Biography of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

WILLIAMS SHAKESPEARE LIFE STORY

It is not known for sure when William Shakespeare was born but from his baptism date it is assumed that he was born three days before his baptism which was on the26th April 1564. Williams Shakespeare was a playwright and a poet and was known to all as the greatest playwright to ever live. Shakespeare is referred to as this because his works have been a major influence on succeeding theatre. Shakespeare not only created some of the most accepted plays in Western literature, but he also changed English theatre by intensifying expectations about things which could be accomplished through characterization, plot, action, language, and genre. His works raise the status of theatres making them admired by people seeking entertainment and even intellectuals.

Shakespeare was the son of successful glover and alderman, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden the daughter of a successful landowner. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.Though very little is known of Shakespeare's schooling, it is assumed that he was educated at the grammar school in Stratford where he probably learned classics, Latin grammar and literature. This is believed by many especially Ben Jonson who commented that his works showed that he had knowledge on Roman comedy, ancient history and classical mythology.

At the age of eighteen Shakespeare married a woman by the name of Anne Hathaway who was older than him by about 8 years and they had three children together namely Susanna and a pair of twins called Hamnet and Judith but Hamnet died at the age of 11, reason still unknown.

 Shakespeare left Stratford for London to make his fortune roughly four years later. In 1595, Shakespeare was successful in being known as one the Lord Chamberlain's men, more senior members. This was an acting company which preformed often before the court. This theatre was later called the King’s Men and was the ones responsible for making Shakespeare an official playwright to the King of England. By 1597, Shakespeare wealth began to expand and about a year later he became a ten percent owner of the new purpose built theatre in London, the famous Globe Theatre where so many of his plays were later performed.

Some of the plays he did include: The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV, Parts I and II, Henry V, Richard II, King John and Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra,, Cymbeline, Henry VIII  The Tempest and The Winter's Tale.

THE ELIZABETHAN ERA

According to Wikipedia The Elizabethan era was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry, music and literature. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished, and William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people.