Was shakespeare more of a famous actor or playwriter?

Answer 1

The poets and the playwrights were the same people, because plays, and especially tragedies, were written in poetry. Playwrights, unlike actors, were as well respected as poets. We have actual proof of this in Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia of 1598, in which he compares the literary figures of his day to the literary figures of ancient Greece and Rome. An excerpt:

As these tragic poets flourished in Greece, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Alexander Aetolus, Achaeus Erithriaeus, Astydamas Atheniensis, Apollodorus Tarsensis, Nicomachus Phrygius, Thespis Atticus, and Timon Apolloniates, and these among the Latins, Accius, M. Attilius, Pomponius Secundus and Seneca, so these are our best for tragedy, the Lord Buckhurst, Doctor Legge of Cambridge, Doctor Edes of Oxford, Master Edward Ferris, the author of the Mirror for Magistrates, Marlowe, Peele, Watson, Kyd, Shakespeare, Drayton, Chapman, Dekker, and Benjamin Johnson.

The best poets for comedy among the Greeks are these, Menander, Aristophanes, Eupolis Atheniensis, Alexis Terius, Nicostratus, Amipsias Atheniensis, Anaxandrides Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheniensis and Callias Atheniensis, and among the Latins, Plautus, Terence, Naevius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Virgilius Romanus, so the best for comedy amongst us be Edward Earl of Oxford, Doctor Gager of Oxford, Master Rowley, once a rare scholar of learned Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, Master Edwards, one of her Majesty's Chapel, eloquent and witty John Lyly, Lodge, Gascoigne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Munday, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle.

So if someone tries to tell you that being a playwright was not an admirable profession or that Shakespeare began writing poetry as opposed to plays because he wanted to be recognized as a literary figure, they are totally off the mark. Shakespeare was recognized as a literary figure because he wrote plays as much as he was because he wrote poetry.

Answer 2

A couple of reasons put Shakespeare at the front of the pack:

1. His art is a performance art and thus easier for most people to absorb than other forms of literature. Donne and Milton, who were Shakespeare's contemporaries, may have been as talented as Shakespeare, but to get through Paradise Lost, you have to pick it up and read it, but to be familiar with Hamlet you only have to watch it.

2. He got a big boost from his fans, particularly David Garrick in the eighteenth century. None of his contemporaries had any fans as enthusiastic.

3. His plays were exclusive. For a long time only two theatres in England were allowed to put on Shakespeare's plays, which made them seem special.

4. His plays are flexible and absorbent. It is easy to produce them in new ways which bring out a new experience. They also lend themselves to taking on the attitudes of whatever era they are being presented in. All kinds of people in different places and at different times have watched the plays and said, "Yes, that seems familiar to me."

5. Finally, and this is probably behind the previous three, Shakespeare was just better than his contemporaries. Marlowe, Jonson, Kyd and Webster, among others, all wrote good and entertaining plays, but most of Shakespeare's work is better than their best.

Answer 3

Shakespeare was created by his writing, he left school at 15 and many were very surprised at how succsesful he got, however he was a very bad at spelling, so we dont acctully know what his name was... It could have been shakspere, or shagspear...

but he still got very succsefully with his writing...

he did act in some of his plays but he got famous for his play writing