William
Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
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| William Shakespeare - theworldorg.blogspot.com |
Shakespeare's reputation
as dramatist and poet actor is unique and he is considered by many to be the
greatest playwright of all time, although many of the facts of his life remain
mysterious.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon
in Warwickshire and was baptised on 26 April 1564. His father was a glovemaker
and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do
local landowner. Shakespeare was probably educated in Stratford's grammar
school. The next documented event in Shakespeare's life is his marriage in 1582
to Anne Hathaway, daughter of a farmer. The couple had a daughter the following
year and twins in 1585. There is now another gap, referred to by some scholars
as 'the lost years', with Shakespeare only reappearing in London in 1592, when
he was already working in the theatre.
Shakespeare's acting career was spent with the Lord
Chamberlain's Company, which was renamed the King's Company in 1603 when James
succeeded to the throne. Among the actors in the group was the famous Richard
Burbage. The partnership acquired interests in two theatres in the Southwark
area of London, near the banks of the Thames - the Globe and the Blackfriars.
Shakespeare's poetry was published before his
plays, with two poems appearing in 1593 and 1594, dedicated to his patron Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. Most of Shakespeare's sonnets were probably
written at this time as well. Records of Shakespeare's plays begin to appear in
1594, and he produced roughly two a year until around 1611. His earliest plays
include 'Henry VI' and 'Titus Andronicus'. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The
Merchant of Venice' and 'Richard II' all date from the mid to late 1590s. Some
of his most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s including
'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King Lear' and 'Macbeth'. His late plays, often known as
the Romances, date from 1608 onwards and include 'The Tempest'.
Shakespeare spent the last
five years of his life in Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He died on 23 April
1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first collected
edition of his works was published in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio.
