English literature the book is designed to acquaint students with the main outlines

Questions and Tasks

1. Who were the foremost poets o f the later period of the English Renaissance?

2. 
   What works by Sir Philip Sidney do you know and what
   

. are they about?

3. 
   Why is Edmund Spenser called “the prince of poets “?
   

4. Do you know why Christopher Marlowe died so young?

5. 
   What kind of heroes Christopher Marlowe portrayed in his tragedies?
   

6. Speak about “Сафе diem poetry”.

7. 
   Recite any Carpe diem poem you know by heart and define its idea.
   

8. Who is the author of the best English satirical comedies?

9. 
   What contribution did Ben Jonson make to English literature?
   

10. What English writers can be listed as the followers of Ben Jonson?

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

A poet and playwright William Shakespeare is the favorite author of millions of readers all over the world. No other writer’s plays have been produced so often and read so widely in so many different countries. He had a greater influence on the world literature than any other author.

William Shakespeare was bom in 1564, on April 23 in Stratford- on-Avon, in England. His father, John Shakespeare, was a prosperous glove maker of Stratford who, after holding miner municipal offices, was elected high bailiff(the equivalent of mayor)

of Stratford. Shakespeare’s mother. Mary Arden, came from a family oflandowners.

In his childhood Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar School.

Shakespeare’s contemporaries first admired him for his long narrative poems “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594).

In 1599 the best-known of Elizabethan theatres, the Globe, was buili and Shakespeare became a leading shareholder and the principal playwright to the theatre company. He was also an actor, but not a first-rate one: the parts he played were the old servant Adam in “As You like It” and the Ghost in “Hamlet”.

In 1613, after the Globe had been destroyed by fire during a performance of “Henry VIII” he retired and stopped writing. By then he was very ill. He died on April 23, 1616 and was buried in the Holy Trinity church in Stratford where he was christened.

Although some of Shakespeare’s plays were published during his life-time, noi until his death was any attempt made to collect them in a single volume. The first edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays appeared in 1623.

Shakespeare’s works are truly immortal, and will retain their immortality as long as the human race exists. He is a true classic; every new generation finds something new and unperceived in his works. His popularity all over the world grows from year to year. More than four hundred years after his birth the plays of Shakespeare are performed even more often than they were during his lifetlne. They are performed on the stage, in the movies, and on television. They are read by millions of people all over the world.
Shakespeare’s Plays

Most scholars agree that there exist 37 plays written by Shakespeare. Traditionally, Shakespeare’s plays have been divided into three groups: comedies, histories, and tragedies. All of the works ofthe great playwright are written in four periods of his

literary career. Each o f these periods reflects a general phase o f Shakespeare’s artistic development.