Essay *If Shakespeare lived in our time*
*Clio rules the world*
If Shakespeare lived in our time...
In connection with historical events taking place nowadays in Ukraine, in the Crimea and with the coming 450th anniversary of the great writer William Shakespeare I wanted to philosophize on the subject of Shakespeare-historiographer.
He was neither a historian nor a politician, he merely reflected life for what it was, sometimes dropping into the past, as artist of a word. Its world famous Royal records say about him, as the historian, philosopher, getting acquainted with the works which we can reflect on the processes occurring at the present time, from the point of view of history, learning from his work life in all its manifestations.
It has long been noted the close connection between the historical experience and worldview of a particular era. The author of the famous * history of civilization in England* B;kle in his time noted: *there will always be a connection between how people look at the past and how they perceive the present.*
Since Goethe, Shakespeare is recognized not only as a brilliant artist, but also a great thinker. The depth of penetration into the world of human passions opened the world of history and politics for him, not dead, not idealized, but the mortal world, full of life and dynamism.
16th century in which lived and worked William Shakespeare, is complex and controversial. It was a time* when history was sitting on intellectual throne, and standing on the sides, philosophy and poetry, listened to her with awe*.(M.A. Barg) It was the age of Tudor England, certain, not like others, age. Its historical originality lays in the fact that it embodied transition period: from *old merry England*, the country of the feudal to the England of * iron age * -country bourgeois, capitalist.
Isn't that like today, when the old is being ruined and the new is being created? In culture, philosophy, politics.
In the Renaissance the authority of history was so prevalent, and its verdicts were so indisputable, that in the eyes of the powerful history was inferior only to that of theology. Service to *her majesty history *was seen as a lesson highly honorable, because this was seen not only as higher intellectual abilities, but also as civic virtues. Neither earlier nor later with a similar evaluation of the role of history in European culture nobody faced.
Practical application of the history in Shakespeare's contemporaries” minds knew no equal. In the history they saw the School of policy, the Treasury of experience leading to the Discovery of universal principles of power, sovereignty, governance, irreplaceable school of morality, worldly Wisdom and Foresight.
Historical theme gave Shakespeare opportunity to express his attitude to the present. Reproducing in the Chronicles the feudal time of troubles of medieval England and condemning them, Shakespeare at the same time showed how the forces of the people were strengthening and formed the United national English state. Therefore, despite the abundance of bloody events in them, Chronicles are generally optimistic.
As most humanists, he believed that the ideal of social harmony is attainable in a united and strong state under the rule of the wise and the sovereign king. Paying great importance to the personality and activities of a monarch, Shakespeare put to the audience the reigned in England kings. Some were too heavy-handed, others -weak; neither first nor the other could make life of the people calm and happy. For example, Henry the sixth, was gentle and kind, understand how people are suffering from feudal strife, but too weak-willed, he could not restrain lords and himself fell a victim. Richard the second, spoiled by the flattery of courtiers, was also weak, selfish and eventually ravaged the country. The deposed by lords Richard ceasing to be the king, was not a bad man by nature. Great will had Richard the third, who crushed the rebel lords and took power into his own hands. But Richard the 3rd was a usurper who killed all who have had a right to the throne, and destroyed all his accomplices.
How do you compare with our time? There is something to think about.
In that crucial period was created a new worldview - humanism, which, according to Engels, was *the greatest progressive revolution from all experienced up to that time the humanity, the era that needed titans and which gave rise to the titans on the power of thought, passion and character, in multilateralism and learning*
Shakespeare took philosophical humanistic views of the best men of his time, who fought for the liberation of the human person from the fetters of feudal and ecclesiasticals. His art is directed against the entire medieval, against savagery and slaughter against the despotism of the authorities, against the ancestral revenge, against the ancient right of parents to decide the fate of their children, against the class and racial prejudices and religious superstition. Shakespeare exposed predation, distorting the relationship between people and condemning a person on moral collapse.
Eye of the genius of Shakespeare penetrated into the very essence of held before him events and social processes, saw invisible to ordinary sight connection between them, the dependence of human characters and destinies. His art is inherent in the truthfulness and objectivity of the mirror, but is strange to indifference to what it reflects.
He believed in the great force of progress!
Famous Soviet intellectual A.Anikst said about the English humanist: *It is in his works Shakespeare appears before us in his full gigantic height as a great connoisseur of the human soul, the thinker, who understood the course of world history, playwright, who skillfully reflected the contradictions and conflicts, the wonderful wizard of poetry, in perfection owning the word, Shakespeare - the artist inexhaustibly rich in discoveries about life and humanity.*
And here is what his contemporaries spoke about him:
John Weaver *Meditciny Shakespeare! When I saw your creations, I was ready to swear that Apollo himself caused them*.
Ben Johnson: *The Soul of the century! The subject of enthusiasm, a source of enjoyment, the wonder our stage.*
*Shakespeare is beyond comparison with that proud Greece and arrogant Rome has left us as a legacy.*
John Davis, a writer, said that playing kings Shakespeare himself would be a worthy companion to the monarch and noted that his personality was something Regal.
Friends-actors of the writer Heming and Kondel noted: *his thought always kept pace with a pen and his plan, he expressed with such ease, that we have not found corrections in his manuscripts*.
Ben Johnson: *Shakespeare wrote with such ease that sometimes it was necessary to stop him*.
If Shakespeare lived in our time, I am sure he would not remain indifferent to our current historical events and would give his assessment of the situation.
My essay does not pretend to be a scientific work on Shakespeare as a whole galaxy of shekspiroveds (researchers of Shakespeare) worked on a study of the biography and works of the great master. I just wanted to pay tribute to his personality and art and to focus on his historical records to ensure that future generations of people, comparing different eras, has not experienced the brutality and horror of obscurantism.
After four centuries, from the time when lived and worked the great master of word William Shakespeare, his art does not grow old and never die, but continues to live and helps us in solving today's problems.
Tatiana Markovskaya, the fan of Shakespeare.
2 April 2014.