Other Genres

Shakespeare's "histories" refer to a series of plays that dramatize the lives and reigns of English kings and the political intrigue that surrounds their rule.

These plays primarily focus on the medieval and early Renaissance periods of English history, exploring themes like leadership, legitimacy, and the struggles for power.

Additionally, Shakespeare extends his historical narratives beyond England in plays like "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra," and "Coriolanus", which delve into Roman history, portraying the lives and dramatic political events of these ancient figures.

Shakespeare's most famous history play is arguably Henry V. This play chronicles the events before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War, where the young King Henry V leads his vastly outnumbered English forces to a surprising victory against the French.

Henry V exemplifies the history genre through its detailed exploration of leadership and kingship. The play is renowned for its portrayal of Henry's transformation from a wild youth into a responsible king who unites his country and achieves great military success. It delves into themes of national identity, the burdens of leadership, and the moral ambiguities of war.

The play's use of stirring patriotic rhetoric, most famously in the "St. Crispin's Day" speech, serves to elevate the historical narrative, making it both an exploration of character and a reflection on the nature of power and governance. This blend of personal drama and national politics is a hallmark of Shakespeare's approach to historical drama.

While most of Shakespeare's history plays focus on the English monarchy, not all are set within its borders.

Julius Caesar, which was written in 1599, is one of Shakespeare’s major history plays, and it set (unsurprisingly) in Ancient Rome. In the first half of Julius Caesar, the title character has just led a successful military campaign and returns to Rome in triumph.

His popularity and ambition worry some of the senators, particularly Brutus and Cassius, who fear that Caesar will seize absolute power and declare himself king. The conspirators lure Caesar to the senate house and assassinate him, believing they have saved the Republic.

In the second half of the play, however, things do not go as planned. Mark Antony, a close friend of Caesar's, delivers a stirring speech at his funeral that turns the people of Rome against the conspirators.

Civil war breaks out, with Antony and Octavius Caesar (Caesar's heir) on one side and Brutus and Cassius on the other. In the end, Antony and Octavius are victorious, and Brutus and Cassius take their own lives to avoid capture.

Shakespeare’s plays that defy strict genre classifications often blend elements of tragedy and comedy in ways that challenge simple categorization, leading some scholars to refer to them as "problem plays" or "tragicomedies."

For example, Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice navigate these mixed tones by combining serious moral questions with lighter, more comedic resolutions. Similarly, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest start with tragic setups, including betrayal and loss, but transition into endings filled with reconciliation and redemption.

Shakespearean tragicomedy specifically refers to plays that mix elements of both tragedy and comedy to achieve a narrative that is neither wholly tragic nor entirely comedic. These plays typically begin with a potentially tragic situation that leads to what seems like an impending disaster but ultimately resolves in a way that restores order and often ends on a hopeful note.

This genre reflects the complexity of human experiences and emotions, showing that life comprises both sorrow and joy, often intertwined.

One of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, usually designated a ‘problem play’ and important to understanding his canon, is Measure for Measure.

In the first half of Measure for Measure, the Duke of Vienna leaves the city and puts the puritanical Angelo in charge.

Angelo is determined to enforce the city's strict moral code, and he decides to arrest a citizen of Vienna named Claudio for getting his fiancee, Juliet, pregnant before marriage.

Angelo sentences Claudio to death, but Claudio's sister Isabella pleads for her brother's life. Angelo agrees to spare Claudio, but only if Isabella has sex with him. Isabella refuses.

In the second half of Measure for Measure, the Duke returns to Vienna, disguised as a friar, and orchestrates a plan to catch Angelo in his hypocrisy.

Isabella agrees to sleep with Angelo, but the Duke arranges for Mariana (Angelo's jilted ex-fiancee) to take her place, tricking Angelo.

Angelo is caught and admits his guilt, but the Duke then reveals that he never actually left Vienna and has been monitoring the situation all along.

The Duke pardons everyone, reunites Angelo and Mariana, and proposes marriage to Isabella.

Measure for Measure is often seen as one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays,' as it doesn't fall neatly into one category. It deals with weighty themes of morality and hypocrisy, but it ultimately has a happy ending.

The Tempest, first performed in 1611, is one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote before he died.

The main character is Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, has been exiled to a remote island with his daughter Miranda after being overthrown by his brother Antonio.

Acquiring magical powers through arcane books, Prospero uses these abilities to summon a storm when Antonio's ship passes by the island, causing it to wreck.

The survivors of Prospero's Tempest—including Antonio, the king of Naples, and the king's son, Ferdinand—wash ashore on the island.

With the help of his magical powers and spirit servant Ariel, Prospero orchestrates a series of trials and tribulations for the survivors, manipulating them to achieve his desired outcomes.

Ultimately, Prospero arranges for his daughter Miranda to marry the king's son, Ferdinand, which will restore Prospero's status as Duke of Milan.

Meanwhile, Antonio and the other schemers are punished for their treachery.

In the end, Prospero forgives them and, deciding to renounce his magical powers, sets them free to return to Italy.

Shakespeare, usually celebrated for his plays, also excelled in two distinct types of poetry: sonnets and narrative poems.

Shakespeare’s narrative works, "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece" stand out as significant contributions to Elizabethan literature.

"Venus and Adonis," Shakespeare's first published work, draws from Ovid's Metamorphoses to recount the story of Venus, the goddess of love, and her unrequited affection for the beautiful youth, Adonis. This poem is rich with erotic and allegorical imagery, exploring themes of desire and rejection through its lyrical stanzas.

"The Rape of Lucrece" takes a darker turn, focusing on the tragic tale of Lucretia, whose assault by the Roman prince Tarquin leads to her suicide and the subsequent uprising against the Tarquin family.

This narrative explores the consequences of lust and power, portraying deep psychological turmoil and moral complexity.

Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 poems first published in 1609, recognized for their deep exploration of themes like love, beauty, mortality, and the passage of time.

These sonnets are particularly renowned for their structure, language, and emotional depth, reflecting a masterful use of the sonnet form that was popularized during the Elizabethan era.

This form was first developed by Italian poets in the Renaissance, with the "Petrarchan" sonnet (named after the Italian poet ‘Petrarch’) being the original template.

Sonnets typically consist of 14 lines, often written in iambic pentameter.

'Iambic' means that they follow a repeated rhythm of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. 'Pentameter' (literally '5 meter'), means that this patten of syllables happens 5 times in each line.

A Petrarchan sonnet is split into two sections: an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the last six lines), usually with a clear shift in the argument or theme at the beginning of the sestet.

This shift in theme or argument is called the "volta", which in Italian literally means the “turn”.

Using poetic rhyme scheme notation, the structure usually looks like this:

ABBAABBA CDCDCD

Here, the letters represent lines that rhyme with each other. So the first line (A), rhymes with the fourth line (A), and so on, and the space represents the start of the ‘sestet’.

Shakespeare adapted the Petrarchan sonnet to create the "English" or "Shakespearean" sonnet, which rearranges the structure.

Instead of an octave (8 lines), followed by a sestet (6 lines), a Shakespearean sonnet is split into three quatrains (3 x 4 lines) followed by a final couplet.

Using poetic rhyme scheme notation, the structure usually looks like this: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Again, the letters represent lines that rhyme with each other. So the first line (A), rhymes with the third line (A), and so on. You can see that the last two lines are a “couplet” (two consecutive lines that rhyme with each other).

Shakespeare;s modification in the structure of the the Petrarchan sonnet allows for a more sustained development of the poem's theme, adding a punchy conclusion in the couplet, which sometimes seems like a sudden twist.

Contrastingly, the Italian sonnet, which typically sets up a problem in the octave and resolves it in the sestet, provides a more balanced exploration of the theme.

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, the volta, or thematic and tonal shift, is particularly impactful.

The sonnet spends the first twelve lines making unconventional comparisons between the speaker's mistress and various natural beauties, which she notably does not resemble.

For example, the speaker notes that her eyes are not like the sun, her lips are less red than coral, and her cheeks lack the color of roses. These lines initially seem to diminish her beauty by starkly realistic and almost critical comparisons.

However, the volta occurs in the final couplet, where the tone of the poem shifts dramatically:

"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare."

This shift indicates a profound declaration of love, suggesting that despite her lack of conventional beauty, the speaker finds his mistress uniquely precious.

The volta here serves to undermine the exaggerated metaphors commonly used in love poetry of the time, presenting a more sincere and personal appreciation of the beloved.