y reason he was criticized for this was becausehis play was so popular.After the success of his historical play, he wrote a tragedy called TitusAndronicus, and then The Comedy of Errors, a humorous comedy. Not manyplaywrites wrote so many different types of plays in so short a time, butShakespeare was certainly not like any other English playwrite.Very early in Shakespeare's career, however, many theatres closed due to theplague in England, and playwrites were not in high demand. Shakespeare thenturned to another type of writing and wrote a narrative poem entitled Venus andAdonis. This was a huge success and he received praise for it by the scholarswho gave him no respect as a playwrite. His next poem was called Lucrece, whichwas just as successful as his first. In spite of his success as a poet, he gaveup poetry after Lucrece was published. He joined Lord Chamberlain's ActingCompany in 1594, and for the rest of his career, he only wrote plays for thiscompany.Other actors in Shakespeare's company included Will Kempe, the most popularcomic of his time, and Richard Burbage, son of James Burbage, the designer ofThe Theatre. Other important members of the company were John Heminges, who wastheir permanent business manager, and Henry Condell, another actor in thecompany. These two men later published the first complete edition ofShakespeare's play, after Shakespeare's death.Shakespeare wrote many plays which were adaptations of earlier plots. Some ofthese include King John, The Taming of The Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet. Somesaid he could turn a flat, one-sided plot into a masterpiece. In Romeo andJuliet, Shakespeare mixes the humor of Mercutio and Juliet's nurse into aserious tragedy. Not many playwrites of this time mixed comedy with tragedy,but he did this because the two elements combine in real life and he felt theywere free to combine in his plays.None of the critics who had praised his poems ever mentioned his plays. Howev...
