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Who is Shakespeare?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
Shakespeare may be the most admired author of all time. If he were living today he would be a celebrity, and the facts of his life would be widely available in magazine articles, books, Web pages, chat rooms and all over social media. Instead, we know few facts about him, and these few had to be painstakingly traced from legal and church records or deduced from references of his work. Because William Shakespeare understands human nature, is compassionate towards all types of people, his language is powerful and beautiful, he is regarded as the greatest writer in English. Nearly four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare's plays continue to be read widely and produced throughout the world. They have the same powerful impact on today's audiences as they had when they were first staged.
Bare-Bones Biography:
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Shakespeare was born in the country town of Stratford-on-Avon. No one really knows when exactly Shakespeare was born, he was baptised on the 26th of April, 1564; my guess is that he was born on the 23rd of April, since most children are baptised three days after their birth. He probably attended the town's free grammar school. When he was eighteen, he married the twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter Susanna, and twins, Hamnet and Judith.
Shakespeare acquired a public reputation as an actor and a playwright. In addition, he was part owner of a London theatre called the Globe, where many of his plays were performed.
Shakespeare's Education:
Given Shakespeare's fathers status, it is probable that Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar School, where he acquired a knowledge of Latin. Although Shakespeare did not go on to study at a university, his attendance at the grammar school from ages 7 to 16 would have provided with the best education he needed. discipline at the Stratford Grammar School was very strict.
Shakespeare's Marriage and Family:
Shakespeare's name enters the records again in 1582, when he received a license to marry Anne Hathaway. The couple had a daughter, Susanna, in 1585, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. Beyond names and years which his children were born, we know little about his family life. Some writers have made much of the fact that Shakespeare left his wife and children behind when he went to London not long after his twins were born. However, he normally left London for visits to Stratford in order to visit his family during his years as a playwright. They may have also lived with him for some time in London.
His Career as an Actor and Playwright:
It is uncertain how Shakespeare became connected with the theatre in the late 1580's and early 1590's. By 1594, however, he had become a part owner and the principal playwright of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most successful theatre companies in London.
In 1599, the company built the famous Globe theatre on the south bank of the Thames River, in Southwark. When James I became king in 1603, after the death of Elizabeth I, James took control of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and renamed the company King's Men.
Retirement:
In 1610, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, but he continued to write plays. He was a prosperous middle-class man, who profited from his share in a successful theatre company. Six years later, on April 23, 1616, he died and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
Literary record:
Shakespeare didn't think of himself as a man of letters. He wrote his plays to be performed and did not bring out editions of them for the reading public. The first published edition of his work, called the First Folio, was issued in 1623 by two members of his theatre company, John Heminges and Henry Condell. It contained 36 of 37 plays now attributed to him.
Shakespeare's varied output includes romantic comedies, like A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It; history plays, like Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; tragedies, like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth; and later romances, like The Tempest. In addition to his plays, he wrote 154 sonnets and three longer poems.
The Sonnet:
In the years 1592-1594, London's theatres were closed because of an outbreak of the plague. This general misfortune may have had at least one benefit: It may have provided the time that Shakespeare needed to write some of his 154 sonnets.
In writing a long sequence of sonnets, Shakespeare was being fashionable. Elizabethan poets enjoyed the sonnet form, writing fourteen-line lyric poems to both real and imaginary lovers. The great Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) began writing of sonnet sequences, and Henry Howard, Earl of Survey, developed the English form of the sonnet that Shakespeare used.
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friend's possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contended least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Shakespeare's sequence:
Like the sonnet sequence of other poets, Shakespeare's 154 sonnets are numbered. Most of them are addressed to a handsome, talented, young man, urging him to marry and have children who can carry on his talents. The speaker warms the young man about the destructive powers of time, age, and moral weakness. Midway through the sequence, the sonnets focus on a rival poet who has also addressed poems to the young man. Twenty-five of the later sonnets are addressed to a "dark lady" who is romantically involved with both the speaker and the young man. These later sonnets focus on the grief she causes by her betrayal of the speaker.
TIMELINE OF PRAISE:
No other writer in English has won such universal and enthusiastic praise from critics and fellow writers.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
Bare-Bones Biography:
Shakespeare was born in the country town of Stratford-on-Avon. No one really knows when exactly Shakespeare was born, he was baptised on the 26th of April, 1564; my guess is that he was born on the 23rd of April, since most children are baptised three days after their birth. He probably attended the town's free grammar school. When he was eighteen, he married the twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter Susanna, and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare acquired a public reputation as an actor and a playwright. In addition, he was part owner of a London theatre called the Globe, where many of his plays were performed.
Shakespeare's Education:
Given Shakespeare's fathers status, it is probable that Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar School, where he acquired a knowledge of Latin. Although Shakespeare did not go on to study at a university, his attendance at the grammar school from ages 7 to 16 would have provided with the best education he needed. discipline at the Stratford Grammar School was very strict.
Shakespeare's Marriage and Family:
Shakespeare's name enters the records again in 1582, when he received a license to marry Anne Hathaway. The couple had a daughter, Susanna, in 1585, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. Beyond names and years which his children were born, we know little about his family life. Some writers have made much of the fact that Shakespeare left his wife and children behind when he went to London not long after his twins were born. However, he normally left London for visits to Stratford in order to visit his family during his years as a playwright. They may have also lived with him for some time in London.
His Career as an Actor and Playwright:
It is uncertain how Shakespeare became connected with the theatre in the late 1580's and early 1590's. By 1594, however, he had become a part owner and the principal playwright of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most successful theatre companies in London.
In 1599, the company built the famous Globe theatre on the south bank of the Thames River, in Southwark. When James I became king in 1603, after the death of Elizabeth I, James took control of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and renamed the company King's Men.
Retirement:
In 1610, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, but he continued to write plays. He was a prosperous middle-class man, who profited from his share in a successful theatre company. Six years later, on April 23, 1616, he died and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
Literary record:
Shakespeare didn't think of himself as a man of letters. He wrote his plays to be performed and did not bring out editions of them for the reading public. The first published edition of his work, called the First Folio, was issued in 1623 by two members of his theatre company, John Heminges and Henry Condell. It contained 36 of 37 plays now attributed to him.
Shakespeare's varied output includes romantic comedies, like A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It; history plays, like Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; tragedies, like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth; and later romances, like The Tempest. In addition to his plays, he wrote 154 sonnets and three longer poems.
The Sonnet:
In the years 1592-1594, London's theatres were closed because of an outbreak of the plague. This general misfortune may have had at least one benefit: It may have provided the time that Shakespeare needed to write some of his 154 sonnets.
In writing a long sequence of sonnets, Shakespeare was being fashionable. Elizabethan poets enjoyed the sonnet form, writing fourteen-line lyric poems to both real and imaginary lovers. The great Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) began writing of sonnet sequences, and Henry Howard, Earl of Survey, developed the English form of the sonnet that Shakespeare used.
- Sonnet 29
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friend's possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contended least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 29 explores the idea that love cures all illnesses and diseases and makes us feel good about ourselves.
Shakespeare's sequence:
Like the sonnet sequence of other poets, Shakespeare's 154 sonnets are numbered. Most of them are addressed to a handsome, talented, young man, urging him to marry and have children who can carry on his talents. The speaker warms the young man about the destructive powers of time, age, and moral weakness. Midway through the sequence, the sonnets focus on a rival poet who has also addressed poems to the young man. Twenty-five of the later sonnets are addressed to a "dark lady" who is romantically involved with both the speaker and the young man. These later sonnets focus on the grief she causes by her betrayal of the speaker.
TIMELINE OF PRAISE:
No other writer in English has won such universal and enthusiastic praise from critics and fellow writers.
- Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
"He was not of an age, but for all time!" - John Dryden (1631-1700)
"He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient, poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul." - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
"Shakespeare is, above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature: the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and life." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
"The Englishman, who, without reverence, a proud and affectionate reverence, can utter the name of William Shakespeare, stands disqualified for the office of critic." - A.C. Bradley (1851-1935)
"Where his power of art is fully exerted, it really does resemble that of nature." - T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)"About anyone so great as Shakespeare, it is probable that we can never be right..."
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