Understanding Shakespeare: His Sources

Surveys Shakespeare's life and plays to show the wide variety of sources from which he gathered the materials he shaped into his works. Pictures Shakespeare's early life in Stratford-on-Avon including the Latin grammar school, the forest of Arden, the merchant townspeople, and the homes of the landed gentry in which the boy probably watched traveling players. Shows the earthy London tavern patrons upon whom the playwright modeled characters and points out his access to the Earl of Southampton's library which contained both Plutrarch and Holinshed. Notes that the bard also borrowed plots from Comedia Del Arte and other plays of the time., , Presents excerpts from four plays by Shakespeare to show how he enhanced his sources with imagination, knowledge of human nature, and command of language.NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.