"Republic of Venice, Pope Paul V and the writings of Cardinals Baronio and Bellarmino. The characters of Launcelot Gobbo and his father, Old Gobbo, in William Shakespeare's ""The Merchant of Venice"" may have been inspired by this traditional symbol of the Rialto. Il Gobbo di Rialto Il Gobbo di Rialto or the Hunchback of the Rialto is a granite statue of a hunchback found opposite the Church of San Giacomo di Rialto at the end of the Rialto in Venice. Sculpted by Pietro da Salò in the 16th century, the statue takes the form of a crouching, naked hunchback supporting"
"servant Trompart, to fight the Scythians. Strumbo survives battle by counterfeiting death: Later Strumbo has an encounter with Humber, just before the latter's suicide. Strumbo is prepared to feed the starving Humber, but is frightened away by Albanact's ghost. Locrine Locrine is an Elizabethan play depicting the legendary Trojan founders of the nation of England and of Troynovant (London). The play presents a cluster of complex and unresolved problems for scholars of English Renaissance theatre. ""Locrine"" was entered into the Stationers' Register on 20 July 1594 and published in 1595 in a quarto issued by printer Thomas Creede. Individual scholars"
"thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."" The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ""Richard III"", ""Hamlet"", ""Othello"", and ""King Lear"". The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in ""Romeo and Juliet"" and Dogberry in ""Much Ado About Nothing"", among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in ""As You Like It"" and the fool in ""King Lear"". In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton"
"Hamlet in performance Hamlet by William Shakespeare has been performed many times since the beginning of the 17th century. Shakespeare wrote the role of Hamlet for Richard Burbage, tragedian of The Lord Chamberlain's Men: an actor with a capacious memory for lines, and a wide emotional range. Hamlet appears to have been Shakespeare's fourth most popular play during his lifetime, eclipsed only by ""Henry VI Part 1"", ""Richard III"" and ""Pericles"". Although the story was set many centuries before, at The Globe the play was performed in Elizabethan dress. ""Hamlet"" was acted by the crew of the ship ""Red Dragon"","
"makes several references to various plays by Shakespeare, both real and fictional. Some existing plays, such as ""Hamlet"" and ""As You Like It"", are given new names (""The Prince of Denmark"" and ""If You Like It""), and presumably different content. Another play mentioned, ""Love's Labour's Won"", is the title of an actual lost play by Shakespeare, presumed to be a sequel to the existing ""Love's Labour's Lost"". Christopher Marlowe, who historically died in 1593, lives until October or November 1598 in the novel. As well as his known plays, the novel creates two imaginary Marlowe plays, ""Catiline"" and"" Cambyses, King"
"Squabbling servants appear often in the works of Shakespeare summoning another parallel. Joe is much like Malvolio, the strait-laced, pompous steward in the household of Lady Olivia, efficient but also self-righteous, with a poor opinion of drinking, singing, and fun. His priggishness and haughty attitude earn him the enmity of Maria, Olivia's sharp-witted waiting-gentlewoman. There are moments of jealousy and competitiveness between Words and Music that seem at times relatively overt, adding dimension to their relationship. Croak shuffles into the room and Joe and Bob both become habitually subservient. They’ve probably been together for a great many years, like Hamm"
"Characters in Hamlet What follows is an overview of the main characters in William Shakespeare's ""Hamlet"", followed by a list and summary of the minor characters from the play. Three different early versions of the play survive: known as the First Quarto (""Q1""), Second Quarto (""Q2""), and First Folio (""F1""), each has lines—and even scenes—missing in the others, and some character names vary. Marcellus, Bernardo (or Barnardo) and Francisco are sentries at Elsinore. Francisco gives up his watch to Bernardo in the opening of the play, and it is Bernardo and Marcellus, who first alert Horatio to the appearance of"
"2005), provides two different versions of the play, each with respectable authority. The problem exists with at least four other Shakespearian plays (""Henry IV, part 1"", ""Hamlet"", ""Troilus and Cressida"", and ""Othello""). During Shakespeare's lifetime, many of his greatest plays were staged at the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre. Shakespeare's fellow members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men acted in his plays. Among these actors were Richard Burbage (who played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ""Hamlet"", ""Othello"", ""Richard III"" and ""King Lear""), Richard Cowley (who played Verges in ""Much Ado About Nothing""),"
"received a number of modern renditions, including those by Jan Akkerman and Gryphon. As an actor, Kempe is certainly associated with two roles: Dogberry in ""Much Ado About Nothing"" and Peter in ""Romeo and Juliet"". (In the quarto text of the latter, and in both quarto and First Folio text of the former, he is identified in speech prefixes and stage directions.) From these hints, a list of Kempe's parts has been deduced which, if conjectural, is not improbable: Costard in ""Love's Labours Lost"", Bottom in ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"", Lancelot Gobbo in ""The Merchant of Venice"", and Cob in"
"of people in love. The highlight of the play is considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, and his dog Crab, to whom ""the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in the canon"" has been attributed. ""Two Gentlemen"" is often regarded as one of Shakespeare's weakest plays. It has the smallest named cast of any play by Shakespeare. As the play begins, Valentine is preparing to leave Verona for Milan so as to broaden his horizons. He begs his best friend, Proteus, to come with him, but Proteus is in love with Julia, and refuses to leave. Disappointed,"
"and Stephano were two characters used to show how wrong human beings are. Unlike Antonio, which was featured in no less than four plays, the name Stephano only appears in one of Shakespeare's other plays, ""The Merchant of Venice"". Stephano (The Tempest) Stephano ( ) is a boisterous and often drunk butler of King Alonso in William Shakespeare's play, ""The Tempest"". He, Trinculo and Caliban plot against Prospero, the ruler of the island on which the play is set and the former Duke of Milan in Shakespeare's fictional universe. In the play, he wants to take over the island and"
"Ibsen’s play ""The Master Builder"", the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist. In Shakespeare’s play ""Romeo and Juliet"", Romeo is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship. In Shakespeare’s play ""Hamlet"", Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist would be the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many"
"murder which involved a fight over the ""reckoning"", the bill, as well as to a line in Marlowe's ""Jew of Malta""""Infinite riches in a little room"". Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Marlowe in his work, as can be seen in the re-using of Marlovian themes in ""Antony and Cleopatra"", ""The Merchant of Venice"", ""Richard II"", and ""Macbeth"" (""Dido"", ""Jew of Malta"", ""Edward II"" and ""Doctor Faustus"", respectively). In ""Hamlet"", after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet requests the Player perform a speech about the Trojan War, which at 2.2.429–32 has an echo of Marlowe's ""Dido, Queen of Carthage"". In ""Love's"
"Shakespeare may even have seen them himself. Elizabethan dramatist Thomas Dekker wrote in one of his plays published in ""The Gull's Horn-book"" (1609): It has been suggested that the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the playing company that Shakespeare worked for as an actor and playwright for most of his career, named their playing space the Globe Theatre, built in 1599, as a response to the growing enthusiasm for terrestrial and celestial globes stimulated by those of Molyneux. In ""Twelfth Night"" (1600–1601), Shakespeare alluded to the Wright–Molyneux Map when Maria says of Malvolio: ""He does smile his face into more lynes, than"
"role at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2017, actress Tamsin Greig portrayed a female version of the character (renamed Malvolia) in Simon Godwin's revival of the play at the Royal National Theatre. Some Shakespearean scholars hypothesize that the character Malvolio was inspired by Puritan landowner Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, who was involved in a well known court case against many of his Yorkshire neighbours in the 1600s. Hoby sued his neighbours when they came uninvited to his house, drank, played cards, mocked his religion, and threatened to rape his wife. Hoby won damages in the case, which may have influenced the scene"
"a character in the 2015 play ""[exit Mrs Behn] or, The Leo Play"" by Christopher vanDer Ark. Underhill married Elizabeth Robinson, widow of Thomas Robinson, a vintner in Cheapside; she died in October 1673. Cave Underhill Cave Underhill (1634–1710?) was an English actor in comedy roles. Underhill entertained three generations of London theatre-goers. For over 40 years, as a member of the Duke's Company, Underhill played the first Gravedigger in ""Hamlet"". He was also successful in playing Gregory in ""Romeo and Juliet"", the clown in ""Twelfth Night"", and Trinculo in ""The Tempest"". The son of Nicholas Underhill, a clothworker, he"
"cannot help but be carried along by events. After witnessing a performance of ""The Murder of Gonzago""—the story within a story in the play ""Hamlet""—they find themselves on a ship taking Prince Hamlet to England (with the troupe that staged the performance also on board as stowaways). They are intended to give the English king a letter instructing him to kill Hamlet. Instead, Hamlet discovers this and switches the letter for another. During the voyage, the ship is attacked by pirates. After the sea-fight, they find that Hamlet has disappeared and that their letter now instructs the English monarch to"
"opposite Harriet Thorpe. On film, Hobbs appeared in ""Carry on Columbus"" (1992), ""London Suite"" (1996), ""Fairytale of London Town"" (2010), and ""My Week with Marilyn"" (2011). On stage Hobbs appeared in a UK tour as Mellefont in Congreve""'s"" restoration comedy ""The Double Dealer"" (1991) opposite Paul Eddington; with the English Shakespeare Company on a European tour as 'Launcelot Gobbo' in ""The Merchant of Venice"" (1994). In 2007 Hobbs played 'Lord Elrond', 'Treebeard', and 'Bill Ferny' in the musical adaptation of ""The Lord of the Rings"", directed by Matthew Warchus at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 2012 Hobbs played 'Gary"
"English drama include the Jewish moneylender Shylock in William Shakespeare's ""The Merchant of Venice"" (1598) and the title character of Ben Jonson's ""Volpone"" (1606). In Aubrey Beardsley's title page for the latter, Volpone is shown worshiping his possessions, in illustration of the lines from the play, ""Dear Saint, / Riches, the dumb god that giv'st all men tongues."" A similar scene takes place in the second act of Alexander Pushkin's short tragedy ""Skupoi rytsar"" (1836). This concerns a son, Albert, kept short of funds by his father, the Baron. Under the title The Miserly Knight, it was made an opera"
"and went to America on five of the Lyceum tours. While many of his roles with the company were small, John Martin-Harvey described him as the acknowledged Shakespearean clown of his day, and his Lancelot Gobbo in ""The Merchant of Venice"", Dogberry in ""Much Ado About Nothing"" (1882 and 1893) and Gravedigger in ""Hamlet"" reflect this. For Irving, Johnson played Mr. Wardle in ""Jingle"", Sancho Panza in ""Don Quixote"", Samson Rawbold in ""The Iron Chest"", Farmer Flamborough in ""Olivia"" (opposite Hermann Vezin as Dr. Primrose), Jock Howieson in ""The King and the Miller"" (1890 and 1895), Choppard in ""The Lyons"
"man, and serves the Sultan. She discovers the deceiver, and brings Bernabò to Alexandria, where the deceiver is punished. She then resumes the garb of a woman, and with her husband returns wealthy to Genoa. Filomena tells this story, which is best known to English readers through Shakespeare's ""Cymbeline"". The oldest known version of this story is a French romance from the 13th century called ""Roman de la Violette ou de Gerard de Nevers"" by Gilbert de Montreuil. Paganino da Monaco carries off the wife of Messer Ricciardo di Chinzica, who, having learned where she is, goes to Paganino and"
"Tybalt Tybalt is the main antagonist in William Shakespeare's play ""Romeo and Juliet"". He is the son of Lady Capulet's brother, Juliet's short-tempered first cousin, and Romeo's rival. Tybalt shares the same name as the character Tibert/Tybalt the ""Prince of Cats"" in ""Reynard the Fox"", a point of mockery in the play. Mercutio repeatedly calls Tybalt ""Prince of Cats"" (perhaps referring not only to Reynard but to the Italian word cazzo as well). Luigi da Porto adapted the story as ""Giulietta e Romeo"" and included it in his ""Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti"" published in 1530. Da Porto"
"three sequences featuring Friar John in Mantua. In contrast, the role of Friar Laurence (an important character in the play) is much reduced. A number of scenes are expanded as opportunities for visual spectacle, including the opening brawl (set against the backdrop of a religious procession), the wedding and Juliet's funeral. The party scene, choreographed by Agnes de Mille, includes Rosaline (an unseen character in Shakespeare's script) who rebuffs Romeo. The role of Peter is enlarged, and played by Andy Devine as a faint-hearted bully. He speaks lines which Shakespeare gave to other Capulet servants, making him the instigator of"
"play from Henslowe. Shakespeare receives helpful advice on his play from rival playwright Christopher ""Kit"" Marlowe, but becomes despondent when he learns Rosaline is sleeping with Edmund Tilney, the powerful Master of the Revels. Henslowe, who is in debt to the ruthless moneylender Fennyman and in desperate need for a new play, begins auditions anyway. Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, who has seen Shakespeare's plays at court, disguises herself as a man named Thomas Kent to audition. ""He"" gains Shakespeare's interest when he auditions with a speech from Two Gentlemen of Verona after a series of"
"when only one was ultimately used in production, which could easily be the case here. An anonymous play, ""Timon,"" also survives. Its Timon is explicitly hedonistic and spends his money much more on himself than in Shakespeare's version. He also has a mistress. It mentions a London inn called The Seven Stars that did not exist before 1602, yet it contains elements that are in Shakespeare's play but not in Plutarch or in Lucian's dialogue, ""Timon the Misanthrope,"" the other major accepted source for Shakespeare's play. Both Jacobean plays deal extensively with Timon's life before his flight into the wilderness,"
"Queen Mab Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play ""Romeo and Juliet"", where ""she is the fairies' midwife."" In the play, she is a symbol for freedom and also becomes Romeo's psyche after he realizes that he is also a floating spirit. Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity is described in a famous speech by Mercutio written originally in prose and often adapted into iambic pentameter, in which she is described as a miniature creature who performs midnight pranks upon sleepers."
"in the final scene ""Enter Lord Montague and others"", and he is sometimes doubled with Balthasar). Part of Benvolio's role is encouraging Romeo to go to the party, where he falls in love with Juliet. A mock-Victorian revisionist version of ""Romeo and Juliet""'s final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play ""The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby"". He also attempts to romance Rosaline in Sharman Macdonald's ""After Juliet"". Benvolio Benvolio is a fictional character in Shakespeare's"
"drawn on an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the ""Ur-Hamlet"", though some scholars believe he himself wrote the ""Ur-Hamlet"", later revising it to create the version of ""Hamlet"" we now have. He almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by numerous highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623)."
"is a servant of the Montague household. He appears in Act 1, Scene 1, where he and another servant (presumably Balthasar) are provoked into a fight with Gregory and Sampson when the latter bites his thumb at them. Friar Lawrence plays the part of an advisor and mentor to Romeo, along with aiding in major plot developments. Alone, the innocent Friar gives us foreshadowing with his soliloquy about plants and their similarities to humans. When Romeo requests that the Friar marry him to Juliet, he is shocked, because only days before, Romeo had been infatuated with Rosaline, a woman who"
"that other characters in the play lack. Important malcontents include Bosola in Webster's ""The Duchess of Malfi"", Vindice in Middleton's ""The Revenger's Tragedy"", Malevole in Marston's ""The Malcontent"", and Hamlet in Shakespeare's ""Hamlet"". The morality and sympathy of the malcontent is highly variable, as in the examples above. Sometimes, as in ""Hamlet"" and ""The Malcontent"", they are the sympathetic centre of the play, whereas Iago is a very unsympathetic character. The most important thing about the malcontent is that the character is malcontent—unhappy, unsettled, displeased with the world of the play, eager to change it somehow, or to dispute with"
"Banquo Lord Banquo , the Thane of Lochaber, is a character in William Shakespeare's 1606 play ""Macbeth"". In the play, he is at first an ally to Macbeth (both are generals in the King's army) and they meet the Three Witches together. After prophesying that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his descendants will be. Later, Macbeth in his lust for power sees Banquo as a threat and has him murdered by two hired assassins; Banquo's son, Fleance, escapes. Banquo's ghost returns in a later scene, causing Macbeth to"
"react with alarm during a public feast. Shakespeare borrowed the character of Banquo from ""Holinshed's Chronicles"", a history of Britain published by Raphael Holinshed in 1587. In ""Chronicles"" Banquo is an accomplice to Macbeth in the murder of the king, rather than a loyal subject of the king who is seen as an enemy by Macbeth. Shakespeare may have changed this aspect of his character to please King James, who was thought at the time to be a descendant of the real Banquo. Critics often interpret Banquo's role in the play as being a foil to Macbeth, resisting evil where"
"have traveled to Elsinore to offer Hamlet their services. At Elsinore, they perform a version—which Hamlet has modified and called ""The Mousetrap""—of the play ""The Murder of Gonzago"" in the ""play within a play"". He is the leader of the troupe of touring actors. In the ""play within a play"", he takes the part of the king who is murdered. This role was traditionally performed by a man, as were all the female parts in ""Hamlet"", since women did not appear on stage in Elizabethan times. He is also called ""Lucianus"" in the ""play within a play"". The name may"