Literature

William Shakespeare

hakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, son of John Shakespeare, a burgess of the borough. In addition to being active in the local government, his father was a glover and a whittawer. However, John Shakespeare was not able to write. His mother was Mary Arden who had decended from an ancient family and was heiress to some land. Mary had eight Shakespeare children including William.

Shakespeare was educated in the place where he was born, Stratford-upon-Avon, in a fairy good grammar school where the education was free. He most likely would have had Latin studies and study of classical historians, moralists,and poets. Shakespeare did not go on to study at a university.

At age 18, he married Anne Hathaway of Stratford. Anne was ten years older than him at the time. Shakespeare had two daughters, Susanna and Judith, and a son, Hamnet. Little else is known of his life before he began his career in theatre. From the years 1585 through 1592, there is no evidence of what went on in Shakespeare's life. These years are often called "The Hidden Years." One theory on these years of his life is that he was running from the law. Another theory is that he became a butcher's apprentice. Most likely, however, is the theory that during these years Shakespeare was a school teacher. The next evidence of Shakespeare's life was that he was in London in 1592.

While in London, Shakespeare began to act and write many plays. In 1593 he found himself a patron, Henry Wriothsley. During this period in his life, he wrote two long poems. He wrote "Venus and Adonius" and "Rape of Lucrece." The same year he wrote the latter, theatres opened up again after being closed on account of the plague.

The company that Shakespeare worked for was called "Lord Chamberlain's Men" and later "The King's Men." It was the largest and most famous acting company mostly because Shakespeare worked and performed for them. In 1599, "The Globe" theatre was built in a circular shape. The plays here lasted for three days. The first day paid the expenses, the second day payed the actors, and the third day payed the play write. Some other theatres followed this one including "The Curtain", "The Rose", "The Swan", "The Fortune", and "The Hope."

By 1597, Shakespeare was fast becoming a wealthy man. He bought a large house for his family to live in called New Place. He left London in 1611 to retire. He died on his birthday, April 23, 1616 at the age of fifty-two. He wrote his own epitaph which reads,

"Good Friends, for Jesus' sake forbear,

To Dig the bones enclosed here!

Blest be the man that spares these stones,

And curst be he that moves my bones."

The superstitious nature of people who read this saved his corpse from ever being bothered by people who would strip the body after death. After his death in 1623, Shakespeare's first folio was published. It included 154 sonnets, 37 plays, and 2 long poems.

His works are:
Comedy:
All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Cymbeline
Love's Labours Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Winter's Tale

History:
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III

Tragedy:

Poetry:
The Sonnets
A Lover's Complaint
The Rape of Lucrece
Venus and Adonis
Funeral Elegy by W.S.
Titus Andronicus