William Shakespare

A cura di J. Pignet
 Hamlet is one of the most famous and frequently represented plays written by Shakespeare. Its psychological, relational and existential implications make this tragedy remain relevant and intriguing.
 Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears to him to ask to avenge his death caused by his brother Claudius, who has usurped the throne and married his sister-in-law after the murder.
 Hamlet’s witty plan to organize the revenge goes along with his presumed madness. The sequence of woeful events and the finale loaded with violent deaths are the typical ingredients of the “revenge tragedies” of the time.
 The book, written in narrative form, is interspaced with authentic lines, among the most famous ones. It is also enriched with inserts on theatre and cinema performances, the sources, the various themes of the tragedy and the study of its main characters. 
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Audioscripts - Summing-up Activities
 
 Una delle più celebri e rappresentate tragedie di Shakespeare, i cui risvolti psicologici, relazionali ed esistenziali la rendono ancora attuale ed intrigante. La successione di funesti eventi e il finale carico di morti violente sono i tipici ingredienti della tragedia dell’epoca. Il reader è esposto in forma narrativa con intermezzi di versi autentici tra i più famosi. È corredato da approfondimenti, tra i quali, le fonti, le problematiche e lo studio dei personaggi, le rappresentazioni teatrali e cinematografiche della tragedia.

William Shakespeare

Chapter 1 – An Unweeded Garden

Extension: Composition and Texts

Chapter 2 – The Cause of the Defect

Extension: Hamlet and the Stage

Chapter 3 – Blasted with Ecstasy

Extension: What is the Problem?

Chapter 4 – The Tormentor

Extension: The Springs of Corruption

Chapter 5 – A Lady Called Death

Extension: The Rose of May

Chapter 6 – The Readiness is All

Extension: Adapting Hamlet to Film

Summing-up activities

Glossary

The author William Shakespeare Many things have been said of William Shakespeare, mixing fact and legend. The recorded1 facts are his baptism (26th April 1564) and his burial2 (25th April 1616) in Stratford-upon-Avon. His mother s family was related to Thomas More, one of the first victims of Henry VIII s Reformation. His father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant in skins, wool and corn and held important offices in the local town council. It is reasonable to assume that young Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School, where he learnt reading and arithmetic, some history and a lot of Latin rhetoric, logic and literature. On 27th November 1582 a marriage license was issued3 to William Shakespeare, then eighteen, and Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior. In May 1583 the couple had a child, a daughter called Susanna, and in 1585 twins were born, Hamnet and Judith. According to legend, the young man was one day found poaching4 deer and rabbits on the lands of the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy, and decided to flee5 to London both to avoid prison and to lead a more exciting life. In London Shakespeare presumably started working with a company of actors, first as an errand boy6, then as an actor. It is certain that by 1592 he was famous, because a rival playwright7, Robert Greene (c. 1558-1592), accused him of being  an upstart8 crow9, beautified with our feathers10 . Between 1592 and 1594 the theatres were closed down due to the plague11 and Shakespeare devoted himself to poetry. He wrote two long poems (Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece), some of his 154 Sonnets, and dedicated them to his patron and friend Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In 1594 Shakespeare became a member of the theatrical company called the Chamberlain s Men, later the King s Men, on James I s ascent 1. 2. 3. 4. recorded: documented. burial: entombment, funeral. issued: given. poaching: catching and killing animals without permission. 5. flee: run away. 6. errand boy: a young man employed 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 4 by a shop or business to take messages, deliver goods, etc  playwright: writer of theatrical pieces. upstart: parvenu. crow: large black bird. feather: piuma. plague: pestilence, infectious disease. 

to the throne (1603). The company acted mainly at the Globe Theatre, a public playhouse built in Shoreditch12 and owned in part by Shakespeare. From his acting, playwriting and theatre profits, Shakespeare certainly made a considerable amount of money, and in 1596 his family was granted a coat of arms13; the following year Shakespeare bought New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, where he retired in 1611 and where he died on 23rd April 1616. Shakespeare started his career as a playwright with a trilogy on the reign of Henry VI and continued dealing with English history, from the reign of Richard II to the reign of Richard III (1383-1485). Following Christopher Marlowe s example, Shakespeare moved from chronicle plays to historical tragedies, and gradually evolved a more personal form of drama which also included comical scenes and characters (e.g. Falstaff in Henry IV). His source was Raphael Holinshed s Chronicles (1577), but he offered his own interpretation of history based on the concept that the State can survive only through the reciprocal loyalty of king and subjects. With Falstaff (Henry IV) Shakespeare s conception of comedy matured, moving from the courtly14 atmosphere of Love s Labours Lost to the romantic humanity of The Taming of the Shrew. All these early experiments combined to produce the magic of A Midsummer Night s Dream, Shakespeare s most original and perfectly designed play. His later comedies, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night show a world in which reality and laughter often clash15, and the romantic story risks becoming too serious. Shakespeare s best production is mostly connected to his great tragedies, all composed between 1600 and 1608, beginning with Hamlet and including Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. Shakespeare had already worked on romantic tragedy in Romeo and Juliet; in Julius Caesar he had combined Roman history with the study of the personal tragedy of Brutus, a son turned murderer. In his great tragedies, vision, characters and motives are so well organized and balanced, expressed in powerful verse and imagery, that they appeal to all sorts of audiences. In Shakespeare s last romances, The Winter s Tale and The Tempest, the characters are half-allegorical and the theme of pardon and reconciliation is dominant. Shakespeare s plays were collected and published in 1623, in the first In Folio16, by John Heminges and Henry Condell. 12. Shoreditch: area outside the City walls, along the right bank of the Thames. 13. coat of arms: family emblem. 14. courtly: set at court. 15. clash: conflict, fight. 16. In Folio: volume with pages half a sheet. 5 

Narrativa inglese, livello B2 intermedio, tragedia di Shakespeare corredata da approfondimenti specifici come la caratterizzazione dei personaggi.

Hamlet - Collana RAINBOWS

Level B2 • Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

Hamlet

Flowbooks è una piattaforma di distribuzione dedicata al mondo della scuola e dell'università.  Con questa piattaforma di distribuzione, il team di sviluppo Flowbooks  si impegna a soddisfare le esigenze degli utenti digitali, rendendo l'utilizzo accessibile e piacevole.  Entra nella tua area di interesse!

Edisco è una Casa editrice indipendente che opera prevalentemente nel settore educativo.

Edisco

Flowbooks è innovazione didattica a portata di click