Shakespeare the Plagiarist Essay - 1262 Words

Shakespeare the Plagiarist Shakespeare was a man of many accomplishments. Many were in his writings; others were in his great director and playwright skills. The play Hamlet is one of the most re-created and re-written books to date. Hamlet is still being performed in theaters around the world. Even though many people perceive Shakespeare as a literary genius, we can not give him sole credit for his plays and sonnets. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare did not invent the plots of his plays. Sometimes he used old stories (Hamlet, Pericles). Sometimes he worked from the stories of comparatively recent Italian writers, such as Boccaccio - using both well-known stories (Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing) and little known ones†¦show more content†¦The father of Amleth(hamlet with H in the back), a governor of Jutland, to whom the king of Denmark had given his daughter Gerutha(similar to gertrude)in marriage, won fame by slaying the king of Norway in single combat. His brother Feng, murdered him, seized his office and married his wife, hence adding incest to unnatural mother. We may even be sure that the author of the Ur-Hamlet, imitating the Spanish Tragedy, invented the Mouse Trap, the Ghost and Ophelias death. Many of Shakespeares plays also depended a lot on astronomy. The first scene in Shakespeares Hamlet reminds us that in Shakespeares plays it was usual for dramatic events to be paralleled by heavenly bodies. At eight years of age Shakespeare was greatly influenced by the sudden appearance of the star and by his contemporary, Tycho Brahe, the famous astronomer. Tycho Brahe was 26 at the time.Show MoreRelatedPlagiarism In Literature795 Words   |  4 PagesThis is due to the fact that most ideas already exist, however, intentional plagiarism should not be excused for any reason. When an author’s work is consciously copied by another author, this is where the line is drawn. Some might say that if the plagiarist improves the original text, then he/she should get credit for the work. Others see it as a form of editing. But Fadiman realizes that plagiarism is corrupting literature, not advancing it. In â€Å"Nothing New Under the Sun† by Anne Fadiman, she usedRead MoreThe Ma in Beneficiary In Shakespeare’S Will Was Susanna,1256 Words   |  6 Pagesstrained father-daughter relationships. From this it is easy to gather that Shakespeare adored Susanna and loved her dearly. Had he not adored her, she more than likely would not have been mentioned in his will as often as she was and he would not have written plays based on her. William Shakespeare is credited with writing several plays throughout his lifetime. Some are certainly more well known than others. Shakespeare wrote comedies such as Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Midsummer Night’s Dream.Read MorePlot Construction of a Midsummer Nights Dream Essay718 Words   |  3 PagesShakespeare was one of the greatest dramatists of English literature. His dramas are universally known and popular. He wrote comedies and tragedies with a great success. Particularly, his comedies like As You Like It, A Midsummer Night Dream are very popular. His comedies provoke mirth and laughter and present sunnier aspects of life. The laughter of his comedies comes from characters and their actions. He took more interest in characters than plots yet his plots are woven properly. HisRead MoreIn The Years Before Abraham Lincoln Was Elected The Sixteenth1535 Words   |  7 Pagesplagiarizing as well, and wrote in his book: â€Å"Certain crude material he may have used, but it received the impress of his genius†¦It is a legitimate use that Poe made of such material; if the contrary were true, then Shakespeare and Cervantes and Defoe and Tennyson would be classified as plagiarists with equal reason.† Although the true genesis of the poem is still being debated, what is certain about the original â€Å"The Raven† is that Poe had hand-wrote the original draft. Although printing devices were availableRead MoreAn American Legacy : Edgar Allan Poe1362 Words   |  6 Pageseditor of the Southern Literary Messenger magazine in 1835. Headstrong and arrogant, he earned the nickname â€Å"The Tomahawk Man† because he was a brutal critic of other peoples’ writings, even accusing author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of being a plagiarist. (Graves) The 1840’s was an especially tough period for Edgar Allan Poe. Still struggling with the loss of four family members to tuberculosis, it showed in the now-famous literature Poe would produce during this time. Among these were short storiesRead MoreAnalysis Of The 17th And 17th Centuries By Ben Jonson1489 Words   |  6 Pageswould have been familiar with one or both languages. Alexander Pope (1688–1744), another English poet and satirist, was a great imitator. According to one source, he borrowed anything and everything from Homer, Horace, Virgil, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Dryden. In the world of musical composition, George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was a musical magpie. He took ideas for many of his melodies from a range of other European composers, a practice that was not altogether condemned but seen asRead More Schools and Education - Understanding the Rise in Apathy, Cheating and Plagiarism3796 Words   |  16 Pagesauthorial authority, and because the author’s audience knew the masters too, the student had no need to cite sources (Howard, â€Å"Plagiarisms† 788). It isn’t until the late 17th Century that British authors begin hurling the accusation of plagiarist at each other. Ideologically this makes sense because after the fall of Rome, Western Europe fell into a dark age. Not until the Renaissance do we see another spurt of humanism that marked the great classic periods of Greece and Rome. Before theRead MoreAnnotated Bibliography: Plagiarism39529 Words   |  158 PagesIn cases of substantive plagiarism, there is often little dispute as to its occurrence. Conflicting interests of those involved or drawn into cases of plagiarism, however, give rise to a number of complexities (Lewis et al., 2011). It is in plagiarists interests to keep quiet about their practices. Victims and academic institutions affected by plagiarism may not be aware of the incident until it is brought to their attention by others. Yet when plagiarism is discovered, for the individuals