Penguin Readers Factsheets l e v e l E T e a c h e r’s n o t e s 1 2 3 More Tales from Shakespeare 4 5 by Charles and Mary Lamb 6 UPPER S U M M A R Y INTERMEDIATE his volume contains the stories of Shakespeare’s T first comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, his first B A C K G R O U N D A N D T H E M E S t r a g e d y, Romeo and Juliet, t h ree of the gre a t tragedies of his maturity, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear, Students can best be helped to understand Shakespeare’s and the romance, The Winter’s Tale, written towards the achievement by relating it to a modern context. end of his career. Shakespeare arrived in London when the professional theatre was scarcely ten years old but by the time he retired Charles and Mary Lamb re w rote the stories of plays were recognized as an entertainment that appealed S h a k e s p e a re ’s most famous plays for childre n . to the court, the aristocracy and the people. The Shakespeare himself had usually adapted narratives of Elizabethan theatre therefore grew rapidly in much the different kinds for the theatre, in many cases employing or same way as the film industry in Hollywood in the 20th linking together concepts from a number of sources. The c e n t u ry. Shakespeare and the leading actors of the Lambs’ versions were intended to point to a moral that company became well known to theatregoers much as film children would be capable of understanding, whereas stars did more widely in the 1930s. In this context, we Shakespeare is rarely so explicit. Consequently, especially should think of him as the equivalent in a film company of in the case of the great tragedies, they are essentially a actor, director and author of the screenplay. simplification, not only in terms of language, but also of the Shakespeare usually based his plays on written sources, themes and characters. giving them dramatic form, much as a film director adapts novels today. We can there f o re best understand his ABOUT THE AUTHORS intentions and recognize the themes by comparing the plays to the sources and analysing the changes he made. Charles Lamb (1775–1834) was an essayist who also wrote These notes draw attention to the themes Shakespeare plays. At the suggestion of their friend, the novelist and imposed on his source material and the extent to which philosopher William Godwin, Lamb and his sister Mary, they are modified in the Lambs’ retelling. who was several years older, collaborated to write Tales The Winter’s Tale Shakespeare transformed a story by from Shakespeare, with the design of making the plays Robert Greene – Pandosto (1588) – into a play that familiar to young readers. reconciles the older generation through the love of their Though we know little for certain about the life of William c h i l d ren. Leontes becomes jealous for no re a s o n , Shakespeare (1564–1616) modern scholarship enables us convincing himself that his wife, Hermione, has been to reconstruct his career with some accuracy. Born in unfaithful with his friend and guest, Polixenes, and that his Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire, he was educated at the new-born daughter, Perdita, is theirs. Ignoring all advice, he local grammar school. At 18, he married Anne Hathaway, seems to have destroyed wife, son and daughter. A eight years older than himself, and they had three children. generation later, his lost daughter, Perdita, is found. Her Some time later he joined a company of actors and by 1589 marriage to Polixenes’ son and Hermione’s miraculous was probably in London, acting and writing plays. In 1594, survival sets things right. he joined forces with the brilliant young actor Richard King Lear S h a k e s p e a re based his play on various Burbage, and became one of the shareholders in what later accounts of a mythical English king who had thre e became the King’s Men, the foremost acting company of daughters, two evil and one good, including an old play. He the time. For over 20 years, Shakespeare wrote two plays linked this plot to a parallel story by Sir Philip Sidney, which a year on average, experimenting with and creating new Charles Lamb left out, of a man with a good and an evil dramatic forms, excelling in tragedy, comedy, history and son. In each case, the fathers are blind to their children’s romance. He became rich and successful, and retired to natures and entrust their lives to the evil ones. Lear must go Stratford about 1610, while still maintaining his interest in through the torment of madness before he is reunited with the London theatre. His plays were first collected together his youngest daughter, Cordelia, which is how the old play by his company as a tribute after his death and published had ended. Lamb draws the moral that the justice of in 1623. heaven destroyed Lear’s evil daughters, but this does not explain the death of Lear and Cordelia. In the play, Shakespeare balances poetic justice, where the good © Pearson Education 2000 l e v e l Penguin Readers Factsheets 5 T e a c h e r’s n o t e s triumph and the evil are destroyed (the sub-plot), against ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK the much harsher reality of the story of Lear and his Put students into small groups and ask them to share daughters. their experiences: The Taming of the Shrew Petruchio, an adventurer, What do you know about Shakespeare? Have you ever marries Baptista’s elder daughter, Katharine, although she seen or read any of his plays, in English or in translation? has a violent temper, and by his extraordinary behaviour ACTIVITIES WHILE READING THE BOOK transforms her into a submissive wife. Mary Lamb draws the moral that the theme is that wives should obey their King Lear husbands, one that has made this play offensive to (a) Put students into groups of five. Ask them to act the feminists. An alternative interpretation is that Shakespeare first scene, on pages 13–15, where each daughter in was satirizing this official view of marriage in his time and turn answers Lear’s question: Who loves me best? The suggesting that husband and wife should be a team who fifth student, as Kent, tells Lear what he thinks of this. support each other. (b) Do you think parents should have favourites among their children or treat them differently? Romeo and Juliet The moral of the story of these young lovers is that their death was needed to bring their families Romeo and Juliet to their senses to end their long feud. Shakespeare based Put students into pairs. Act the scene between Romeo his play on a poem by Arthur Brooke (1562), originally and Juliet, when Romeo has climbed into her garden and derived from a story by the Italian, Bandello. In all these she appears above him (pages 39–42). versions, as in Lamb’s retelling of the story, the lovers are the victims of bad luck and their fate depends on a series Othello of unfortunate accidents. Put students into pairs. Ask them to act the scene on pages 74–6 where Othello and Iago see Cassio saying Hamlet Shakespeare’s most famous play and character goodbye to Desdemona, after asking for her help. Begin have given rise to many interpretations. He constructed it at ‘I do not like that’. from a number of sources, including a lost play on the same subject. Lamb leaves out much of the action and ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK concentrates on Hamlet’s response when his father’s ghost Put students into small groups. Ask them to decide which orders him to revenge his murder at the hands of his play or plays they think would be the most successful in wicked uncle, Claudius, who has become king and married the theatre today. Hamlet’s mother. In common with most critics of his time, Lamb emphasizes Hamlet’s sensitivity and finds it necessary to excuse his willingness to criticise his mother. G l o s s a r y Shakespeare’s Hamlet has the courage and ruthlessness It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. necessary for a man called upon to revenge his father and They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at restore the country to political health single handed at the the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman cost of his own life. Active Study Dictionary.) Othello Shakespeare expanded a short story by the Introduction comedy (n) an amusing play or one with a happy ending Italian Cinthio, written to prove that women can be faithful, tale (n) a story about imaginary events into the tragedy of the destruction of a marriage. The skilful The Winter’s Tale villain, Iago, plays on the insecurity of a middle-aged black feast (n) a large meal when people celebrate a special occasion general in the service of the Venetian state, Othello, who heir (n) someone who has the right to receive the title of a person has married a beautiful young wife, Desdemona. He who has died convinces him that she has been unfaithful with his friend kingdom (n) a country ruled by a king misery (n) a state of being very unhappy and lieutenant, Cassio, so that he murders her before noble (adj) fine discovering the truth and killing himself.