Shakespeare's Sources

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. During the span of his life he worked mainly as an actor and principal playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. His company went on to build the famous Globe Theater and were later named the King’s Men, by James I. As a writer he wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. Shakespeare is not to be discredited as an author, but the simple fact of the matter does remain. Although William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest playwright of all time, much of the framework of his plays is not originally his ideas, but modeled after the works of numerous authors.

These plays were all written by Shakespeare, but were not originated by Shakespeare. Shakespeare took interesting plot lines from various sources and transformed them into his own unique play. He transformed the originals by giving the characters new description, adding new characters completely, adding new scenes, and attaching new episodes for comedic relief. One fluctuating factor throughout these plays is the amount of sources that were used by Shakespeare. Most of the plays have borrowed plot from several different stories, very few are drawn out from one chief source. It

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Other probable sources include The Faerie Queene by Spencer, The Rock of Regard by George Whetstone and a story translated by Belleforest in Histories Tragiques. The second half of Fiorentino’s tale distinctly parallels Shakespeare’s play in the pound of flesh story, the lady-judge resolving the merchant’s dilemma at the expense of the Jew, and the ring demanded as a fee. we may trace the main plot sources in a precise line of development from its origin. (Thompson 13-17, 64-68)

Boccaccio’s Decameron, specifically Day III, Story 9, is almost certain to be the chief source used by Shakespeare in writing All’s Well That Ends Well. However, it is easy to see that much of his plays are not the original ideas of Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare just took these stories from the book, wove them together and gave the characters life. The idea for the casket plot is derived from a Latin collection of stories called Gesta Ramanorum. The most accepted author is Thomas Kyd, whose Spanish Tragedy, just like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, contains a ghost demanding revenge, real or simulated madness of the avenger, death of an innocent woman, avenger’s who blame themselves for their procrastination, a play within a play, and a faithful Horatio. Lodge borrowed the idea from a narrative poem known as The Tale of Gamelyn. (Muir 110-112)

Othello is one of only a handful of Shakespeare’s plays that borrows only a simple, brief plot outline and the rest is transformed under Shakespeare’s own hand. The only difference is that in the Gesta story a princess is choosing to prove her worthiness to her husband, whereas in Merchant Bassanio is choosing to prove himself worthy of Portia. He chose a span of history much longer than usual, shortened the actual time period of the play, and used Chronicles mainly for sensationalism and witchery. The significant change that Shakespeare made involved omitting almost all of the violence from his play. And he is the first to spell her name as Shakespeare will.

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