chronicle and only through an inspired creative process gives the scenes dramatic life and strength, and in monologues reflects the fullness of the soul of the characters. This art is rapidly improved with each chronicle, and after the epic, fragmentary dialogues of Henry VI, there are a number of exciting scenes of Richard II and King John, until finally in Richard III there is a real drama with deep psychology of the hero and an exemplary sequential development of the action. From a dramatizing chronicler, in a few years he grew into a playwright-psychologist, and in the near future, the author of great tragedies. And again, as in comedies, the poet managed to merge an unusually skillful response to the demands of the modern public with the fruitful results of personal creativity.

We know that the chronicles on theater stages were the result of the patriotic sentiments of the era and, of course, had precisely these sentiments in mind. Naturally, Shakespeare hastened to fully satisfy the feelings of the public and his own at the same time. The poet could not remain indifferent to the glory of his fatherland and, perhaps, actually welcomed the death of the “Armada” in poetry: so, at least, some think. But this fact is not significant: the chronicles gave the poet any scope for patriotic lyricism, and he took advantage of it with all the swiftness and fervor of his inspiration. Shakespeare's fiery patriotism should be considered the most reliable feature of his moral personality. One can not count the unworthy role of the Maid of Orleans among the poet’s patriotic intentions: the chronicle of Henry VI itself is unknown to what extent it belongs to Shakespeare, and the personality of Joan of Arc in the 16th century could least of all be presented in its true light, even to non-patriots and non-Englishmen, and, finally, , the author did not hide Jeanne’s passionate patriotic inspiration, the main fact of her biography.But the absolutely authentic Shakespearean chronicles are enough to appreciate the poet’s national instinct.

Before us are heroes of different social status - kings and simple lords; different political parties - supporters of Lancaster and York; different characters - the frivolous despot Richard II and the chivalrous Duke of Ghent, his victim and opponent - and all are equally filled with enthusiastic adoration for their native England, all become sensitive and poets, as soon as the conversation comes about the power of the homeland or its misfortunes, about separation from it.

Richard, returning to England after a short absence, seems to be a lover greeting the “sweet land” and “striving to hug it to his chest,” like the mother of her own son, “both crying and laughing.” Before his death, Ghent makes an enthusiastic speech to the “glorious island,” “the land of greatness, the fatherland of Mars, the earthly Eden,” “a shining diamond set in a silver sea.” One of the most independent and stern heroes of the chronicles - Norfolk - going into exile for disobedience to Richard, turns his last words, filled with melancholy, to England. Not hearing his native language is torment equal to death for him; to lose your homeland is to lose the “light of your eyes.” In the sad times of King John, the lords bitterly lament the storm gathering over their "native people", and Prince Philip concludes the drama with a real national anthem:

"At the proud feet of an alien warrior

Britain did not lie in the dust.

And she will never lie in the dust,

As long as she doesn't hurt herself...

And may fighters from all corners of the earth

They are coming at us, we will push them away!

If England knows how to be England,

No one in the world can defeat us.”

The poet clearly sympathizes with such sentiments. He brings into the chronicles the same anger and ridicule of imitators of foreign fashion that we have heard in comedies. Prince Philip equates “serving fashion” with the poison of lies. One of the vices that led to the downfall of Richard II was his passion for Italian fashions: this is a clear anachronism for the 14th century of English history, but the poet needed it for patriotic purposes.

They are all the more important because Shakespeare's politics are limited to them. We would search in vain for the principles and ideas that caused English civil strife in his chronicles. Issues of general policy played a big role precisely under Richard II and John Lackland. Richard II, counting on a marriage with a French princess, adopted French etiquette at court and declared claims to unlimited autocracy following the example of the French sovereigns. It was for these claims that the parliament accused the king of violating the constitution and deposed him. English historians consider this struggle to be the first constitutional struggle in English history. The events under King John are well known: through the joint efforts of the lords, clergy and London townspeople, the Magna Carta was created, that is, the legal basis for British freedom was laid. In Shakespeare's chronicles there are no political questions about the power of the king and the rights of his subjects: the poet even skips the era of the creation of the Great Charter in the chronicle and does not deal with Richard's constitutional crimes. His focus is on the moral shortcomings of the figures, on psychology, rather than on politics. Regarding Richard, heavy taxes and the unpopularity of the king among the people are mentioned in passing, and King John, unlike the usual, strictly historical, truth of Shakespeare's chronicles, is even greatly embellished in comparison with the real personality of this sovereign. Undoubtedly, with this formulation of the question, Shakespeare's chronicles are far from complete and do not exhaust all the phenomena of historical eras. Truthful in facts and characters, they omit many significant events and in heroes they look primarily for people, and not for political figures. This truth is abbreviated and often one-sided. It is very characteristic of Shakespeare, a poet indifferent to social movements in comparison with the psychological development of individuals. But here it was quite natural that the poet-playwright, who needed mainly strong central figures, and a contemporary of the almost primitive chronicle historiography, had an impact. And Shakespeare, precisely by the incompleteness of his chronicles, proved only the same conscientiousness in the use of sources. In the second part of Henry VI, he could simply rewrite humorous scenes from the chronicle with the people's conspirators and put an end to the Kedah rebellion, which was in fact incomparably more important and serious. Subsequently, he will do the same with the plebeians in Coriolanus, borrowing here the aristocratic spirit from the source. And we cannot demand from a 16th-century poet insight and interpretation, which even in our time are not accessible to all scientists.

In his favorite field - psychology and the moral logic of events - Shakespeare extracted everything that could be extracted from the history of English civil strife. Beginning with Richard II, we continually encounter motifs that are destined to develop brilliantly in the poet’s most mature creations.

Based on the facts of true reality, he is convinced of the irresistible power of the moral law governing human life. Victory or fall is always and everywhere the inevitable result of a personality structure that is more or less adapted to the struggle with external conditions. It does not require a miracle for a crime to receive the punishment it deserves, and it does not require exceptional heroes for weakness to pay for its cowardice and mediocrity. One of the heroines and victims of the most severe civil strife regarding several particular cases expressed a general philosophy of human fate:

"Edward went to pay for Edward

And death covered the mortal debt

Plantagenet for Plantagenet...

And this conviction is shared by all witnesses and perpetrators of the bloody events. Only the culprits come too late to the great truth that

“The Lord does not carry out secret executions

Over those who trampled the law...

So says the brother of Richard III to the men sent to kill him - and the truth is realized on the most inveterate and courageous representative of evil. This idea runs as a connecting thread through all the turmoil and intricate intentions of the strong; it does not escape the weak, unworthy of their high position. If the strong should ever remember King John's speech:

“You can’t build a solid foundation with blood,

You can’t save someone else’s life”...

for the weak and unworthy there is a great lesson - the fate of kings Henry VI and Richard II. One in the highest responsible position yearns for a peaceful shepherd’s life and idyllic happiness, the other indulges in pleasures, behind the praises of flatterers he does not hear the groans of the people, and his state garden “stalled under the weeds”; both will lose power, and Richard II, filled with arrogance and self-adoration, will recognize the poverty of human nature and laugh bitterly at the servility of flatterers and the conceit of rulers. A painful persistent work of thought will arise in him, previously unknown to him, and he will seek in vain for spiritual peace. The wayward epicurean will turn almost into Hamlet and will have time to survive the chilling breath of Lear's tragedy...

Yes, grains are hidden in the chronicles and often the bright shoots of the poet’s later creations are already green. The fifth act of Hamlet appears before the eyes whenever the circle of dramatic events is completed and the Duke of York, together with Richard II and Richard III, unanimously recognize the truth won by the Danish prince through so many trials and disappointments: “There is a power that leads us to the goal, whatever the path may be.” we elected...

This is not fatalism, but faith in an unchangeable world order, where human will is as valid a link as external life, such as, for example, natural phenomena. Consequences corresponding to its moral content flow from it just as naturally and irresistibly. The influence of such a worldview on dramatic creativity is obvious. The poet will not resort to miracles and exceptional accidents for the sake of the outcome of the play, but he will not retreat even in the face of the most difficult outcome of the tragedy, he will not allow compassion and sensitivity to interfere in deciding the fate of the virtuous and innocent, since the logic of life and events requires sacrifice. This logic, we know, eliminates from the stage of reality not only the criminals, but also the weak, who are unable to oppose their own to external forces and remain at the height of their calling in the whirlpool of hostile currents - and we will see not only the execution of Claudius, Edmund, Macbeth, but also the death of Ophelia, Desdemona, Cordelia, Juliet...

The crowning achievement of Shakespeare's early chronicles is Richard III. The personality and history of the main character is extremely important to us. The poet first presented the psychology of a villain who is infinitely criminal and gloomy. Subsequently, it will be repeated in the characters of Edmund and Iago. At first glance, these figures may come across as cruelly melodramatic. They are ready-made villains on stage and go towards their goals, mercilessly eliminating everything along the way, using any means, as if they were born spontaneous criminals. In reality, they have their own psychological history, their own stages of gradual and logical development. Shakespeare first showed this in the fate of Richard.

The Duke of Gloucester is unusually intelligent, gifted, courageous and energetic - all qualities that elevate a person to heights. But at the same time, he is an exceptional freak, branded by nature from the moment of birth. Ugliness singled him out from the human environment, turning him first into an outcast, then into an embittered renegade, and finally into the natural enemy of all the fortunate. And Richard’s enmity will be all the more persistent as these lucky men are inferior to him in intelligence and talents; their privileged position is a blood insult to his pride and claims, based on a deep consciousness of his superiority. Richard himself accurately explains his position among his relatives and the rest of humanity; does not forget to emphasize his lonely suffering in times of peace, when others are enjoying life and love. Since “deceitful nature” separated him by an impassable abyss from the rest of the world and embodied in him obvious horror for people, he will “curse idle fun” and “throw himself into villainous deeds.” This is a completely understandable impulse of offended pride and an unknown reason for a poisoned existence. And Richard will relentlessly and calculatedly take revenge and feed his selfishness and anger. In addition to willpower and complete indifference to good and evil, the mind will tell him the most reliable means of catching the weak and unreasonable - hypocrisy. This is a common feature of all Shakespeare's villains: a serpent's heart in the shell of a dove. The combination of enormous endurance, cold calculation with artificial openness, sincerity and even lyricism of feelings works wonders. And each new victory only deepens the hero’s contempt for his victims - past and future - and strengthens the highest idea of his own strengths. The villain becomes a fatalist based on the same egoism, that is, he begins to consider himself an instrument of higher power and attributes his atrocities to fate: “An unfortunate star destroyed them,” says Richard about the two young princes he ruined. Edmund, who identifies himself with nature, and Iago, who does not distinguish his will from world power, will look at their enterprises in the same way.

All three heroes act on a majestic tragic stage, and, naturally, the scope of their activity amazes with its breadth and power. But the essence of psychology does not become less vital and real because of this. Forced detachment and bloodily wounded pride in strong natures create a heavy aftertaste of unbearable bitterness and hidden bitterness, crying out for satisfaction. And in such eras of moral and social unrest, in which Richard lives, they directly lead to violence and crime.

It is clear what depth of psychological ideas the poet reached while studying his native history. The most apparently exceptional phenomena in the field of the human spirit and external life are invariably created on the foundations of consistent development, and the greatest dramas, along with everyday facts, represent links in the same world order.

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