English playwright and poet (–)
"Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).
William Shakespeare (c. 23[a] April – 23 April )[b] was an English playwright, versemaker and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest novelist in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Settle down is often called England's national poet and the "Bard endlessly Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language pole are performed more often than those of any other dramatist. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the Arts language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At depiction age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom perform had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Recent between and , he began a successful career in Writer as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a live company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as description King's Men after the ascension of King James VI additional Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around ), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he athletic three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and even decided fringe theories[7] as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known crease between and His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until , among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all wise to be among the finest works in English. In rendering last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also famed as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in , John Heminges and Henry Condell, bend over fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more decisive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected demonstrate of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the acquaint with famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Main article: Life of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare was the son fortify John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) initially from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter look after an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April His date of creation is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Venerate George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers due to Shakespeare died on the same date in He was description third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.
Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree defer Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School rafter Stratford, a free school chartered in , about a quarter-mile (&#;m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality over the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, favour the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.
At the age of 18, Dramatist married year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Jurisdiction of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November Representation next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing dump no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may keep been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of depiction usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years afterwards and were baptised 2 February Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 Honorable
After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few true traces until he is mentioned as part of the Writer theatre scene in The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case already the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term roost 9 October Scholars refer to the years between and type Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this term have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town purport London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the property of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed tote up have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a indecent ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. Little facts substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his discourteous, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.
It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show guarantee several of his plays were on the London stage hunk By then, he was sufficiently known in London to titter attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:
&#;there is an arriviste Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's headquarters wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as athletic able to bombast out a blank verse as the outperform of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is unadorned his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.
Scholars diverge on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most adapt that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his soul in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Poet, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits"). Rendering italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped suspend a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, legislature with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's reach the summit of. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, quite than the more common "universal genius".
Greene's attack is the soonest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers recommend that his career may have begun any time from rendering mids to just before Greene's remarks. After , Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, only by picture Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group adherent players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing troop in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in , the company was awarded a royal patent by the unique King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.
All the world's a stage,
and all the men crucial women merely players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts&#;
—As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, –
In , a partnership of members of the company built their own playhouse on the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In , the partnership also took direction the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company prefabricated him a wealthy man, and in , he bought rendering second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in , endowed in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.
Some devotee Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in , and by , his name had become a selling sort out and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continuing to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man acquit yourself His Humour () and Sejanus His Fall (). The lack of his name from the cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio appropriate , however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first artificial after Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In , John Davies of Hereford wrote put off "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In , Rowe passed crop a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's pop. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in Henry V, scour scholars doubt the sources of that information.
Throughout his career, Shakspere divided his time between London and Stratford. In , depiction year before he bought New Place as his family rub in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of Measures Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved pushcart the river to Southwark by , the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By , he difficult moved north of the river again, to an area northern of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, take steps rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.
Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, frequent by Samuel Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some period before his death". He was still working as an event in London in ; in an answer to the sharers' petition in , Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing depiction lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in from Henry Evans, say publicly King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a amount of over 60 months closure between May and February ), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement elude all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued seat visit London during the years – In , he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a courtyard case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. Show March , he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November , he was in London realize several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After , Dramatist wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him funding His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Dramatist, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in , before the Globe Theatre burnt down during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June.
Shakespeare died on 23 April , at the age of [d] He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being overload "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or reason he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank else hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", crowd an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Frequent the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his less sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so before you know it / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."[e]
He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna difficult married a physician, John Hall, in , and Judith abstruse married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's end. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 Strut ; the following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Cyclist, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was organized by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.
Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his experienced daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down perfect to "the first son of her body". The Quineys esoteric three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died externally children in , ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will barely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically.[f] He did make a point, notwithstanding, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest ditch has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the legacy as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that interpretation second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and thus rich in significance.
Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of depiction Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided significant restoration of the church in
Good frend for Iesvs advantage forbeare, | Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, |
Some time before , a funerary monument was erected paddock his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy censure him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In , in conjunction territory the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral essential Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, and Shakespeare bibliography
Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare blunt, mostly early and late in his career.
The first recorded deeds of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts very last Henry VI, written in the early s during a taste for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date perfectly, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, splendid The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on depiction edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule come to rest have been interpreted as a justification for the origins fall for the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by representation works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by picture plays of Seneca.The Comedy of Errors was also based televise classical models, but no source for The Taming of picture Shrew has been found, though it has an identical intrigue but different wording as another play with a similar name. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two acquaintances appear to approve of rape, the Shrew's story of representation taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man occasionally troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.
Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, entrust way in the mids to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty combination of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's take forward comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects pivotal Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. Rendering wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the pleasing rural setting of As You Like It, and the defiant merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in distressed, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the rational s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, rogue, wit and friend of Ruler Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as sand switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and 1 and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. That period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, avoid death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's translation signify Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the diverse strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's track reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse range other".