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Encyclopedia > Shakespeare's Late Romances

The late romances, often simply called the romances, are a grouping of William Shakespeare's later plays, including Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. The Two Noble Kinsmen is sometimes included in this grouping. The term was first used in regard to these works in Edward Dowden's Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875). Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play written partly by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected plays. ... Cymbeline is a play by William Shakespeare. ... The Winters Tale is a comedy by William Shakespeare. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Two Noble Kinsmen is a play written in 1613 by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare in collaboration. ... Edward Dowden (May 3, 1843 - April 4, 1913), was an Irish critic and poet. ...


The category of Shakespearean romance arise from a hesitation among critics to categorize them as comedies (though all but Cymbeline, which was listed among the tragedies, were considered so by John Heminges and Henry Condell when they edited the First Folio), because they bear similarities with medieval romance literature and are different from comedies in many ways. Shakespeare's romances share the following features: This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... John Heminges was an actor in the Kings Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. ... Henry Condell was an actor in the Kings Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. ... The title page of the First Folio with the famous engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout The First Folio is the name given by modern scholars to the first published collection of William Shakespeares plays; its actual title is Mr. ... As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ...

  • A redemptive plotline with a happy ending involving the re-uniting of long-separated family members;
  • Magic and other fantastical elements;
  • A deus ex machina, often manifesting as a Greek god (such as Zeus in Cymbeline or Diana in Pericles);
  • A mixture of "civilized" and "pastoral" scenes (such as the gentry and the island residents in The Tempest);
  • "...and the poetry is a return to the lyrical style of the early plays, though more mellow and profound."[1]

Shakespeare's romances were also influenced by two major developments in theatre in the early years of the seventeenth century. One was the innovation in tragicomedy initiated by John Fletcher and developed in the early Beaumont and Fletcher collaborations. The other was the extreme elaboration of the courtly masque being conducted at the same time by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. [See: The Masque of Blackness; The Masque of Queens.] Spoiler warning: Deus ex machina is a Latin phrase that is used to describe an unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot (e. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving In Greek mythology, Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Ζεύς Zeús, genitive... Diana was the equivalent in Roman mythology of the Greek Artemis (see Roman/Greek equivalency in mythology for more details). ... Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. ... Tragicomedy (or dark comedy or black comedy) refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. ... John Fletcher (1579-1625) was a Jacobean playwright. ... Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I. It is still uncertain how many plays were their joint work. ... Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the heroic torso in armour and other conventions were still employed for opera seria in the 18th century. ... Benjamin Jonson (circa June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... Inigo Jones, by Sir Anthony van Dyck Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573–June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant English architect. ... The Masque of Blackness was first performed at the court at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1605. ... The Masque of Queens, Celebrated From the House of Fame is one of the earlier works in the series of masques that Ben Jonson composed for the House of Stuart in the early seventeenth century. ...


The distinctiveness of the late romances has been questioned – the plays certainly share commonalities with earlier Shakespearean works like Twelfth Night, with earlier romances by other authors back to the ancient world, and with works in genres like pastoral. Yet Shakespeare's late plays have a distinctive aura to them, with elements of tragicomedy and masque blended with elements of comedy and romance and pastoral – not into a chaos as might be expected, but into coherent, dramatically effective and appealing plays. Twelfth Night has at least three meanings: Twelfth Night (holiday), celebrated by some Christians Twelfth Night, or What You Will, a comedic play by William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (band), a progressive rock band This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...


Literary Romance in a larger context is a genre related to Comedy. Comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humour with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ...


A List of Shakespeare's Late Romances

The following list represents the most popular consensus regarding Shakespeare's romances:


The Norton Shakespeare describes Henry VIII (ca. 1612-13) as being characteristc of the late romances, but still considers it one of the histories. Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play written partly by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected plays. ... Cymbeline is a play by William Shakespeare. ... The Winters Tale is a comedy by William Shakespeare. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Two Noble Kinsmen is a play written in 1613 by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare in collaboration. ... Dame Ellen Terry as Catherine of Aragon The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth was one of the last plays written by the English playwright William Shakespeare, based on the life of Henry VIII of England. ...


Notes

  1. ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; p. 419.
  2. ^ F. E. Halliday, Shakespeare Companion, pp. 419, 507-8. See also Hallett Smith on the "many links between this and the previous plays...," in: The Riverside Shakespeare, G. Blakemore Evans, textual editor; Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1974; p. 1640.
 The complete works of William Shakespeare
Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet | Macbeth | King Lear | Hamlet | Othello | Titus Andronicus | Julius Caesar | Antony and Cleopatra | Coriolanus | Troilus and Cressida | Timon of Athens
Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream | All's Well That Ends Well | As You Like It | Cymbeline | Love's Labour's Lost | Measure for Measure | The Merchant of Venice | The Merry Wives of Windsor | Much Ado About Nothing | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | Taming of the Shrew | The Comedy of Errors | The Tempest | Twelfth Night, or What You Will | The Two Gentlemen of Verona | The Two Noble Kinsmen | The Winter's Tale
Histories: King John | Richard II | Henry IV, Part 1 | Henry IV, Part 2 | Henry V | Henry VI, part 1 | Henry VI, part 2 | Henry VI, part 3 | Richard III | Henry VIII
Poems and Sonnets: Sonnets | Venus and Adonis | The Rape of Lucrece | The Passionate Pilgrim | The Phoenix and the Turtle | A Lover's Complaint
Apocrypha and Lost Plays Edward III | Sir Thomas More | Cardenio (lost) | Love's Labour's Won (lost) | The Birth of Merlin | Locrine | The London Prodigal | The Puritan | The Second Maiden's Tragedy | Richard II, Part I: Thomas of Woodstock | Sir John Oldcastle | Thomas Lord Cromwell | A Yorkshire Tragedy | Fair Em | Mucedorus | The Merry Devil of Edmonton | Arden of Faversham | Edmund Ironside
See also: Shakespeare's Influence on the English Language | Shakespeare on screen | Titles of Works based on Shakespeare | Characters | Problem Plays | Ghost character | Reputation | Authorship

  Results from FactBites:
 
William Shakespeare - definition of William Shakespeare in Encyclopedia (2791 words)
Shakespeare wrote his works between 1588 and 1613, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are often uncertain.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in April 1564, the son of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker, and of Mary Arden.
Shakespeare's father, prosperous at the time of William's birth, was prosecuted for participating in the fl market in wool, and later lost his position as an alderman.
William Shakespeare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (3399 words)
Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest writer in the English language, as well as one of the greatest in Western literature, and one of the world's pre-eminent dramatists.
Shakespeare is believed to have produced most of his work between 1586 and 1616, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are often uncertain.
Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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