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William Shakespeares Sources Shakespeare's Sources William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. During the span of his life he worked mainly as an actor and principal playwright for the Lord Chamberlains Men. His company went on to build the famous Globe Theater and were later named the Kings Men, by James I. As a writer he wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. Shakespeare is not to be discredited as an author, but the simple fact of the matter does remain.
Although William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest playwright of all time, much of the framework of his plays is not originally his ideas, but modeled after the works of numerous authors. These plays were all written by Shakespeare, but were not originated by Shakespeare. Shakespeare took interesting plot lines from various sources and transformed them into his own unique play. He transformed the originals by giving the characters new description, adding new characters completely, adding new scenes, and attaching new episodes for comedic relief. One fluctuating factor throughout these plays is the amount of sources that were used by Shakespeare. Most of the plays have borrowed plot from several different stories, very few are drawn out from one chief source.
It must also be realized that much of these sources are based on assumptions of scholars, because there is no way to prove which Shakespeare actually used. Therefore, the only sources mentioned are ones that were written before or during Shakespeare's life, and those that would have been popular throughout the society Shakespeare lived in. One of Shakespeare's plays that is built upon several contributing sources is The Merchant of Venice. The primary source used was a novella by Giovanni Fiorentino entitled Il Pecorone.
The second half of Fiorentinos tale distinctly parallels Shakespeare's play in the pound of flesh story, the lady-judge resolving the merchants dilemma at the expense of the Jew, and the ring demanded as a fee. The idea for the casket plot is derived from a Latin collection of stories called Gesta Ramanorum. The only difference is that in the Gesta story a princess is choosing to prove her worthiness to her husband, whereas in Merchant Bassanio is choosing to prove himself worthy of Portia. Shakespeare also used the collection of stories Il Novel lino, by Masuccio Salernitano, in adding in a few subplots to Merchant. Some of these scenarios involve a young girl closely guarded by her father, a young man uses his female servant to persuade the young girl to run off with him, and how the young girl steals her fathers fortune when she runs off with the young man.
The major differences between Shakespeare's final version and the preceding stories are his characterization of the Jew character, in this case Shylock, and the addition of new characters. Shakespeare sought to humanize Shylock; unlike the authors before him and added new characters in order to have more slapstick comedy in the play. (Bullough Early Comedies 445 - 449) The plot of Much Ado about Nothing, a lady falsely accused of being unfaithful, cast off by her lover, and then restored to him again, is of great age, dating back to ancient Greece. There are four very well known sources that could have been attained by Shakespeare before the time this was written. The source most widely accepted is Orlando Furioso by Ariosto, which was translated by Sir John Harrington in 1591. Other probable sources include The Faerie Queen by Spencer, The Rock of Regard by George Whetstone and a story translated by Belle forest in Histories Tragiques.
Most versions of this story are comparably the same. Similarities include the villain usually being in love with the lady himself and trying to ruin the marriage, the heroine is often the lovers fianc? e, and the lover is blamed for so easily believing the false report and for yielding to jealousy without thinking it through. The only two major differences are whether the villain is a friend of the lover and in some cases the heroine actually does die. (Bullough Comedies 61 - 66) As You Like It is drawn primarily from one source, Thomas Lodges Rosalynde or Euphues Golden Legacy.
Lodge borrowed the idea from a narrative poem known as The Tale of Gamelyn. However, Lodge transformed the exclusively masculine tale about outlaws and revengeful brothers into a pastoral concerned chiefly with love. Shakespeare made virtually no changes to the actual plot of the story. However, he did make major changes in the play that did not affect the plot at all. Shakespeare made the Duke of Frederick and Duke Senior brothers as well as making the two leading female parts first cousins. He added four new characters not found in Lodges version; they are Jaques, Touchstone, Audrey, and William.
The significant change that Shakespeare made involved omitting almost all of the violence from his play. Originally, three men are killed during a wrestling match, some outlaws are killed in a rescue attempt and a father is slain in the final battle. Shakespeare chose not to include any of this, which gives the play a more fairy-tale quality. (Evan et al. 399) History of Troilus and Cressida is yet another play that derives from several sources. The bulk of the story derives from Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde.
Shakespeare was probably familiar with its sequel as well, The Testament of Cresseid, because of its popularity during the time. In terms of historical facts, on the Greek and Trojan societies, instead of plot, there are many books that Shakespeare may have consulted. The most likely include the first installment of Homer, as translated by Chapman, Virgil's Aeneid, Caxton's Recuyell of the History of Troy, Lydgates Troy Book and Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Although these are all the leading candidates as sources for Shakespeare, the most striking similarities come from the Orestes, plays written by Euripides about the Trojan war. Both Euripides and Shakespeare saw the Trojan war as an expense of spirit in a waste of shame and they view Helen as a vain and light-minded flirt not worth a fraction of the trouble she has caused. Both of their plays are clear and simple and no characters in either show any respectable moral values.
There are practically no differences between Shakespeare and Chaucer's version, only that Shakespeare added in many new scenes, making his more descriptive and longer. (Thompson 13 - 17, 64 - 68) Boccaccio's Decameron, specifically Day III, Story 9, is almost certain to be the chief source used by Shakespeare in writing Alls Well That Ends Well. However, Shakespeare probably used the English translation of the story in The Palace of Pleasure, a collection of stories by William Painter. The story itself has folk traditions dating as far back as the Roman myths. Shakespeare first begins altering the play by shortening the time span to make it more manageable to perform. He drastically changes the characteristics of two of the major protagonists, Helena and Bertram.
Finally, he once again adds characters not in the original story. Many critics have said that by making these changes, Shakespeare transformed the simple folk-tale into one of Shakespeare's worst plays. (Muir 97 - 100) The first of the Great Tragedies is Hamlet. In terms of the source used by Shakespeare himself, scholars believe it was an earlier play entitled Ur-Hamlet by an unknown author. The most accepted author is Thomas Kyd, whose Spanish Tragedy, just like Shakespeare's Hamlet, contains a ghost demanding revenge, real or simulated madness of the avenger, death of an innocent woman, avengers who blame themselves for their procrastination, a play within a play, and a faithful Horatio. However, no matter what Shakespeare used, there is one main source for all Hamlets.
Saxo Grammaticus Historical Danica which matches, at least in broadest outline, the entire plot of Shakespeare's play. Shakespeare, in Francois de Belleforests Histoires Tragiques, could easily have read Grammaticus story. When compared to these sources it is easy to see that Shakespeare added little to the plot. (Muir 110 - 112) Othello is one of only a handful of Shakespeare's plays that borrows only a simple, brief plot outline and the rest is transformed under Shakespeare's own hand. The source is the seventh story of the third Decade in the novella Hecatommithi, by Giovanbattista Biraldi Cinthios. The basic story is the same in both until you get to the endings. In Cinthios, the Iago kills Desdemona, making it look like an accident, and later Iago turns in the Moor to Desdemona's relatives, who kill him.
In Shakespeare Othello kills Desdemona, confesses to it, and Iago is apprehended before being put to death. The main difference is in the characterization that Shakespeare has added. Shakespeare's transformation of the characters is clear, Cinthios virtuous Desdemona is raised almost to the archetype of virtue; the valiant Moor takes on such noble stature that his toppling into chaos is titanic; and handsome Iago with the most evil character in the world becomes a boon companion, diabolic puppeteer, and petty sniper almost too complex for definition. (Satin 427 - 429) King Lear is unique among the playing that the direct sources of its plot and subplots are each clearly defined and richly detailed we may trace the main plot sources in a precise line of development from its origin. One source used by Shakespeare was The True Chronicle of King Learn by an anonymous author, they are nearly identical until the middle of Act III. After that Shakespeare relied on other sources for the ending.
Among these was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Resume Britannia. Both include the division of the kingdom, Cordelias costly honesty, two ungrateful daughters, flight to France and restoration of the throne. The same basic story also appears in The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spencer. Evidence for this possible source used by Shakespeare are Spencer is first to state that Cordelia dies by hanging the way she dies in King Lear.
And he is the first to spell her name as Shakespeare will symbolic manner suggests Spencer may have selected this variant because Delia was a popular Renaissance anagram for ideal. (Evans et al. 1298) The last of the Great Tragedies is Macbeth. Much like the histories, Macbeth borrows from Holinsheds Chronicles, but Shakespeare handled the information very differently than the histories. He chose a span of history much longer than usual, shortened the actual time period of the play, and used Chronicles mainly for sensationalism and witchery. From Chronicles, Shakespeare chose the murder of Duff and of Duncan.
From the Duff stories he took the characters witch-ridden illness, the witches of Forres, the murder of the king, under circumstances closely resembling Macbeth, and fearful signs of nature in aftermath of murder. From the Duncan section he uses Macbeth and Banquo meeting with the witches, Duncan's decision to have Malcolm succeed him, the ambitious Lady Macbeth, Malcolm flight to England, murder of Banquo and Macduffs family, witches prophecies of Birnam Wood and Macbeth not fearing any man born of woman, and Macduff killing Macbeth. There are no differences because Macbeth comes from one source that is basically a history book. Shakespeare just took these stories from the book, wove them together and gave the characters life. (Satin 533 - 535) Shakespeare has written plays that stand out as the greatest works of literature of all time.
Shakespeare was able to describe human emotion and behavior like no other. However, it is easy to see that much of his plays are not the original ideas of Shakespeare himself. He has used previous works that had very interesting plots, and he has taken them and remade them into a story all his own. Maybe instead of calling Shakespeare the greatest writer of all time a more fitting name might be, the greatest editor of all time. An editor is one who prepares and corrects manuscripts for publication, basically much of what Shakespeare did was just correcting an already existing work.
For future reference remember that as great a writer as Shakespeare was, much of the framework of his plays is not originally his ideas, but modeled after the works of numerous authors. 331
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