WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, página 47 de 160

William ShakespeareLively, instructive access to Shakespeare's rich and complex works. Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early this century, admiration for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favourite with the critics and has attracted widely different styles of performance. At one extreme the play is seen as a religious allegory, at the other it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege. Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises which shock the audience even to the end. The introduction describes the plays critical reception and stage history and how these have varied according to prevailing social, moral, and religious issues, which were highly sensitive when Measure for Measure was written, and have remained so to the present day.

Hamlet : J'ai depuis peu, pourquoi je n'en sais rien, perdu toute ma gaieté, abandonné mes habituels exercices ; et de fait mon humeur est si désolée que cet admirable édifice, la terre, me semble un promontoire stérile, et ce dais de l'air, si merveilleux n'est-ce pas, cette voûte superbe du firmament, ce toit auguste décoré de flammes d'or, oui, tout cela n'est plus pour moi qu'un affreux amas de vapeurs pestilentielles. » Acte II, scène 2).

Shakespeare Hamlet / Othello / Macbeth L a vie est une histoire racontée par un idiot, pleine de fureur et de bruit, et qui ne signifie rien. Macbeth , acte V, scène v Hamlet , Othello , Macbeth , une même histoire de chair, d'amour et de mort. Des mains sont rougies d'un sang innocent qu'aucun parfum d'Arabie ne lavera. Les spectres et les sorcières mènent la danse. Ils incitent Hamlet à tuer son oncle, meurtrier de son père et amant de sa mère ; Othello son épouse qu'il croit infidèle ; Macbeth son roi, pour prendre la couronne. Le cauchemar de chacun devient réalité. « Il y a quelque chose de pourri dans le royaume du Danemark », en Ecosse et à Venise. Les trois héros ont provoqué le destin. Il les écrasera, faisant périr aussi Ophélie et Desdémone, l'amour et la pureté. Le génie de Shakespeare est de dire toute l'incertitude de la condition humaine, ses rêves, sa gloire, sa petitesse. Edition présentée et commentée par Yves Florenne.

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If William Shakespeare had never written a single play, if his reputation rested entirely upon the substantial and sterling body of nondramatic verse he left behind, he would still hold the position he does in the hierarchy of world literature. The strikingly modern sonnetsintimate, baroque, and expansive at once; the invigorating narratives drawn from classical subjects; and the flawless lyricism represented by a poem like The Phoenix and the Turtlepermanently deepen our understanding of the multiplicity and extravagant energy of our greatest poet.

Othello (The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1603.The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello is a Moorish general in the Venetian army charged with the generalship of Venice on the eve of war with the Ottoman Turks over the island of Cyprus. He has just married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy Venetian, much younger than him, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's jealous and bitter ensign who maliciously goads his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage.Due to its enduring themes of passion, jealousy and race, Othello is still widely performed and has inspired numerous adaptations.The Tempest tells a fairly straightforward story involving an unjust act, the usurpation of Prosperos throne by his brother, and Prosperos quest to re-establish justice by restoring himself to power. However, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems highly subjective, since this idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Though Prospero presents himself as a victim of injustice working to right the wrongs that have been done to him, Prosperos idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocriticalthough he is furious with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban in order to achieve his ends. At many moments throughout the play, Prosperos sense of justice seems extremely one-sided and mainly involves what is good for Prospero. Moreover, because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prosperos interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous.