Shakespeare's Italian dream: Cinquecento sources for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

Article Abstract:

An Italian pastoral drama, Giovanna Battista Guarini's best seller 'Il pastor fido,' provides the internal incident, background detail, and personality for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' Hugh M. Richmond discovers a probable link between Giraldio Cinthio's 'Hecatommithi' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' since the former anticipates the main love intrigues of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' The Italian sources for the play are discussed are very significant.

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Sforza Oddi and the commedia grave: setting the stage for Shakespeare

Article Abstract:

The plays of Sforza Oddi exemplify the themes and conventions of the commedia grave and William Shakespeare may have been familiar with his work. This type of comedy seems to have been developed as an urban counterpoint to commedia pastorale. The psychological complexity, mixtures of the noble and the comic and strong female characters make Oddi's work like a forerunner of Shakespeare and of his younger contemporaries.

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Friendship in 'Hamlet.'

Article Abstract:

William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' can be seen as a play about friendship. Renaissance thinkers were particularly interested in this human relationship, feeling it was the basis for generating the good will that kept society together. The friendships of Bernardo and Fernando, and those of Hamlet with Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and especially with Horatio, portray the complex relationships humans can have.

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