Publication of William Shakespeare Plays THE PUBLICATION OF SHAKESPEARE PLAYS - The section covering Shakespeare the Playwright covers the reasons why Play writers were not held in high esteem and why the profession could be dangerous!
- The playwrights would sell their plays to the theatre companies for a 'one-off' sum. There were no 'royalties' during the Elizabethan era!
- Plays were blatantly copied and stolen - read the section on Quarto Texts and this plagiarism led to different versions of some plays, including those of William Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’s time copyright did not exist!
- William Shakespeare invested in the Globe Theatre and it was in his interest to produce as many plays as possible! The type of plays being shown were advertised by different coloured flags being flown on the theatre - these flags could be seen for miles (remember that most of the population were still illiterate!) Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre
- There was a huge amount of competition between the theatres! There was a lot of money to be earned and it was important for the theatres to produce new plays and play a variety of different plays during the week
- The majority of the plays of William Shakespeare were published in 1623 in a document called The First Folio - Seven years after his death!
- The plays were divided into three themes - Histories, Comedies and Tragedies:
William Shakespeare Comedies William Shakespeare Histories William Shakespeare Tragedies THE FIRST PUBLICATION DATES OF THE PLAYS BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - Each of the Plays first print / publication dates are detailed below
FULL TEXT, SUMMARY, CHARACTERS AND INFO ABOUT THE PLAYS BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |