I keep hearing how Shakespeare stole from other works before himHow true is this?Which works specifically did he steal from?
Mine own journal of p'rsonal woes and desires to beestdesu
the ones i don't like he stole
>>25178970Almost all of his plays are based on stories that existed for hundreds of years before him, which already had plays about them. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear all had plays about them already that were structurally very similar to Shakespeare's works. A lot of others, too.
>>25178970bacon wrote most of it
>>25178970Shakespeares response, Merchant of Venice, to Marlowes Jew of Malta always seemed kinda sus to me. Sometimes jewish behaviour isnt just a result of Christian behaviour. Its just jewish behaviour.
>>25178989>Sometimes jewish behaviour isnt just a result of Christian behaviour.I didn't think that was the point of the play. It was just jewish behavior.
>>25178970>Which works specifically did he steal from?Every single work except A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that one sucked.
The plots are one of the least important aspects of his plays anyway.
>>25178997Nah that was his best one.
Bible --> (works of literature before Shakespeare) --> Shakespeare --> (works of literature after Shakespeare) --> repeat
>>25178970This is a fundamental misunderstanding of early modern theatre. It was convention and expected to adapt and rework existing plots. Playwrights were also in dialog with each other, and would often as>>25178989 points out, write plays as direct responses to other authors. Much of the time the plays use the audiences' knowledge of the story for dramatic irony (Julius Ceaser). Or to, and please forgive the phrase, subvert their expectations (like with Hamlet). This isn't even touching on theatre forms like commedia dell'arte.
>>25178970>>25179039As for your second question this may help https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/List_of_sources_for_Shakespeare%27s_works It's a lot of Plutarch.
Before the 1800s everyone stole, the greeks even has a name for the concept of stealing to create art, Dionysian imitatiohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysian_imitatio>Dionysian imitatio is the influential literary method of imitation as formulated by Greek author Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first century BCE, which conceived it as the rhetorical practice of emulating, adapting, reworking and enriching a source text by an earlier author.[1][2] It is a departure from the concept of Aristotelian mimesis which only is concerned with "imitation of nature" instead of the "imitation of other authors.">Latin orators and rhetoricians adopted the literary method of Dionysius' imitatio and discarded Aristotle's mimesis; the imitation literary approach is closely linked with the widespread observation that "everything has been said already", which was also stated by Egyptian scribes around 2000 BCE. The ideal aim of this approach to literature was not originality, but to surpass the predecessor by improving their writings and set the bar to a higher level.
you ever get writers block, or think you cant create anything original, you dont need to, just steal the subject of a shakesphere play, and steal the theme from another writer.It was always that easy.
>>25179108if you get writers block over ideas you are ngmi
>>25178986He is Bacon
>>25179153the idea of originality was invented in the romantic era.You dont need ideas, you just need to deconstruct your favorite writers, then put the parts you like back together like a Frankenstein.steal one authors genre, steal another ones style, steal another ones subject, steal another ones theme.put it all together and write
>>25178970He stole the plots from random books though obviously his prose is what elevates them. Coriolanus (woman hiding in trunk from lover) is from the Decameron. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Apuleius Golden Ass. Basically what he took from were random bawdy Milesian style stories and he made it his own thing with his prose mastery.
>>25178997Nah that one is stolen too.>> The writing of William Shakespeare was influenced by The Golden Ass, e.g., A Midsummer Night's Dream from c. 1595, where the character Bottom's head is transformed to that of an ass.[13
>>25179177Holy soulless
>>25179177and if you dont add your own ideas it will end up a regurgitated mess
>>25178970"stole" is definitely a strong word. Most of his stories were based off older stories, and some of the lines in his plays are basically lifted from other sources but this was all standard practice at the time. The idea of owning a story is a fairly modern development.
>>25179448Being standard practice does not actually make theft anything other than theft.
>>25178986>>25179157Dogs don't know he's not Bacon.
>>25179047Thanks
>>25179190If you actually bother to read The Golden Ass you'd know they are nothing alike. For one, Lucius is turned into a donkey, not just his head. Isis is also not tricked into falling in love with Lucius like Titania is with Bottom.
>>25179091Pablo Picasso said "Good artists borrow; great artists steal."
>>25178970He and Marlowe (and many others) were heavily influenced by Holinshed's Chronicles but I wouldn't say they "stole" anything.
>>25179157
stole? you love rules dont you anon
