8-2Histories

=== Not only was William Shakespeare known for his comedies, he was also known for his historic plays. His historic plays were dramatically acted out and concentrated on historic facts. He wrote many plays about King Henry VI, King Richard III, King John, King Henry IV, King Henry V, and King Henry VIII. Shakespeare believed that since kings were sacred, chosen by god, people would be more intersted in you in you life rather than the common man. and a ruler audiences would be intersted in you and your life more than events of a comon person. that he should write plays that were about that. In order to be sacred, people thought that you had to be chosen by god. He wrote his plays in groups that weren’t written in chronological order. The first group he wrote was Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 and Richard III. these rulers were dated from 1422- 1485, which was when they had ruled. His second group was Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V, which looked at earlier periods in history (1377- 1422). Shakespeare used books, or chronicles, such as the chronicle by Edward Hall, to gain information about people and events. In Shakespeare’s second main group of plays, he wrote about the more complicated and greater kings. Those who acomplished more than the kings in group one. The plays that he wrote about in this section are Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. His second group of plays were more gratifying for the audience because the events were more complex than the first group.He makes the characters more human, which makes the audience understand them better. These histories covered information about famous kings and notorious leaders during the elizabethan era. === === The plays show the tough situations that the kings faced and the powerful characters, kings and others, during those periods of history. Shakespeare wrote about the individual kings, their power, their goodness and their brutality. In Henry VI, Henry is shown as a sweet, gentle king who isn’t really the best king to rule a country. This play shows the hardships of being a king, and how people didn’t really respect Henry, but thought of him as a weak king. Also, in Richard III, Richard is a tough and malicious man. Richard was quite murderous, too. “The play charts Richard’s murderous path as he makes his way to the top”, says author of The Usborne Internet- Linked World of Shakespeare. Richard commits some dirty crimes that give him strength to become king. Lastly I would like to talk about Richard II. In Richard II, Richard looses his thrown to a military man, named Henry Bolingbroke. As a king, Richard was very hesitant and rather self- important. He pretended he was a good king, but in the end Richard realizes that his kingship had slipped away from him after all. Shakespeares plays made the audience feel as if they were actually alive during the period being portrayed and able to see the historic events. === ===  Here is a picture of a book about Shakespeare's histories  Claybourne, Anna, and Rebecca Treays. __The Usborne Internet-Linked World of Shakespeare__. 1st ed. Saffron Hill, London: Usborne Publishing, 2001.===