William Shakespeare

by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's sonnets are the most beloved and famous in the English language--and no home library should be without a copy. For students, this is the perfect little book to use for studying, while devotees of poetry will want it right on the night table, there to enjoy at any time. To make finding a favorite poem easier, there's an index of first lines.

Genres: Classics, Shakespeare, Poetry, Nonfiction, French Literature, Biography, Literature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1864

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: William Shakespeare

Author: Victor Hugo

Translator: A. Baillot

Release Date: November 10, 2016 [EBook #53490]

Language: English

Produced by Laura N.R. and Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (online soon in an extended version, also linking to free sources for education worldwide ... MOOC's, educational materials,...) Images generously made available by the Hathi Trust.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

I made the proofing of this book for Free Literature and it will be published by Project Gutenberg.

Images generously made available by the HathiTrust .

PREFACE

The true title of this work should be, “Apropos to Shakespeare.” The desire of introducing, as they say in England, before the public, the new translation of Shakespeare, has been the first motive of the author. The feeling which interests him so profoundly in the translator should not deprive him of the right to recommend the translation. However, his conscience has been solicited on the other part, and in a more binding way still, by the subject itself. In reference to Shakespeare all questions which touch art are presented to his mind. To treat these questions, is to explain the mission of art; to treat these questions, is to explain the duty of human thought toward man. Such an occasion for speaking
truths imposes a duty, and he is not permitted, above all at such an epoch as ours, to evade it. The author has comprehended this. He has not hesitated to turn the complex questions of art and civilization on their several faces, multiplying the horizons every time that the perspective has displaced itself, and accepting every indication that the subject, in its rigorous necessity, has
offered to him. This expansion of the point of view has given rise to this book.

Page 67:
Homer, Job, Aeschylus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Lucretius, Juvenal, Saint John, Saint Paul, Tacitus, Dante,
Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare.

That is the avenue of the immovable giants of the human mind.

Page 145:
Now, take away from the drama the East and replace it by the North; take away Greece and put England,take away India and put Germany, that other immense mother, All-men (Allemagne); take away Pericles and put Elizabeth; take away the Parthenon and put the Tower of London; take away the plebs and put the mob; take away the fatality and put the melancholy; take away the gorgon and put the witch; take away the eagle and put the cloud; take away the sun and put on the heath, shuddering in the evening wind, the livid light of the moon, and you have Shakespeare.

page 154:
A Gutenberg discovering the method for the sowing of civilization, and the means for the ubiquity of thought, will be followed by a Christopher Columbus discovering a new field. A Christopher Columbus discovering a world will be followed by a Luther discovering a liberty. After Luther, innovator in the dogma, will come Shakespeare, innovator in art. One genius completes the other.

Pages 238-239:
The bifurcated idea, the idea echoing itself, a lesser drama copying and elbowing the principal drama, the action trailing its own shadow (a smaller action but its parallel), the unity cut asunder,—-surely it is a strange fact. These twin actions have been strongly blamed by the few commentators who have pointed them out.

[sigurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

quando incontrate nella vita uno che si chiama Victor Hugo dovete sapere che vi parlerà di un capolavoro o di un genio, come nel caso di questo libro.
Ad esempio, voi sapete come si chiama il telecronista che ha commentato il gol più incredibile del calciatore più incredibile della storia? (Genio! Genio! Genio! ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! gooooooooool! gooooooooooool! Quiero llorar... Dios Santo...viva el fùtbol.....gooollazzooo! Diegooooool! Maradona! es parar llorar, perdonenme...): si chiama Victor Hugo.

http://youtu.be/zKUYPZvOdUs

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Podría decir que en este libro, a pesar de su título, se habla de muchas cosas menos de Shakespeare, pero estaría exagerando. Víctor Hugo nos presenta un ensayo con diversos temas como: la cultura, la misión del arte, él desarrollo de la sociedad, el sentido de justicia, la democracia, el pensamiento humano, las guerras, la historia; en fin, nos habla de ese torrente de luz que se llama Civilización. Para ello se vale de muchos personajes como Nerón, Napoleón, Calígula, Dante, Rabelais, Tácito, Esquilo, Beethoven, Miguel Ángel, Voltaire y por supuesto Shakespeare.

El grandísimo Víctor Hugo, novelista, nos ha fascinado hasta el arrebato a un sinnúmero de lectores con sus narraciones a través ya de dos siglos. Ahora, esperando encontrar un panegírico de Shakespeare que me hiciera entender un poco de la grandeza de la obra del Bardo, me encuentro a un Víctor Hugo ensayista con una obra que toca muchos y variados temas, donde el autor francés despliega su proverbial sabiduría, su amplia cultura y su exaltado romanticismo. La resultante de esto es una suerte de discurso que parece acercarse más a una oda al ser humano que a un ensayo sobre Shakespeare y compañía.

Víctor Hugo aprovecha el viaje para dejar sentir, entre las páginas de su ensayo, una amarga queja en contra de los gobiernos intolerantes y déspotas. La voz amarga y rebelde que se escucha procede de la Isla de Guernsey, en el Canal de la Mancha, tras el destierro que le impuso Napoleón III, desde donde el inmortal autor se da tiempo para lanzar sus invectivas condenando la represión y la carencia de libertad de expresión.

Seguiré persiguiendo el espectro de Shakespeare para poder ver aunque sea algunos de los destellos que lanza esa luz inmensa, mientras tanto: ¡Que viva Víctor Hugo!

[Steve Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Victor Hugo was a madman who believed he was Victor Hugo." -Jean Cocteau

This has to be one of the craziest books I've ever read, and I loved it. After a few half-hearted pages of factually-erroneous biography, Hugo abandons the subject of Shakespeare and launches into a sermon on the nature of genius. The overwhelming elephant in the room and true (though unspoken) subject of the book is Hugo's paean to his own massive genius--a Song of Himself.
It also includes an interesting list of Hugo's choices of the greatest writers of all time (in chronological order):
1. Homer
2. Job
3. Aeschylus
4. Isaiah
5. Ezekiel
6. Lucretius
7. Juvenal
8. Tacitus
9. St. Paul
10. St. John
11. Dante
12. Rabelais
13. Cervantes
14. Shakespeare

The implication is clearly that #15 is Hugo Himself. Delicious.

[Kauzar Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

«Hace algunos años, "una pluma muy autorizada", como se dice en la jerga académica y oficial, escribía esto:
"El mayor servicio que nos pueden prestar los poetas es el de no servir para nada. No les pedimos otra cosa".
Nótese la extensión y envergadura de esta palabra: Los poetas, que comprende a Lino, Museo, Orfeo, Homero, Job, Hesíodo, […] declarados por el oráculo "buenos para nada" y teniendo la inutilidad como excelencia. Esta frase, al parecer, tuvo éxito y ha sido muy repetida. Nosotros la repetimos de nuevo. Cuando el aplomo de un idiota alcanza esas proporciones merece quedar registrado.»

[Federica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victor Hugo che parla di Shakespeare. Ripeto, VICTOR HUGO CHE PARLA DI SHAKESPEARE. No aspettate, mi correggo: Victor Hugo che DOVREBBE parlare di Shakespeare.
Ora, il caro signor Hugo secondo me in vita era una di queste due persone: o un logorroico che appena vede qualcuno gli vomita addosso fiumi di coscienza (ma immaginatevi la scena come con il meme che vomita arcobaleni, perchè il suo flusso di coscienza è roba bella), oppure un timidone che si tiene dentro le sue opinioni e poi le getta tutte nei suoi scritti, si veda ad esempio di ciò i suoi due capolavori, Notre-Dame de Paris che contiene un interessantissimo (se se XD) excursus sull'architettura parigina, e I miserabili, dove tutti aspettano con ansia e trepidazione il loro capitolo preferito, quello sulle fogne di Parigi. Ma riprendiamo il filo, non facciamo gli Hugo della situazione! Quindi, a quanto pare il nostro scrittore ha qualche difficoltà a restare in tema, e questa difficoltà raggiunge la sua testimonianza più alta in questo volume, intitolato William Shakespeare (anche in originale, ho controllato!), ma che io avrei più opportunamente chiamato "Sui geni del nostro mondo, e la loro importanza". Per farla breve, Hugo parla sì di Shakespeare, cioè ci prova, ci racconta la sua vita in soldoni, e poi via... parte per la tangenziale! Inizia a parlare di tutti quegli autori che per lui son da considerarsi dei geni, parla dell'importanza delle loro opere, poi si ricorda del titolo del saggio e tenta di fare qualche paragone (riuscitissimo eh!) fra Eschilo e il nostro Bardo, fra Prometeo e Amleto, poi si perde di nuovo e continua a divagare... il messaggio alla fine è chiaro: l'importanza che questi geni hanno avuto nell'evoluzione, nella crescita della società, il fatto che l'Amleto ci insegni più cose sulla vita di quanto lo farebbe lo studiare la successione dei Re in Francia, che un'opera del genere ci fa riflettere e crescere più di qualsiasi lezione di storia.
La storia dell'uomo è in mano ai geni che hanno abitato il mondo. Ed è un pensiero bellissimo, che condivido con tutto il cuore, però non ho letto un saggio su Shakespeare. Sono soddisfatta comunque, a me piacciono gli sproloqui di Hugo, son comunque perle sparse da raccogliere, ma se cercavate solo un saggio su Shakespeare, ecco... questo non è il libro che fa per voi.

P.S.: non ho voluto far gravare questo fatto sulle stelle date al volume, ma il libro è pieno zeppo di errori di scrittura. Va bene una svista, siamo umani, l'accetto, ma quando mi ritrovo pagine e pagine di errori/orrori inizio a pensare che l'editore non abbia nemmeno fatto una revisione sul testo. Poi però mi fa pagare 22 euro il libro. No comment.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a Kindle for Christmas and I promptly downloaded a TON of free books. I happened upon this one and didn't really intend to read it any time soon. However, I started reading another book that is supposed to be a modern retelling of The Tempest and it wasn't totally sitting well with me so I picked up the Kindle to reference The Tempest and stumbled upon this book and before I knew it, I had read all 260 pages. It was delightful. Mr. Masefield is quite cantankerous and really doesn't like most people, especially those who claim to know anything about Shakespeare. I mean this guy is actually glad that New Place was torn down because the "last thing Stratford needs is another museum filled with people who really have no appreciation". Whoa. Really, dude? He cracked me up over and over again but at the same time some of his insights into the plays was highly informative.

Here are a few tidbits:

"The wisdom of Shakespeare is greater and more various than the brains of little men can imagine. It is one of the tragical things, that this great man, who interpreted the ways of fate in glorious, many-coloured vision, should be set aside in our theatres for the mockers and the accusers, whose vision scatters dust upon the brain and sand upon the empty heart."

"The people of Shakespeare's plays are alive and hearty. They lead a vigorous life and go to be tired. They never forget that they are animals. They never let any one else forget that they are also divine."

"Shakespeare wrote about life. A man who writes about life must accept life for what it is, as largely an animal thing."

"Theatre manages play Shakespeare as though he were an old fashion of the mind instead of the seer of the eternal in life."

"It is said that Shakespeare holds a mirror up to life. He who looks into a mirror closely generally sees nothing but himself."

"Shakespeare's heart always turned for quiet happiness to the country where he lived as a boy."

"Shakespeare's mind goes nobly into these souls, bearing his great light. It is very wonderful that the mind who saw men clearest should see him with such exaltation."

"It is tragical to have an intellect too great for people to understand."

"Shakespeare passes from thrilling soul to thrilling soul with a touch as delicate as it is certain."

"This is a reading age. Shakespeare's was an active age."

"Dramatic genius has the power of understanding half-a-dozen lives at once in tense, swiftly changing situations."

"Shakespeare's tragical characters are all destroyed by the excess of some trait in them, whether good or ill matters nothing."

"There can be no great art without great fable."

"Shakespeare's mind was always brooding on the working of fate."

"Those who read the modern editions seldom know that years of mental toil went to the preparation of the texts so early read to-day."

"Our knowledge of Shakespeare is imperfect. It can only be increased by minute and patient study, by the rejection of surmise about him, and by the constant public playing of his plays, in the Shakespearean manner, by actors who will neither mutilate nor distort what the great mind strove to make just."

[Ugur Tezcan · Rating 2 out of 5]

C’est un livre que j’aurais jamais dû acheté et lu. On n’y trouve aucun élément qui permet d’apprécier objectivement Shakespeare, un auteur que je n’ai jamais lu. On n’y fait que glorifier son génie, voire même le diviniser. Le livre que j’avais lu juste avant - Par delà le bien et le mal de Nietzsche- fait un constat très juste à ce sujet. Il critique ce genre d’exagération, ce type de relâchement devant l’infini, l’absolu, car cela nous fait perdre notre contrôle, nous perdons notre sens pour le goût et l’appréciation en faisant cela. Il n’y a rien de noble dans tout cela, et Victor Hugo fait exactement ça.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great English Poets: William Shakespeare with introduction by Peter Porter is a delightful sampling of works by a unique and renowned talent, Williams Shakespeare. This short volume is divided into 3 parts; Songs, Sonnets and verses from plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Two Men from Verona and other plays. The introduction presents and overview of Shakespeare's life and how he lives on through timeless verse, plays and other works of merit.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victor Hugo not only gives the high points and the low points of William Shakespeare's life but also what led to Shakespeare being a great writer. He explains what made Shakespeare's art so amazing. He discusses not only the literature but the science, history and culture behind Shakespeare. Moments of brilliance...moments of rambling.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo que pretendía ser un prólogo para la traducción al francés que el hijo del autor preparaba durante el exilio familiar en Inglaterra desembocó en un ensayo apasionante, como apasionada es la pluma que lo atraviesa de principio a fin, sobre el genio de la humanidad y el Olimpo que habitan aquellos hombres que han alcanzado lo “sobrehumano” con sus creaciones, especialmente aquellos que se han valido de la literatura claro. Shakespeare es uno más de tantos, y tanto él como otros gigantes, entre los que encontramos a Homero, Esquilo, Dante, etc. logran brillar con su propia luz en esta carta de amor a la literatura
Hugo se vale de su vasto conocimiento sobre la historia de la literatura y sus diferentes figuras, desde la antigüedad hasta su contemporaneidad, y reparando en detalles que son casi parte de los bastidores de la vida de los genios a los que cita, para escarbar en las profundidades de la genialidad, en sus exageraciones, su razón de ser, la incomprensión de sus espectadores…El amor leal y puro de Hugo hacia la literatura se contagia y la lectura de este ensayo emociona y aviva el espíritu de quienes como él adoramos la lectura y experimentamos además curiosidad por la creación literaria, su historia y protagonistas.
Acaricia el corazón del lector leer a Hugo equiparar el milagro bíblico de los panes y los peces con el de los libros y la imprenta, convirtiendo a Gutenberg en un mesías de las letras, del saber y la genialidad que Hugo quiere celebrar y elevar en su texto. Esta es la visión de un amante de los libros que pone su genio a disposición de sus antecesores en un recorrido íntimo, muy partidista todo hay que decirlo, y a la vez universal sobre los grandes creadores, entre los que eso sí ninguno sobresale por encima de los demás, pues “el arte no es sucesión, todo el arte es conjunto”

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...you have Shakespeare; and looking at these minds is the same thing as to look at the ocean..."

This may purport to be a book about Shakespeare, but at barely any point in reading Hugo's work did I know what to expect next. From a fictional framing device to a biography of Shakespeare to an examination of literary genius to political fulminations against tyranny, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE is a book where its titular subject is peripheral, accomplishing the bizarre achievement of analysing Shakespeare with hardly any extended quotations of his work.

But of course, that isn't Hugo's goal. So much of this work is concerned with the joy of reading and Hugo's transcendent pleasure at the mental motions of genius, of whom Shakespeare is only one voice amongst a community of equal greats. For Hugo, reverence towards corrupt monarchs and government is odious not only in itself, but also because it distracts from the respect more properly owed towards great artists, and creates the preconditions for these writers to not be properly valued. And perhaps most surprisingly for a work of literary criticism, Hugo refuses to speak against Shakespeare or the other geniuses he cites, instead celebrating the beauty they produce without the slightest reservation: as he writes, "Men who deny are not critics. Hatred is not intelligence."

[Kurt R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

From first appearances this book would be on Shakespeare but the truth is this is Hugo's romantic manifesto. He walks through many authors from ancient Greece to contemporaries. This is a brilliant read on art literature and philosophy. "The dreamer must be stronger than the dream" amazing work that is often overlooked in Hugo's vast cannon.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are at least two books here, and neither should be titled Shakespeare.
This is no tragedy for me, as I prefer greek lit-crit and political theory anyway.

[Claus 🧃 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 ⭐️
la prosa di victor hugo 🤌🏻😘

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

417 pages of personal reflections, asides, extrapolations, historical citations, and appreciations of WS's mind and works -- particularly good on WS the political thinker and his attitude towards tyranny. Difficult to read and to follow the argument -- ranges over all literature from Homner to Cervantes; filled with grand statements and lofty aspirations; an amazing example of Bardology; a thoughtful view of WS as seen from continental Europe -- arguably lacking in terms of critical focus, nonetheless impressive in the depth of Hugo's attachment to WS and the import of his works as a basis for Hugo's way of understanding human nature. "Poetry is a hunger of the soul -- the poet is the true instructor of the people."

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're expecting hearing about Shakespeare, you will be dissapointed.

Really slow book, but it has some interesting points too.