|
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet''. They are childhood friends of Hamlet, summoned by King Claudius to distract the prince from his apparent madness and if possible to ascertain the cause of it. The characters were revived in W. S. Gilbert's satire, '' Rosencrantz and Guildenstern'', and as the alienated heroes of Tom Stoppard's absurdist play, '' Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'', which was adapted into a film. Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' Names '' Rosencrantz'' ("rose wreath") and '' Gyldenstjerne/Gyllenstierna'' ("golden star") were names of Danish (and Norwegian, and Swedish) noble families of the 16th century; records of the Danish royal coronation of 1596 show that one tenth of the aristocrats participating bore one or the other name. James Voelkel suggests that the characters were named after Frederik Rosenkrantz and Knud Gyldenstierne, cousins of Tycho Brahe who had visited England in 1592. When James VI and I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (theatre), play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, King Claudius, Claudius, who has murdered Ghost (Hamlet), Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Gertrude (Hamlet), Hamlet's mother. ''Hamlet'' is considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others." It is widely considered one of the greatest plays of all time. Three different early versions of the play are extant: the Hamlet Q1, First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines and passages missing from the others. Many works have been pointed to as possible s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akershus Fortress
Akershus Fortress (, ) or Akershus Castle ( ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress has been the namesake and centre of the main fief and later main county of Akershus, which was originally one of Norway's four main regions and which included most of Eastern Norway. The fortress itself was located within the Akershus main county until 1919, and also within the smaller Akershus sub-county until 1842. The castle has also been used as a military base, a prison and is currently the temporary office of the prime minister of Norway. Construction It is not known exactly when the construction of the castle started but it is believed that it took place around the late 1290s, by King Haakon V, replacing Tønsberg as one of the two most important Norwegian castles of the period (the other being Båhus). It was constructed in response to the Norwegian nobleman, Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Majestic Plural
The royal ''we'', majestic plural (), or royal plural, is the use of a plural pronoun (or corresponding plural-inflected verb forms) used by a single person who is a monarch or holds a high office to refer to themself. A more general term for the use of a ''we'', ''us'', or ''our'' to refer to oneself is '' nosism''. Example In 1902, after the United Kingdom had been asked to arbitrate a boundary dispute between Argentina and Chile, King Edward VII issued the adjudication of the requested arbitration, known as the Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case. The sentence following the preamble of the award begins as follows: In this quotation, underlining has been added to the words that exemplify the use of the majestic plural. Western usage The royal ''we'' is commonly employed by a person of high office, such as a monarch or other type of sovereign. It is also used in certain formal contexts by bishops and university rectors. William Longchamp is credited with its intr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark/Act 3
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...s that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What A Piece Of Work Is A Man
"What a piece of work is a man!" is a phrase within a monologue by Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. Hamlet is reflecting, at first admiringly, and then despairingly, on the human condition. The speech is recited at the end of the film '' Withnail and I'' and the text was set to music by Galt MacDermot for the rock opera ''Hair.'' The speech The monologue, spoken in the play by Prince Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2, follows in its entirety. Rather than appearing in blank verse, the typical mode of composition of Shakespeare's plays, the speech appears in straight prose: Differences between texts The speech was fully omitted from Nicholas Ling's 1603 First Quarto, which reads simply: This version has been argued to have been a bad quarto, a tourbook copy, or an initial draft. By the 1604 Second Quarto, the speech is essentially present but punctuated differently: Then, by the 1623 First Folio, it appeared as: J. Dove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horatio (character)
Horatio is a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet''. He was present on the field when King Hamlet (the father of the main character, Prince Hamlet) defeated Fortinbras (the king of Norway), and he has travelled to court from the University of Wittenberg (where he was familiar with Prince Hamlet) for the funeral of King Hamlet. Hamlet is glad to see him, and Horatio remains at court without official appointment, simply as "Hamlet's friend". He is on relatively familiar terms with other characters. For example, when Gertrude (the queen) is reluctant to admit the "distract" Ophelia, she changes her mind following Horatio's advice. Hamlet has departed for England by this point, and is not supposed to return. Horatio is not directly involved in any intrigue at the court, but he makes a good foil and sounding board for Hamlet. Being from Wittenberg, a university that defined the institutional switch from theology to humanism, Horatio epitomizes the early modern fusi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sycophants
In modern English, sycophant denotes an "insincere flatterer" and is used to refer to someone practising sycophancy (i.e., insincere flattery to gain advantage). The word has its origin in the legal system of Classical Athens, where it had a different meaning. Most legal cases of the time were brought by private litigants as there was no police force and only a limited number of officially appointed public prosecutors. By the fifth century BC this practice had given rise to abuse by "sycophants": litigants who brought unjustified prosecutions. The word retains the same meaning ('slanderer') in Modern Greek, French (where it also can mean 'informer'), and Italian. In modern English, the meaning of the word has shifted to its present usage. Etymology The origin of the Ancient Greek word () is a matter of debate, but disparages the unjustified accuser who has in some way perverted the legal system. The original etymology of the word (''/'/'' 'fig', and ''/'/'' 'to show') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark/Act 2
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pronoun ''thee' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published. Printed in Folio (printing), folio format and containing 36 of Shakespeare's plays#Canonical plays, Shakespeare's plays, it was prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It was dedication (publishing), dedicated to the "incomparable pair of brethren" William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, and his brother Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (later 4th Earl of Pembroke). Although 19 of Shakespeare's plays had been published in quarto before 1623, the First Folio is arguably the only reliable text for about 20 of the plays, and a valuable source text for many of those previously published. Eighteen of the plays in the Fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methuen Publishing
Methuen Publishing Ltd (; also known as Methuen Books) is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially, Methuen mainly published non-fiction academic works, eventually diversifying to encourage female authors and later translated works. E. V. Lucas headed the firm from 1924 to 1938. Establishment In June 1889, as a sideline to teaching, Algernon Methuen began to publish and market his own textbooks under the label Methuen & Co. The company's first success came in 1892 with the publication of Rudyard Kipling's '' Barrack-Room Ballads''. Rapid growth came with works by Marie Corelli, Hilaire Belloc, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Oscar Wilde ('' De Profundis'', 1905) as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs' ''Tarzan of the Apes''.Stevenson, page 59. In 1910, the business was converted into a limited liability company with E. V. Lucas and G.E. Webster joining the founder on the board of dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been three distinct series of The Arden Shakespeare over the past century, with the third series commencing in 1995 and concluding in January 2020. The fourth series is scheduled to commence publication in 2026. Arden was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother, Mary, but the primary reference of the enterprise's title is to the Forest of Arden, in which Shakespeare's ''As You Like It'' is set. First Series The first series was published by Methuen. Its first publication was Edward Dowden's edition of ''Hamlet'', published in 1899. Over the next 25 years, the entire canon of Shakespeare was edited and published. The original editor of The Arden Shakespeare was William James Craig (1899–1906), succeeded by R. H. Case (1909–1944). The t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
