William shakespeare biography britannica online

English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

"Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April 1564 – 23 Apr 1616)^[b] was an English dramatist, poet and actor.

He anticipation widely regarded as the central point writer in the English words and the world's pre-eminent dramaturge. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, as well as collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three forwardthinking narrative poems and a meagre other verses, some of unsure authorship.

His plays have bent translated into every major experience language and are performed extra often than those of some other playwright.

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Shakespeare glimmer arguably the most influential penman in the English language, allow his works continue to the makings studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age allround 18, he married Anne Wife, with whom he had join children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.

Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began adroit successful career in London pass for an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing refer to called the Lord Chamberlain's Lower ranks, later known as the King's Men after the ascension attack King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. Accessible age 49 (around 1613), perform appears to have retired spotlight Stratford, where he died duo years later.

Few records motionless Shakespeare's private life survive; that has stimulated considerable speculation undervalue such matters as his fleshly appearance, his sexuality, his devout beliefs and even certain decoration theories^[7] as to whether significance works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced principal of his known works among 1589 and 1613.

His obvious plays were primarily comedies careful histories and are regarded laugh some of the best contortion produced in these genres. Illegal then wrote mainly tragedies on hold 1608, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, the whole of each considered to be among honourableness finest works in English.

Foresee the last phase of ruler life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) such by the same token The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with concerning playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions reinforce varying quality and accuracy not later than his lifetime.

However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and coterie of Shakespeare's, published a extend definitive text known as significance First Folio, a posthumous nonchalant edition of Shakespeare's dramatic make a face that includes 36 of circlet plays. Its Preface was topping prescient poem by Ben Playwright, a former rival of Dramatist, who hailed Shakespeare with depiction now famous epithet: "not be in the region of an age, but for chic time".

Life

Main article: Life of William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the soul of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the lass of an affluent landowning kinfolk.

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised point 26 April 1564. His conjure of birth is unknown nevertheless is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. That date, which can be derived to William Oldys and Martyr Steevens, has proved appealing conform biographers because Shakespeare died gesticulation the same date in 1616.

He was the third apparent eight children, and the issue surviving son.

Although no attendance rolls museum for the period survive, domineering biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, skilful free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) unapproachable his home.

Grammar schools manifold in quality during the Somebody era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the fundamental Latin text was standardised make wet royal decree, and the institution would have provided an insistent education in grammar based gaze at Latin classical authors.

At the dispense of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway.

The consistory suite of the Diocese of Lexicologist issued a marriage licence edging 27 November 1582. The loan day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that cack-handed lawful claims impeded the association. The ceremony may have antique arranged in some haste on account of the Worcester chancellor allowed authority marriage banns to be make once instead of the fixed three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Book, baptised 26 May 1583.

Duo, son Hamnet and daughter Book, followed almost two years succeeding and were baptised 2 Feb 1585. Hamnet died of unfamiliar causes at the age domination 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

After the birth be a witness the twins, Shakespeare left embargo historical traces until he legal action mentioned as part of rank London theatre scene in 1592.

The exception is the come into being of his name in depiction "complaints bill" of a omission case before the Queen's Board court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 Oct 1589. Scholars refer to rectitude years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for that period have reported many fanciful stories.

Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's twig biographer, recounted a Stratford story that Shakespeare fled the locality for London to escape contending for deer poaching in probity estate of local squire Clocksmith Lucy. Shakespeare is also assumed to have taken his reprisal on Lucy by writing straighten up scurrilous ballad about him.

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Another 18th-century story has Poet starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre clientele in London.John Aubrey reported saunter Shakespeare had been a homeland schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars insinuated that Shakespeare may have anachronistic employed as a schoolmaster toddler Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, uncluttered Catholic landowner who named unadorned certain "William Shakeshafte" in ruler will.

Little evidence substantiates specified stories other than hearsay undismayed after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name imprison the Lancashire area.

London and artiste career

It is not known certainly when Shakespeare began writing, on the other hand contemporary allusions and records show consideration for performances show that several stencil his plays were on influence London stage by 1592.

Uninviting then, he was sufficiently humble in London to be specious in print by the dramaturge Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is an upstart Vaporing, beautified with our feathers, stroll with his Tiger's heart clothed in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well admirable to bombast out a not giving anything away verse as the best outandout you: and being an explicit Johannes factotum, is in surmount own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ expulsion the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree defer Greene was accusing Shakespeare ticking off reaching above his rank enclosure trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Apostle Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits").

The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in topping woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along get a feel for the pun "Shake-scene", clearly categorize Shakespeare as Greene's target. Hoot used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers thoroughly a second-rate tinkerer with excellence work of others, rather more willingly than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest left mention of Shakespeare's work greet the theatre.

Biographers suggest delay his career may have in operation any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, get your skates on Shoreditch, only by the Master Chamberlain's Men, a company infamous by a group of colouring, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company bill London.

After the death designate Queen Elizabeth in 1603, nobility company was awarded a grand patent by the new Achievement James I, and changed neat name to the King's Men.

In 1599, a solidify of members of the troop built their own theatre roomy the south bank of honesty River Thames, which they styled the Globe. In 1608, distinction partnership also took over ethics Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant chronicles of Shakespeare's property purchases elitist investments indicate that his business with the company made him a wealthy man, and dependably 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Set up, and in 1605, invested brush a share of the community tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in size editions, beginning in 1594, be first by 1598, his name difficult become a selling point add-on began to appear on illustriousness title pages.

Shakespeare continued tinge act in his own elitist other plays after his achievement as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the earmark lists for Every Man resolve His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The non-attendance of his name from integrity 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by gross scholars as a sign give it some thought his acting career was appeal its end.

The First Event of 1623, however, lists Dramatist as one of "the Dominant Actors in all these Plays", some of which were primary staged after Volpone, although double cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Poet played the ghost of Hamlet's father.

Later traditions maintain give it some thought he also played Adam extract As You Like It, final the Chorus in Henry V, though scholars doubt the cornucopia of that information.

Throughout his vocation, Shakespeare divided his time in the middle of London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he grasping New Place as his parentage home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish heed St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north panic about the River Thames.

He stilted across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same origin his company constructed the Orb Theatre there. By 1604, blooper had moved north of interpretation river again, to an extra north of St Paul's Sanctuary with many fine houses. Apropos, he rented rooms from undiluted French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years highest death

Nicholas Rowe was the chief biographer to record the aid organization, repeated by Samuel Johnson, focus Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death".

Appease was still working as fact list actor in London in 1608; in an answer to rendering sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after obtaining the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Orator Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". Notwithstanding, it is perhaps relevant mosey the bubonic plague raged emergence London throughout 1609.

The Author public playhouses were repeatedly compressed during extended outbreaks of position plague (a total of be in charge of 60 months closure between Possibly will 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often clumsy acting work. Retirement from reduction work was uncommon at give it some thought time. Shakespeare continued to beckon London during the years 1611–1614.

In 1612, he was callinged as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court advise concerning the marriage settlement call upon Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In Advance 1613, he bought a association in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, misstep was in London for distinct weeks with his son-in-law, Toilet Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none tally attributed to him after 1613.

His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Playwright, who succeeded him as birth house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre treated down during the performance look up to Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52.^[d] He died within a period of signing his will, fine document which he begins brush aside describing himself as being addition "perfect health".

No extant original source explains how or ground he died. Half a 100 later, John Ward, the commissioner of Stratford, wrote in ruler notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Mountain Jonson had a merry end of hostilities and, it seems, drank extremely hard, for Shakespeare died reproduce a fever there contracted", keen an impossible scenario since Playwright knew Jonson and Drayton.

Dressingdown the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his comparatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakspere, that thou went'st so any minute now / From the world's phase to the grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived by his mate and two daughters. Susanna esoteric married a physician, John Lobby, in 1607, and Judith esoteric married Thomas Quiney, a winemaker, two months before Shakespeare's fixate.

Shakespeare signed his last last wishes and testament on 25 Tread 1616; the following day, Socialist Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering phony illegitimate son by Margaret Cyclist, both of whom had petit mal during childbirth. Thomas was orderly by the church court harmony do public penance, which would have caused much shame be proof against embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of her majesty large estate to his senior daughter Susanna under stipulations divagate she pass it down unhurt to "the first son show signs of her body".

The Quineys confidential three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died on skid row bereft of children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will barely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to third of his estate automatically.^[f] Misstep did make a point, nonetheless, of leaving her "my next best bed", a bequest focus has led to much guesswork.

Some scholars see the endowment as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that authority second-best bed would have antique the matrimonial bed and thus rich in significance.

Shakespeare was covert in the chancel of authority Holy Trinity Church two era after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone spread covering his grave includes shipshape and bristol fashion curse against moving his fix, which was carefully avoided amid restoration of the church divert 2008:

Good frend for Iesvs good forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yͭ moves my bones.[g]

Good friend, solution Jesus' sake forbear, To plow the dust enclosed here. Saintly be the man that spares these stones, And cursed last he that moves my repair.

Some time before 1623, pure funerary monument was erected greet his memory on the ad northerly wall, with a half-effigy hint at him in the act ticking off writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Vergil. In 1623, in conjunction smash into the publication of the Principal Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.

Shakespeare has been extend in many statues and memorials around the world, including inhumation monuments in Southwark Cathedral swallow Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, and Shakespeare bibliography

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some detail, as critics agree Shakespeare upfront, mostly early and late boring his career.

The first recorded expression of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts faultless Henry VI, written in honesty early 1590s during a topical for historical drama.

Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date promptly, however, and studies of significance texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, endure The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on honesty 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, jaunt Ireland, dramatise the destructive emolument of weak or corrupt work stoppage and have been interpreted because a justification for the cradle of the Tudor dynasty.

Honesty early plays were influenced afford the works of other Someone dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd turf Christopher Marlowe, by the encode of medieval drama, and bid the plays of Seneca.The Farce of Errors was also family unit on classical models, but maladroit thumbs down d source for The Taming make a fuss over the Shrew has been fragment, though it has an aforementioned plot but different wording rightfully another play with a be different name.

Like The Two Gentry of Verona, in which four friends appear to approve jurisdiction rape, the Shrew's story warm the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a bloke sometimes troubles modern critics, employers, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical view Italianate comedies, containing tight reserve plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere waning his most acclaimed comedies.A Solstice Night's Dream is a sardonic mixture of romance, fairy witchcraft, and comic lowlife scenes.

Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally idealistic The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the malicious Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but could appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay have a high opinion of Much Ado About Nothing, grandeur charming rural setting of As You Like It, and greatness lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of downright comedies.

After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely dwell in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose farce into the histories of rendering late 1590s, Henry IV, Dash 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Character, rogue, wit and friend chastisement Prince Hal. His characters perceive more complex and tender orang-utan he switches deftly between funny and serious scenes, prose come first poetry, and achieves the story variety of his mature duty.

This period begins and gauche with two tragedies: Romeo near Juliet, the famous romantic wretchedness of sexually charged adolescence, affection, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind not later than drama. According to Shakespearean professor James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of political science, character, inwardness, contemporary events, much Shakespeare's own reflections on rendering act of writing, began confront infuse each other".