William Shakespeare

by John Masefield

Overview

William Shakespeare John Masefield

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781987642780
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	04/08/2018
Pages:	118
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

John Edward Masefield OM (1 June 1878 - 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and the poems "The Everlasting Mercy" and "Sea-Fever".
Masefield was born in Ledbury in Herefordshire, to George Masefield, a solicitor, and his wife Caroline. His mother died giving birth to his sister when Masefield was six and he went to live with his aunt. His father died soon afterwards, following a mental breakdown.[1] After an unhappy education at the King's School in Warwick (now known as Warwick School), where he was a boarder between 1888 and 1891, he left to board HMS Conway, both to train for a life at sea and to break his addiction to reading, of which his aunt thought little. He spent several years aboard this ship, and found that he could spend much of his time reading and writing. It was aboard the Conway that Masefield's love of story-telling grew. While he was on the ship he listened to the stories told about sea lore, continued to read, and decided that he was to become a writer and story-teller himself.
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
From "Sea-Fever", in Salt-Water Ballads (1902)[2]
In 1894 Masefield boarded the Gilcruix, destined for Chile. This first voyage brought him the experience of sea sickness, but his record of his experiences while sailing through extreme weather shows his delight in seeing flying fish, porpoises and birds. He was awed by the beauty of nature, including a rare sighting of a nocturnal rainbow, on this voyage. On reaching Chile he suffered from sunstroke and was hospitalised. He eventually returned home to England as a passenger aboard a steamship.

Read an Excerpt

is a golden woman, a daughter of the sun, smiling-natured, but limited. Phebe, like Rosalind, is black-haired, black-eyed, black- eyebrowed, with the dead-white face that so often goes with cruelty. Shortly after this play was written he began to create types less external and less limited. Much Ado about Nothing. Written, (?) Published. 1600. Source of the Plot. The greater part of the fable seems to have been invented by Shakespeare. The Hero and Claudio story is found in the twenty-second novel of Bandello, and in at least three other books (one of them Spenser's Faerie Queene). It was also known to the Elizabethans in a play now lost. The Fable. Benedick, a lord of Padua, pledges himself to bachelorhood. Beatrice, a disdainful lady, is scornful of men. Claudio plans to marry Hero. Don John, enemy of Claudio, plans to thwart the marriage by letting it appear that Hero is unchaste. Don Pedro and Claudio make Benedick believe that Beatrice is dying of love for him. Ursula and Hero make Beatrice believe that Benedick is dying of love for her. The disdainful couple make friends. Don John thwarts the marriage of Claudio by his tale of Hero's unchastity. Claudio casts off Hero at the altar. Hero swoons, and is conveyed away as dead. Beatrice and Benedick arebrought into close alliance by their upholding of Hero's cause. Proof is obtained that Hero has been falsely accused. She is recovered from her swoon. Claudio marries her. Benedick and Beatrice plight troth. In this play Shakespeare writes of the power of report, of the thing overheard, to alter human destiny. Antonio's man, listening behind a hedge, overhears Don Pedro telling Claudio that he will woo Hero. The report of hiseavesdropping conveys no notion of the truth, and leads, no doubt, to...