Most of Shakespeare's plays are based on old scripts, novels, chronicles or folklore, but he injects his own ideas into the rewriting, giving the old themes new, rich and profound content. In terms of artistic expression, he inherited and developed the three major traditions of ancient Greek and Roman drama, medieval Britain and Renaissance European drama, and made creative innovations from content to form. His plays are not bound by the three unities, break through the boundaries of tragedy and comedy, strive to reflect the true face of life, and deeply explore the inner mysteries of the characters, thus being able to create many typical characters with complex and diverse personalities, real and vivid images, and depict a broad, It is a colorful picture of social life and is famous for its broad, profound, poetic and philosophical nature.
Shakespeare's plays were popular plays written for the British stage and audience at that time. Therefore, its characteristics such as the blending of tragedy and joy, the appreciation of elegance and vulgarity, the freedom of time and space, and its efforts to mobilize the audience's imagination to make up for the simplicity of the stage were criticized by classicists represented by Voltaire in the 18th century. It was arbitrarily deleted during the performance. It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the true value of Shakespeare's plays began to be realized by critics such as Coleridge and Hazlitt. However, Shakespearean opera performances at that time were still often incorporated into the five-act structure of the play. At the end of the 19th century, W. Poel and H. Granville Barker strongly opposed the spectacular tradition of Shakespearean drama performances at that time, and advocated performing the Elizabethan theater without scenery in order to restore its inherent characteristics.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Shakespeare's plays were introduced to Germany, France, Italy, Russia, and the Nordic countries, and then gradually spread to the United States and even all over the world. They had a huge and far-reaching impact on the development of drama in various countries and have become An important link and source of inspiration for world cultural development and exchange. China began to introduce and translate Shakespeare's plays at the beginning of this century. In 1978, it published the 11-volume "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" based on Zhu Shenghao's translation, which was fully revised and supplemented. In 1902, students from St. John's College in Shanghai were the first to perform "The Merchant of Venice" in English. According to incomplete statistics, China has 65 professional and amateur performance groups, operating in 5 languages: English, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Cantonese, and in 6 forms: civilized drama, modern drama, opera, radio drama, ballet, and puppet show.* **Performed 21 Shakespeare plays, including most of Shakespeare's important works. Shakespeare's plays have become teaching materials in Chinese middle schools and universities, especially drama schools. The important roles in Shakespeare's plays have opened up a vast world for the training and improvement of Chinese actors.
Shakespeare left thirty-seven plays to the world, including some general plays that he co-wrote with others. In addition, he also wrote one hundred and fifty-four sonnets and three or four long poems.
Given Shakespeare's genius, achievements, and reputation, it seems somewhat bizarre that his name does not figure prominently in this volume. I rank Shakespeare so low not because I don't appreciate his artistic achievements, but because I think literary and artistic figures generally have less impact on human history.
The activities of religious leaders, scientists, politicians, explorers, philosophers or inventors often influence the development of many other areas of human endeavor. For example, the progress of science has had a huge impact on economic and political affairs, as well as the development of religious beliefs, philosophical views, and art.
Although a famous painter may have a great influence on the works of later painters, his impact on music and literature may be minimal. In fact, he may have little impact on exploration and other fields of human endeavor. No impact at all. Similar statements apply to poets, playwrights, and music composers. Generally speaking, literary and artistic figures only have an influence on literature and art, and in fact only on the special field in which they are engaged. It is for this reason that not a single literary, musical or artistic figure is included in the top thirty, and only a few are included in this volume.
So why are there literary and artistic figures in this volume? This is because appreciating literature and art has a certain direct impact on everyone's life (although this impact is not always great). In other words, a person may spend part of his time listening to music, part of his time reading, and part of his time painting. etc.
Even if the time we spend listening to music has no impact on our other activities (which is certainly an exaggeration), this portion of our time would still represent a boring time in our lives.
An artist may have more of an impact on our lives than the time we spend listening to, reading or looking at his work. This is because his works are likely to have an impact on the creative activities of other writers, whose works are experienced and appreciated by us.
In some cases, literary and artistic works have more or less explicit philosophical content, which will affect our views on other issues. This is of course more often the case with literary works than with musical or artistic works. For example, in Romeo and Juliet (Act 3, Scene 1), Shakespeare has the prince say: "You cannot show mercy to murderers, otherwise you encourage murder." The point made here (whether people accept it or not) With distinctive philosophical content, it may have an impact on people's political attitudes rather than other effects such as admiring the "Mona Lisa".
There seems to be no doubt that Shakespeare is second to none among all literary figures. Relatively speaking, few people today talk about the works of Chaucer, Virgil, or even Homer, but if a Shakespeare play were to be performed, there would definitely be a large audience. Shakespeare's genius for coining words was unparalleled, and his words are often quoted—even by people who have never seen or read one of his plays. Moreover, his fame is not a flash in the pan. His works have brought much joy to readers and critics for nearly four hundred years. Since Shakespeare's works have withstood the test of time, it seems reasonable to assume that they will remain popular for many centuries to come.
When evaluating Shakespeare’s influence, we should consider that without him, there would be no works of his at all (of course, similar arguments are suitable for every literary and artistic figure, but this factor is important when evaluating The influence of ordinary artists does not seem to be particularly important).
According to statistics, Shakespeare used this for more than two grids. It widely used folk language (such as folk songs, slang, ancient proverbs and humorous prose, etc.), paid attention to absorbing foreign vocabulary, and also made extensive use of metaphors, metaphors, and puns. It can be said to be the culmination of English at that time. Many sentences in Shakespeare's plays have become idioms, allusions and maxims in modern English. Relatively speaking, his early plays liked to use gorgeous and sonorous words and sentences; his later mature works appear to be more comfortable. He can not only use rich and diverse languages ??to express the characteristics of different characters appropriately and vividly, but also use simple and natural words and sentences to convey them. Gripping emotions and thoughts.
Although Shakespeare wrote in English, he was a truly world-famous figure. Although English is not quite a world language, it is closer than any other language. Moreover, Shakespeare's works have been translated into many kinds of literature, and many countries read his works and staged his plays.
Of course, the works of some popular writers are also despised by literary critics, but this is not the case with Shakespeare. Literary scholars spare no effort to praise his works. Dramatists for generations have studied his works in an attempt to capture his literary temperament. It is precisely because of Shakespeare's huge influence on other writers and his continued appreciation by the public that he receives a fairly high ranking in this book.
There is a passage in the preface to a certain edition of Shakespeare's plays:
Through images with powerful artistic power, he draws from his typical and at the same time distinctive personalities. In the complex relationship between the protagonists, their characters are revealed from their actions and conflicts. The strong light of humanistic thought and the outstanding and bold artistic skills radiated from the drama have a significance that has long exceeded the scope of his time and country.
Having such a great impact on the literary world, it is no wonder that his friend, the famous dramatist Ben Jones, said: "He belongs not only to one era but to the entire century."
”
The last thing I have to mention is-----
Shakespeare and World Book and Copyright Day
April 23, for the field of world literature It is a symbolic day because Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega all died on this day in 1616. In addition, April 23 is also the day when other famous writers were born. or the day of death, such as Maurice Drun, Laxnes, Vladimir Nabokov, Jose Pula and Manuel Mejía Vallejo
It is natural that the UNESCO General Conference in Paris in 1995 chose this day to pay tribute to books and authors around the world; to encourage everyone, especially young people, to discover the joy of reading and once again Express respect for those who have made irreplaceable contributions to promoting the social and cultural progress of mankind.
In November 1995, the 28th General Conference of UNESCO passed a resolution declaring that 4 October 23 is World Book and Copyright Day.
Copyright refers to the rights that authors of literary, artistic, and scientific works have over their works (including property rights and personal rights). There are two types of copyrights. Method: Automatic acquisition and registration. my country’s copyright law stipulates that copyright is automatically obtained upon completion.