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A prezi comparing comedies and tragedies of Shakespeare.

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Comedy vs Tragedy

If you are a fan of plays, then you must want to know the difference between comedy and tragedy. You must have undoubtedly heard of Shakespeare to whom one's mind could naturally straightaway run in association of the terms tragedy and comedy as Shakespeare is undoubtedly referred to as the world's pre-eminent dramatist. It appears that the two terms,which denote two genres of drama, are not similar, yet do they have a difference in meaning? Difference between comedy and tragedy is not something of obscurity, it is something that is plainly visible. This article attempts to explore the difference between tragedy and comedy in terms of a number of aspects related to drama in literature. To begin with, the main difference between tragedy and comedy is found at the ending of the drama.

What is a Tragedy?

A tragedy is a genre of drama in literature that is mainly characterized by its sad and depressing ending. The play deals with a series of sorrowful events happen to or are caused by its hero or heroine. Tragedy is also characterized by the emotion it creates in the audience; a sentiment mixed with sorry and empathy. Although, tragedy is associated with plays, by extension, it also relates to poetry and fiction as well. According to historians, the origins of tragedy occurred in Ancient Greece about 2500 years ago. It has been noted since in all literary eras and great playwrights of tragedy in the western literature include Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Racine, and Schiller. In terms of the plot of a tragedy, it is usually a series of serious actions that evoke feelings of fear and pity. The main character or the protagonist of a tragedy is called a tragic hero whereas the setting of a tragedy is usually a battlefield, a dark and mysterious palace, or any other disastrous place.

What is a Comedy?

A comedy, in contrast to a tragedy, is a genre of drama in literature that is characterized by its happy and vivacious ending. Besides making the audience happy, a comedy rather importantly intends to evoke humour and amusement in the audience by means of extensive laughter. This kind of plays and dramas make up the comic theatre of which the western origins date back to the Ancient Greece. A comedy can again be classed into a number of sub-genres such as satire, burlesque, comedy of manners, and farce. The plot of a comedy normally deals with an ordinary problem faced by the common people. Further, a comedy is normally set in an ordinary place and the protagonist of a comedy is called a comic hero.

What is the difference between Comedy and Tragedy?

* A tragedy has a sad and depressing ending while a comedy has a happy and vigorous ending.

* The plot of a tragedy is marked with a series of actions that happened to the protagonist causing fear and pity in the audience while a comic plot often creates laughter in the audience.

* A protagonist of a tragedy is called a tragic hero while the main character of a comedy is called a comic hero.

* Comedy is also characterized with ambiguity in language while tragedy deals with concrete language.

* Stubbornness is often a characteristic of tragic heroes while willingness to learn and change a characteristic of comic heroes.

Judging by the above mentioned differences, it is comprehensible that comedy and tragedy differ from each other in the sense that one ending being sad and disappointing and the other being happy and enlightening. Also, differences are also noted with regard to the plot, setting, characters, language used, and emotions evoked in the audience.

Cite This Page
"Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy." DifferenceBetween.Com. September 18, 2014. < http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-comedy-and-vs-tragedy/ >

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If you are a fan of plays, then you must want to know the difference between comedy and tragedy. You must have undoubtedly heard of Shakespeare to whom one's mind could naturally straightaway run in association of the terms tragedy and comedy as Shakespeare is undoubtedly referred to as the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

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From

Characteristics of Elizabethan Drama
Elizabethan Drama. Janet Spens. London: Metheun & Co.

Of the three types of plays recognized in the Shakespeare First Folio -- Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies -- the last has been the most discussed annnd is clearest in outline.

1. Tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character.

2. The catastrophe must not be the result of mere accident, but must be brought about by some essential trait in the character of the hero acting either directly or through its effect on other persons.

3. The hero must nevertheless have in him something which outweighs his defects and interests us in him so that we care for his fate more than for anything else in the play. The problem then is, why should a picture of the misfortunes of some one in whom we are thus interested afford us any satisfaction? No final answer has yet been found. Aristotle said that the spectacle by rousing in us pity and fear purges us of these emotions, and this remains the best explanation. Just as a great calamity sweeps from our minds the petty irritations of our common life, so the flood of esthetic emotion lifts us above them.

In the drama of Marlowe the satisfaction appears to depend, not on the excitement of the catastrophe, but on the assertion of the greatness of man's spirit; and this seems to have been the theme also of Senecan tragedy. It will be remembered that the first part of Tamburlaine ends, not in his death, but in his triumph, and yet we feel that the peculiar note of tragedy has been struck. We have the true tragic sense of liberation. Kyd also asserted the independence of the spirit of man, if he is prepared to face pain and death.

It is really much more difficult than is always recognized to be sure what constituted Shakespeare's view of the tragic satisfaction or even that he believed in it. It is possibly true that Lear is a better man at the end of the play than he was at the beginning, and that without his suffering he would not have learned sympathy with his kind; but this does not apply either to Hamlet or to Othello, and even in the case of King Lear it does not explain the aesthetic appeal. That depends on something more profound.

The student, after getting the story of the tragedy quite clear, should concentrate first on the character of the hero. Ask yourself whether his creator considered him ideally perfect -- in which case the appeal probably lies in the spectacle of a single human soul defying the universe; or flawed -- in which case the defect will bring about the catastrophe. It is true that in the Revenge Play type we have frequently the villain-hero, but the interest there depends rather on his courage and independence of man and God than on his villainy. This is particularly true of pre-Shakespearean plays. It is remarkable that the post-Shakespearean drama was apt to combine plots involving unnatural crimes and vicious passions with a somewhat shallow conventional morality.

History plays seem in Shakespeare's hands to represent the compromise of life. They may end in catastrophe or in triumph, but the catastrophe is apt to be undignified and the triumph won at a price. Again, we may say that in the Histories Shakespeare is dealing with the nation as hero. The hero in this case is immortal and his tale cannot be a true tragedy; while on the other hand there can never be the true comedy feeling of an established and final harmony. Apart from Shakespeare, Histories are almost entirely inspired by patriotism, often of a rather rabid type.

There is the greatest variety in the section entitled "Comedy," and critics generally distinguish sharply between Comedies and Romances in Reconciliation plays. We are apt to expect a comedy to aim chiefly at making us laugh, but, although there are extremely funny passages, it is clear that this is not the main character of any but one or two early plays. The Romances are four -- "Cymbeline," "Winter's Tale," "The Tempest," and the play not contained in the First Folio -- "Pericles." "Cymbeline" [was] actually printed at the end of the Tragedies for reasons which can only be conjectured. Romances are always concerned with two generations, and cover the events of many years. There is an element of the marvellous in them, and the emphasis on repentance and forgiveness is very marked. But they are, indeed, the natural development of the plays of the great period. "As You Like It" deals also with two generations, with wrongs committed and then repentance, forgiveness and restitution. In the earlier play the stress is laid on the actions and emotions of the younger folk, while in the later plays the older generation is most fully portrayed.

But before Shakespeare arrived at this conception of Comedy, he had tried various types. In "The Comedy of Errors," founded on a translation of a Latin comedy, he had produced an example of pure farce. The humour in a farce generally consists of violent action provoked by misunderstanding of a gross kind. There is an element of farce, therefore, in the "Taming of the Shrew," though the main appeal of the play is the stimulus of Petruchio's high spirits. Probably the original conception of the "Merchant of Venice" was much the same. A youthful Shakespeare was probably pleased with the outwitting of the churlish old miser Shylock. It is the theme of youth and crabbed age. An older Shakespeare must have revised it and seen the story more through the eyes of Shylock and of Antonio, and the unity of the play has been destroyed.

"Love's Labour's Lost" and the "Midsummer Night's Dream" are probably both Court Comedies, and have the superficiality of emotion which for whatever reason was associated with Court Comedy. A graceful and fanciful working up of the occasion for which the play was produced was the special character of a Court play, and it has been conjectured that the "Midsummer Night's Dream" was written for a noble marriage.

But the Shakespearean theory of Comedy went much deeper than this, and has no classical exposition, Meredith's "Essay on Comedy" is quite inapplicable. It may be suggested that his intent was to present a picture of an harmonious society in which each person's individuality is fully developed and yet is in perfect tune with all the others. At the beginning of the play there is always an element of discord, which is resolved before the close. As in History the hero of the play is rather Society as a whole than any person in it, and because of this we get at the end a sense of "happiness ever after." In the last plays we have generally an incorrectly reported death, and the discovery of these mistakes gives a curious sense that "there's nothing serious in mortality." All existence is seen as one great web of being, so that, although in tragedy, Hamlet sickens at the thought:
"Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
May stop a wall to keep the wind away."
in "The Tempest" the same thought becomes:
"Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange."

How to cite this article:
Spens, Janet.Elizabethan Drama. London: Metheun & Co. 1922. Shakespeare Online. 19 Aug. 2009. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tradegyvscomedy.html > .

_________

More Resources

Daily Life in Shakespeare's London
Life in Stratford (structures and guilds)
Life in Stratford (trades, laws, furniture, hygiene)
Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read?

Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L]
Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z]
An Elizabethan Christmas
Clothing in Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
Publishing in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare's Audience
Religion in Shakespeare's England

Entertainment in Elizabethan England
London's First Public Playhouse
Shakespeare Hits the Big Time

Shakespeare's Pathos
"The fact is, that Shakespeare never, whether in comedy or tragedy, ends in the pathetic key, a point to which I shall return later. That there is an admixture of compassion in these great scenes is true; but the passions with which it is commingled are so agitating, the action so frantic, the consequences so prodigious, that pity is smothered up in dismay. At the very end, to be sure, the winds fall and cease, and the waves break back on themselves in a mighty subsidence; but it is the calm of a supreme exaltation." J. F. Pyre. Read on...

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How Many Plays Did Shakespeare Write?
The Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays
Establishing the Order of the Plays
Settings of Shakespeare's Plays by Location
Historical Settings of Shakespeare's Plays by Date

Hamlet: Problem Play and Revenge Tragedy
Macbeth: The Complete Play with Analysis
The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character
The Worst Disaster in Theatre History

Superstition and Alchemy in Shakespeare's Day
Seneca's Tragedies and the Elizabethan Drama
Characteristics of Elizabethan Tragedy
Does Lady Macbeth Die in Suicidal Agony?

Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
Intercourse with a Devil: The Trial of Poor Bessie Dunlop
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Heebie-Jeebies: The Curse of Macbeth
Superstitions in Shakespeare's England
The Fatal Bellman
The Riddles of Hamlet: Ophelia's Burial

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Why Shakespeare is so Important
Shakespeare's Language
Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers

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comedy vs. tragedy history vs. tragedy elements in history play comedic elements shakespeare

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Types of Shakespearean Plays - Common elements in Shakespearean tragedy, comedy, and history

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From Elizabethan Drama. Janet Spens. London: Metheun & Co. Of the three types of plays recognized in the Shakespeare First Folio -- Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies -- the last has been the most discussed annnd is clearest in outline. 1. Tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character.

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Features of a Shakespearean Tragedy by Shmoop

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So you think you know a foul word or two? Shakespeare's insults, put downs and cussing were second to none, and with his insults Shakespeare was most certainly a master of his trade! Read our selection of the top 50 Shakespeare insults below, ordered alphabetically by quote, with play and act/scene listed too. From " a most notable coward" to "Villian, I have done thy mother" Shakespeare had an insult for any occassion.

Top 50 Shakespeare Insults:

1. "A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality."

All's Well That Ends Well (Act 3, Scene 6)

2. "Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish!"

Henry IV Part I (Act 2, Scene 4)

3. "Away, you three-inch fool! "

The Taming of the Shrew (Act 3, Scene 3)

4. "Come, come, you froward and unable worms!"

The Taming Of The Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2)

5. "Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy."

Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3)

6. "His wit's as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard."

Henry IV Part 2 (Act 2, Scene 4)

7. "I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall."

Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2)

8. "I am sick when I do look on thee "

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 2, Scene 1)

9. "I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets."

As You Like It (Act 3 Scene 5)

10. "If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them."

Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1)

11. "I'll beat thee, but I would infect my hands."

Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)

12. "I scorn you, scurvy companion. "

Henry IV Part II (Act 2, Scene 4)

13. "Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee."

All's Well That Ends Well (Act 2, Scene 3)

14. "More of your conversation would infect my brain."

The Comedy of Erros (Act 2, Scene 1)

15. "My wife's a hobby horse!"

The Winter's Tale (Act 2, Scene 1)

16. "Peace, ye fat guts!"

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 2)

17. "Poisonous bunch-backed toad! "

Richard III (Act 1, Scene 3)

18. "The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril"

The Merry Wives of Windsor (Act 3, Scene 5)

19. "The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes."

The Comedy of Erros (Act 5, Scene 4)

20. "There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune."

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 3, Scene 3)

21. "Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract."

The Tempest (Act 2, Scene 2)

22. "That trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey Iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?"

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)

23. "Thine face is not worth sunburning."

Henry V (Act 5, Scene 2)

24. "This woman's an easy glove, my lord, she goes off and on at pleasure."

All's Well That Ends Well (Act 5, Scene 3)

25. "Thou art a boil, a plague sore"

King Lear (Act 2, Scene 2)

26. "Was the Duke a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward?"

Measure For Measure (Act 5, Scene 1)

27. "Thou art as fat as butter."

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)

28. "Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad."

Titus Andronicus (Act 4, Scene 3)

29. "Like the toad; ugly and venomous."

As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 1`)

30. "Thou art unfit for any place but hell."

Richard III (Act 1 Scene 2)

31. "Thou cream faced loon"

Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3)

32. "Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!"

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4 )

33. "Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat."

Henry V (Act 4, Scene 4)

34. "Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!"

Richard III (Act 1, Scene 3 )

35. "Thou leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, knot-pated, agatering, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish pouch!"

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)

36. "Thou lump of foul deformity"

Richard III (Act 1, Scene 2)

37. "That poisonous bunch-back'd toad!"

Richard III (Act 1, Scene 3)

38. "Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows "

Troilus and Cressida (Act 2, Scene 1)

39. "Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!"

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 4, Scene 2)

40. "Thou whoreson zed , thou unnecessary letter!"

King Lear (Act 2, Scene 2 )

41. "Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade."

Shakespeare Insult 45 - Measure For Measure (Act 3, Scene 1)

42. "Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile."

Cymbeline (Act 3, Scene 4)

43. "Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon"

Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)

44. "Would thou wouldst burst!"

Timon of Athens (Act 4, Scene 3)

45. "You poor, base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! "

Henry IV Part II (Act 2, Scene 4)

46. "You are as a candle, the better burnt out."

Henry IV Part 2 (Act 1, Scene 2)

47. "You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!"

Henry IV Part 2 (Act 2, Scene 1)

48. "You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, you bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish-O for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!"

Henry IV Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4)

49. "Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage."

Shakespeare Insult 45 - As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7)

50. "Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese."

All's Well That Ends Well (Act 1, Scene 1)

51. "Villain, I have done thy mother"

Titus Andronicus (Act 4, Scene 2)

Shakespeare Insult Generator:

Got the hang of Shakespeare's insult style and want to try your own? Have a go using the chart below. Simply combine one word from each of the 3 text columns below, and prefix with a "Thou":

Shakespeare Insult Infographic:

This stunning Shakespeare insult chart was put together by Charley Chartwell. It charts 100 of Shakespeare's greatest zingers, sorted by topic, with each insult labelled with the play it comes from. Size is 18×24 inches, and available to buy here >>

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So you think you know a foul word or two? Check out the ultimate guide to Shakespeare's insults. Shakespeare, even with his insults, put downs and cussing, was most certainly a master of his trade! Read our selection of Shakespeare insults below...

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WORD FORMATIONS AND INSULTS BY SHAKESPEARE

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Shakespeare's Influence on the English Language

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NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler.

For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare.

I compiled these from multiple sources online in 2003. Each of these words and compounds supposedly is not known to have appeared in print prior to the publication of Shakespeare's works. For this reason, people claim that Shakespeare invented these words.

How many of these are true coinages by "the Bard", and how many are simply the earliest written attestations of a word or words already in use, I can't tell you. The ones that seem real are new forms of words already in the language. Words like "advertising", "assassination", "bedazzled", "consanguineous", "dishearten", "enmesh", "eventful", "eyesore", "lackluster", "moonbeam", outbreak", "quarrelsome", "radiance", "reclusive", "seamy-side", "stealthy", "submerge", "time-honored", "undervalued", "unmitigated", "unreal", "well-read", "watchdog", and "whirligig" would have been meaningful to the audience.

A few words are first attested in Shakespeare and seem to have caused extra problems for the typesetters. This suggests they are really coined by Shakespeare. One example is "denote".

The popular book Coined by Shakespeare acknowledges that it is presenting first attestations rather than certain inventions. For example, "alligator" appeared for the first time in print as an English word in "Romeo and Juliet", but it has Spanish antecedents, and only the terminal "-r" seems to be new with Shakespeare. "Puke" appears as a vulgar term for vomiting in the near-contemporary "Duchess of Malfi", and it seems well-known; so Shakespeare's use in "As You Like It" seems more likely just a first attestation. The region of Dalmatia is as old as the Roman Empire, and obviously Shakespeare did not coin the adjectival form.

Words like "anchovy", "bandit", and "zany" are just first attestations of loan-words. By contrast, in "Troilus and Cressida", Shakespeare seems to have been having fun introducing new forms of old words, even though "orgulous" and "deracinate" never did catch on.

Right now I'm in the process of referencing these. I would like to hear from anyone who knows for certain about any item on this page.

I stand corrected; one of my sources misattributed "fool's paradise" to Romeo and Juliet though it appears in Tyndale's Bible and probably earlier.

abstemious (The Tempest -- a Latin word that meant "to abstain from alcoholic drink" was generalized to sexual behavior as well)

academe (Love's Labour's Lost; this is just an English form of "Academy", the Greek for Plato's grove)

accommodation (Othello)

accused (n.) (Richard II -- first known use as a noun, meaning person accused of a crime)

addiction (Henry V / Othello)

admirable (several; seems unlikely)

advertising (adj.)(Measure for Measure; in context, means "being attentive"; the noun was already in use)

aerial (Othello)

alligator (Romeo and Juliet; Spanish "aligarto" was already in use in English)

amazement (13 instances; first known use as a noun)

anchovy (I Henry IV; first attestation in English of the Spanish word for dried edible fish)

apostrophe ("apostrophas")(Love's Labour's Lost; seems to be a well-known word already)

arch-villain (Measure for Measure / Timon of Athens)

to arouse (2 Henry VI / Hamlet; "rouse" was the usual form)

assassination (Macbeth; "assassin" was already in use and derives from "hashish eater")

auspicious (several; "auspice" was a Roman practice of fortune-telling by bird flight)

bachelorship (I Henry VI)

backing (I Henry VI; this is just a pun on a known word)

bandit (II Henry VI, actually "bandetto", the first attestation in English of a familiar Italian word for people "banned", i.e., outlaws)

barefaced (in the sense of "barefaced power") (Macbeth)

baseless (in the sense of fantasy without grounding in fact) (The Tempest)

beached (several, merely means "possessing a beach")

bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew)

bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream, merely means a place to sleep on the ground)

belongings (Measure for Measure)

to besmirch (Henry V)

birthplace (Coriolanus; first attestation)

to blanket (King Lear; first use as a verb)

bloodstained (I Henry IV)

blusterer (A Lover's Complaint)

bold-faced (I Henry VI)

bottled (Richard III)

bump (Romeo and Juliet; first attestation of onomopoeic word)

buzzer (Hamlet; means gossipper)

to cake (Timon of Athens, first attestation as a verb)

to castigate (Timon of Athens)

to cater (As You Like It; from coetous, a buyer of provisions)

clangor (3 Henry VI / 2 Henry IV)

to champion (Macbeth; first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight for another)

circumstantial (As You Like It / Cymbeline; first attestation in the sense of "indirect")

cold-blooded (King John; first use to mean "lack of emotion")

coldhearted (Antony and Cleopatra)

compact (several; seems to have been a common word)

to comply (Othello)

to compromise (The Merchant of Venice, several of the histories; seems to have been already in use)

to cow (Macbeth; first use in English of a Scandinavian verb)

consanguineous (Twelfth Night; "consanguinity" was already in use)

control (n.) (Twelfth Night)

countless (Titus Andronicus / Pericles)

courtship (several, seems unikely)

critic (Love's Labour's Lost; Latin term)

critical (not in today's sense) (Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

cruelhearted (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Dalmatians (Cymbeline)

dauntless (Macbeth)

dawn (I Henry IV, King John; first use as a noun, the standard had been "dawning")

day's work (several, must have been a common expression)

deafening (II Henry IV; in the sense of a noise that is loud but does not produce real deafness)

to denote (several; already a word in Latin)

depository (???)

discontent (Richard III / Titus Andronicus; the verb was in use but this is the first attestation as a noun)

design (several, seems unlikely)

dexterously (Twelfth Night)

dialogue (several, seems already familiar)

disgraceful (I Henry VI; means "not graceful")

dishearten (Henry V)

to dislocate (King Lear, refers to anatomy)

distasteful (Timon of Athens)

distracted (Hamlet / Measure for Measure; seems possible)

divest (Henry V / King Lear; probably already in use as referring to a royal title)

domineering (Love's Labour's Lost; from a Dutch word)

downstairs (I Henry IV, supposedly first use as an adjective)

droplet (Timon of Athens)

to drug (Macbeth; first use as a verb)

to dwindle (I Henry IV / Macbeth, seems already familiar as a term for body wasting)

to educate (Love's Labour's Lost)

to elbow (King Lear; first use as a verb)

embrace (I Henry VI; first use as a noun)

employer (Much Ado about Nothing)

employment (several, obviously familiar)

engagement (several, seems simply the first attestation)

to enmesh (Othello)

to ensnare (Othello)

enrapt (Troilus and Cressida)

enthroned (Antony and Cleopatra)

epileptic (King Lear; first use as an adjective, though the noun was old)

equivocal (Othello / All's Well that Ends Well; first use as adjective, though the verb "to equivocate" was familiar)

eventful (As You Like It)

excitement (Hamlet / Troilus and Cressida; both times as plural; first use as a noun)

expedience (several, supposedly first use as noun)

exposure (several, supposedly first use as noun)

eyeball (The Tempest)

eyedrops (II Henry IV; means "tears")

eyesore (The Taming of the Shrew)

fanged (Hamlet, first attestation)

farmhouse (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

far-off (several, seems already familiar)

fashionable (Timon of Athens / Troilus and Cressida)

fathomless (not today's sense) (Troilus and Cressida)

fitful (Macbeth)

fixture (not current sense) (Merry Wives of Windsor / Winter's Tale)

flawed (King Lear; first use as an adjective)

flowery (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

foppish (King Lear)

fortune-teller (The Comedy of Errors)

to forward (I Henry IV; first use as a verb)

foul-mouthed (several, seems already familiar)

freezing (Cymbeline)

frugal (several; "frugality" was already in common use)

full-grown (Pericles)

gallantry (Troilus and Cressida)

generous (several, obviously already known)

gloomy (several, "to gloom" was a verb)

glow (several; the word had originally meant red-and-warm)

gnarled (Measure for Measure; alteration of knurled which was a standard word for bumpy)

go-between (several, seems familiar)

to gossip (The Comedy of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar friends)

gust (III Henry VI, seems already familiar and was an Old Norse word)

half-blooded (King Lear)

hint (Othello, first use in today's sense)

hob-nails (I Henry IV, alleged; seems already familiar)

hobnob (Twelfth Night; older term was "hab, nab", and not in today's sense)

homely (several, seems already familiar)

honey-tongued (Love's Labour's Lost)

hoodwinked (already known from falconry)

hostile (several, seems like a word that is already familiar)

hot-blooded (The Merry Wives of Windsor / King Lear)

housekeeping (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

howl (several, clearly familiar)

to humor (Love's Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)

hunchbacked (can't find)

to hurry (Comedy of Errors, first attestation as verb)

ill-tempered (can't find)

immediacy (King Lear, first use as noun)

impartial (2 Henry IV)

to impede (Macbeth, first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)

import (several, and not used in the modern sense)

immediacy (King Lear, first attestation as a noun)

importantly (Cymbeline, first attestation as an adverb)

inaudible (All's Well that Ends Well; "audible" was already in use)

inauspicious (Romeo and Juliet)

indistinguishable (not in today's sense)(Troilus and Cressida)

inducement (several, seems unlikely)

investment (II Henry IV, not in present sense)

invitation (The Merry Wives of Windsor; signifies "flirting")

invulnerable King John / Hamlet / The Tempest; first attestation for the negative; Coriolanus has unvulnerable)

jaded (several, seems already a term of contempt)

Judgement Day (I Henry VI; usual term had been "Day of Judgement")

juiced (Merry Wives of Windsor; first attestation as an adjective)

kissing (several, first attestation of the participle, though surely not its first use)

lackluster (As You Like It)

ladybird (Romeo and Juliet)

to lament (several, seems already familiare)

to lapse (several, first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)

to launder (first use as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)

laughable (The Merchant of Venice)

leaky (Antony and Cleopatra / The Tempest)

leapfrog (Henry V; first attestation but seems unlikely as a coinage)

lonely (several, seems unlikely)

long-legged (can't find)

love letter (can't find)

to lower (several, seems already known)

luggage (first use as noun)

lustrous (Twelfth Night / All's Well that Ends Well)

madcap (several, attestation as adjective; the noun had become popular just before)

majestic (several, first use as adjective)

majestically (I Henry IV; first attestation as adverb)

malignancy (Twelfth Night, seems possible)

manager (Love's Labour's Lost / Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as noun)

marketable (As You Like It; first use as adjective)

militarist (All's Well that Ends Well)

mimic (Midsummer Night's Dream)

misgiving (Julius Caesar; first use as noun, though "to misgive" was in common use)

misplaced (several, seems unlikely)

to misquote (1 Henry IV; not in the present sense)

money's worth (Love's Labours Lost)

monumental (several, seems unlikely)

moonbeam (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

mortifying (Merchant of Venice / Much Ado About Nothing)

motionless (Henry V)

mountaineer (Cymbeline; the sense is "hillbilly")

multitudinous (Macbeth)

neglect (several, obviously already known)

to negotiate (Much Ado about Nothing / Twelfth Night; verb from the Latin)

new-fallen (Venus and Adonis / I Henry IV)

new-fangled (Love's Labour's Lost / As You Like It)

nimble-footed (several, seems already a familiar expression)

noiseless (King Lear / All's Well that Ends Well)

to numb (King Lear, first attestation as a transitive verb)

obscene (several; straight from Latin)

obsequiously (first use of the adverb; comes from "obsequies", or funeral rites)

outbreak (Hamlet, first attestation as a noun)

to outdare (I Henry IV)

to outgrow (can't find)

to outweigh (can't find)

over-cool (II Henry IV)

overgrowth (can't find)

over-ripened (II Henry VI ;first-use of the familiar compound)

over-weathered The Merchant of Venice)

overview (can't find)

pageantry (Pericles Prince of Tyre)

pale-faced (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

to pander (several; was already a proverb)

pedant (several, seems already in common use for a stuffy teacher)

perplex (King John / Cymbeline)

perusal (Sonnets / Hamlet; first use as a noun)

to petition (Antony and Cleopatra / Coriolanus; first use as a verb)

pious (several, seems very unlikely)

posture (several, seems known)

premeditated (several; first attestation of the adjective, though the noun was in use)

priceless (???)

Promethean (Othello / Love's Labour's Lost)

protester (not today's sense) (Julius Caesar)

published (2 Henry VI)

puking (As You Like It)

puppy-dog (King John / Henry V)

on purpose (several; seems very unlikely)

quarrelsome (As You Like It / Taming of the Shrew)

questing (As You Like It; first use of the gerund)

in question (several, seems already in use)

radiance (several; first use as noun)

to rant (The Merry Wives of Windsor / Hamlet; loan-word from Dutch or previously-unattested English word?)

rancorous (2 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Richard III, all early plays, seems unlikely)

raw-boned (I Henry VI)

reclusive (Much Ado about Nothing; first use as adjective)

reinforcement (Troilus and Cressida / Coriolanus; seems already in use)

reliance (???)

remorseless (several, first attestation of this form)

reprieve (several, obviously already in use)

resolve (several, obviously already in use)

restoration (King Lear)

restraint (several, seems already familiar)

retirement (II Henry IV; refers to military retreat; first use as noun)

revolting (several, obviously already familiar)

to rival (King Lear; first attestation as verb; noun was well-known)

rival (Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as adjective, noun was well-known)

roadway (II Henry IV; first attestation of the compound)

rumination (As You Like It; first use as noun)

sacrificial (Timon of Athens; not today's usage)

sanctimonious (Measure for Measure / Tempest)

satisfying (Othello / Cymbeline)

savage (several; the word was obviously already in use)

savagery (King John / Henry V; first use as this form)

schoolboy (Julius Caesar / Much Ado about Nothing)

scrubbed (The Merchant of Venice)

scuffle (Antony and Cleopatra; first use as noun, though the verb was familiar)

seamy-side (Othello)

to secure (II Henry VI; first use as a verb; the adjective was well-known)

shipwrecked (Pericles Prince of Tyre, seems unlikely)

shooting star (Richard II; first known use of the phrase)

shudder (Timon of Athens; first use as a noun; verb already well-known)

silk (alleged; obviously not Shakespeare's)

stocking (obviously not Shakespeare's)

silliness (Othello)

skim milk (I Henry IV; first use of the familiar term)

to sneak (Measure for Measure; supposed first use of the verb)

soft-hearted (2 Henry VI / 3 Henry VI; first use of the familiar phrase)

spectacled (Coriolanus; not in today's sense)

splitting (II Henry VI; first use as adjective)

sportive (Richard III / Comedy of Errors / All's Well that Ends Well; supposed first use)

to squabble (Othello; supposed first use, as with "to swagger")

stealthy (Macbeth; first use as adjective)

stillborn (can't find, obviously not Shakespeare's)

to submerge (Antony and Cleopatra)

successful (Titus Andronicus, seems dubious)

suffocating (Othello; supposed first use as a descriptor)

to sully (I Henry VI)

superscript (Love's Labour's Lost)

to supervise (Love's Labour's Lost; also Hamlet but not in today's sense)

to swagger (II Henry IV, others; in context this seems to be already a well-known word)

switch (first use to mean "twig")

tardily (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of adverb)

tardiness (King Lear; "tardy" as adjective was well-known)

threateningly (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of the adverb)

tightly (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first use as an adverb)

time-honored (Richard II)

title page (can't find; seems unlikely)

to torture (several; first use as a verb)

traditional (Richard III; first use as adjective)

tranquil (Othello; "tranquility" was an old word)

transcendence (All's Well that Ends Well; first attestation of the noun)

tongue-tied (III Henry VI / Julius Caesar / Troilus and Cressida; seems first attestation of a phrase already in use)

unaccommodated (King Lear)

unaware (Venus and Adonis; first use as an adverb; the adjective was not yet in use)

to unclog (Coriolanus, first use as a negative)

unappeased (Titus Andronicus)

unchanging (The Merchant of Venice)

unclaimed (As You Like It; not in today's sense)

uncomfortable (Romeo and Juliet)

to uncurl (???)

to undervalue (The Merchant of Venice)

to undress (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

unearthly (Winter's Tale)

uneducated (Love's Labour's Lost, seems possible)

ungoverned (Richard III / King Lear)

to unhand (Hamlet)

unmitigated (Much Ado about Nothing)

unpublished (King Lear; in the sense of "still unknown")

unreal (Macbeth, first use of the negative)

unsolicited (Titus Andronicus / Henry VIII; supposed first use of the form)

unswayed (Richard III; not in today's sense, but "is the sword unswung?")

unwillingness (Richard III / Richard II)

upstairs (I Henry IV; supposedly first use as an adjective)

urging (Richard III / Comedy of Errors; first attestation as a noun

useful (several, seems already familiar)

varied (Love's Labour's Lost, others)

vastly (Rape of Lucrece, not present sense)

viewless (Measure for Measure; means "invisible")

vulnerable (Macbeth; used in today's sense)

watchdog (The Tempest; first use of the phrase)

well-behaved (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

well-bred (II Henry IV; first use of the familiar compound)

well-read (I Henry IV)

whirligig (Twelfth Night)

to widen (???)

widowed (Sonnet 97 / Coriolanus; first use as an adjective)

worn out (Romeo and Juliet / 2 Henry IV; seems unlikely)

worthless (III Henry VI, several others; seems just a first attestation)

yelping (I Henry VI; first attestation of this adjectival form)

zany (Love's Labour Lost; simply a loan-word from Italian commedia dell'arte)

Click here for some words which Shakespeare evidently coined but which did NOT pass into common use. They include "affined", "to articulate" (in the sense of "to negotiate"), "attasked", "cadent" (in the sense of "dripping"), "to beetle", "bubukles", "co-marts", "co-mates", "congreeing", "conspectuities", "crants" (a borrowing for "flower crowns"), "credent", "dispunge", "enactures", "to force" (meaning "to reinforce"), "fracted", "to friend" (thanks to social media, now a mainstream word again! -- there ar earlier attestations), "germins", "immediacy" (meaning immediate authority from), "immoment", "impair" (adjective for impure), "incarnadine", "incorpsed" (incorporated), "indigest" (disordered), "intrenchant" (incapable of being cut), "irregulous", "jointing", "mered", "mirable", "mistempered", "operant", "oppugnancy", "palmy", "out-crafted", "out-villained", "out-tongued", "plantage", "primogenitive", "primy", "propugnation", "relume", "reprobance", "rigol", "rooky", "roted", "rubious", "smilets", "to stell", "stellèd", "supplyment", "unsisting", and "virgined" (held securely).

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NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler. For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés.

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The following is a list of some of the words Shakespeare coined and where they can be found, from Shakespeare Online.

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Social classes in the Elizabethan era were quite different than those we have today. These days we have a few generic classes that everyone gets grouped into. Back then, there...

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elizabethan era hierarchy classes ranks in society

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Elizabethan Era Hierarchy Classes Ranks in Society

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Elizabethan Era Hierarchy Classes Ranks in Society

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The social structure in Elizabethan England

Liza Picard describes how, between the Queen at the top and the beggars at the bottom, there was jockeying for position in the different levels of Elizabethan society.

There were the very rich, and the very poor. Little has changed? - Except perhaps, that the rich people were so oblivious to the poor, and the poor had so few prospects of ever being rich.

The Queen

Queen Elizabeth was at the top of the social pyramid. When she chose to show herself to her subjects she glittered with jewels and gold like an icon. There could be no mistaking who she was. She rode on horseback, or on a litter, carried above the eye-level of the crowd. They were not to know that the glamour of her richly embroidered and bejewelled clothes was frugally maintained by constant refurbishing and altering - she even wore refurbished robes that had belonged to the previous queen, Mary Tudor.

Sieve Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1583

As ruler of the country, iconography, glamour and displays of wealth were important tools of propaganda for Queen Elizabeth.

Usage terms © Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) in Ceremonial Costume (oil on canvas), Zuccari, or Zuccaro, Federico (1540-1609) / Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, Italy / Bridgeman Images

The court

The Queen was 'the fount of honour'. The quickest route to such honour, and influence, and power, and wealth, was via the court, and the best way of succeeding there was to attract the Queen's attention. Many an aspiring young man mortgaged his family estates in the country, spent the proceeds on ultra-fashionable garments, and set out for London. He might not succeed, in which case he slunk back to the country hoping to retrieve his shattered fortune. But for those that did, including Christopher Hatton, Francis Drake and Elizabeth's godson John Harrington, royal favour could provide a good, if precarious, living.

Another possibility was to stay in your family mansion and invite the Queen to visit you there. If she accepted, an immense expenditure on house and grounds would be needed, which would be wasted, if in the end the royal visit never happened.

An Entertainment for Elizabeth I at Elvetham, 1591

This woodcut shows the lavish spectacle prepared on Edward Seymour's estate for a visit by the Queen.

Portrait of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, c. 1600

Southampton was well-known at Elizabeth's court for his flamboyant looks and clothing. But he was disgraced after marrying Elizabeth Vernon, one of the Queen's maids of honour.

Usage terms NPG L114
Private collection; on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London

Merchants

Outside the glittering court circles, the merchants led comparatively quiet lives. Most lived in London. The focus of their ambition was to be the lord mayor of London, elected by the aldermen. The mayor was powerful enough, on occasion, to oppose the monarch, for example, when the City insisted that theatres should be closed during an epidemic of plague in London, although Elizabeth would have preferred them to continue since she enjoyed a good play.

The livery companies

The sinews of the merchants' community were the livery companies. (They still flourish, and still wield enormous influence in the City.) There were nearly a hundred companies in London, of which 12 were 'Great companies', controlling between them almost everything that was bought and sold in London, from pins - the Haberdashers - to wine - the Vintners. The Clothworkers controlled the finishing processes of cloth, the Ironworkers supplied iron bars for the building trade, and iron rims for wheels. The Carpenters regulated the building trade as all new buildings used timber. The Goldsmiths supervised the quality of gold and silver articles, which had to be marked in their Company's hall ('hall-marked') before they could be sold. The livery companies, in short, had Elizabethan trade sewn up.

Apprentices

A young man would be apprenticed to a master belonging to a livery company, to learn the trade. Some companies, such as the Goldsmiths' Company, could charge a considerable premium for an apprenticeship indenture. As he progressed, the young man changed from a liability needing to be shown every detail, to a trusted employee who could negotiate on behalf of his master, handling significant sums of money. The life of an apprentice was not always enjoyable. He had no right to pay, although his master might voluntarily recognise his usefulness if he stayed the course and proved his worth. The apprenticeship lasted at least seven years, sometimes longer, during which the young man was bound to 'serve his master faithfully and keep his (trade) secrets'. He could not hope to be released until he was at least 24. During this hormone-driven period of his life 'he shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony ... he shall not play at cards ... or any other lawful game. He shall not haunt playhouses nor absent himself from the master's service day or night unlawfully ...' The master's obligations were only to keep his apprentice in food and lodging, and clothe him in the plain blue clothes appropriate to his standing, and teach him his trade. No wonder that the drop-out rate was so high, often around 50 per cent. Some who had learned enough marketable skills decided to try their luck in the provinces, after several years of near-servitude in London. From the frequent references to apprentices brawling and rioting and attending playhouses, one suspects that the strict rules preventing them from almost any normal enjoyment were often flouted.

Once the apprentice had completed his term, he became a freeman of London. He could either become a journeyman - paid by the day, or, in French the journée - or set up on his own account. If so, he would rise through the ranks of his company until he became entitled to wear its distinctive uniform, or 'livery'.

Rebellion by London apprentices in 1595

Appalling social conditions prompted an uprising of 1,000 apprentices in London.

Other employments

For those who had not managed to climb on to the livery company ladder, finding a job was more complicated. There were places in educated families for 'governors' - tutors - but not for governesses: daughters were taught by their mothers. Rich men maintained huge households. The Earl of Oxford came on a social visit to London in 1562 with 140 mounted retainers, all wearing his livery to show their allegiance. Small families employed one or two serving men and servant maids. Ships' captains would sign on almost anyone; there might be a chance of prize money, but a greater chance of death by shipwreck or disease. In the countryside, there was usually seasonal work to be had. But there was no security, no pension, let alone any right to sick pay.

Declaration of the Diggers of Warwickshire, 1607

Enclosure of land cause massive hardship and poverty for labourers in rural England.

The poor

What happened to the poor, the people who could find no work, or were too disabled to work? The monasteries used to look after them, but no longer. It finally dawned on the government that the poor could not just be left to die; something had to be done for them by the state. It came, at first, and cynically, in the shape of begging licences, limited to an area, such as a parish, and a period, between six months and two years. Since it was made so difficult to obtain them, many were forged.

The welfare system

By 1569 some sort of welfare system was in place in the City of London, an example followed nationally by a general Act of 1572 which formed the basis of the national Poor Law until 1834. Its aim was to separate the 'poor, aged and impotent [i.e. disabled]' people, whom the state could and should help, from the thriftless and work-shy, whom the state would not help. The system became more and more complicated, but it functioned, in its own way. The poor were not, in theory at least, left to starve.

Liza Picard researches and writes about the history of London. She spent many years working in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue and lived in Gray's Inn and Hackney, before retiring to live in Oxford.

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The social structure in Elizabethan England | The British Library

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Liza Picard describes how, between the Queen at the top and the beggars at the bottom, there was jockeying for position in the different levels of Elizabethan society.