SHAKERS

Amer. religious denomination, with full title, ‘The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing.’ The term Shakers was formally applied to the Quakers, from whom the 8. split off. Their leader was Ann Wardley, who, with some followers, migrated to America, 1774. §S. believed God to be bisexual, and they reject the deity of Christ; they practice communism and live industriously. peare, d. and burge ; his mother, Mary Arden, 1570-8, | La left behind him his wife, Anne Hatha way, 0. 1556, a local husbandman’s whom he had married in to the comp a called Earl of Leicester’s Men, after Chamberlain’s Company and King’s Players; Early Plays.— With Marlowe and others, Shakespeare ed or rewrote the three of Hen Ty VI. and Love's Labour’s Lost, 1591, probably the earliest of Shakespeare’s own plays, ives promise of the great romantic comedies of a later period. wo Genilemen of Verona 1591, shows Shakespeare’s remarkable powers of giving fresh treatment to a borrowed plot. To the same date belongs a third comedy—the Comedy of Errors, which, abounding in boisterous farce, follows cla . models. In Richaré III. 1593, he returned to followed, 1593. From now onwards Shakespeare dares more and more to be himself; shaking off the influence of Marlowe, he found expre ion in a great lyric outburst. Turning to non-dramatic poetry, he wrote Venus and Adonis, ee 1593, with equal succe , by Rape of followed Lucrece, 1594; fine narrative eee but cold in comparison with plays. Shakespeare’s star was now in the ascendant: he had become warmly attached to the Earl of Southampton, and in 1594 he had the honor of acting before the queen. erally cal from ¢, Str at ford, among his sources of in in being @ share in the profits of the come ccor OC. W. Wallace in 1909, he lived Prof. with a Huguenot family in Londen Mount joy, in Monk well Street. called hie mer Bi a Shakes was deeply affected In 1601 ment for complici e reflected ie plays of his third is and most serious period. ‘The plays of his second period are full of exhuberance; they' include the beautiful Romeo and Juliet (in its maturer form ec, 1594), three of his greatest romantic comedies —The Mer Henry IV. (two parts; 1596-8) and Henry V. 1599, which showed Prince as king; while Falstaff rea’ tradition says at Elizabeth’s command, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, 1597. Other merry plays—Ali’s Well that Ends Well, 1595; Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado aboué Nothing, and plays included in this short but extraordinarily fertile period, 1601-9, of sublime and almost unrelieved tragedy —Troilus and Cre ida, 1603, a cynical comedy; Measure for Measure, another sombre comedy; Timon of Athens, 1608, a bitter tragedy; Pericles, 1608, with its loathsome scenes; Antony and. Cleopatra, 1608, ‘oriolanus, 1609, great tragedies both. Sonnets and Last Pericd.—iIn 1609 appeared Shakespeare’s Sonncts—poetical gems round which much controversy has raged. Critics have disagreed as to the identity of the poet’s friend ‘Mr. W. H.’ (who is described as the ‘onlie begetter’ of the Sonnets), and of | the ‘dark lady’ who {nspired the second Southampton and Pembroke are series. among those identified with the former, while Mary Fitton is by many identified with the latter. Shakespeare’s last period is marked when on the eve of parting with e, About 1611 Shakespeare was able to bring his busine connection with the stage to an end, and retire, with prematurely failing health, to his native Str at ford, where at New Place he resided till his death (April 23, 1616). He lies buried in Str at ford Church. In addition to the plays mentioned, Shakespeare fs known or believed to have collaborated with other dramatists in such plays as Henry VIII. (ce. 1613) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (c. 1613). Since the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (now ex ingly rare and vaiuable) was i ued by his old colleagues, Heminge and Condell, in 1623, down to the sumptuous and scholarly editions of the 20th cent., scores and scores of editions of Shakespeare’s works have been published, and the critics, not of Britain alone, but of the whole -world, have united in paying tribute to the universality and splendor of his genius; while it has ever been the height of the ambition of the greatest actors and actre es to interpret fitly Shakespeare’s leading roles,