Theatre History II Entry 4

According to Peter Ackroy in Shakespeare: The Biography Shakespeare used events in his life to help him write his plays. “The May games of his youth return in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is not some saga of “merry England”, but the very fabric of life in a conservative and ritualized society immediately before the permanent changes induced by the reformation of religion.” (Ackroy 43) Shakespeare used real life names and places in his plays. He used the names of friends as characters and locations. He words and phrases from his childhood in his writing. I had never really thought about Shakespeare using events, phrases, and people from his childhood in his writings. It was fascinating to read about.

He also reused phrases and scenes from his own plays in other plays. This is called self-plagiarism. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest have strong resemblances between each other. His mind made connections, that’s just how his imagination flowed. In the process of copying himself he also revised himself. So he continued to improve his writing over time. (Ackroy 238)

Ackroy, Peter. Shakespeare: The Biography. 1st ed. New York, NY: Imprint of Double Day, 2005. Print.

"“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” ." “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” . Web. 6 Mar 2011. <http://www.marialiberati.com/2011/02/02/all-the-worlds-a-stage-shakespeare-sicilan-cannoli/>.