Posted by Sonnet CLV on April 28, 19100 at 03:09:34:

In Reply to: William Shakespeare, is he the original author of his plays? posted by Krystal on February 27, 19100 at 12:17:10:

Of course Shakespeare is the author of his plays. (The nonsense that someone else wrote them is, well ... nonsense.) But Shakespeare didn't always invent his plots. He got ideas from all around. For instance, the plot ROMEO & JULIET derives almost exactly from the earlier poem "ROMEUS & JULIET" by Arthur Brooke ... though the story of the hapless lovers pre-dates even that poem, which dates to a few years before Shakespeare was born. And MACBETH is taken from a couple of incidents of Scottish history found in HOLINSHED'S CHRONICLES. Shakespeare distorts the history to his advantage, but the basic storyline is not highly original. As for HAMLET? Was that derived from an early play by Kyd? Possibly ... though some think it derives from Shakespeare's own early play called HAMLET. But that story is also older. And the history plays and JULIUS CEASER and ANTONY & CLEOPATRA are not original creations, either.
But what Shakepeare was the master of was taking the basic story and moving it into the realm of art ... mainly through the presentation of character. And no one (before or since) ever presented character quite as well as The Bard of Avon.

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• Re: William Shakespeare, is he the original author of his plays? becc 03:01:28 3/10/104 (0)

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