William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.[1][2][3] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").[4] His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[5]
Biography[]
- Main article: [[William Shakespeare]]
Allusions in the Snicket World[]
A Series of Unfortunate Events[]
- William Shakespeare's play The Tempest is referenced numerous times in the books, most notably in The Reptile Room and The End. Names taken from characters in this play include:
- Alonso (in the play, the King of Naples; in The End, a colonist on The Island.)
- Ariel (in the play, a spirit in service to Prospero; in The End, a colonist on The Island.)
- Caliban (in the play, a monster servant to Prospero; in The End, the surname of Miranda, Friday and Olivia Caliban.)
- Ferdinand (in the play, the prince of Naples; in The End, a colonist on The Island.)
- Gonzalo (in the play, an honest old councillor; in The End, someone from Alonso's past.)
- Miranda (in the play, the daughter of Prospero; in The End, a colonist on The Island.)
- S. S. Prospero (in the play, Prospero is the arguable central character, the rightful Duke of Milan; in The Reptile Room and Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, it is a ship supposedly to take the Baudelaires to Peru, but in actuality a VFD vessel.)
- Stephano (in the play, the King's drunken butler; in The Reptile Room, Count Olaf's false identity.)
- One of the towns on the "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child" brochure is named Ophelia, perhaps referencing Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
- Arthur Poe dislikes the bank in this town, perhaps because Ophelia's father, Polonius, is the originator of the saying, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
Adaptations[]
- In a deleted scene of the 2004 film adaptation, Count Olaf quotes a soliloquy from Macbeth Act Five, Scene Five, about death and the fleetingness of life.[6] He claims to have written it, to which Klaus Baudelaire responds that "William Shakespeare wrote that in 1605."[7]
Sources[]
- ↑ Greenblatt, Stephen (2005). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-0098-9.
- ↑ Bevington, David (2002). Shakespeare. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-22719-9.
- ↑ Wells, Stanley (1997). Shakespeare: A Life in Drama. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31562-2.
- ↑ Dobson, Michael (1992). The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-818323-5.
- ↑ Craig, Leon Harold (2003). Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8605-1.
- ↑ Macbeth's Soliloquy: She should have died hereafter (5.5)
- ↑