# data[].attributes.body
Early Life :

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, on April 23, 1564.

He married Ann Hathaway in 1582.

They had three children, the eldest died in childhood.

Career :

By 1592 he had settled in London and had earned a reputation as an actor and playwright.

He earned a living adapting old plays and working in collaboration with others on new ones.

Shakespeare was one of the shareholders of a new company of actors called The Lord Chamberlain's Men (later renamed The King's Men).

Death :

After writing some thirty-seven plays, Shakespeare retired to his native Stratford.

He was wealthy and respected.

He died on his birthday, in 1616.

# data[].attributes.body
Shakespeare's plays were not all published in his lifetime.

None of his plays come to us exactly as he wrote it.

Fourteen of his plays were printed in Quarto (17cm X 21cm) volumes.

In 1623, his fellow-actors and shareholders in The King's Men published a collected edition of Shakespeare's works (thirty six plays in all) in a Folio edition.

# data[].attributes.body
History :

The Theatre, the first playhouse built in Elizabethan London, was re-created in Southwark, as The Globe.

Building :

By modern standards, The Globe was small.

The building measured less than thirty meters across.

It could hold between two and three thousand people.

Theater Layout :

At the entrance, a doorkeeper collected one penny for admission to the "pit".

"Groundlings" simply stood around the three sides of the stage.

The higher one went, the more one paid.

Plays :

No breaks between scenes and no intervals.

Plays could be performed in two hours.

The entire company was male. By law actresses were not allowed.

# data[].attributes.body
Blank verse : rhymed lines consisting of ten syllables, alternately stressed and unstressed.

Shakespeare wrote his plays mostly in blank verse.

The technical term for this form is the iambic pentameter.

When he first started to write plays, he maintained a blank verse from start to finish.

But as he matured, he sought greater freedom of expression than rhyme allowed.

He moved toward the rhymes of everyday speech, which gave him many dramatic advantages.

# data[].attributes.body
Date :

Probably written and first acted in 1595.

Source :

Shakespeare had the Brooke poem at his side as he worked on his play.

It provided him with most of his raw material. (ex. basic plot and many characters)

Shakespeare relied on the Brooke poem for his understanding of life in Verona.