Peculiarities of shakesperean composition and stylistic devices english literature essay

3. 1. The principles of Shakespeare’s composition in Shelley’s dramaThe special influence on ” Prometheus Unbound” play and Shelley’s poems of 1817-1819 was made by Shakespeare’s comedies and tragicomedies. The so-called ” romantic” plays of Shakespeare and the first Shelley’s drama are united by an impression of generality while depicting human life which appears because of their action being remote from the concrete reality. The Old French space of ” As You Like It” comedy, the ancient atmosphere of the plays ” A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, ” Twelfth Night”, ” Pericles, Prince of Tyre”, ” The Winter’s Tale” and ” Cymbeline”, the utopian topos of ” The Tempest” drama represent the places distant from Shakespeare’s audience evoking the impression of convention of time and space. The action of Shelley’s ” Prometheus Unbound” also take place in the distant from the reader, mythological space of the Indian Caucasus. According to D. Reiman[1], the first Shelley’s drama, as well as in ” The Revolt of Islam” poem, depicts the conventional, symbolic place of the rise of human civilization. In this respect, the dramas ” The Tempest” and ” Prometheus Unbound” are the most clearly comparable with their cosmogonical topos, as the island and the mountain (cave) represent the places of confinement, torture of main hero and, at the same time, of his glorious, magical rise. Besides, the division of the characters to the positive/negative ones, the passivity of the characters and the dynamics of the plot also represent the structural similarity of ” Prometheus Unbound” and the last Shakespeare’s plays. It should be also noted that Shelley’s poems and his first drama are based on the plot, the dénouement of which depicts the victory of good over evil, which is typical for Shakespeare’s tragicomedies. It is significant that the considered works of Shakespeare and Shelley’s drama are partly endowed with didactic character. Demogorgon, like Gower, Cymbeline and Prospero becomes the moralist in the epilogue of the play who makes the instructive moral conclusion to the action, the ideologist addressing a reader/audience. The final monologues of the characters are the important peculiarity of the composition of romantic plays of Shakespeare and, correspondingly, Shelley’s dramas ” Prometheus Unbound” (admonition of Demogorgon), ” The Cenci” (farewell of Beatrice to the world), ” Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant” (the Freedom’s monologue), and ” Hellas” (the final chorus of captive Greek). The instructive epilogue contains the appeal to audience, revealing the main idea of the play and the author’s message. It is known that Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, published in 1820 in the same volume with Prometheus Unbound, also deals with the theme of a poet’s predestination in this world. The ode consists of five tercet sonnets what testifies the author’s special attitude to a sonnet word as a purely poetic form which possesses indisputable metaphoric significance. It was rare that Shelley uses the sonnet as a genre in his works. However, Patrick Cruttwell indicates that Shelley ” seems to have written two sonnets, at least, better than any by Keats; poems of great, if uncharacteristic, power” (Ozymandias, England in 1819).[2]The analysis of Shelley’s sonnets leads to an important conclusion. Firstly, Shelley more often takes as a model the Petrarchan sonnet (not the Shakespearean one) which consists of two quatrains and two tercets (with the exception of four early sonnets of 1812 and 1816 , as well as the sonnet To the Nile). Secondly, practically all Shelley’s sonnets don’t develop themes of love, friendship and personal human relationship (what is typical for Shakespeare’s sonnets) but issues of social and political (England in 1819, Political greatness), historical and philosophical (Feelings of a Republican on the Fall of Bonaparte, Ozymandis), ethical order (Lines to A Critic, To the Nile, Sonnet of 1819) and the problem of a poet’s purpose (To Laughter, To Wordsworth, Sonnet to Byron). Therefore, in Shelley’s works contents of sonnets are connected with social and political as well as moral and aesthetic problematics, and their construction with the tradition of Petrarch. Nevertheless, the inclusion of sonnets into dramas and lyrical epics is the important tradition inherited from Shakespeare. The most remarkable example of sonnet word in Shakespeare’s theatre is the first dialogue between the main characters of ” Romeo and Juliet” tragedy (I, 5, 92-104). The language of the tragedy turns from didactic to figurative and metaphorical, rich of similes and epithets. As the result, the correct English sonnets of the Chorus frame the most demonstrative and ” optimistic” historical chronicles of Shakespeare ” Henry V”. Inclusion of sonnets into the more voluminous text is peculiar to Shelley’s dramas as well. For example, ” Prometheus Unbound” contains the monologue of Prometheus ” Evil minds / Change good to their own nature…”, which is very significant ideologically and compositionally (it is delivered in the rock during the conversation with the ” opponent” Mercury). The speech consists of two modified and ” incorrectly” rhymed sonnets (I, 380-409). In this monologue, Prometheus speaks about non-acceptance of good actions by evil souls, about strong opposition to evil and inevitability of punishment. Besides, in the end of the first act (I, 807-820), Prometheus expresses his thoughts in form of unrhymed sonnet, which are close to Hamlet’s ones by their problematic. The first four spirits, which the Earth sent to console Prometheus, speak ” tercet” sonnets: ааа bbb ссс ddd ее (I, 694-751). Asia concludes the second act of the work with the very important monologue containing three ” shortened” (consisting of 13 lines) sonnets. Rhyming is constant and consists of three tercets and quatrain that resemble Petrarca’s sonnet: aab ccb ddee ggg. In the fourth act of the drama, the Moon sings the hymn of love and accord to the Earth, including in the form of sonnet (IV, 356-369). Rhyming was invented by Shelley and represents ” mirror” composition with consecutive alternation of tercets and quatrains: aab ccbb dde ggee” The Cenci” tragedy continues the practice on inclusion of sonnets into dramatic text with the help of the images of Camillo and Beatrice. The first words in the work (said by the Cardinal) are the unrhymed sonnet. Finishing of the play, the first words of the final scene (V, 4), also belongs to Camillo and is made in the form of a sonnet. Beatrice expresses her accusatory and directed against her evil father thoughts in the form of a sonnet (I, 3, 146-159). Two episodes consisting of 42 lines may be found in ” Hellas” drama. Thus, another one Shakespeare’s tradition reveals: the law of refrains and parallels, in this case, the monologues of the Chorus of Greek are reflected. The first of the monologues ” Worlds on worlds” (197-238) unites three correct Shakespeare’s sonnets and is the central speech act in this work[3]. In the text of ” Prometheus Unbound”, the dramatic episode with Jupiter’s shadow (I, 240-301), according to the opinion of many researches, resembles the scene of the Ghost’s appearance in ” Hamlet”. However, both Hamlet and Prometheus are tormented with doubts and difficult thoughts after their conversations with the shadows as regards somebody’s sufferings even for the sake of restoration of the order and justice. The voices from the past worry them as with their grand honesty, as with the unjustified cruelty. At the same time, the image of the Crucified Christ showed by Furies is the parallel picture supplementing torture of Prometheus suffering for his love to humanity. This striking scene resembles ” Mouse-trap” in ” Hamlet”, as it depicts the situation similar to the one, which happens with the main characters of the play. The ” Mouse-trap” scene, probably, produced great impression on Shelley, as the dialogue of Hamlet and Ophelia, which takes place immediately after the pantomime representing the play’s plot, was elected as the second epigraph in the satiric poem ” Peter Bell the Third”. The researcher B. Weaver considered that the episode with crucifixion in ” Prometheus Unbound” continued Shakespeare’s tradition and was extremely important for Shelley, as it expressed the main moral idea of the work and supplemented the psychological portrait of the main character[4]. These episodes are quite similar by the influence on the characters as well (the violent reaction of the royal couple in Shakespeare’s tragedy, disturbing responses of Oceanides and Prometheus in Shelley). Unbearable, voluntary suffering of one guiltless creature causes the rescue and release of the whole world from torture. Thus, the reflection of dramatic events is used by both English dramatists for more philosophical consideration of the conflict, and for its inclusion into the whirl of human history (suffering of Prometheus for the sake of people was not the single occasion of the great self-sacrifice, and the betrayal of Claudius in Shakespeare’s work was not the first evil deed in the world). Both Shakespeare and later Shelley consider it is necessary to include the dramatization of very important events, of so-called ” grain of the plot” into the play. According to D. King-Hele, in his works ” Shelley constantly commends passive resistance, forgiveness of wrongs and goodwill towards men”[5]; that is why the veiled comparison of Christ and Prometheus in the first act of the drama is the evidence of his adherence to Christian morality. The monologues of Hamlet (III, 1, 56-88) and Prometheus (I, 807-820), directly adjoining the considered scenes, are also similar in many things, for example, in the reasoning about the mystery of eternal sleep and about nightmares, and in the difficult thoughts about the purpose of human existence on the Earth. G. H. Clarke[6]also noted that echoes of the most famous monologue of Hamlet might be found in the speech of the Spirit of the Earth in the third act, when he addresses Asia: ” And that, among the haunts of humankind, / Hard-featured men, or with proud, angry looks, / Or cold, staid gait, or false and hollow smiles, / Or the dull sneer of self-loved ignorance…” (III, 4, 40-43). In Shakespeare’s tragedy about Hamlet, listing of human vices is also set out in four lines, which are the most revealing and categoric statement of the Danish prince (III, 1, 71-74). Besides, the evident similarity of some words of Beatrice and the indicated monologue of Shakespeare’s Hamlet may be noticed (” The Cenci”: III, 1, 125-137; V, 3, 65-76; V, 4; 48-75). The heroine, like Hamlet, all the time suffering from doubts, nevertheless, decides to commit the fair revenge on the tyrant and bravely asserts her right to protection. It should be noted that Shakespeare always resorts to retrospective (or analepsis) – appeal to earlier described events.” Shakespeare’s rhyme” (or retrospective) was used by Shelley first in the poems: it was especially clear in the works written before his departure to Italy. There are parallel stories of Laon and Cythna told by turns, their miraculous rescue by the Hermit and slavers, struggle against tyranny and self-sacrificing deaths (trying to rescue each other) in ” The Revolt of Islam”. In the poem ” Rosalind and Helen”, both heroines simultaneously endure death of the beloved, loneliness, malignant gossip and bitter exile, however, they react to the strokes of fate in different ways displaying the individual character. If Rosalind is ready to refuse to bring up her children for the sake of their material welfare, then Helen bravely struggles for her parental rights and sequentially asserts them. Their significant for English literature names, and the conflict of two similar and at the same time opposite women’s destinies may hint at the continuation of Shakespeare’s tradition in the representation of brave, loving heroines, who are ready to struggle for their happiness in different ways (” A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, ” As You Like It”). The image of dishonest tyrannical father, the motives of trepidation of the household before the head of the family and gladness after his death (which despite expectations did not free the family from tyranny) appear in ” Rosalind and Helen” poem and obtain further development in Shelley’s tragedy. It should be admitted that ” The Cenci” tragedy is comparable by the complexity of monologues, by the scale of the conflict and by the combination of contrasts with the great tragedies of Shakespeare (” Hamlet”, ” King Lear”, ” Othello”, and ” Macbeth”). The system of images in ” The Cenci” tragedy, the multiplicity of its characters returns a reader to the initial unity of human universe[7]due to the plot-forming story of one family. The main meaning of the title lies hidden in this construction of the universe, according to the author’s view: the Cenci is the family full of conflicts, which breaks up because of one unskillful, unworthy ” sovereign”. Not only the reflection of human society in whole, but also the development of the plot of Shakespeare’s ” King Lear” may be found in the indicated phenomenon. It is displayed in the initial situation how a person with great power uses it wrongly, and this leads to catastrophic results (split of the family, and then of the country and the world). However, if Shakespeare’s motivation of the king’s actions is explained with its endless love to his children and absolute trust to their words, than Shelley’s earl commits evil deeds because of unexplained hate to them and to the whole world. There is no doubt that wear and tear of Time is one of the most important tragic motives developed in Shelley’s works (especially in ” Ozymandias”, ” Hellas”, ” Adonais”). The range of composition principles of completion of Shelley’s works includes lamentation for vanishing beauty, protest against death of young, worthy and vital heroes, while other, meaner creatures remain to live on the earth. This motive in earlier literature is the most strikingly expressed in Shakespeare’s tragedy ” King Lear”. D. H. Reiman assures with confidence that the final lines of ” Alastor”: ” and many worms / And beasts and men live on… /Lifts still its solemn voice:–but thou art fled-,” (691-695) develop the idea of King Lear in Shakespeare’s tragedy. Lear exclaims with perplexity and lamentation the same way speaking about beautiful Cordelia: ” Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, / And thou no breath at all?” (V, 3). ” Adonais” elegy also contains the idea of ineradicable life on the Earth; however, the mood of the hero is brighter here. The sadness for the departed hero remains, but now it is inspiring sadness, as different forms of essence in its abundance and diversity continue to be glad with life.” The Cenci” tragedy also contains the motive of untimely death of the most beautiful creature on the Earth, and this disappearance of beauty and good is emphasized by many characters, becomes leitmotif of the play (this is stated by Giacomo in the third act – III, 1, 365-373, Bernardo – V, 4, 129-136, and Beatrice in the end). It is important to emphasize the structural similarity with ” King Lear”. The important idea of Shelley is the presence of tyrannical humiliation and destruction of good, bright principles of life that lead a person to the desire to leave this so unfair world. S. R. Watson indicates many composition parallels to ” Othello” tragedy in ” The Cenci” tragedy. For example, the exposition of dramas contain self-exposing words of villains in their dialogues with ” forced accomplices”: the opening conversation of Francesco and Cardinal Camillo resembles the conversation of Iago and Roderigo. S. R. Watson also draws the concrete parallels between other heroes: Iago – Orsino, Roderigo – Giacomo, Desdemona – Beatrice. Besides, the culminations of these tragedies fall on discussion of the moral right to murder (” The Cenci”: III, 1, 207­223; ” Othello”: III, 3, 460-479)[8]. The considered tragedies of Shakespeare and Shelley represent ” the great war between the old and young” (” The Cenci”, II, 2, 38); this conflict has the pronounced social and political colouring: the oppressors and the oppressed, ” villains and accuser” (II, 2, 66) are contrasted in unequal battle. Shelley probably learned to create contrasts and parallels on the pattern of Shakespeare’s theatre. The composition of ” The Cenci” is built on the comparison of two images being in artistic interaction: Beatrice and Francesco[9]. ” The Cenci” is often compared with Shakespeare’s ” Macbeth” tragedy, for example, because of overstating of the situation on scene and some similar dramatic characters and episodes. Shelley’s heroine following Lady Macbeth, urges hirelings on commitment of the crime during the tyrant’s sleep. She does not afraid of consequence, people’s condemnation or pricks of conscience, she is only afraid of sluggishness of killers and their untimely uncertainty. However, it is also impossible to accept the version about similarity of two such different characters as Lady Macbeth and Beatrice. If Beatrice decided to kill her father because of insane despair and the fear of suffered torture, with the purpose of release of the family from tyranny; then the unprincipled Shakespeare’s heroine decided to commit crime against good Duncan deliberately and after careful consideration, in her urge towards own rise. Summing up it is necessary to note that the main composition peculiarity of Shakespeare’s theatre is at the same time the indicator of new tendencies in European drama of 1820s. The composition in Shakespeare’s dramas is always determined by their content: for example, in his great tragedies, the conflict does not worsen in the middle of the play, but becomes wider, and its philosophical perception becomes more profound. There is no doubt that this expansion of artistic space with more profound conflict may be observed in Shelley’s ” The Cenci” and ” Hellas”. The story of one family in ” The Cenci”, as well as in ” King Lear” becomes the model of the rest world in the end, where murderers are ” live, and hard, cold men, / Smiling and slow, walk through a world of tears / To death as to life’s sleep”[10]. Like in Shakespeare, the sonnet words in the metaphoric text of drama express the strongest emotions of the heroes of Shelley focusing a reader’s attention on the play’s ideas. The sonnets in ” Prometheus Unbound” emphasize the deliberate steadiness of Prometheus, the kindness and wisdom of Asia, the devotion of the Moon to the Earth. The sonnets in ” The Cenci” said by the cardinal and Beatrice impart circular composition to the tragedy and become accusatory speech against Francesco, the Pope and all world oppressors. The motive of active struggle against tyranny as the prerequisite for inevitable fall in the end unites some plays of Shakespeare and Shelley (” Julius Caesar”, ” Hamlet”, ” The Cenci”). At the same time, the obvious similarity of culmination moments of the action, depicting the murder of sleeping person, brought the researchers to the thought about the direct influence of ” Macbeth” on Shelley’s tragedy long time ago. There are not less obvious examples of the influence of ” Hamlet” and ” Othello” on ” The Cenci”: the allied construction of the system of images is based on the bright contrasts; the peculiarities of main conflict cause Shakespeare and Shelley to use similar composition principles. The historical drama ” Charles The First” has displays of the structural features of the historical chronicles of Shakespeare: multi-aspect representation, shift of comic and tragic, alternation of verse and prose, contrasts in position of scenes and contrasting of heroes. However, Shelley has more abstract images in comparison with Shakespeare; colloquialisms almost never may be found (except Archy’s words). The image of cruel ” villain” Cenci is depicted without indication of objective reasons for such moral fall and without any shades in the character that could mitigate this cruelty. As is known, the great tragedies of Shakespeare have no definitely negative characters without even the smallest author’s excuse. At the same time, the finals of lyrical dramas of Shelley are often full of optimistic generalized and high description of happy future of the country and the world, which almost never occurs in Shakespeare’s works.

3. 2. Significance of images of nature and music in Shakespeare’s and Shelley’s plays

The significant place in Shakespeare’s and Shelley’s works belongs to music and connected with it images and motives. In particular, the song is the way to express the most important feelings and thoughts for a character. Music appears to be one of the most important kinds of art for romantic Shelley. When Shelley’s hero sing, in their songs they try to vent their innermost ideas, thoughts and feelings; that is difficult or impossible to express in common conversation. In 1817, Shelley wrote the important tercet: « No, Music, thou art not the ” food of Love, /Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self, /Till it becomes all Music murmurs of».( Fragments To Music, published 1839) The poem represents the polemics with Shakespeare’s perception of music, metaphorically expressed in the opening lines of ” Twelfth Night” comedy (I, 1). In the indicated work, the grieving Duke Orsino, looking forward to the meeting with indifferent beloved, says the hymn to music as a true ” food of love”. However, Shelly does not agree that music can nourish and saturate love: according to him, it, on the contrary, expresses that indefinite mood – perhaps, sadness or sorrow – to which people in love come in the end. The successful combination of music and word in the works of the compared English writers may be showed on few bright examples. For better understanding of Shelley’s language and how it functions, as well as the purpose, for which the poet introduces singing of the heroes into his works, let us refer to the song of Echoes indicating Asia in ” Prometheus Unbound” the way for her trip to the cave of Demogorgon. In the first scene of the second act (Act 2, scene 2. 1) Asia and Panthea tell about what they have recently seen in their amazing dreams. The sisters were amazed with the way the various elements of the universe asked to follow them; this way, Oceanides showed the particular sensitivity and attention to the advices of the Nature expressed by leaves, clouds, wind, pine trees and rocks. And then they heard the song of Echoes: Oh, follow, follow! Through the caverns hollow, As the song floats thou pursue, Where the wild bee never flew, Through the noontide darkness deep, By the odour-breathing sleepOf faint night-flowers, and the wavesAt the fountain-lighted caves, While our music, wild and sweet, Mocks thy gently falling feet, Child of Ocean! Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi explains the connection of this song with Shakespeare’s ” The Tempest” tragicomedy as follows: « Shelley substituted ‘ wild bee’ for what in the draft was ‘ night bird’ (Shelley, 1968, p. 118). Changed thus, the line alludes explicitly in both language and metre to Ariel’s ‘ Where the bee sucks, there suck I’ (Tempest, V, 1, 88), but suggests farther and more daring flights»[11]. In order to prove this statement, it is possible to compare the texts of the songs, the meter of which is defined as trochaic tetrameter, which makes the poetic language closer to the colloquial one. In addition, only the masculine, plain rhyme is used in these extracts, emphasizing at the same time both the fairy lightness, airiness of singing, and the particular importance, aphoristic character of the content. It is noteworthy that in Shelley’s text, the mood of light flight over land is created with the help of sound device (alliteration): repetition of ” magical” sound [f] and light resonant consonants [l] and [n] is actively used (words: follow, floats, flew, of faint night-flowers, fountain- lighted, falling feet). At the same time, there is the contrast between sharp fricative and soft resonant sounds. That is why the association connected with ” key words” ‘ fly’ and ‘ follow’ appears. Certainly, in this fragment of text, Shelley uses the similar phonic system in order to convey to the reader the sounds of wind easily flying over the world, as well as the mysteriousness and the magic inherent in the words starting from letter [f] (fair, fantasy, fancy, fate, fire, flora, fauna). Therefore, the repetition of sounds ” f”, ” l”, and (rarely) ” v” may be understood here as sound symbolism. In Ariel’s song, Shakespeare also uses the repetition of sonorant consonants, which give special easiness, melody, and melodiousness to the text.

Shelley, « Prometeus Unbound»

Shakespeare, « The Tempest»

Oh, follow, follow! Through the caverns hollow, As the song floats, thou pursue, Where the wild bee never flew, Through the noontide darkness deep, By the odour-breathing sleep Of faint night-flowers, and the waves At the fountain-lighted caves, While our music, wild and sweet, Mocks thy gently falling feet, Child of Ocean! Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip’s bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat’s back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Shakespeare’s hero – the carefree spirit of the island, Ariel – dreams only about being released from the various tasks and assignments as soon as possible, he is looking forward to the promised freedom. Shakespeare’s hero, according to the researchers, ” personifies the powers of nature and of all arts”, especially of music and theater; at the same time, art, as shown in the drama, is able to control moods and fates of common people, but it can be conquered only by a high human mind, intellect (Prospero’s wisdom). However, Ariel does not think about what reason pushes him to gladly execute the cruelest and the most terrible orders of his master, what features of his character make him to submit to the overthrown and vengeful Duke. At the same time, Echoes confesses to Asia and Panthea that it is necessary to get into a deep, dark cave, unfamiliar with bees or flowers (the personification of the deep, unexplored areas of soul) and to call Demogorgon, dark and fateful God, who is able to carry out execution of the autocrat. Demogorgon, like Shakespeare’s Prospero governs various nature spirits and mythical creatures. This example of intertextuality is based on correspondence between Shelley’s heroes and certain Shakespeare’s characters: Demogorgon – Prospero, Echos – Ariel. Вarbara С . Gelpi affirms « He wants, through the construction of what is, admittedly, an ‘ insubstantial pageant’, to lay bare the evils of society and to offer the vision of a better one. But while Ariel, as Prospero’s agent, uses his sleights to lead characters into self-betrayal of their mendacity or brutality, his magic does not explore those hidden areas of the psyche from which the motivations for such acts arise. So, this Ariel song will take up, where the other left»[12]Among the sad songs of Shelley’s characters, the song of Beatrice in the ” The Cenci” tragedy, small and very simple in form – 16 lines with plain rhyme, is definitely the most ” Shakespearean” song; she sang it in prison for the woebegone stepmother and desperate brothers (Giacomo and Bernardo ). The motive of false and perfidious love or friendship (” false friend”), which begins the song, was taken, probably, from Shakespeare. In addition to Ophelia’s songs about unfortunate love (” Hamlet”, IV, 5), the old song about willow, which Desdemona can’t help thinking of before her sudden death (” Othello”; IV, 3), also contains the subject. Abandoned servant of heroine’s mother, Barbara sang the mentioned song shortly before her death. Thus, the motive of ” swan” singing of unhappy, deceived girl before death unites several heroines: Ophelia, Barbara, Desdemona and Beatrice Cenci. In addition, the image of willow as an attribute of a sad, lonely woman appears, in accordance with the tradition of Shakespeare, in two Shelley’s works: in the Unfinished Drama, which has not received the name (lines 61-65), and in the last poem of the romanticist ” The Triumph of Life” (362-365). Desdemona’s song about willow represents the idea that the offender’s love to the heroine was deceitful, feigned and did not contain any true, deep feelings (” I call’d my love false love”). The cruel beloved answers this remark with the sarcastic sneer, ignoring the tears of the songstress, making even stones melt. Beatrice also asks ” false friend” – probably, Orsino – will he laugh or cry over her grave. The form of such question to the beloved and two possible answers were often used by Shakespeare in the unpretentious ” folk” songs of the characters. For example, while Bassanio chose the casket, which determined his fate, Portia in ” The Merchant of Venice” sang asking the chosen one: ” Tell me where is fancy bred, / Or in the heart, or in the head? / How begot, how nourished? / Reply, reply.” (III, 2). In the end of the musical 9-line verse, the rich heiress answers all questions herself and asks the bell to ring the ” death knell” for her love (” Let us all ring fancy’s knell / I’ll begin it – Ding, dong, bell”). This last phrase is discerned at the end of the song of Beatrice, when the heroine hears the sad bells, which indicate the soon parting with the beloved. Besides, both songs (both in Shakespeare’s comedy, and in Shelley’s tragedy) were written with the help of the same metre – quite rare in the poetry trochaic tetrameter with the constant masculine rhyme, indicating the direct influence of the Renaissance dramatist on the English romanticist: Song of BeatriceFalse friend, wilt thou smile or weepWhen my life is laid asleep? Little caresfor a smile or a tear, The clay-coldcorpse upon the bier! Farewell! Heighho! What is this whispers low? There is asnake in thy smile, my dear; And bitterpoison within thy tear. Sweet sleep, weredeath like to thee, Or if thou couldstmortal be, I would close these eyes ofpain; When to wake? Never again. OWorld! Farewell! Listen to the passingbell! It says, thou and I must part, Witha light and a heavy heart.[13]Beatrice’s song a little resembles Hamlet’s sad quatrain about wounded deer, sung to his friend Horatio after the ” mouse-trap” (” Hamlet”, III, 2). The text of the poem affirms that the world turns round the two states of human soul: fun and grief, laughter and tears, vigil and sleep. These contrasting destinies of a human correspond to Beatrice’s world-view in prison and her using of the eternal, sweet sleep; heroine’s heavy heart full of bitterness cannot live near the light, carefree heart of ” feigned friend”. Another example of sad, mournful song is represented in Shelley’s unfinished historical tragedy ” Charles The First”, the action of which stops with the sad thoughts of the fool. Archy’s words about his wish: ” I’ll go live under the ivy that overgrows the terrace, and count the tears shed on its old roots” serve as the introduction to the sad song of a widow bird. The example of Shakespeare’s using of folklore may be the fragment of a sad song, sung by Lear’s Fool at the culmination of the action (III, 2), when Lear and his friends face the destructive storm. Then, the Fool, accustomed to bad weather, and to all sorts of grief, sings the song for reconciliation with fate: ” He that has and a little tiny wit– / With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,– / Must make content with his fortunes fit, / For the rain it raineth every day”. It should be noted that the similar song was sung by another Fool – Feste – in ” Twelfth Night” comedy. At the same time, almost the same refrains of Shakespeare’s songs are consistent with Archy’s words about wind, singing as ” A widow bird sate mourning, / Upon a wintry bough” (I, 5, 4-5), and with the first stanza of his sad songs, the beginning of which sounds like in Shakespeare: ” Heigho! the lark and the owl! / One flies the morning, and one lulls the night…”. The conflict of the morning lark and night owl may be compared to a ” dispute”, musical and poetic contest between the cuckoo glorifying spring, and the owl, singing about native winter, in the epilogue of Shakespeare’s ” Love’s Labour’s Lost” comedyReturning to the songs of the fools, it should be noted that Feste sings his song at the end of the work, summing up the whole play. In this fabulous romantic comedy, the title of which reflects farewell to fun, the fool briefly tells about his not too happy destiny: from a young age, when he entertained everybody with his witty sense of humor, to his sudden old age. In the story of his life, Feste skillfully includes mentioning of the rainy and windy English weather, which seems to push the hero make people laugh and to make them happy. He wants to make audience glad, in order the whims and inconstancy of nature not to settle gloomy sadness and uncertainty in future in their souls. Therefore, all analyzed songs of English writers reflect not only similar mood, but also certain way of thinking of heroes. Very important is the fact that exactly the state of nature, assessed as sad and tragic, leads the heroes of Shakespeare and Shelley to important reasoning about the life of common people in a cruel and sometimes unfair world. It is noteworthy that both Shakespeare’s and Shelley’s harmonious melody can become a healing force, restore human’s mind, save him from painful madness. For example, Richard II says the important monologue in prison (the significance of the words said by Shakespeare’s characters in prison was indicated above) about the music that can heal crazy people, and, on the contrary, irritates him and drives him mad, as it is out of tune (” Richard II”; V and 5). However, the hero blesses the heart of the loyal groom, who sent the music to the dark confinement of the king. In ” King Lear” tragedy, the doctor invites musicians and asks them to play as loudly as possible as the main medical aid for the old mad man (Lear) (IV, 7). Prospero in ” The Tempest” heals three madmen who overthrew him from the throne, calling the music of heaven to earth: ” A solemn air and the best comforter / To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,” (V, 1). In Shelley’s poem ” Julian and Maddalo” (1818), which represents the ideological and aesthetic disputes of the two English romanticists (the author and Byron), depicts a crazy young man, resembling Julian in his urge towards justice, who went out of his mind because of separation from the beloved and talks to himself. This Maniac is the central character of the poem; he speaks quite clearly and logically, and, when he plays the piano in a madhouse, the harmonious music soothes the irritated before, sick people there. Thus, the influence of music on a human in the works of Shakespeare and Shelley obtains huge opportunities and significance: the harmonious sounding of melody, according to these authors, is able to revive the dozing human mind, to calm down his restless soul. Returning to Shelley’s drama ” Prometheus Unbound”, a reader considers the fourth act the most musical and cheerful, in which each character expresses the mood with the help of songs. Voices of characters merge into a single, vital chorus; the music here fits well into the context of the drama, being the natural expression of characters’ feelings. According to D. King Hele, the music in the end of ” Prometheus” is similar to ” rainbow” in which, after the discovery of Newton, the seven colors of the spectrum correspond to musical notes[14]. The researcher indicates this phenomenon as the idea of ​​” luminous music”. Some researchers noted the symphonic style as one of the distinguishing features of Shelley’s works. At the same time, the end of ” The Tempest” represents musical and dramatic action, performed by Prospero for young people in love. It is appropriate to compare the choruses of spirits, glorifying the triumph of good and justice, in the end of two works created by Shakespeare and Shelley. Prometheus UnboundThe Tempest

CHORUS OF SPIRITS AND HOURS :

Then weave the web of the mystic measure;

From the depths of the sky and the ends of the earth,

Come, swift Spirits of might and of pleasure,

Fill the dance and the music of mirth,

As the waves of a thousand streams rush by

To an ocean of splendour and harmony![15].

IRIS

You nymphs, call’d Naiads, of the windring brooks, With your sedged crowns and ever-harmless looks, Leave your crisp channels and on this green land Answer your summons; Juno does command: Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate A contract of true love; be not too late[16]. These joyful songs, expressing the triumph of fair relations in human society, have three important details uniting these works. First, the ” river theme”: fast, free, and vivifying streams remind the English poets about the eternal renewal of nature. Second, exactly with the help of music and various natural (ancient Greek) spirits, the heroes gather to celebrate a fun festival. It should be noted that the art (mostly music) is always combined in the theater of Shakespeare and Shelley with natural origin: this harmonious unity is caused by the urge of ” nature and culture” towards the freedom and, at the same time, by their dependence on the human mind, the wisdom of which they are willing to submit to. In the dramas of the romanticists, nature always produces beautiful music, which may be heard only by kind and generous heroes. It is not the coincidence that in Shakespeare’s drama, Ariel, symbolizing music and nature, helps Prospero; natural deities of ancient Greece also honour the requests of the philosopher; Shelley’s singing voices of wind, trees, mountains and flowers call on Oceanides to go to the cave of Demogorgon, the formless ” wisdom of the earth”, for the advice; and, after the liberation of Prometheus, the nature changes, it meets the new world with music and songs. Thus, some heroes with common origin (for example, the fools from ” Twelfth Night”, ” King Lear” and ” Charles the First”) or the offended heroines (Ophelia, Desdemona, Beatrice) may more brightly and more emotionally express their attitude to the cruel world and suffering soul. Some dramatic characters, being the magical helpers (Ariel in ” The Tempest”, Echoes in ” Prometheus Unbound”), also seek to reveal their emotional experiences with the help of singing. In addition, in the problem, or philosophical, plays of Shakespeare and Shelley, the heroes listen to beautiful music, when the contradictions conditionally found solution in harmony – in personal destinies (” The Tempest”, Shelley’s poem ” The Revolt of Islam”), in the life of whole Belmont (” The Merchant of Venice”), as well as throughout the world (” Prometheus Unbound”, a similar technique is also observed in the choral epilogue of ” Hellas”). This music makes the characters feel sad, but, at the same time, it inspires the characters for further feat in the name of good, and sets new coordinates to their states. Shelley’s love to heavenly music and its understanding as almost the only force that could lead the world to freedom, happiness and harmony, represents the Shakespeare’s tradition. The impulse to singing unites the range of heroes of the analyzed works, give them the necessary support in the most difficult circumstances. At the same time, using of music, understanding of its inspiring force is typical as a whole for the romantic perception of the world. Based on the foregoing, music and nature in the theater of Shakespeare and Shelley help the heroes to reveal their feelings, to cope with the heavy grief and the chain of failures. According to the idea of these writers, wonderful music, ruled by the powerful intellect of the character, can lead the world to harmony, and a person – to peace, wisdom and happiness. Besides, the logical system of three interdependent units of being: planets, sounds, feelings, the correlation of which is clearly shown by Shakespeare in his plays, and later by Shelley, was built during the Renaissance. Nature is involved in the dramatic action of the analyzed authors as much, because it is the important character, reacting to any social changes and personal shocks. According to the concept of the Great Chain of Being, natural origins and phenomena in Shakespeare and Shelley react to dissonances and disasters of being: the elements are outraged in response to violence, torture, murder or conspiracy, and in response to good intentions and changes, the figurative world of nature comes to harmony, exults and rejoices.

3. 3. Metaphor as a principal Shakespeare’s trope used by Shelley

Shakespeare’s verbal formulation and images were interesting for such researchers as W. H. Clemen, C. Spurgeon. Among the peculiarities of Shakespeare’s style, they noted, first of all, metaphors, reality (materiality) of images and, therefore, polysemy of words. In order to see how this feature typical for Shakespeare reflected in the works of Shelley, we should analyze some examples of the use of recognized Shakespeare’s metaphors in the dramatic texts of the English romanticist. Shelley’s desire to follow the example of Shakespeare appeared in the end of 1819, when the poet started to more industriously and carefully re-read the complete collection of the works of the great dramatist. Therefore, although the influence of Shakespeare’s style can be seen both in the first play of the romanticist, and in the plays ” Oedipus Tyrannus”, ” Hellas”, but the special attention to Shelley’s metaphorical style should be paid to the consideration of ” The Cenci” and ” Charles The First” dramas. It is possible to single out two major types, subjected to metaphorization among Shakespeare’s poetic images: social and philosophical concepts and specific everyday items. The three main symbols, belonging to the first category, acquired the greatest importance in the history of literature: it is world-theater, homeland-prison and person-temple. All of them are closely connected with the ideas of the Renaissance about life, during which the Person (the measure for all things, the center of the universe) has to play different Roles, at the same time, always remaining within foreordained limits of existence, either spatial or social. These somewhat gloomy philosophical judgments were based primarily on the environmental reality of Shakespeare, in which the new economic orders, promising a lot of happy changes for people, in fact, remained the previous medieval principles of strict hierarchical subordination. Metaphors of world-theater and homeland-prison occupy the important place in Shelley’s ” Charles The First” tragedy, they play the decisive role in Shakespeare’s dramas. In the comedy ” As You Like It”, philosophizing misanthrope Jaques says memorable lines about seven actions of human life-play, in which the same actor plays different roles (II, 7). Shakespeare’s Macbeth eventually comes to the conclusion that life is ” Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage” (V, 5). This comprehensive metaphor unfolds interestingly as well in ” Hamlet” tragedy (for example, in the scene of ” mouse-trap”). Hero’s friend, Horatio acts as contemplating sage, philosopher, whose behavior differs with calmness and terseness, due to which the audience becomes the participants of the tragedy in the end, join the theatrical performances. In the epilogue to ” Prometheus Unbound”, Shelley’s hero Demogorgon actually performs the same role, though he cannot be called inactive thinker like Horatio. Closely connected with the metaphor of life-theater image of mask, guise quite often appears in the single tragedy created by Shelley. In the preface to ” The Cenci”, the author gives an interesting description of the main heroine: Beatrice Cenci appears to have been one of those rare persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell together without destroying one another: her nature was simple and profound. The crimes and miseries in which she was an actor and a sufferer are as the mask and the mantle in which circumstances clothed her for her impersonation on the scene of theworld[17]. (The Cenci, Preface)Having been imprisoned, Beatrice states that the current system of justice forces the unblemished conscience to ” wear the mask of guilt to hide/Thine awful and serenest countenance/From those who know thee not” (Act 5, scene 3). Four times the word ” mask” is repeated in speeches of reserved Orsino, confirming the cunning and fallacy of his treacherous nature; it is difficult for other characters to see the true face of this hero. His false words, sometimes sounding like a sincere friendly advice, always contain his own benefit and purpose. Orsino always feels himself as an actor who should play certain roles, depending on the place of action and the interlocutor (Beatrice, Lucretia, Giacomo, Camillo). In the whole play, he resembles Shakespeare’s heroes the most: Iago, Richard III, Cassius (” Julius Caesar”). This character cannot be called ” negative”, his specificity is in the fact that he combines many sides of character, or ” roles” in the play of life: the burning passion for Beatrice and the desire to control the destinies of other people, their behavior; the readiness to help friends in planned revenge to the villain, in order to fulfill his desires; external obedience to the rules and proprieties – sudden and unexpected departure from the insidious plans at a moment of danger. In Shelley’s historical tragedy ” Charles The First”, the metaphor of theater is maintained by the masquerade, arranged by the King for Londoners, and admired by the royal suite and the most naive of the townspeople. D. L. Clark notes the Elizabethan figurativeness and symbolism hiding in the representation of the magnificent, sumptuous festival of the drama[18]. The peculiarity of the metaphors used by Shakespeare in the early chronicles is ” their connection with political topics”[19], unexpected, not psychologically prepared appearance, representation of dramatic conflict through images. It is possible to say that Shelley learnt to create the particular metaphorical significance of language of the historical tragedy went on the model of Shakespeare’s historical chronicles, trying to embody even the most complex, abstract idea in form of a perceptible and understandable image (England is represented as a prison or a nest, overtaken by a storm: patriots, heroes of the country are the eagles; victory of justice resembles sunlight, and tyranny of cruel kings resembles clouds, creating total darkness). At the same time, if Shakespeare’s surrounding world appears to be either theater, or large prison, then the person still sees the own body as the temple of soul, the heroes of the Elizabethan drama continue to maintain Christian standards and traditions. It was illustrated the best way in three Shakespeare’s dramas ” Hamlet”, ” Macbeth” and ” Cymbeline”, well-known for Shelly (according to the diary and quotations in the letters to friends). Thus, in some cases, the word ” temple” means the body for soul in Shakespeare; the body as the temple of human soul is the quite common Christian metaphor in the Middle Ages. A similar meaning of the desired image is present in Shakespeare’s ” Macbeth” tragedy. Scottish nobleman Macduff reacted to the news about Duncan’s death as follows: ” Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! / Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope / The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence / The life o’ the building!” (II, 3). Killing of the King is taken in this play (which is generally typical for the Middle Ages) as something that contradicts all moral principles of the society, the sacred traditions passed from generation to generation, and, finally, the faith of the fathers, which should be honored despite everything. That is why this crime is considered by the hero as breaking, the desecration of the temple (the body of the king is a kind of temple sacred for all the people). Due to the content of this metaphor, very important are the words of offended Beatrice in the tragedy of Shelley (III, 1), when she thinks about death. After the soothing speech of Lucretia, who speaks about divine retribution to sinners and righteous persons, the really believing heroine begins to think about life and death (which is preferable to choose at the moment). Talking with her good stepmother, Beatrice says: Ay, death… The punishment of crime. I pray thee, God, Let me not be bewildered while I judge. If I must live day after day, and keepThese limbs, the unworthy temple of Thy spirit, As a foul den from which what Thou abhorrestMay mock Thee, unavenged… it shall not be! Self-murder… no, that might be no escape, For Thy decree yawns like a Hell betweenOur will and it… (act 3, scene 1)As can be seen from the fragment, a brave heroine firmly believes in Christian commandments and tries to follow them; at the same time, she cannot continue her own life: she needs to escape from vicious circle, she has got into which in the terrible palazzo of the Count. When all hopes for rescue or protection were destroyed, Beatrice stops to consider her body as the temple worthy of the soul, calling it ” a foul den” now. In this case, the apparent is the hidden polemics of the English romanticist with the great dramatist of the Renaissance: Shelley is trying to understand why the heavenly gift (human soul and body) must feel unbearable torture, without receiving of sympathy and support neither on earth nor in heaven. At the same time, the poet, following Shakespeare, repeats that human life – as a lamp – may die out: Orsino and Giacomo discuss this in the second scene of the third act of the play ” The Cenci”. When Giacomo thinks about bloody revenge for his sister, for brothers and for the misery of his own family, prelate Orsino, constantly instigating the hero to this action, notes that the lamp dies out. In response, Giacomo makes the logical conclusion from his remark: If no remorse is ours when the dim airHas drank this innocent flame, why should we quailWhen Cenci’s life, that light by which ill spiritsSee the worst deeds they prompt, shall sink for ever? and finally decides to parricide. However, soon after this, Giacomo again lights the lamp, saying almost the direct quotation from Shakespeare’s ” Othello”: ” And yet once quenched I cannot thus relum/My father’s life”. Then Giacomo asks prelate the difficult question, whether this murder becomes the argument for the protection of Cenci’s soul before the heaven’s judgment. Then Orsino parries his friend’s question, whether he can return the peace to his sister, the faded hopes of his youth or the heavy, painful life of his mother. According to researcher Singh S. U., in this episode, Orsino’s behavior (insistent inciting to the crime) resembles the cunning Iago, while Giacomo is a kind of Othello’s double. Shakespeare’s metaphor of life-candle appears quite often: for example, in the historical chronicle ” Richard II”, Duke Gaunt reminds the king with bitterness about dying out lamp of his life, the short wick of which will not allow him to see his son returning from exile (I, 3). Blind Gloucester speaks about burning down wick of the ” hateful life”, in the culmination of ” King Lear” (III, 6). ” Out, out, brief candle!” – criminal Macbeth, who has lost all feelings (love, compassion, fear or confusion), comments the death of his wife without regrets (V, 5). In another of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello also thinks about the life of the close person he cannot return before the terrible crime. However, as opposed to Macbeth, Venetian Moor regrets that he has no magic power of Prometheus to again ” thy light relume” (V, 2). Now, we should recall that in his first romantic drama, Shelley, as well as Shakespeare, uses this image, the emblem of Prometheus – the Torch of Life and Hope, when the Earth says the hymn to the approach of Freedom and Happiness in the world. The heroine notes that it was dark and empty in the temple devoted to Prometheus before this triumphal day: there the emulous youthsBore to thy honour through the divine gloomThe lamp which was thine emblem; even as thoseWho bear the untransmitted torch of hopeInto the grave, across the night of life… (III, 3)This lamp (torch) of Prometheus, foreshadowing the future kingdom of Beauty, Harmony and Love in Shelley’s play, can be compared to another traditional metaphor in historical chronicles and some tragedies of Shakespeare (such as ” Hamlet”): king-sun. If the torch allows people not to depend on the time of day, on weather, seasons and climate, then the sun sends its life-giving rays only in certain cases when it ” wishes” (as a reigning person may show the kindness, compassion for people, or may hide them). This judgment in respect of Shakespeare may be confirmed by the speech of the son of Henry IV, Prince of Wales, in the chronicles ” Henry IV”. In the second scene of the first act of the play, we may read the confession of the complacent heir about his behavior in the present and in the future: Henry V : I know you all, and will awhile upholdThe unyoked humour of your idleness: Yet herein will I imitate the sun, Who doth permit the base contagious cloudsTo smother up his beauty from the world, That, when he please again to be himself, Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at, By breaking through the foul and ugly mistsOf vapours that did seem to strangle him (Act 1, scene 2)The researchers not accidently call this hero the most controversial and complex character of historical chronicles of Shakespeare. The Youth from Shelley’s historical drama speaks about love to holidays and other pleasures of life just because of their rarity in the same manner as the young prince (I, 1, 176-179). In addition, it is appropriate to compare, how the universal comparison ” king – sun” is used by the two English authors in historical dramas. In ” Henry IV” Shakespeare contrasts the ” light image” of the young heir to the British throne to the ” ugly clouds” surrounding him everywhere (until the moment when Henry V shows his new strong, righteous and honest nature). In ” Charles The First” Shelley gives a different description to the reigning king, named by the people as the ” dishonest tyrant”. Second citizen : This Charles the FirstRose like the equinoctial sun,… By vapours, through whose threatening ominous veilDarting his altered influence he has gainedThis height of noon–from which he must declineAmid the darkness of conflicting storms, To dank extinction and to latest night… Thus, the metaphor of sun takes place here on the background of other comparisons, which have a certain lexical semantics (” acts of nature before the catastrophe”). At the same time, the achieved prosperity Charles I and his court is called the noon, and the overthrow of King is equal to fading of the sun, which is to happen sooner or later (” from which he must decline / Amid the darkness of conflicting storms”). In the given statement, the common citizen expresses not only his own negative attitude to the reality, but also the prevision of the inevitable destruction of the monarch, spoiled by the court environment (” threatening ominous veil”). Similar metaphor unfolds in Shakespeare’s chronicles ” Richard II” as well, when the Duke of York in the culmination of the drama, before the monarch’s overthrow, compares the hero to the sun reddened with anger, ” See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, / As doth the blushing discontented sun / From out the fiery portal of the east, / When he perceives the envious clouds are bent”[20]. Then Richard says about himself: ” Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon,”( the son of Helios the sun god) Thus, king sun finally realizes the truth expressed by Gaunt in the beginning of the second act. The careless ruler really squeezed the great country with the hoop of his crown and demised the mighty island like a miserable estate. In this case, the King was surrounded by the court flatterers leading him astray. It is known that in his article ” Shakespeare as a Poet” S. T. Coleridge called imagination as ” the power by which one image or feeling is made to modify many others, and by a sort of fusion to force many into one”[21]. This ability becomes especially important for the creation of new, original metaphors in poetry. Apparently, Shelley successfully mastered this skill in the process of careful re-reading of Shakespeare’s dramas. It should be noted that the attitude to the poetic skills of Shelley, which was well expressed by the head of the lake romanticists, W. Wordsworth, was ambivalent: « Wordsworth’s judgement that ‘ Shelley is one of the best artists of us all: I mean in workmanship of style’, seems just a bit grudging (Wordsworth, 1876, III, p. 463); he seems to have admired Shelley’s artistic power, but is notably reticent about his ideas »[22]. However, the ideas in Shelley’s works were bold and innovative. The abundance of such vivid images as the cloak of virtue and sorrow, wounded deer, faded violet, crown of thorns, representing suffering; and the tears of stones, the dogs of war, green look of slander and indelible blood stains, representing the gloomy atmosphere of despotism, create the image of cruel modern world in Shelley’s works, express the idea of ​​the need to fight for the best, free from abuse and tyranny reality. The important tool for this struggle in the poetics of Shelley is also the connection of tragic and comic aspects of life expressed by means of metaphors. It should be noted that Shakespeare’s tragedies helped the poet in search of suitable by strength metaphors very often. Shelley used historical chronicles, comedies and tragicomedies not so frequently. The known Russian researcher of Shakespeare V. P. Komarova summed up the study of Shakespeare’s metaphors as follows: ” Metaphors intensify emotional influence of events and destinies of heroes on audience, <…> in philosophical terms, metaphors give the opportunity to feel the connection of the internal world of a hero with the deep, mysterious, and still not cognized laws of nature and human society”[23]. To a certain extent, with the help of Shakespeare’s metaphors, Shelley shows that the harmony of the world is broken, poisoned by tyranny and impunity, and it can be restored only by willpower, patience, wisdom, and compassion. At the same time, we should not forget that Shelley’s world-view was ambivalent, romantic: he always tended to emphasize his dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality and the dream about ideal with the help of bright, unique, timeless metaphors, including metaphors, dating back to the works of Shakespeare. In one of the early letters to friend, Shelley lists his criteria for evaluation of the work of art: “… all poetical beauty ought to be subordinate to the inculcated moral… that metaphorical language ought to be a pleasing vehicle for useful and momentous instruction”[24]. (letter to E. Hitchener, June 5, 1811) As for Shelley’s drama, it expresses not only personal feelings or emotions of a person (connected with friendship, love, separation, or a quarrel), but, first of all, social and historical, important for all humanity themes, images, ideals. The language of Shakespeare, along with other classic patterns, appears to be the fruitful basis for creation of new memorable images in Shelley’s romantic drama.