WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND THE GLOBE THEATER.

 

William Shakespeare was born at Stratford –upon- Avon in April, 1564. He was the third child, and the eldest son, of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. His father was one of the most prosperous men of Stradford. Little is known of Shakespeare’s early life. In 1592 Shakespeare became suddenly famous as a playwright. In April, 1593 he published his poem Venus and Adonis. It was a great and lasting success, and was reprinted nine times in the next few years.

 

There was little playing in 1593. The theatres were shut during a severe outbreak of the plague: but in the autumn of 1594, when the plague ceased, the playing companies reorganized, and Shakespeare became a sharer in the lord Chamberlain’s company. By that time he had already written three parts of Henry VI, Richard III, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew. Soon afterwards he wrote the first of his great plays – Romeo and Juliet - and followed this success in the next three years with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, and the Merchant of Venice. By the summer of 1598 Shakespeare was recognized as the greatest English dramatist.

 

At Christmas 1598 the players of the lord Chamberlain’s company settled a new playhouse on the south bank of Thames. This playhouse was named the Globe. The expenses of the new building were shared by the chief members of the company, including Shakespeare, who was now a man of some means.

 

Shortly after the globe was opened, Shakespeare had completed the cycle of plays dealing with the whole story of the war of the roses with Henry V.

 

Since 1601 Shakespeare had been writing less and his name did not occur in the various lists of players after 1607. Shakespeare died at Stratford upon Avon on April 23, 1616.

 

When Shakespeare died fourteen of his plays had been separately published. In 1623 his fellow actors John Heming and Henry Condell with the co-operation of a number of printers, published a collected edition of thirty six plays in one volume, with an engraved portrait, and memorial verses by Ben Jonson and others.

 

TASK:

I. Remember the names of the following plays by Shakespeare?

 

Two Gentlemen of Verona-“ Два веронца”

The Comedy of Errors – “Комедия ошибок”

The Taming of the Shrew- “Укрощение строптивой”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream- “Сон в летнюю ночь”

The Merchant of Venice- «Венецианский купец»

 

II. Translate and remember the following words:

 

Playwright, success, company, play, dramatist, playhouse, edition, verse;

Cease, recognize, settle, share, complete, occur;

Famous, various, memorial;

Suddenly, already, afterwards, shortly, since, separately, a number of;

The Lord Chamberlain’s company- труппа “Слуги лорда Камергера”

 

III. Read the sonnets of W. Shakespeare and the translations.

 

LXVI   Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, - As, to behold Desert a beggar born, And Needy nothing trimm’d in jollity, And purest Faith unhappily forsworn, And gilded Honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden Virtue rudely strumpeted, And right Perfection wrongfully disgraced, And Strength by limping Sway disabled, And Art made tongue-tied by Authority, And Folly, doctor-like, controlling Skill, And simple Truth miscall’d Simplicity, And captive Good attending captain Ill:   Tired with all these, from these would be I gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.	LXVI   Измучась всем, я умереть хочу. Тоска смотреть, как мается бедняк, И как шутя живется богачу, И доверять, и попадать впросак, И наблюдать, как наглость лезет в свет, И честь девичья катится ко дну, И знать, что ходу совершенствам нет, И видеть мощь у немощи в плену, И вспоминать, что мысли заткнут рот, И разум сносит глупости хулу, И прямодушье простотой слывет, И доброта прислуживает злу.   Измучась всем, не ста бы жить и дня, Да другу трудно будет без меня.
LXXIII   That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see’st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by an by black night doth take away, Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death bed whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourisht by.   This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong To love that well which thou must leave here long.	LXXIII   То время года видишь ты во мне, Когда из листьев редко где какой, Дрожа, желтеет в веток голизне, А птичий свист везде сменил покой… Во мне ты видишь бледный край небес, Где от заката памятка одна, И, постепенно взявши перевес, Их опечатывает темнота. Во мне ты видишь то сгоранье пня, Когда зола, что пламенем была, Становится могилою огня, А то, что грело, изошло дотла,   И это видя, помни: нет цены   Свиданьям, дни которых сочтены.
III. Choose one of the sonnets and learn it by heart. IV. Remember Ashakespeare’s famous quotations:     All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players   Something is rotten in the state of Denmark   To be or not to be: that is the question   What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.	Весь мир- театр, В котором все мы только лишь актеры.   Прогнило что-то в Датском королевстве.   Быть или не быть – вот в чем вопрос. Важно ли имя? Назови мы розу Хоть как иначе, запах будет тот же.

 

Jack London

Jack London is the praiser of strong willed people struggling with severe nature and tricks of fortune Jack London, born in San-Francisco had changed many jobs before he became a famous writer. He was a newsboy, selling papers in the streets, then he joined the oyster pirates, he shipped as a sailor on a schooner, sailed for the Japanese coast on a seal-hunting expedition. London tramped all through the United States, from California to Boston, and up and down. He returned to the Pacific coast by way of Canada, where he got into jail and served a term for vagrancy. “And the whole tramping experience made me become a Socialist; - Jack London wrote about himself. In his nineteenth year he returned to Oakland and started at the High School. After leaving the High School, in three months cramming by himself Jack London entered the University of California but “I hated to give up the hope of a University education; the famous writer remembered – and worked in a laundry and with my pen to help me keep on”.

In 1897 London left for the Klondike to prospect for gold. He came back without a dollar, but he brought valuable impressions unforgettable recollections.

His first literary trying was the article “Typhoon off the Coast of Japan”. The San Francisco “Call” offered a prize for a descriptive article. London recalled: “Very tired and sleepy, knowing I had to be up at half-past five, I began the article at midnight and worked straight on until I had written two thousand words, the limit of the article, but with my idea only half worked out. The next night, under the same conditions, I continued, adding another two thousand words before I finished, and then the third night I spend in cutting out the excess, so as to bring the article within the condition of the contest. The first prize came to me, and the second and third went to students of the Stanford and Berkeley Universities”.

 

Jack London’s first book was published in 1900: it was “The Son of the Wolf”. There appeared short-story collections about the North: “The God of His Fathers” (1901), “The Children of the Frost” (1902), “Love of Life and Other Stories” (1907).

These short-stories are usually called “North Stories”. The place of action brings them near together. But not only that. The likeness of characters brings them near together too. London shows the people which are strong and courageous. For the first time in the American literature. The North was showed as a real place. It was in the London short-stories. The main theme of his stories is the theme of the contradiction of real nature and bourgeois civilization. The capitalist society is contrasted with the severe North where life is very difficult but really free. The Northern nature is lifeless, feeble, monotonous terrible and grand, majestic. Comparing the nature with the man, Jack London stressed only the outward opposition: a little weak man and the mighty nature. This contrast is necessary to show all-conquering man’s forces. This contrast glorifies the Man because He, a little point on the great snow plain, has overcome, has won a victory over nature.

Imaging the theme “the Man and the Nature London tries to find the key, common to all mankind. For Jack London this key, common to all mankind, is the next a life is a struggle. A man lives while he is fighting. Sitka Charly must overcome great difficulties to get to a seashore (“Woman’s Courage”). His companions died of starvation (hunger). His face is frost – bitten. He is dizzy with weakness, but he is going forward, steady forward. And Jack London considers him a hero.

The nature is ruthless to a man; a snow plain fags a man by hunger and space, crashed down pine (breaks) fractures Mason’s spine. The last one is a very tragic scene: “Fifty feet or more from the trail towered a forty pine. For generations destiny had had this one end in view-perhaps the same had been decreed of Mason. He stooped to fasten to loosened thong of his moccasin. The sleds came to a halt, and the dogs lay down in the snow without a whimper. The stillness was weird not a breath rustled the frost – encrusted forest; the cold and silence of outer space had child the heart and smote the trembling lips of nature. A sigh pulsed through the air – they did not seem to actually hear it, but rather felt it, like the premonition of movement in a motionless void. Then the great tree, burdened with its weight of years and snow, played its last part in the tragedy of life. He head the warning crash and attempted to spring up but, almost erect, caught the blow squarely on the shoulder”.

In the same short-story we meet the man who is not afraid of the Nature. His name is Malemute Kid. Kid is one of the main London’s characters. He acts in many Nothern short-stories. He knows made of North life, disposition of its people, he has authority with them. In the “White Silence” he is a true friend of Mason. After Mason’s death Kid takes care of his wife and his child.

 

TASK:

I. Answer the questions:

 

1. Where and when was he born?

2. What jobs did he do?

3. Where did London go in 1897?

4. What was his first literary trying?

5. When was London’s first book published? What was its name?

6. What are “North Stories” about?

7. Who is one of the main London’s characters?

II. Retell the text in 15-20 sentences.

 

 

VI. Theatre and Cinema

 

London theatres.

1.How many theatres are there in Britain? In London?

1. Where are the majority of theatres locsted?
2. What do you know about the National Theatre Company?
3. What plays does the British National Theatre deal with?
4. What does the RSC mean?
5. Where can you watch the Royal Ballet Company’s performances?
6. Where in London can you watch operas?
7. Where is London’s theatreland?
8. What theatre will you choose, you want to see plays by Shakspear?

 

 

VII. Painting

1. Picasso [Ruiz Picasso], Pablo

Spanish painter, sculptor, draughtsman, printmaker, decorative artist and writer, active in France. He dominated 20th-century European art and was central in the development of the image of the modern artist. Episodes of his life were recounted in intimate detail, his comments on art were published and his working methods recorded on film. Painting was his principal medium, but his sculptures, prints, theatre designs and ceramics all had an impact on their respective disciplines. Even artists not influenced by the style or appearance of his work had to come to terms with its implications

With Georges Braque Picasso was responsible for Cubism, one of the most radical re-structurings of the way that a work of art constructs its meaning. During his extremely long life Picasso instigated or responded to most of the artistic dialogues taking place in Europe and North America, registering and transforming the developments that he found most fertile. His marketability as a unique and enormously productive artistic personality, together with the distinctiveness of his work and practice, have made him the most extensively exhibited and discussed artist of the 20th century.

TASK:

I. Answer the questions:

1. Is Picasso Spanish or French?

2. Can we call him a “versatile” artist?

3. What was his principal medium?

4. What art style was Picasso responsible for?

5. Can you explain the meaning of “Cubism”?

6. Can you remember any of his works and describe them?

7. Why is he the most extensively exhibited artist of the 20-th century? Give your opinion.

II. Find any reproduction of Picasso’s pictures, bring it into the class and describe it.

III. Retell the text.

 

2. Van Gogh

 

I would like to tell you about one of the most famous painters in the world, Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh was born on 30^th of March, 1853. His brief artistic career was dogged by painful personal relationships and by commercial failure. On the evening of 27 July 1890, in a field near the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, north-west of Paris, Vincent Van Gogh put a pistol to his chest and shot himself. Since his death, and particularly during the last 40 years, Van Gogh has become one of the great hero-figures of 20^th century culture. His life has been the subject of plays, novels, films. He is a painter whose influence is still significant in the late 20^th century and a pioneer in the abstract use of form and colour for their symbolic and expressive values. Without his discoveries, several of the more significant movements in modern painting the Fauves in France, the Expressionists in Germany, and the Abstract Expressionists in New York – could not have evolved as they did. He had so little professional training. He spent several months in Brussels taking lessons in anatomy and perspective. He was a provincial Dutchman, with very little experience of the world. He was essentially self-taught. His early works, influenced by Millet and dealing mainly with peasant life, are dark in tonality, provincial in feeling. In the winter of 1886 he arrived in Paris, where he met some painters of high reputation – Pissaro, Monet, Cezanne, Signac and Gauguin, who had strong personalities and clearly defined theories. However, Van Gogh’s creative personality remained to tally his own. From 1886 to 1890 he painted no fewer than 35 self – portraits in oil. One reason for this was that he seldom had any money for models. But more important was his desire to know himself, a desire to project an image of both his outer form and his personality. He had the wonderfully productive period at Arles. More than 800 oil paintings and an even larger number of drawings and water – colours survived. His paintings, unsaleable in his life time, are today beyond price. I like his paintings, because they have the strong but subtle line and the vibrant, unorthodox colours. He painted with heavy brush strokes to emphasize rich texture and solid form.

TASK:

I. Answer the questions:

 

1.When was he born?

2. Has his life been the subject of plays, novels, films?

3. Can you prove his influence on the 20-th century art?

4. Was he self-taught or professional?

5. How many self-portraits did he paint?

6. How many oil paintings did he paint?

7. What famous museums have the pictures by Van Gogh?

III. What is your favourite picture by Van Gogh? Tell about it.

IV. Retell the text.

 

 

VIII. Holidays

 

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