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Shakespeare's favorite dessert was the gooseberry foyle, it was only mentioned in on of his plays. Some of the foods he had were, lamb's quarter, wild chicory, leeks, horseradish leaves, sorrel, bulb fennel, mint, rosemary, parsley and watercress

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This glorious gooseberry fool recipe is the perfect dessert for summer. Luxurious yet simple to put together, serve this classic pud at a summer celebration.

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why was shakespheare so quick to marry his wife?  

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why was shakespheare so quick to marry his wife?  

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Who was Shakespeare's Wife?

William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in November 1582 and they remained married until Shakespeare's death. At the time of their marriage William was 18, while Anne was 26-and pregnant with their first child.

The average age of marriage was 26 years of age, so Anne would have been an eligible young lady of her time. William, on the other hand, was still a minor in the eyes of the law and so required permission from Anne's father to marry Anne. Shakespeare's early marriage also meant that he wouldn't legally be able to complete an apprenticeship.

To avoid any scandal surrounding Anne's pregnancy, William sped up proceedings by applying to the Bishop's Court in Worcester. This licence also authorised the marriage to take place outside the parish of normal residence, allowing William and Anne to be married outside of Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford then lay in the diocese of Worcester, and two documents survive in the diocesan archives to establish the marriage was performed in November 1582, but neither document specifies the parish in which they did marry. The parishes of Luddington, Bishopton, Billesley, and Temple Grafton have all been suggested.

Anne and William's first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after their marriage, and they would go on to have twins Judith and Hamnet a few years later. Read the article, 'How Many Children did Shakespeare Have?' to learn more about Shakespeare's children.

'[...] woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her'
- The Taming of the Shrew (Act 1 Scene 1)

The Courtship of William Shakespeare

Tudor Wedding Customs

On her wedding day, a Tudor bride would have worn her best set of clothes, with her hair worn loose and crowned with a garland of herbs. She would have been escorted by her bridesmaids who would spread rushes before her to protect her shoes and clothes from mud.

The groom would dress in his finest doublet and hose, and been escorted by his male friends to the bride's house with the musical accompaniment of the pipe and tabor. It was common for the groom to bring gloves for wedding guests in exchange for herbs and flowers (an appropriate gift since Shakespeare's father was a glover).

The wedding ceremony began at the door of the church and the ring was blessed. Afterwards the wedding party entered the main body of the church for nuptial mass.

Did Shakespeare love his wife?

It is difficult to define the exact nature of Anne and William's relationship due to a lack of documentary evidence. William Shakespeare signed his will on 25 March 1616. In the will, he leaves his second-best bed to Anne; the document reads, 'Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed wth the furniture' (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed). Some have read this as a slight against Anne; but the second-best bed would have been their marriage bed, since the best bed was typically reserved for guests.

Under medieval common law in England a widow was entitled to one third of her late husband's estate for her life (or widowhood) even though it was not specifically mentioned in the will. In practice however, most wives were mentioned, usually in terms of affection and trust, and were frequently made executrix of the will.

The bequest of the second best bed is not in itself unusual, and wills were not places for the expression of personal feelings. The best bed, or indeed best of any type of item was usually regarded as an heirloom to be passed to the major heir, his daughter Susanna.

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Learn more about the events surrounding William Shakespeare's wedding and marriage.

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Mary Arden was the mother of William Shakespeare. Mary's date of birth is unknown; she was likely to have been born between the years 1536-8. She was the youngest of eight daughters and lived in a farmhouse that was built in 1514. Mary's father, Robert Arden, was a member of the Guild of the Holy Cross, an important communal Stratford institution. Upon his death, Robert left Mary a significant amount of land in Wilmcote together with a sum of £6 13s 4d (equivalent to £30,000 in current value).

Probably about a year after her father's death in late 1556, Mary married John Shakespeare and moved to live with him in a house on Henley Street. She was between 19-21 years old when she got married and left her father's home. There was no mention of their engagement before Robert's death, so the marriage was likely her choice. John was an upcoming businessman with a house in Stratford at that time.

Mary and John had eight children together, although three of their children died young. William was the oldest surviving child of John and Mary Shakespeare, who lost two infant daughters before William was born. William's younger siblings were Gilbert (born in 1566), Joan (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). Ann died at the age of eight, but the others lived into their adulthood.

There is evidence to suggest that Mary would have been a literate woman, as she is mentioned as the executor of her father's will. She would have benefited from a degree of education when carrying out her duties as the daughter of a farmer. This is all certainly knowledge that could have been used in the raising of a young William Shakespeare.

Later in life, after her husband's death in 1601, Mary may have lived with William and his family at New Place. However, it is also possible that she may have stayed with her daughter, Joan Hart, in Henley Street.

Mary Shakespeare died in 1608.

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Mary Arden was the mother of William Shakespeare. Mary's date of birth is unknown; she was likely to have been born between the years 1536-8. She was the youngest of eight daughters and lived in a farmhouse that was built in 1514.

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when did Shakespear write his first plays?

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when did Shakespear write his first plays?

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shakespear has written over 40 plays, but when did he start?

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Timeline of Shakespeare's plays | Royal Shakespeare Company

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We don't know exactly when Shakespeare started writing plays, but they were probably being performed in London by 1592. Shakespeare is likely to have written his final plays just a couple of years before his death in 1616.

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This is a good URL to get information about Shakespeare's mom.

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John Shakespeare was the father of William Shakespeare. John was probably born in the 1520s, the son of successful farmer Richard Shakespeare from Snitterfield (a village around two miles from Stratford-upon-Avon). We know John had moved to Stratford by 1552 because on 29 April he is recorded as having paid a fine of one shilling for creating an unwarranted 'midden heap' (muck heap) in Henley Street.

John began to acquire property in Stratford in 1556 on both Greenhill Street and Henley Street - the latter containing the plot where Shakespeare's Birthplace still stands. He went on to marry Mary Arden from Wilmcote in 1557 and together they would have eight children. Their two daughters born before William did not survive infancy and another daughter died while still a child.

This acquisition of freehold property marked the start of a prosperous climb for John. In 1556 he was appointed to the envious position of 'ale taster' for Stratford. This was the gateway to many civic positions including chamberlain, constable in 1558, alderman in 1564 (shortly after William Shakespeare's birth), and high bailiff in 1568 (a position equivalent to Mayor).

Precept of John Shakspeyr, a Justice of the Peace and Bailiff of Stratford, to take Richard Walcar to answer to the suit of William Shottyswell in a plea of debt

Alongside his fatherly and civic roles, John kept a trade as one of the 22 glovemakers in Stratford. Gloves were in high demand in Tudor England for practical uses as well as markers of status for the elite, and the government protected the trade from foreign competition. John was also a 'whittawer' who made his own leather from the skins of deer, horses, goats, sheep, and hounds. The skins would have been tanned in pits outside the property and steeped in unpleasant substances such as urine! William Shakespeare displays some familiarity with the craft in his plays, for example referencing 'a glover's paring knife' in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Seventeenth Century Man's Kid Gloves

John was a busy man. He also found time to operate as a 'wool brogger' - an unlicensed, and therefore illegal, wool dealer. This occupation had been restricted to state approved merchants only, following an Act of Parliament from 1553. Initially this appears to have been very profitable, with alleged sales of up to 400 stones of wool at a time being attributed to John in 1571-2.

From the 1570s, John's life took a turn towards trouble. His wool dealings landed him an appearance in court in 1572 on charges of illegal wool purchases. He stopped appearing at council meetings, and in 1578 was exempted from paying levies such as towards poor relief. In the same year he began to start mortgaging land with a transaction of 48 acres, heralding the start of money problems which would endure for the next decade. These culminated in 1592 when he failed to appear in church due to his growing debts-although some have interpreted this as an indication that he had dissenting Catholic views.

In 1596 John was awarded a coat of arms, now displayed on the monument above the Shakespeare grave in Holy Trinity Church. Versions of the Shakespeare coat of arms can also be seen on Shakespeare's Birthplace, outside of the Shakespeare Centre, and above the entrance to Shakespeare's New Place.

The final ten years of his life were more peaceful by comparison. When John died in 1601, 37 year old William Shakespeare inherited the entire property now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace. Already living in the sizeable New Place, William followed in his father's money-making footsteps. He leased part of the house to Lewis Hiccox who extended it as an inn, later known as 'The Swan and Maidenhead '. The inn only closed in 1846, after which the whole property was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Further reading:
John Shakespeare: A Papist or Just Penniless? - Robert Bearman, Shakespeare Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 4 (Winter, 2005), pp. 411-433
Shakespeare's World in 100 Objects: #98 Glovers Pairing Knife Shakespeare's World in 100 Objects: #40 A Pair of Gloves

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John Shakespeare was the father of William Shakespeare. John was probably born in the 1520s, the son of successful farmer Richard Shakespeare from Snitterfield (a village around two miles from Stratford-upon-Avon). We know John had moved to Stratford by 1552 because on 29 April he is recorded as having paid a fine of one shilling for creating an unwarranted 'midden heap' (muck heap) in Henley Street.

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Why did Shakespeare start writing plays?

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Why did Shakespeare start writing plays? Did Shakespeare really write his own plays? There has been many conspiracy theories about this most saying that Bacon wrote his play but didn't want to be in the spot light. Why William Shakespeare started writing plays because he realized

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What theater did Shakespeare preform in? 🤔

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What theater did Shakespeare preform in? 🤔

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This is such a mystery, what theater did he preform in?🤔

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In Shakespeare's time, a stage wasn't just one type of space; plays had to be versatile. The same play might be produced in an outdoor playhouse, an indoor theater, a royal palace-or, for a company on tour, the courtyard of an inn.

In any of these settings, men and boys played all the characters, male and female; acting in Renaissance England was an exclusively male profession. Audiences had their favorite performers, looked forward to hearing music with the productions, and relished the luxurious costumes of the leading characters. The stage itself was relatively bare. For the most part, playwrights used vivid words instead of scenery to picture the scene onstage.

Primary sources: Shakespeare Documented
Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials about theaters and people in the theatrical profession connected with Shakespeare. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

On This Page: Playhouses and the Globe | Theaters and Palaces | Audience Experiences | Actors, Costumes, and Staging | Stage and Screen after Shakespeare

In 1576, when Shakespeare was still a 12-year-old in Stratford-upon-Avon, James Burbage built the Theatre just outside London. The Theatre was among the first playhouses in England since Roman times. Like the many other playhouses that followed, it was a multi-sided structure with a central, uncovered "yard" surrounded by three tiers of covered seating and a bare, raised stage at one end of the yard. Spectators could pay for seating at multiple price levels; those with the cheapest tickets simply stood for the length of the plays.

Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, was one of several to perform at the Theatre, appearing there by about 1594. A few years later, the Burbages lost their lease on the Theatre site and began construction of a new, larger playhouse, the Globe, just south of the Thames. To pay for it, they shared the lease with the five partners (called actor-sharers) in the Lord Chamberlain's company, including Shakespeare.

The Globe, which opened in 1599, became the playhouse where audiences first saw some of Shakespeare's best-known plays. In 1613, it burned to the ground when the roof caught fire during a performance of Shakespeare's . A new, second Globe was quickly built on the same site, opening in 1614.
On Shakespeare Documented: Shakespeare's playhouses

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In Shakespeare's time, a stage wasn't just one type of space; plays had to be versatile. The same play might be produced in an outdoor playhouse, an indoor theater, a royal palace-or, for a company on tour, the courtyard of an inn.

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What did shakespear's theatre look like?

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What did shakespear's theatre look like?

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goofy theater tbh

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Shakespeare’s theater | Folger Shakespeare Library

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History of The Globe and other theaters in London where Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, performed, audience experiences in playhouses, expectations for actors, costumes and other staging choices.

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Why did he want to write plays and become an author.

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Why did he want to write plays and become an author.

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hwhy did shakespeare want to be a writer - Google Search

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William Shakespeare started writing plays because he realized that he had the potential to be a great playwrighter. He also enjoyed theater and he realized that he could also act in them. His plays attracted a lot of interest and he had the theaters thronging with audiences back in 16th century.

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Who were the actors in Shakespeare's plays? 

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Who were the actors in Shakespeare's plays? 

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Edward Alleyne: Artist unknown, 1626? By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Robert Armin (c.1568-1615)

The comedian Robert Armin succeeded William Kemp as clown in the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1599. His roles included Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well, Thersites in Troilus and Cressida, and the Fool in King Lear. Armin was also a writer. His collection of tales Foole upon Foole was first published in 1600, and his play Two Maids of More-Clacke appeared in 1609.

Titlepage, with a portrait of the author. Robert Armin,
The History of the Two Maids of More-Clacke, 1609. British Library, C.34.c.1. Larger image

James Burbage (c.1531-1597)

James Burbage began as a joiner. By 1572 he was a player, as one of Leicester's Men, but he seems to have given up acting once he became a theatre manager. In 1576 he built the Theatre, which he ran until his death. James Burbage was the father of Richard Burbage.

Richard Burbage (1568-1619)

Shakespeare's leading player, Richard Burbage was the son of James Burbage the builder of the Theatre. He began his acting career in the mid-1580s. By the mid-1590s he was a leading sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Richard Burbage played the title-roles in Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello. He may have taken leading roles in all of Shakespeare's plays after the opening of the Globe in 1599.

Richard Burbage: Artist unknown

By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Henry Condell (died 1627)

The player Henry Condell was a sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) from 1598 until his death in 1627. With John Heminge, he was responsible for the printing of the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1623.

Nathan Field (1587-1619?)

Nathan Field began his acting career in about 1600, as a member of the company of boy players at Blackfriars. In about 1616 he joined the King's Men. He may have been intended for one of the principal roles in The Two Noble Kinsmen when the play was to be revived in 1619-1620.

Robert Goughe (died 1624)

Robert Goughe began as a boy player, and appeared with the company known from 1585 as the Admiral's Men. In 1619, he was a sharer in the King's Men. It has been suggested that the boy player Robert Goffe created the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, but there is no evidence to connect him with Robert Goughe.

John Heminge (1566?-1630)

The player John Heminge was a leading sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) from 1596 until his death in 1630. He may have played Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. With Henry Condell, he was responsible for the printing of the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1623.

Philip Henslowe (died 1616)

The playhouse proprietor Philip Henslowe built the Rose in 1587, and the Fortune in 1600. He was particularly associated with the Admiral's Men. His book of accounts and memoranda (referred to as his 'Diary') provides important information about Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. It is preserved among other papers deposited at Dulwich College by his son-in-law Edward Alleyn.

William Kemp (died 1603)

The comedian William Kemp (or Kempe) is first recorded in 1585. From 1594 to 1599, he was the clown in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Kemp played Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and Peter in Romeo and Juliet. It has been suggested that he also played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, and Costard in Love's Labour's Lost. Kemps Nine Daies Wonder records his performance of a morris dance from London to Norwich in 1600.

John Lowin (born 1576)

The player John Lowin became a member of the King's Men in 1603. He may have played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and taken one of the principal roles in The Two Noble Kinsmen. Shakespeare is said to have instructed him in the title-role of Henry VIII (All is True). Lowin was a sharer in the company by 1610. After the death of John Heminge, he became joint manager with Joseph Taylor of the King's Men.

Augustine Phillips (died 1605)

Augustine Phillips was a player with Lord Strange's Men in 1593. In 1594 he was a sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and he remained with the company after it became the King's Men until his death in 1605. Phillips's roles in Shakespeare's plays may have included Bolingbroke in Richard II, and King Henry in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.

Thomas Pope (died 1603)

Thomas Pope is first mentioned among players visiting Elsinore in 1586. By 1597 he was a sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men with whom he stayed until 1603. Pope may have played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.

John Sincklo

John Sincklo (or Sinclo, or Sincler) was a player with Pembroke's Men in 1592. By 1598 he was acting with the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Sincklo was apparently very thin, and his roles seem to have included Slender in The Merry Wives of Windsor. His acting career seems to have lasted from 1592 until 1604.

William Sly (1573?-1608)

The player William Sly had become a sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men by 1597, and he remained with the company after it became the King's Men until his death in 1608. He may have played the role of Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1.

Joseph Taylor (1586?-1652)

Joseph Taylor is recorded as a player in 1610. From 1616 to 1619, he played with the Prince's Men (previously the Admiral's Men). In 1619, Taylor joined the King's Men, succeeding Richard Burbage as the company's principal actor. He played the title-role in Hamlet, Iago in Othello, and perhaps took one of the principal roles in The Two Noble Kinsmen. By 1624 Taylor was a sharer in the King's Men, and became a manager of the company with John Lowin in 1630.

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plays; drama; comedies; tragedies; histories; shakespeare's quartos; william shakespeare; quartos; printing; publishing; english drama; elizabethan england; jacobean england; theatre history; shakepeare's actors; edward alleyn; robert armin; james burbage; richard burbage; henry condell; nathan field; robert goughe; john hemine; philip henslowe; william kemp; john lowin; augustine phillips; thomas pope; john sincklo; joseph taylor

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Edward Alleyne: Artist unknown, 1626? By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery The comedian Robert Armin succeeded William Kemp as clown in the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1599. His roles included Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, Lavatch in All's Well That Ends Well, Thersites in Troilus and Cressida, and the Fool in King Lear.

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©Georgios Kollidas/Fotolia

On April 23, 1616, English poet and playwright William Shakespeare died in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of fifty-two. His death occurred on or near his birthday (the exact date of his birth remains unknown), which may have been the source of a later legend that he fell ill and died after a night of heavy drinking with two other writers, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton.

Although Shakespeare had achieved some measure of acclaim and financial success during his life, writing for the stage was, at the time of his death, not yet thought of as a serious artistic pursuit, and his modest burial at Holy Trinity Church was more suited to a wealthy local retiree than a celebrity.

However, within a few years of his death, Shakespeare's friends and admirers began to lay the groundwork for his literary immortality. In 1623 John Heminge and Henry Condell assembled his plays into a single large-format edition. We know this edition as the First Folio, one of the most famous texts in English literature. Anticipating that the world would eventually recognize Shakespeare's genius, Ben Jonson-an important literary figure in his own right-proclaimed in the folio's preface that his friend was a writer "not of an age, but for all time!"

The four centuries since Shakespeare's death have confirmed Jonson's assessment. The "Bard of Avon" holds a place in history as one of the greatest writers to have lived, and his work is performed, read, and taught across the world. Shakespeare's legacy has also evolved to keep up with changing times; for example, in the 20th and 21st centuries his plays have been adapted into hundreds of feature films.

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On April 23, 1616, English poet and playwright William Shakespeare died in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of fifty-two. His death occurred on or near his birthday (the exact date of his birth remains unknown), which may have been the source of a later legend that he fell ill and died after a night of heavy drinking with two other writers, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton.

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language.

He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed how the world of poetry. This article will dive into the influence Shakespeare has had on literature across the world.
Career start
Shakespeare started his career as an actor in London. He also owned a company of actors named "King's Men". He began writing plays and poems during the 1590s. He emerged as one of the most prominent and influential writers in history. Before that, he was only known for his acting skills. His first poems, to be printed in 1593 and 1594, were Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His poems gathered much admiration and revived the concept of English literature.
Role in the modern curriculum
His efforts got him a lot of appreciation, and he became famous as the most powerful and prestigious dramatist in the history of English literature. Almost all high schools and colleges today include Shakespeare's writings in their curriculum. Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedy of Othello, and Macbeth are taught in many educational facilities. Shakespeare is now a common name among most, if not all, English Literature students.
Influence on writing style
Shakespeare created the most inspired plays in western literature. He wrote different plays, including characters that had a touch of both humour and seriousness especially in The Tragedy of Othello. Shakespeare linked poetry, drama and verse with each other, which had never been done before. For the versification of the English language, he used his rhetoric with higher expression. Through poetry, he gave strength to the language, and by writing dramas, he gave clear ideas that rarely left room for vagueness. Stephen Marche, a Canadian novelist, said that Shakespeare only used the English language as a tool to leave an impression on the audience. He was the special effects master of language and a key contributor to the formation of the English language as we know it today.
Influence on English language and literature
One of Shakespeare's most significant contributions is that he introduced a lot of new words to the English language. He invented 1700 commonly used words and many new phrases. For example, a widely used phrase "it's Greek to me" was created by Shakespeare. It is used to refer to something that is difficult to understand. Also, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare used the phrase "cold-blooded/hot-blooded" to equate blood temperature with emotional excitement - something now done very commonly.

These phrases were all invented by Shakespeare and are extensively used by modern writers in their works. For example, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Dogs of War by Robert Stone, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuels Johnson all use words and phrases coined by Shakespeare. Johnson is the one author who quotes Shakespeare more than anyone else. Shakespeare's original phrases are also still used in conversational language.

Shakespeare changed verbs into adverbs and adjectives. Connected words were not used together before him. He also added suffixes and prefixes to many words. The use of correct spellings became common during Shakespeare's time. Before Shakespeare, grammar rules were not adequately defined, and there wasn't any definite criterion for English grammar. To be precise, Shakespeare changed many aspects of the English language. His work gained importance in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, which helped the standardisation of the English language.

After Shakespeare, many other writers like Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe also adopted novel words and phrases to create new imaginative worlds and ideas. Shakespeare gave an utterly unique concept to romance. He presented it as an essential topic for tragedy. Shakespeare expanded the perspective of characterisation, plot language and genre in tragic plays. He used this idea to traverse the individual mind and created iconic duos like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare has tirelessly served English literature throughout his life. His existing work consists of 154 sonnets, 39 plays, two narrative poems and a few other verses. Shakespeare's writings have been translated into numerous languages across the world, and his plays are still performed in many theatres. Most people who read and understand Shakespeare and his writings become huge fans of his work. There's no denying that he made the English language a beautiful forte for creative and literary minds. Shakespeare had a unique grasp of language and sincerely employed themes of romance and tragedy in his work.
Inspiration to others
Modern writers, novelists and dramatists are greatly influenced by Shakespeare's plays and writings. Shakespeare has greatly influenced authors such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Dickens and William Faulkner. Charles Dickens derived almost 25 titles from Shakespeare's work. He used many quotations of Shakespeare in his work too. The character in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville was developed from the influence of Hamlet by Shakespeare. Many of Melville's writings have titles derived from Shakespeare's work as well.

Most modern-day movie makers derive ideas and plots from Shakespeare's writings and reshape them into new scripts. Movies like She is The Star and West Side Story were based on Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet, respectively.
Wrapping up
Shakespeare is and will always be accredited for creating new ideas, inventing, familiarising and repurposing the English language. His words, phrases and exceptional style of expression made him one of the best writers in the world. The stories, novels and plays that he wrote break barriers of time and culture and are equally relevant today.

Shakespeare is a name that is not just known to people who love literature. While Shakespeare is no longer among today's playwrights, his writings and efforts to promote the English language will uphold his name for years to come. English literature might not see such an extraordinary author ever again.
The editorial unit

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

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There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language. He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed [...]

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all about shakespeare ig

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Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes, just as we see with the 19th-century family scene at the top of this page.

Primary sources: Shakespeare Documented
Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials documenting Shakespeare's life. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works, as well as additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

On This Page: Birth and Childhood | Marriage and Children | London Theater | Final Years

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.
On Shakespeare Documented: Primary-source materials relating to Shakespeare's family

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An overview of Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Library, including his birth and childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon, his marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, his work in the London theaters, and his final years before his death in 1616.

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What were the genres in Shakespeare's plays? 

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What were the genres in Shakespeare's plays? 

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This is good if you wanna find out the genres of Shakespeare's plays

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English History is a comprehensive and in-depth guide to the people, places, and events throughout the history of England - including Romans in Britain, Viking Invasions, the Middle Ages, the Tudor Era, the Stuart Era, the Georgian Era, the Victorian Era, Kings and Queens of England and the great English poets.

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Use the search form below to search our 500+ page archive of English History including facts, biographies, information, letters, stories and poetry.

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EnglishHistory.net | The Tudors, Lord Byron & John Keats

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English History is a comprehensive and in-depth guide to the people, places, and events throughout the history of England - including Romans in Britain, Viking Invasions, the Middle Ages, the Tudor Era, the Stuart Era, the Georgian Era, the Victorian Era, Kings and Queens of England and the great English poets.

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Yes

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There were two different types of playhouse in London during Shakespeare's time. There were outdoor playhouses, also known as 'amphitheatres' or 'public' playhouses, and indoor playhouses, also known as 'halls' or 'private' playhouses. These were very different theatres that attracted different types of audiences.

Where was the first playhouse built?
The first playhouse, the Red Lion, was built in 1567 by John Brayne. He converted the Red Lion Inn, in Stepney, outside the city walls. There is little evidence of how successful it was, but the demand must have been there, because many more playhouses opened between the 1570s and the 1620s.

Where were the next playhouses built?
In 1576 Brayne and James Burbage built the Theatre, just outside the city walls. Burbage was an actor with the Earl of Leicester's Men, who played in the Theatre for its first two years. Newington Butts theatre was built to the south in the same year. In 1577 the Curtain was built near the Theatre. After this, five more theatres were built and companies also performed regularly in the yards of several London inns. Not all theatres had performances of plays regularly and some theatres were also used for other types of entertainment.

Why build playhouses south of the Thames?
Playhouses drew big audiences, but they were not popular with everyone. The officials who ran the City of London thought that playhouses were noisy and disruptive, and attracted thieves and other 'undesirable' people. So people built playhouses on sites outside the control of city officials. This meant outside the city wall, in most cases. The south bank of the River Thames was outside the city and already had animal baiting arenas, brothels and taverns where people could buy food and drink. So people already went there for entertainment.

Did you know?

Shakespeare's company played at the Theatre, the Curtain and then the Globe. They also played at Court for Queen Elizabeth I and then later for King James I, toured and (after 1609) during the winter played at the Blackfriars indoor theatre.

Building Materials

Most playhouses had a brick base with timber-framed walls. The gaps between the timbers were filled with sticks, hair and plaster. The roofs were made from thatch or tile.
Can you find out what happened to the
first Globe theatre in 1613? What was the
roof of the second Globe made from?

What did the outdoor playhouses look like?
All outdoor playhouses had:
* a central yard that was open to the sky;
* a raised stage sticking out into the yard;
* a roof over the stage, which was called 'the heavens', although the first Rose theatre (1587-92) may not have had one;
* a tiring house behind the stage with a backstage area, where actors dressed and waited to come on. Above this were lords' rooms, rooms for storage, and a room level with 'the heavens' to work the special effects from;
* galleried seating all around the yard, on several levels, which was roofed.

Who built playhouses?
Playhouses were sometimes built by businessmen who saw the rising popularity of the touring acting companies that played in the yards of inns and other open spaces around the city. They had money to spare, while the acting companies did not. So a businessman leased some land, built a playhouse and leased it to acting companies for a set number of years. The company paid the playhouse owner a share of the takings; usually half the income from galleries.

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There were two different types of playhouse in London during Shakespeare's time. There were outdoor playhouses, also known as 'amphitheatres' or 'public' playhouses, and indoor playhouses, also known as 'halls' or 'private' playhouses. These were very different theatres that attracted different types of audiences.

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What genres were the majority of the plays?

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What genres were the majority of the plays?

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What types of plays did Shakespeare write?

Shakespeare's plays are typically divided into three categories: comedy, tragedy, and history.

Shakespeare's tragedy and history plays tend to be his longest. His comedies are also referred to as romances, or romantic comedies. And Hamlet is not merely his most famous work; it is also his longest.

Publication

The first collection of Shakespeare's work is known today as the "First Folio". It was published in 1623, under the direction of John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors in the King's Men. It contains 36 plays, of which half had never been printed before. Folio simply refers to the way sheets were folded and arranged into a book. Several of Shakespeare's plays had been published previously in quarto form (a different way of folding and arranging a book which resulted in eight pages of text.)

There were roughly 800 First Folio copies printed in 1623. There are 233 known surviving copies; the most recent discovery of a First Folio occurred in late 2014, in a French library. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC has the world's largest collection of surviving copies at 82.

Book printing was still in its infancy when it was printed. The Folio would have been sold unbound, with purchasers then paying an additional fee for leather binding.

Proofreading and corrections actually occurred during the printing process. Because of these variations, scholars have determined that the First Folio texts were typeset by at least five different workers, whom they have labeled A, B, C, D, E, with A being the most educated and accurate typesetter and E possibly an apprentice.

Several of the plays, such as Hamlet, had been printed previously and those earlier texts vary considerably in parts from the First Folio. For example, the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Hamlet changes over time. But the First Folio remains our only source for such famous works as Macbeth and The Tempest. Interestingly, the rights to Troilus and Cressida were in dispute during publication, but they were resolved in time to include it in the Folio; however, it is not listed in the Table of Contents.
The plays included in the First Folio: The Tempest The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Merry Wives of Windsor Measure for Measure The Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Love's Labour's Lost A Midsummer's Night's Dream The Merchant of Venice As You Like It The Taming of the Shrew All's Well That Ends Well Twelfth Night The Winter's Tale King John Richard II Henry IV, Part One Henry IV, Part Two Henry V Henry VI, Part One Henry VI, Part Two Henry VI, Part Three Richard III Henry VIII Troilus and Cressida Coriolanus Titus Andronicus Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Julius Caesar Macbeth Hamlet King Lear Othello Antony and Cleopatra Cymbeline
The very act of publication indicates the high esteem with which Shakespeare was held by his contemporaries. There were three reprints in the 17th century: The Second Folio in 1632, the Third Folio in 1663, and the Fourth Folio in 1685.

Of these reprints, the Third Folio is the rarest, due to the destruction of unsold copies in the Great Fire of 1666. It is also the oddest folio; its publisher, Philip Chetwinde added no less than seven additional plays, of which only Pericles, Prince of Tyre is now considered Shakespeare's work. Chetwinde was not necessarily wrong with his inclusions. The seven plays had been published under Shakespeare's name during his own lifetime. They were: A Yorkshire Tragedy; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Locrine; The London Prodigal; The Puritan; Thomas, Lord Cromwell; Sir John Oldcastle. It was only much later that scholars dismissed six of the works. Why didn't Shakespeare speak up about the incorrect attribution (if true) during his lifetime? Possibly because he didn't care. We tend to be very precious and reverential about Shakespeare's work. But he was a working actor, playwright, and businessman. It is important to remember that bookselling was still in its infancy. Shakespeare - and all playwrights - earned little money from publication; they made money from performances.

The Fourth Folio was the standard edition used throughout the 18th and early 19th century for publication and performance.

The folios should not be considered definitive in any sense of the word. In fact, they omit several famous lines from the plays which were printed in the earlier quarto publications. But without their publication, we would likely have lost many of Shakespeare's works.

Collaborations

Just as there is debate over the correct chronology and accurate publication of Shakespeare's plays, there is also debate over authorship of certain works.

We know for certain that William Shakespeare is the sole author of most of the plays. But Pericles, Prince of Tyre? Henry VIII? Timon of Athens? Scholars believe Shakespeare collaborated on a number of his plays, though the collaborations were often no more than light revisions.

We know of three primary collaborators: John Fletcher, George Wilkins, and Thomas Middleton. Of the three, it is Fletcher whom we remember for he followed Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men. And in the 17th century, his works were arguably more famous than Shakespeare's.

Of these collaborations, it must be noted that Middleton's work on Macbeth and Measure for Measure is considered to be negligible. His work on All's Well That Ends Well is suggested by modern scholarship, but is by no means assured. Fletcher's work on Henry VIII is considered more obvious and substantial. Cardenio (or The History of Cardenio) is a lost work which the Stationers' Registry in 1653 recorded as written by Shakespeare and Fletcher. Scholars believe it was inspired by the character of Cardenio in Cervantes' Don Quixote.

As for The Two Noble Kinsmen, it is based upon "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a story popular enough that it had already been dramatized twice before Shakespeare and Fletcher wrote their version. It has the most problematic attributions. Scholars tend to assign the playwrights individual pieces within the same act; it is simply impossible to know for certain which lines are Shakespeare's, and which are Fletcher's. The play was not included in the "First Folio", or any other collection of Shakespeare's works. Its first publication was in the second folio collection of Fletcher's work, published in 1679.

As for Pericles, Prince of Tyre, it was not well received in Shakespeare's time, and history has proven only slightly kinder. It is believed that Wilkins wrote the first half, and Shakespeare the second half.
Scholars continue to debate the authorship of Titus Andronicus, with some believing that Shakespeare collaborated with George Peele, or revised his original work. Peele was a playwright and poet whose contemporaries considered him equal to Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe. Titus Andronicus is believed to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and its violent and blood-soaked plot is quite similar to the works of Peele (which were very popular). It was also the first of Shakespeare's plays to be printed, in 1594. This publication is an indication of its great popularity; it was only in the 18th and 19th centuries that Titus Andronicus fell out of favor with audiences, as the Victorians in particular shared none of the Elizabeth or Jacobean love of gory theater. It was included in the First Folio and debate over its authorship only began in the late 17th century. Modern scholars believe the attribution debate was spurred by 18th and 19th century beliefs that Shakespeare could not have written such a violent work. The matter remains unsettled.
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List of Shakespeare Plays By Genre - Facts & Analysis

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Shakespeare's plays are typically divided into three categories: comedy, tragedy, and history. Shakespeare's tragedy and history plays tend to be his longest. His comedies are also referred to as romances, or romantic comedies. And Hamlet is not merely his most famous work; it is also his longest.

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Read about Shakespeare’s retirement and final years. After a glittering career as an actor, playwright and theatre proprietor in London, Shakespeare retired

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Well this is a very good website to like find out some really good useful info for your project. Like also he was very smart so that is why he came up with their beautiful plays

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Romeo and Juliet, play by William Shakespeare, written about 1594-96 and first published in an unauthorized quarto in 1597. An authorized quarto appeared in 1599, substantially longer and more reliable. A third quarto, based on the second, was used by the editors of the First Folio of 1623. The characters of Romeo and Juliet have been depicted in literature, music, dance, and theatre. The appeal of the young hero and heroine-whose families, the Montagues and the Capulets, respectively, are implacable enemies-is such that they have become, in the popular imagination, the representative type of star-crossed lovers.

Shakespeare's principal source for the plot was The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562), a long narrative poem by the English poet Arthur Brooke, who had based his poem on a French translation of a tale by the Italian Matteo Bandello.

Shakespeare sets the scene in Verona, Italy. Juliet and Romeo meet and fall instantly in love at a masked ball of the Capulets, and they profess their love when Romeo, unwilling to leave, climbs the wall into the orchard garden of her family's house and finds her alone at her window. Because their well-to-do families are enemies, the two are married secretly by Friar Laurence. When Tybalt, a Capulet, seeks out Romeo in revenge for the insult of Romeo's having dared to shower his attentions on Juliet, an ensuing scuffle ends in the death of Romeo's dearest friend, Mercutio. Impelled by a code of honour among men, Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished to Mantua by the Prince of Verona, who has been insistent that the family feuding cease. When Juliet's father, unaware that Juliet is already secretly married, arranges a marriage with the eminently eligible Count Paris, the young bride seeks out Friar Laurence for assistance in her desperate situation. He gives her a potion that will make her appear to be dead and proposes that she take it and that Romeo rescue her. She complies. Romeo, however, unaware of the friar's scheme because a letter has failed to reach him, returns to Verona on hearing of Juliet's apparent death. He encounters a grieving Paris at Juliet's tomb, reluctantly kills him when Paris attempts to prevent Romeo from entering the tomb, and finds Juliet in the burial vault. There he gives her a last kiss and kills himself with poison. Juliet awakens, sees the dead Romeo, and kills herself. The families learn what has happened and end their feud.

For a discussion of this play within the context of Shakespeare's entire corpus, see William Shakespeare: Shakespeare's plays and poems.

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Romeo and Juliet | Summary, Characters, & Facts

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Romeo and Juliet, play by William Shakespeare, written about 1594-96 and first published in an unauthorized quarto in 1597. The appeal of the young hero and heroine is such that they have become, in the popular imagination, the representative of star-crossed lovers.

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Shakespeare's written over 40 plays, and multiple collaborations.

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Is it possible that Shakespeare collaborated in minor ways with other authors?

Transcript

Rasmussen: We know from a wide body of evidence, related both to Shakespeare and to other theatre workers (notably the stable of playwrights that worked for Phillip Henslowe at the Rose Theatre), that drama was, as it remains, an essentially collaborative art form.

Shakespeare was a frequent collaborator in the writing of scripts, especially at the beginning and the end of his career. Recent attribution studies have provided compelling evidence that Shakespeare got a toehold in the profession by contributing a few scenes to plays such as Edward III and Arden of Faversham in the early 1590s. Shakespeare then collaborated with George Peele on Titus Andronicus, with either Thomas Nashe or Thomas Kyd on, with Thomas Middleton on Timon of Athens, and with George Wilkins on . He later passed the baton of principal dramatist for the King's Men to John Fletcher by collaborating with the younger playwright on, the Two Noble Kinsmen, and the lost Cardenio.

Eric Rasmussen

Eric Rasmussen, Chair of English at the University of Nevada, is co-editor with Jonathan Bate of the RSC Complete Works of Shakespeare.

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Is it possible that Shakespeare collaborated in minor ways with other authors? Rasmussen: We know from a wide body of evidence, related both to Shakespeare and to other theatre workers (notably the stable of playwrights that worked for Phillip Henslowe at the Rose Theatre), that drama was, as it remains, an essentially collaborative art form.

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William Shakespeare died over four hundred years ago. But his literary legacy lives on to the tune of billions of pounds of financial value.

After four centuries he continues to be recognised as the greatest writer in the English language. The Bard was also quite a savvy businessman, amassing enough money to acquire New Place, one of the largest houses in his home town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. But how much is his literary legacy worth today?

Before we get onto that, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised to discover that nowadays Shakespeare is more popular abroad than in his country of birth according to a 2016 YouGov poll.

But the poll also shows that his legacy makes a significant contribution to the UK's financial prosperity and cultural influence.

Shakespeare's 38 plays and 154 sonnets been translated into 118 languages (including Klingon), and performed throughout the world. In addition, he is also a major factor in attracting visitors to his birthplace.

The answer to the question 'how much is Shakespeare worth' is complicated by the issue of copyright. His entire creative output has of course been out of copyright for centuries. In the UK, copyright currently last for 70 years after the author's death.

So the billions of publications and performances do not need to pay royalties to his estate. So, instead I have looked for the total value of Shakespeare-related content in the market today, rather than the amount he would have earned.

Next, there is the question of whether we are valuing the annual 'turnover' of the Shakespeare 'industry', or the combined value of current Shakespeare assets?

OK, enough waffle, it's time to get down to brass tacks.

For the annual figure. Australian valuation firm Brand Finance came up with £325 million in 2012. They claim this is more than double the combined value of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe brands.

Their study also found:

- Shakespeare is the best-selling author of all time; with book sales estimated between two and four billion. In contrast, J.K. Rowling's unit sales are estimated to be 'merely' 450 million.

- 64 million children globally study Shakespeare in countries as diverse as Australia, Azerbaijan, China, Denmark, Italy, Kuwait, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Ukraine and Vietnam.

- There have been more than 400 feature length films and TV productions of Shakespeare works.

- There are currently 67 registered trademarks bearing Shakespeare's name in Australia, the UK and the USA alone ranging from Shakespeare's Pies to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This is the first time a monetary value has been placed on the Shakespeare brand taking into account book sales and downloads, paid attendance at theatre productions, box office and TV receipts from film productions, sale of Shakespeare branded goods and tourism revenue.

If we look at the value of Shakespeare's 'estate', then the figure is much larger. Just the value of the First Folio editions of his plays is over one billion sterling. It is believed that around 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, of which there are 234 known surviving copies.

We hold an impressive five copies here in The British Library, although this is somewhat trumped by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. who have an astonishing 82 copies. Their value varies according to condition, but by some estimates the average value would be around £5 million. This would give a total value of £1.1 billion.

It's impossible to be precise about the number of Shakespeare related books published in the last 400 years. A quick search on Amazon shows 146,801 results with prices ranging from £9,999.98 to zero plus £1.99 post and packing:

to

Then we need to add in the value of all the theatres around the world who specialise in Shakespeare productions. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Together with the re-created Globe Theatre on the Thames in London, the value must be at least £100 million.

Next comes film and television adaptions and their related recordings for home sale. And of course, we mustn't forget the merchandise, such as the William Shakespeare Candle and My Book of Stories: Write your own Shakespearean Tales, available from the British Library shop.

Or from elsewhere, how about Shakespeare Christmas tree ornaments, board games, playing cards, shower curtains, action figures, and even onesies.

My personal favourite is the Shakespeare bust used to conceal the entrance to the bat-cave, seen in the classic 1960's Batman television series. Available in life-size or Lego version.

Finally, and biggest of all, is tourism. It's impossible to calculate how many visitors to the UK are coming because of Shakespeare. Either to see his plays or explore his hometown, Stratford-Upon-Avon. Or for those seeking a warmer climate, the fictitious balcony where Romeo serenaded Juliet in Verona, Italy.

It all adds up to an impressive several billion pounds. But perhaps this focus on hard cash misses the point. The world is a richer place culturally, thanks to Shakespeare's genius with the quill all those years ago.

Written by Neil Infield - Manager in the Business & IP Centre

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How much is William Shakespeare worth today?

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After four centuries Shakespeare continues to be recognised as the greatest writer in the English language. And in fact Shakespeare himself was quite a savvy businessman, amassing enough money to acquire the one of the largest houses in his home of Stratford-Upon-Avon. But how much is his literary legacy worth today?

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Talks about how his plays got popular

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This week's guests are:

- Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute
- Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT
- Professor Sir Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the SBT
- Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the SBT
- Ben Crystal, Actor, director and producer
Narrator: Jennifer Reid
Transcript

DOBSON: Shakespeare got very popular in his own lifetime; and, in fact, from very early in his own career. His narrative poem, Venus and Adonis, was about his most popular printed work right through his career. As early as 1593 he had an overnight sensation with this poem, which everybody finds tremendously erotic, tremendously charming and tremendously classical. There are many, many allusions to it. It's a best-seller, there's only one surviving copy of the first edition; it was read to death, possibly in some fairly insalubrious ways. But the copy in the Bodleian library, which is the one that survives, is at least clean. His plays, once they started getting into print, very soon start getting into print with his name on them. Henry IV, Part 1 goes through multiple editions in his lifetime and continues to stay in print as a paperback even after they all come out together after the Folio in 1623. He is sufficient celebrity to have anecdotes told about him by 1599 or so; his plays are really good and people recognise from the start that there's something very special about his talent. The kind of pyramid marketing process that Heminges and Condell outline in the preface of the First Folio where they say if you like him tell your friends to read him - 'make sure they buy this book and spread the word' - has just continued to work ever since.

There's such a range of stuff in the plays, they always have to be cut and adapted and slightly modified for performance so that people and actors always have to contribute lots of themselves. There's always perpetual opportunities for other people to get in on the act and do new things with them. As drama, they always happen in the present; it's not monumental stuff that goes out of fashion. It's perpetually asking to be regenerated, translated and spread. He's already well known, or at least some of the plays are already well known in continental Europe, before he dies. We know that Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice are being taken on tour and adapted, and adapted into German around the Baltic states while Shakespeare is still around. Soon, anywhere the English language goes, so does Shakespeare. There's an Italian book from the 1680s, that's encouraging Italian people to learn English. The main reason that you would really bother to learn English is their 'thundering tragedies'; you only bothered to learn English in the 17th century for the sake of the theatre, because the theatre was so good.

London was famously a theatre capital while Shakespeare was working there. We've got Thomas Platter coming from Switzerland and commenting on seeing Julius Caesar and Arnet van Gorkul from Holland describing that they've still got these amazing Roman playhouses in London. So, it's a tourist phenomenon from early. These plays really are extraordinarily good in a sort of generative way; they adapt things themselves and they ask to to be adapted themselves, into whatever medium may be lying about. They're sort of measurably popular. It would be really interesting to do an animation of a map of the world and colour it in wherever they've actually seen Henry IV, Part 1 or first adapted Merchant of Venice, which is one of the most popular plays. It's often the first play done in any given country, in any given amateur dramatic society. Shakespeare is folk art as well as high art, people do it for themselves whether you like it or not.

DOLLIMORE: A lot of it can be attributed to his popularity during the Victorian era. But let's take a little back step and say, Shakespeare was popular amongst those who knew him and within the circle of the sort of person who would be exposed to that in his own lifetime. He wouldn't have been a national celebrity because there wasn't much communication between, say, London and Yorkshire. But he certainly was popular in his own lifetime for what he did and, as most popular people, there were people who liked him and people who didn't like him. So when we think about what happened next, there was a period in history where the theatres were closed and then reopened in about 1660. At that time, Shakespeare's plays were still being performed and were performed: although, were frequently amended by the next generation, sometimes quite hugely. There wasn't at that time, any sense of reverence towards Shakespeare's plays. They were nice blueprints that you could start with: if you wanted to add other characters, other scenes or alternate endings that was fine and up for grabs and you just did that.

That tradition carried on roughly to the Victorian period where we start to see the beginning of what we might call 'Bardolatry', or people idolising Shakespeare. There's a little bit of that with the Romantic poets; for instance, Keats is said to have always carried around a little portrait of Shakespeare when he went on holiday. When he went on holiday, he said he never felt at home until he'd put up his little portrait of Shakespeare. In fact, there's a well known portrait of Keats which has the portrait of Shakespeare in the background. So that's fairly 'Bardolatrous', I'm not sure many people carry with them a little portrait of Shakespeare wherever they go. So, that kind of reverence kind of began with the Romantic poets and continued on into the Victorian era. By the middle to late Victorian era, we are beginning to see that reflect itself in the idea that stage performances out to be reverent towards Shakespeare's original text and ought not to change too much from what was felt Shakespeare wrote. Also around about that time, during the Victorian period, it became something that was taught at school and that immortalised it really because it got onto the curriculum and has stayed there ever since. Every person who goes through the education system in the UK is exposed to Shakespeare. Whether that makes him popular or the person that most people would like to smack, I'm not really sure. Of course, that's a famous Blackadder skit where Blackadder goes back in time and gives Shakespeare a left hook and says 'That's for all the schoolboys!'. To a degree, we should blame the Victorians for Shakespeare's current 'centrality'.

EDMONDSON: Shakespeare was popular in his own lifetime, he's written about by other poets and literary critics of the day, always in terms of admiration. This continues posthumously with the publication of the First Folio, which has lots of commendatory verses at the beginning of that, and with the funerary bust in Holy Trinity Church which compares him to Socrates, Virgil and Nestor. It talks about him as a writer, it invites us to see all he has written as living art. It also talks about him as a poet of nature, it says 'With whom quick nature died'; so when Shakespeare dies, something of nature dies as well. From the earliest point, Shakespeare is famous. He continues to be famous in lots of ways through to the closing of the theatres in the mid 17th century, when Britain was momentarily a republic, because of his influence which can be discerned through other playwrights who were wanting to evoke his greatness and popularity through their own work. A major example is his collaborator John Fletcher who writes the first sequel ever to a Shakespeare play with his play The Woman's Prize (or The Tamer Tamed), which is the continuation of The Taming of the Shrew, such was his admiration for his friend and co-author. They worked together on The Two Noble Kinsmen, Cardenioand Henry VIII: All Is True.

Then, the theatres close and the restoration comes about with Charles II in the 1660s and the theatre starts to become popular again but the tastes have changed. We've moved from the outdoor spaces to massive indoor spaces and what happens then is that Shakespeare's work undergoes a very significant renovation and adaptation for the taste of its time. For example, a very popular playwright/poet of the time, Nahum Tate rewrites the ending of and adapts it significantly to give it a happy ending. Tate's version holds the stage for about 150 years, which is extraordinary to think about now. Shakespeare builds in popularity in the middle of the 18th century: he becomes the playwright who is exported to the growing British Empire and then, lo and behold, stays behind after a century and a half of the empire. Shakespeare remains: he becomes so embedded in the culture there and appropriated by the culture there. A very significant example of that is the United States of America: after the War of Independence, Shakespeare remains in the late 18th century and becomes part of the cosmopolitan makeup of the United States of America. We see that all over the British Empire territory; Shakespeare is exported and that Shakespeare remains, which is one of the reasons why Shakespeare is world famous.

Because of the British Empire, he's translated into different languages and adapted by many different cultures. Germany had a special affection for Shakespeare and has always had that, I think. Some of Shakespeare's own actors went to perform in Germany in his lifetime and it's Germany where the first translation of Shakespeare occurs in the middle of the 18th century. Such is the extent of Shakespeare's popularity, he becomes an honorary German national poet. By the middle of the 19th century, he's there with Goethe, Schiller and German Shakespeare. It was a great translation by August Wilhelm Tegel and Ludwig Tieck in the early 19th century that would turn Shakespeare into a Romantic German playwright/poet through their translation. It's still the most famous German translation: Germany, like any country that translates Shakespeare, will often translate the play afresh each time it's performed. A director of the play might commission a new translation, so you're always hearing and encountering Shakespeare differently each time when you go to the theatre in another language. This helps to explain why he continues to be popular in other cultures, because he always seems like a modern playwright with new translations being lavished upon him.

REID: One event that really put Shakespeare up on his pedestal was David Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee, staged in September 1769 in Stratford-upon-Avon. It not only had an effect on 'Bardolatry', but also for the first time really shone the spotlight on Stratford as the birthplace of the great national poet. So, back to Paul to introduce the Garrick Jubilee for us.

EDMONDSON: A really important moment in the 18th century for the popularity of Shakespeare came with the great actor David Garrick, who in 1769, was invited by the corporation (the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon) to hold a special celebration of Shakespeare, which he did in the form of a jubilee in that September. It was the first time really that Shakespeare broke out of the playhouses and out of the libraries, and onto the streets among the people. It was, as it were, a 'civic Shakespeare' and it really helped to encourage a general feeling of popularity for Shakespeare. In fact, one of the things that is notorious about the Garrick Jubilee is that not a word of Shakespeare was spoken. His fame was so kind of self-assured in the minds of those who were gathering to celebrate him that they were celebrating, as it were, the name and the reputation already, rather than the work itself. Any allusion, any moment of Shakespeare that was referred to through David Garrick's own adaptations of his work. There was a great ode spoken in a temporary theatre pavilion that Garrick had built on the site of the current Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Garrick himself spoke the ode and was given the Freedom of the Town of Stratford and Thomas Arne, who wrote Rule Britannia, wrote the music for the ode. It was a great national moment that took place in the town and from then on, it sort of sealed Stratford's fate to become a Shakespeare 'destination'. People were already visiting the house on Henley Street, Shakespeare's birthplace, prior to the jubilee but of course they did so much more afterwards. The jubilee itself transferred to the West End of London and became a show in its own right and very popular.

EDMONDSON: Descendants of Shakespeare's sister lived in part of the Henley Street house until the early part of the 19th century. Then, it fell into further private ownership and the whole site came up for auction in 1847. There was a public feeling that monies could be raised in order to secure the memorial for Shakespeare through the Henley Street house. Monies were collected in Stratford and London via committees: the London committee included Charles Dickens among its members and enough money was raised for it to be accepted by the auctioneers in September 1847. That meant that the house was effectively in public ownership and a trust, what became the Birthplace Trust, really started with the purchase of the house. It was a conservation purchase, it was self-consciously an effort to commemorate Shakespeare through a living memorial: a house. Charles Dickens, for example, thought that whereas he didn't really want to see a statue of Shakespeare that he did think a house was a good way of remembering a writer. Of course, Shakespeare's house is amongst the first of writers' houses in Britain to commemorate the writer in this way. Then follow lots of similar examples: for example, the Brontë Parsonage in the 1890s, is in a way modelled on the example that you can visit a place and visit the house of a writer.

CRYSTAL: Why are we talking about Shakespeare today rather than someone else? It starts at the time: before Shakespeare was 'Shakespeare', Marlowe was 'Shakespeare' and before Marlowe was 'Shakespeare', Lilley was 'Shakespeare'. There was always someone at the top of the tree. It was Marlowe who had the notion that if I give my characters poetry to speak, as their dialogue, and a particular type of poetry with a particular type of rhythm, that has the same rhythm as spoken English then they will sound normal and natural and at the same time at the same time heightened. Shakespeare took that idea and ran with it and realised that if he bent and broke that rhythm every now and again that it would replicate the same sort of non-fluency that we have now: the stuttering and the hesitations and the pauses and the fast-paced dialogue that the Greeks hundreds and thousands of years before had called stichomythia (rapid dialogue in poetry and plays). To sort of bridge it to now, the reason why he probably became popular then and is popular now is because he didn't ever write what it was to be from Stratford-upon-Avon or Warwick or England, he wrote what it was to be human. Whether it's being jealous of your best friend's girlfriend, or loving someone so much you want to kill them, or trying to understand what it is to be a king or a soldier or a strong woman in a patriarchal society. These are all things that we can relate to around the world; love and loss, yearning and hatred, jealousy and death. It's not like Pinter, where you have to have a bit of an understanding of what it is to rent a basement flat in Camden Town: the themes and the issues are universal.

Shakespeare became 'Shakespeare' only relatively recently, 100 or so years after he died. First of all, you've got the Puritanical regime in the civil war, where no theatre was put on. Then in the 1660s onwards, you have Shakespeare's plays being rewritten with happy endings. Then about 100 years later you have David Garrick, who started the Stratford Festival, and that's only really when Shakespeare started to become 'Shakespeare'. Then 15 years after that, such was the interest in Shakespeare, that for the very first time someone reordered the plays not by genre (as in tragedy, comedy and history) but chronologically. They didn't really know the chronology of the plays and the order in which they were performed and written: we still don't really know fully the exact ordering of them, but we have a pretty good guess. As soon as you start to think about the order in which the plays were written, it's hard not to blend that into at the arc of the man's life. As soon as you try to drill down deeper into when those plays were written and what things were happening in Elizabethan London at the time and the mirroring of, or the references to, the Irish skirmishes and Henry V and that kind of thing which places it quite firmly in 1599. Or the movement of his company, when his clown left in 1599 and the new clown arrived or the change of monarch. Then you start more and more to try to divine the man from the works and ascribe biography from the fiction, essentially.

WELLS: Shakespeare is more famous now than most of, but not all the other writers of his time. Some of them are highly regarded by people who take a specialised interest in literature and in drama. People like Christopher Marlowe, author of Doctor Faustus or Ben Jonson, author of great comedies like War Pony and so on; their plays are valued. But Shakespeare is valued much more than any of his contemporaries, for many reasons. One is that he wrote more plays than them and another is that he most of the plays he wrote are good plays or, successful plays. Another is that they are varied plays that he writes: light comedies like Two Gentlemen of Verona; profound tragedies like King Lear; fascinating histories about politics of the past which relate to the politics of his own time, quite strongly too. These are some of the reasons why Shakespeare remains popular but fundamentally, I think Shakespeare has outstripped his contemporaries because he is such a profound writer. His plays give us the greatest sense of the value of human life; of how people live; of how people love and of the importance of human relationships than any other writers of his time or of any other time. Shakespeare's plays are as popular as they are because he was perhaps the greatest writer who has ever lived. It's partly because he was writing plays which go on being performed and therefore which can be brought freshly to life for each generation by actors of the present. In other words, he's not simply a bookish writer like some other great writers of the past like John Milton or Alexander Pope who are great writers, but you've got to sit down with a book and read them. With Shakespeare, you can the full Shakespearean experience - you can only, indeed, get the full Shakespearean experience - seeing his plays acted. Preferably, I think, in the theatre but also in the cinema.

Every time the plays are acted they become slightly different, of course, because each time there is a necessary interaction between the text, which is what the actors are saying, and between the personalities and the skills of actors themselves. This is one of the reasons why one can go on seeing Shakespeare's plays with great pleasure and fascination over many decades. I've been seeing Shakespeare's plays for 60 years or more, and I can still keep go and see Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet or King Lear with expectations of not only pleasure but of having a somewhat different experience of the last time I saw that particular play because of the different styles in which it's performed and personalities of the actors, who are performing these great roles. Each time the plays are performed, they take on new resonances with life at the time they're being performed. They've been used sometimes for political purposes in Soviet Russia, for example: they became used often as an expression of dissidence from the current regime. Hamlet could be seen as a protester of the state. When Hamlet was performed in Romania during the regime of the dictator Ceauşescu, Claudius - the villain of the play - was actually played as Ceauşescu and Gertrude, his wife, as Madame Ceauşescu as a way of pointing political parallels with the time at which the play was being performed. That's just one example of the way the plays can take on new resonances in relation to the society prevailing at the time they're being performed.

REID: Well that's the end of this episode and it's the end of the series. Thank you to today's speakers, Paul, Stanley, Ben, Michael and Liz and to everyone whose spoken to me throughout this series. Thanks to the friends of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, as always, for making this podcast possible and thank you to you for joining me for the last ten weeks for a whistle-stop tour of some of the frequently asked questions about Shakespeare's life.

Related Posts:

- Shakespeare: 450 years young
- 1814- The Shakespeare Myths Grow
- Here we go round the mulberry tree

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This week's guests are: - Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute- Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT- Professor Sir Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the SBT- Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the SBT- Ben Crystal, Actor, director and producer Narrator: Jennifer Reid DOBSON: Shakespeare got very popular in his own lifetime; and, in fact, from very early in his own career.

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What is one of SHakespeares most famous plays?

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What is one of SHakespeares most famous plays?

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One of the most famous plays of Shakespeare is Romeo and Juliet

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Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

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How did shakespeare's writing career end?

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How did shakespeare's writing career end?

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William Shakespeare (Tooltip baptised 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ( sharer) of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died 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 whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. 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 1608, among them , Romeo and Juliet, , , and , all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition 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, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

Shakespeare's coat of arms, from the 1602 book The book of coates and creasts. Promptuarium armorum. It features spears as a pun on the family name.[c]

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John 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 evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called " University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

All the world's a stage,
and all the men and 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, 139-142

In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although one 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 Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in , though scholars doubt the sources of that information.

Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the 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 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611-1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned down during the performance of on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why 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 too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptised and is buried

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, his new son-in-law, Thomas Quiney was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, who had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered 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 elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare's grave, next to those of Anne Shakespeare, his wife, and Thomas Nash, the husband of his granddaughter

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the 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 during restoration of the church in 2008:

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

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Some time before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with 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 and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays by an unknown 19th-century artist

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of , written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. By William Blake, c. 1786.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical , written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, parts 1 and , and . His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar-based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives-which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".

Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father. Henry Fuseli, 1780-1785.

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, , has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins " To be or not to be; that is the question". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In , the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In , the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In , the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: , The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.

Classification

The Plays of William Shakespeare, a painting containing scenes and characters from several plays of Shakespeare; by Sir John Gilbert, c. 1849

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.

In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies, Dowden's term is often used. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term " problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and . "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy.

Performances

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592-93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV, Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest ... and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.

The reconstructed Globe Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames in London

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice. After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear. In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.

Textual sources

Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout.

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. The others had already appeared in quarto versions-flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".

Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre-1623 versions as " bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of , however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets

Published in 1609, the were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate ...

-Opening lines from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical-written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.

Pity by William Blake, 1795, is an illustration of two similes in Macbeth:

"And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air."

However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of Romeo and Juliet, , and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and . Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly-
And prais'd be rashness for it-let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well ...

After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In , for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35-38); "... pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air ..." (1.7.21-25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head. By Henry Fuseli, 1793-1794.

Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes." John Milton, considered by many to be the most important English poet after Shakespeare, wrote in tribute: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment/ Has built thyself a live-long monument."

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works. These include three operas by Giuseppe Verdi, , and , whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites, while William Hogarth's 1745 painting of actor David Garrick playing Richard III was decisive in establishing the genre of theatrical portraiture in Britain. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature. Shakespeare has been a rich source for filmmakers; Akira Kurosawa adapted Macbeth and King Lear as Throne of Blood and , respectively. Other examples of Shakespeare on film include Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laurence Olivier's and Al Pacino's documentary Looking For Richard. Orson Welles, a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, directed and starred in films of Macbeth and Othello, and Chimes at Midnight, in which he plays John Falstaff, which Welles himself called his best work.

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" ( Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" ( Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.

Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era;" Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language. Actor and theatre director Simon Callow writes, "this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture - German, Italian, Russian - was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone."

According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Critical reputation

He was not of an age, but for all time.

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower, and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", although he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art" (lacked skill).

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare". He also famously remarked that Shakespeare "was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there." For several decades, Rymer's view held sway. But during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and, like Dryden, to acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet, and described as the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal, and Victor Hugo.

William Ordway Partridge's garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago, typical of many created in the 19th and early 20th centuries

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation. "This King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as " bardolatry", claiming that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for post-modern studies of Shakespeare. By the 1980s, Shakespeare studies were open to movements such as structuralism, feminism, New Historicism, African-American studies, and queer studies. Comparing Shakespeare's accomplishments to those of leading figures in philosophy and theology, Harold Bloom wrote, "Shakespeare was larger than Plato and than St. Augustine. He encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions."

Speculation

Authorship

Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed. All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion, but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the Church of England, where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried. Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse. In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford. Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.

Portraiture

No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, repaintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.

References

1. The concept that Shakespeare was born on 23 April, contrary to belief, is a tradition, and not a fact; see ^ § Early life below.

2. Dates follow the ^ Julian calendar, used in England throughout Shakespeare's lifespan, but with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates). Under the Gregorian calendar, adopted in Catholic countries in 1582, Shakespeare died on 3 May.

3. The ^ crest is a silver falcon supporting a spear, while the motto is Non Sanz Droict (French for "not without right"). This motto is still used by Warwickshire County Council, in reference to Shakespeare.

4. Inscribed in Latin on his ^ funerary monument: AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR (In his 53rd year he died 23 April).

5. The "national cult" of Shakespeare, and the "bard" identification, dates from September 1769, when the actor ^ David Garrick organised a week-long carnival at Stratford to mark the town council awarding him the freedom of the town. In addition to presenting the town with a statue of Shakespeare, Garrick composed a doggerel verse, lampooned in the London newspapers, naming the banks of the Avon as the birthplace of the "matchless Bard".

6. Grady cites ^ Voltaire's Philosophical Letters (1733); Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795); Stendhal's two-part pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare (1823-25); and Victor Hugo's prefaces to (1827) and William Shakespeare (1864).

7. For example, ^ A.L. Rowse, the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear-in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."

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External links

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William Shakespeare (Tooltip baptised 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").

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SSA Mission

To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America.

Welcome Message from SSA President

ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969. In 1972 SSA rented a warehouse in West Los Angeles where R. Thad Taylor, Founding President designed, built and operated the Globe Playhouse with a replica of the interior of Shakespeare 's 1599 Globe Theatre originally located in London, England. The SSA Globe Theatre was first to stage all 38 Shakespeare Plays (aka Canon) in succession 1976 -1979, in 48 months, repeating the Canon 1981-1984 in 38 months. In October 2006 R. Thad Taylor passed away. By January 2007, SSA had to relocate. SSA administrators preserved a wide variety of assets consisting of a rare book and reference collection (3,000 + items), museum and memorabilia collection (1,000 + items), visual art collection (1,000 + items), and theatre arts archive (10,000 + items) consisting of playbills, posters, reviews, photographs, slides and props. Assets are known as the "SSA Collection".By September 2008 the Shakespeare Society of America relocated to Moss Landing in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The facility is called New Shakespeare Sanctuary.
Over 6000 visitors (nearly 50 countries) from all over the world have explored the New Shakespeare Sanctuary in the past 48 months. Nearly 30% of these Guests are/were education, cultural and performing arts advocates and encourage expanded distribution of public benefit programs. Thank You for exploring ShakespeareAmerica and our efforts to make public benefit programs available to all cultural and performing arts stakeholders ... Terry Taylor, President/CEO

Contact Information Shakespeare Society of America New Shakespeare Sanctuary 7981 Moss Landing Road Moss Landing, CA 95039 (831) 633-2989 admin@ShakespeareSocietyOfAmerica.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SSA Mission To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America. Welcome Message from SSA President ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969.

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William Shakespeare, the widely known poet and author, has greatly impacted our society. Shakespeare has influenced our society, his past influenced his stories, and Shakespeare became an absolute success. With all of this evidence in the world out there, it's safe to say that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time.Shakespeare became a success for many reasons. Shakespeare had enjoyed his fame and success as an author of his legendary work. In his earlier work, his name was not on the front title of his plays, but in 1597, his name first appeared on the front of his two plays, "Richard II" and "

William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time because his work influenced our society. His work impacted our society more than anyone else has before. Many of Shakespeare's plays are all about tragedies that taught many audiences, of different age groups, many lessons. His work left valuable messages for the audience to take home with them. Shakespeare has influenced other work. Many Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare was fully aware of the successful poet and author he had become. Especially when his name first started appearing on his work. Shakespeare's plays were extravagantly successful. In 1595, Shakespeare wrote 'Richard II', 'Romeo and Juliet', and 'A midsummer night's dream', which all became successes. Writers would often get jealous of Shakespeare's work, but that didn't stop him from writing his stories. His thunder kept going to continue his passion for writing. Shakespeare became successful in funds and business. Shakespeare quickly gained success. He even built his own theater called the Globe and owned 17% stake, which made him even more wealthy aside from his writing profits. Since Shakespeare made his theater, he became fabulously wealthy and famous.

Now, with you as my audience, we now know that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time. Shakespeare impacted our society, his past influenced his stories, and he became a success. With these reasons, we know for a fact that William Shakespeare had the most influence on our society. Without Shakespeare, the dramatic feeling in plays wouldn't exist, the word swagger wouldn't exist. Without Shakespeare, life would be so much more different. In conclusion, Shakespeare is the most influential person of all...show more content...

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William Shakespeare, the widely known poet and author, has greatly impacted our society. Shakespeare has influenced our society, his past influenced his stories, and Shakespeare became an absolute success. With all of this evidence in the world out there, it's safe to say that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time.Shakespeare became a success for many reasons.

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How shakespeare impacted society (with his coolio poems and plays n stuff)

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How shakespeare impacted society (with his coolio poems and plays n stuff)

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How shakespear impacted life for others.

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William Shakespeare, the widely known poet and author, has greatly impacted our society. Shakespeare has influenced our society, his past influenced his stories, and Shakespeare became an absolute success. With all of this evidence in the world out there, it's safe to say that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time.Shakespeare became a success for many reasons. Shakespeare had enjoyed his fame and success as an author of his legendary work. In his earlier work, his name was not on the front title of his plays, but in 1597, his name first appeared on the front of his two plays, "Richard II" and "

William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time because his work influenced our society. His work impacted our society more than anyone else has before. Many of Shakespeare's plays are all about tragedies that taught many audiences, of different age groups, many lessons. His work left valuable messages for the audience to take home with them. Shakespeare has influenced other work. Many Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare was fully aware of the successful poet and author he had become. Especially when his name first started appearing on his work. Shakespeare's plays were extravagantly successful. In 1595, Shakespeare wrote 'Richard II', 'Romeo and Juliet', and 'A midsummer night's dream', which all became successes. Writers would often get jealous of Shakespeare's work, but that didn't stop him from writing his stories. His thunder kept going to continue his passion for writing. Shakespeare became successful in funds and business. Shakespeare quickly gained success. He even built his own theater called the Globe and owned 17% stake, which made him even more wealthy aside from his writing profits. Since Shakespeare made his theater, he became fabulously wealthy and famous.

Now, with you as my audience, we now know that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time. Shakespeare impacted our society, his past influenced his stories, and he became a success. With these reasons, we know for a fact that William Shakespeare had the most influence on our society. Without Shakespeare, the dramatic feeling in plays wouldn't exist, the word swagger wouldn't exist. Without Shakespeare, life would be so much more different. In conclusion, Shakespeare is the most influential person of all...show more content...

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William Shakespeare, the widely known poet and author, has greatly impacted our society. Shakespeare has influenced our society, his past influenced his stories, and Shakespeare became an absolute success. With all of this evidence in the world out there, it's safe to say that William Shakespeare is the most influential person of all time.Shakespeare became a success for many reasons.

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the complete timeline of shakespeare works

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Timeline of Shakespeare's plays | Royal Shakespeare Company

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We don't know exactly when Shakespeare started writing plays, but they were probably being performed in London by 1592. Shakespeare is likely to have written his final plays just a couple of years before his death in 1616.

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what did shakespeare contribute to society

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what did shakespeare contribute to society

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He may have lived over 400 years ago, but William Shakespeare's impact on today's society keeps him forever young.

The man often known simply as 'the Bard' was a pioneer of English language, literature, and culture. With Shakespearean plays still performed in theaters across the globe, sonnets studied by children and adults alike, and dictionaries full of words attributed to his pen - his style is as fresh and relevant as ever.

So if there's one subject historians, linguists, and literature-buffs alike can get excited about, it's a short and sweet list of Shakespeare's top five contributions to modern society. Here's the lineup:

1. Shakespeare's everlasting impact on literature - and your report card

If your school taught English literature, odds are you studied a Shakespearean play. Maybe you walked into the first day of class rolling your eyes, or perhaps you quickly found yourself hooked - vehemently vouching for Beatrice's importance in "Much Ado About Nothing," or unintentionally identifying with Iago from "Othello" (yikes...) in front of all your classmates.

Whether you ran to drama club auditions, opted to read the CliffNotes' version instead, or simply kept the works and lessons close to your heart, Shakespeare tends to make a lasting impact. The Bard's plays started hitting theaters in 1592, and we're still talking about him. Most of us can only dream of that kind of longevity.

2. "The Lion King" was based on "Hamlet"

Aside from the obvious Shakespeare-inspired movies like "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo + Juliet," many writers and directors from the past few decades have taken Shakespearean classics and turned them into time-honored film favorites in their own right.

Let's take a look at an easy one - "The Lion King." Based on the famous play "Hamlet," one can easily draw parallels between the two: A king is murdered by his nefarious, power-hungry brother (Scar/Claudius), both Simba and Hamlet are princes cast out by their evil uncles, and sidekicks Timon and Pumbaa fill the Disney-fied shoes of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Other cleverly-modernized versions of Shakespeare's work? "West Side Story" ("Romeo & Juliet"), "10 Things I Hate About You" ("The Taming Of The Shrew"), "House of Cards" ("Richard III"), and the cult classic "My Own Private Idaho," which took inspiration from Shakespeare's "Henry IV."

3. Shakespearean insults for your next verbal showdown

When writing plays about love, jealousy, and betrayal, one is bound to dish out some pretty epic insults - especially if you happen to possess the writing chops of Shakespeare. For all the speeches contemplating love and the meaning of life, there's also some pretty straightforward, old-school burns.

Want to throw down Shakespearean-style? Our Shakespearean English course brings together some of Shakespeare's most memorable insults. Use your new knowledge wisely - these words have been known to prompt some pretty serious consequences. Fair warning - this course derives its lessons from original Shakespeare texts, many of which were intended for older audiences. (We'd suggest discretion for children under 12.)

4. The best pick-up lines ever

Shakespeare knew true romance, and he composed stacks on stacks of blush-worthy pick-up lines that could melt even the coldest of hearts. His characters were the original Romeos (truly!), and they wooed, courted, and sweet-talked with the best of them. We can nearly hear Romeo now, dazzling Juliet: "Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." With game like that, it's no surprise we're still quoting him over 400 years later.

5. Words Shakespeare "invented"

Shakespeare is responsible for inventing, popularizing, repurposing, and preserving thousands of common words in the English language. His playful usage of language included combining two words to make a new one, changing verbs into adjectives, changing nouns into verbs, and adding prefixes or suffixes to words. So the next time you use one of Shakespeare's linguistic innovations (e.g., 'elbowing' your way through a crowd while being your awesome, 'fashionable' self), pay homage to William S. and his everlasting impact on how we talk about our world.

We've all got a little bit, or a lot, of Shakespeare in us - so drop some quotes, put on your favorite tragicomedy-inspired film, and spend some time with the man, the mystery, the legend: William Shakespeare.

Take "Romeo and Juliet" to the next level by quoting lines in one of the Romance languages, or simply make Shakespeare proud by exploring a new language and culture with Mango today! Click the button below to sign up, or log in to pick up where you left off.

Which literary greats have left a lasting impact on your life? Share with us in the comments!

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Five Things for Which Modern Society Can Thank Shakespeare

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He may have lived over 400 years ago, but William Shakespeare's impact on today's society keeps him forever young. The man often known simply as 'the Bard' was a pioneer of English language, literature, and culture.

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If Shakespeare was a playwright, how much did he get paid back in the day?

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If Shakespeare was a playwright, how much did he get paid back in the day?

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Knowing how much Shakespeare was payed could give us hints to his life, like how rich was he, could he pay for his needs, how did he live, and if he lived lavishly.

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Sokolova: Shakespeare was an actor, playwright and poet with lots of opportunities to earn an income in the new theatre business. As a young actor, he would have been paid a weekly wage. As a playwright he could sell his plays to a company at £6-£8 a piece. (For comparison, the annual income of a goldsmith was about £8.)

As a resident playwright for about twenty years, he would have had a salary, plus a benefit for each performed new play. Unlike other playwrights, he was also a shareholder in a most successful London theatre company, which ended up owning two theatres, the Globe and Blackfriars. This is likely to have brought him around £150 a year. Performances at Court were another good source of money, as was patronage. Among his patrons were Lord Strange, the Earl of Southampton (to whom he dedicated Venus and Adonis), and King James. In addition, Shakespeare prudently invested in land and other business ventures.

Boika Sokolova

Boika Sokolova teaches Shakespeare and the drama of his contemporaries at the University of Notre Dame and the London British American Drama Academy. Her latest book is a study of The Merchant of Venice.

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Sokolova: Shakespeare was an actor, playwright and poet with lots of opportunities to earn an income in the new theatre business. As a young actor, he would have been paid a weekly wage. As a playwright he could sell his plays to a company at £6-£8 a piece.

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SSA Mission

To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America.

Welcome Message from SSA President

ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969. In 1972 SSA rented a warehouse in West Los Angeles where R. Thad Taylor, Founding President designed, built and operated the Globe Playhouse with a replica of the interior of Shakespeare 's 1599 Globe Theatre originally located in London, England. The SSA Globe Theatre was first to stage all 38 Shakespeare Plays (aka Canon) in succession 1976 -1979, in 48 months, repeating the Canon 1981-1984 in 38 months. In October 2006 R. Thad Taylor passed away. By January 2007, SSA had to relocate. SSA administrators preserved a wide variety of assets consisting of a rare book and reference collection (3,000 + items), museum and memorabilia collection (1,000 + items), visual art collection (1,000 + items), and theatre arts archive (10,000 + items) consisting of playbills, posters, reviews, photographs, slides and props. Assets are known as the "SSA Collection".By September 2008 the Shakespeare Society of America relocated to Moss Landing in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The facility is called New Shakespeare Sanctuary.
Over 6000 visitors (nearly 50 countries) from all over the world have explored the New Shakespeare Sanctuary in the past 48 months. Nearly 30% of these Guests are/were education, cultural and performing arts advocates and encourage expanded distribution of public benefit programs. Thank You for exploring ShakespeareAmerica and our efforts to make public benefit programs available to all cultural and performing arts stakeholders ... Terry Taylor, President/CEO

Contact Information Shakespeare Society of America New Shakespeare Sanctuary 7981 Moss Landing Road Moss Landing, CA 95039 (831) 633-2989 admin@ShakespeareSocietyOfAmerica.org

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SSA Mission To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America. Welcome Message from SSA President ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969.

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yep

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

His death occurred on or near his birthday (the exact date of his birth remains unknown), which may have been the source of a later legend that he fell ill and died after a night of heavy drinking with two other writers, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton.

Who Killed William Shakespeare? The Murderer, the Motive, the Means

Book by Simon Andrew Stirling

An in-depth study into the circumstances surrounding Shakespeare's sudden death, with a look at forensics and his death maskWilliam Shakespeare lived in violent times; so much so that his death passed without comment. ... Google Books

Originally published : 2013

Genres : Biography and True crime

Apr 8, 2016 · Shakespeare's death is a mystery. It's been speculated that he died of syphilis or was even ...
Duration: 2:34
Posted: Apr 8, 2016

Washington DC (Hagerstown MD), Virginia

From your IP address - Learn more

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. His death occurred on or near his birthday (the exact date of his birth remains unknown), which may have been the source of a later legend that he fell ill and died after a night of heavy drinking with two other writers, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton.

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Shakespeare is probably the most famous playwright in the world, having written 37 plays and 154 sonnets. But why is his work still read, studied and loved 400 years later?

Shakespeare wrote about timeless themes such as life and death, youth versus age, love and hate, fate and free will, to name but a few. With the constantly changing world, we live in today these themes are perhaps more relevant than they have ever been.

Not only did Shakespeare teach us about ourselves and humanity, but he also invented around 1700 words which we still use in everyday English today. He often changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, connecting words together and coming up with wholly original ones too.

Here are just a few to which we owe Shakespeare a thank you:

generous, birthplace, negotiate, gossip, bedroom, and amazement.

It truly is amazing that one person could have such an influence on a language. What Shakespeare has taught us is that success comes through being creative, playing with language and finding new ways to communicate.

Shakespeare's plays are studied in schools across the country, the most famous include: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar and Macbeth. Aside from the rich language, these plays contain hundreds of pearls of wisdom.

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." "Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice....." "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so..." "A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." "The meaning of life is to find your gift....the purpose of life is to give it away."

As a teenager, it was a little daunting opening Shakespeare's Macbeth, attempting to read the unfamiliar words and understand them. Yet, with a little patience and hard work I soon came to love the stories and its imaginative language. The same can be said of mastering any new language: stay positive and push yourself to do your best.

We, at Celtic English Academy are running lots of activities and lessons this week about the fantastic work of Shakespeare, we hope you enjoy them!

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Why is Shakespeare still important today? - Celtic English Academy

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Shakespeare wrote about timeless themes such as life and death, youth versus age, love and hate, fate and free will, to name but a few. With the constantly changing world, we live in today these themes are perhaps more relevant than they have ever been.

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What was his most popular play and what is more about it?

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What was his most popular play and what is more about it?

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This is more about his most popular play.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream | The Folger SHAKESPEARE

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Read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for free from the Folger Shakespeare Library! Full text, summaries, illustrations, guides for reading, and more.

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The first paragraph explains how he impacts the world.

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This week's guests are:

- Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute
- Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT
- Professor Sir Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the SBT
- Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the SBT
- Ben Crystal, Actor, director and producer
Narrator: Jennifer Reid
Transcript

DOBSON: Shakespeare got very popular in his own lifetime; and, in fact, from very early in his own career. His narrative poem, Venus and Adonis, was about his most popular printed work right through his career. As early as 1593 he had an overnight sensation with this poem, which everybody finds tremendously erotic, tremendously charming and tremendously classical. There are many, many allusions to it. It's a best-seller, there's only one surviving copy of the first edition; it was read to death, possibly in some fairly insalubrious ways. But the copy in the Bodleian library, which is the one that survives, is at least clean. His plays, once they started getting into print, very soon start getting into print with his name on them. Henry IV, Part 1 goes through multiple editions in his lifetime and continues to stay in print as a paperback even after they all come out together after the Folio in 1623. He is sufficient celebrity to have anecdotes told about him by 1599 or so; his plays are really good and people recognise from the start that there's something very special about his talent. The kind of pyramid marketing process that Heminges and Condell outline in the preface of the First Folio where they say if you like him tell your friends to read him - 'make sure they buy this book and spread the word' - has just continued to work ever since.

There's such a range of stuff in the plays, they always have to be cut and adapted and slightly modified for performance so that people and actors always have to contribute lots of themselves. There's always perpetual opportunities for other people to get in on the act and do new things with them. As drama, they always happen in the present; it's not monumental stuff that goes out of fashion. It's perpetually asking to be regenerated, translated and spread. He's already well known, or at least some of the plays are already well known in continental Europe, before he dies. We know that Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice are being taken on tour and adapted, and adapted into German around the Baltic states while Shakespeare is still around. Soon, anywhere the English language goes, so does Shakespeare. There's an Italian book from the 1680s, that's encouraging Italian people to learn English. The main reason that you would really bother to learn English is their 'thundering tragedies'; you only bothered to learn English in the 17th century for the sake of the theatre, because the theatre was so good.

London was famously a theatre capital while Shakespeare was working there. We've got Thomas Platter coming from Switzerland and commenting on seeing Julius Caesar and Arnet van Gorkul from Holland describing that they've still got these amazing Roman playhouses in London. So, it's a tourist phenomenon from early. These plays really are extraordinarily good in a sort of generative way; they adapt things themselves and they ask to to be adapted themselves, into whatever medium may be lying about. They're sort of measurably popular. It would be really interesting to do an animation of a map of the world and colour it in wherever they've actually seen Henry IV, Part 1 or first adapted Merchant of Venice, which is one of the most popular plays. It's often the first play done in any given country, in any given amateur dramatic society. Shakespeare is folk art as well as high art, people do it for themselves whether you like it or not.

DOLLIMORE: A lot of it can be attributed to his popularity during the Victorian era. But let's take a little back step and say, Shakespeare was popular amongst those who knew him and within the circle of the sort of person who would be exposed to that in his own lifetime. He wouldn't have been a national celebrity because there wasn't much communication between, say, London and Yorkshire. But he certainly was popular in his own lifetime for what he did and, as most popular people, there were people who liked him and people who didn't like him. So when we think about what happened next, there was a period in history where the theatres were closed and then reopened in about 1660. At that time, Shakespeare's plays were still being performed and were performed: although, were frequently amended by the next generation, sometimes quite hugely. There wasn't at that time, any sense of reverence towards Shakespeare's plays. They were nice blueprints that you could start with: if you wanted to add other characters, other scenes or alternate endings that was fine and up for grabs and you just did that.

That tradition carried on roughly to the Victorian period where we start to see the beginning of what we might call 'Bardolatry', or people idolising Shakespeare. There's a little bit of that with the Romantic poets; for instance, Keats is said to have always carried around a little portrait of Shakespeare when he went on holiday. When he went on holiday, he said he never felt at home until he'd put up his little portrait of Shakespeare. In fact, there's a well known portrait of Keats which has the portrait of Shakespeare in the background. So that's fairly 'Bardolatrous', I'm not sure many people carry with them a little portrait of Shakespeare wherever they go. So, that kind of reverence kind of began with the Romantic poets and continued on into the Victorian era. By the middle to late Victorian era, we are beginning to see that reflect itself in the idea that stage performances out to be reverent towards Shakespeare's original text and ought not to change too much from what was felt Shakespeare wrote. Also around about that time, during the Victorian period, it became something that was taught at school and that immortalised it really because it got onto the curriculum and has stayed there ever since. Every person who goes through the education system in the UK is exposed to Shakespeare. Whether that makes him popular or the person that most people would like to smack, I'm not really sure. Of course, that's a famous Blackadder skit where Blackadder goes back in time and gives Shakespeare a left hook and says 'That's for all the schoolboys!'. To a degree, we should blame the Victorians for Shakespeare's current 'centrality'.

EDMONDSON: Shakespeare was popular in his own lifetime, he's written about by other poets and literary critics of the day, always in terms of admiration. This continues posthumously with the publication of the First Folio, which has lots of commendatory verses at the beginning of that, and with the funerary bust in Holy Trinity Church which compares him to Socrates, Virgil and Nestor. It talks about him as a writer, it invites us to see all he has written as living art. It also talks about him as a poet of nature, it says 'With whom quick nature died'; so when Shakespeare dies, something of nature dies as well. From the earliest point, Shakespeare is famous. He continues to be famous in lots of ways through to the closing of the theatres in the mid 17th century, when Britain was momentarily a republic, because of his influence which can be discerned through other playwrights who were wanting to evoke his greatness and popularity through their own work. A major example is his collaborator John Fletcher who writes the first sequel ever to a Shakespeare play with his play The Woman's Prize (or The Tamer Tamed), which is the continuation of The Taming of the Shrew, such was his admiration for his friend and co-author. They worked together on The Two Noble Kinsmen, Cardenioand Henry VIII: All Is True.

Then, the theatres close and the restoration comes about with Charles II in the 1660s and the theatre starts to become popular again but the tastes have changed. We've moved from the outdoor spaces to massive indoor spaces and what happens then is that Shakespeare's work undergoes a very significant renovation and adaptation for the taste of its time. For example, a very popular playwright/poet of the time, Nahum Tate rewrites the ending of and adapts it significantly to give it a happy ending. Tate's version holds the stage for about 150 years, which is extraordinary to think about now. Shakespeare builds in popularity in the middle of the 18th century: he becomes the playwright who is exported to the growing British Empire and then, lo and behold, stays behind after a century and a half of the empire. Shakespeare remains: he becomes so embedded in the culture there and appropriated by the culture there. A very significant example of that is the United States of America: after the War of Independence, Shakespeare remains in the late 18th century and becomes part of the cosmopolitan makeup of the United States of America. We see that all over the British Empire territory; Shakespeare is exported and that Shakespeare remains, which is one of the reasons why Shakespeare is world famous.

Because of the British Empire, he's translated into different languages and adapted by many different cultures. Germany had a special affection for Shakespeare and has always had that, I think. Some of Shakespeare's own actors went to perform in Germany in his lifetime and it's Germany where the first translation of Shakespeare occurs in the middle of the 18th century. Such is the extent of Shakespeare's popularity, he becomes an honorary German national poet. By the middle of the 19th century, he's there with Goethe, Schiller and German Shakespeare. It was a great translation by August Wilhelm Tegel and Ludwig Tieck in the early 19th century that would turn Shakespeare into a Romantic German playwright/poet through their translation. It's still the most famous German translation: Germany, like any country that translates Shakespeare, will often translate the play afresh each time it's performed. A director of the play might commission a new translation, so you're always hearing and encountering Shakespeare differently each time when you go to the theatre in another language. This helps to explain why he continues to be popular in other cultures, because he always seems like a modern playwright with new translations being lavished upon him.

REID: One event that really put Shakespeare up on his pedestal was David Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee, staged in September 1769 in Stratford-upon-Avon. It not only had an effect on 'Bardolatry', but also for the first time really shone the spotlight on Stratford as the birthplace of the great national poet. So, back to Paul to introduce the Garrick Jubilee for us.

EDMONDSON: A really important moment in the 18th century for the popularity of Shakespeare came with the great actor David Garrick, who in 1769, was invited by the corporation (the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon) to hold a special celebration of Shakespeare, which he did in the form of a jubilee in that September. It was the first time really that Shakespeare broke out of the playhouses and out of the libraries, and onto the streets among the people. It was, as it were, a 'civic Shakespeare' and it really helped to encourage a general feeling of popularity for Shakespeare. In fact, one of the things that is notorious about the Garrick Jubilee is that not a word of Shakespeare was spoken. His fame was so kind of self-assured in the minds of those who were gathering to celebrate him that they were celebrating, as it were, the name and the reputation already, rather than the work itself. Any allusion, any moment of Shakespeare that was referred to through David Garrick's own adaptations of his work. There was a great ode spoken in a temporary theatre pavilion that Garrick had built on the site of the current Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Garrick himself spoke the ode and was given the Freedom of the Town of Stratford and Thomas Arne, who wrote Rule Britannia, wrote the music for the ode. It was a great national moment that took place in the town and from then on, it sort of sealed Stratford's fate to become a Shakespeare 'destination'. People were already visiting the house on Henley Street, Shakespeare's birthplace, prior to the jubilee but of course they did so much more afterwards. The jubilee itself transferred to the West End of London and became a show in its own right and very popular.

EDMONDSON: Descendants of Shakespeare's sister lived in part of the Henley Street house until the early part of the 19th century. Then, it fell into further private ownership and the whole site came up for auction in 1847. There was a public feeling that monies could be raised in order to secure the memorial for Shakespeare through the Henley Street house. Monies were collected in Stratford and London via committees: the London committee included Charles Dickens among its members and enough money was raised for it to be accepted by the auctioneers in September 1847. That meant that the house was effectively in public ownership and a trust, what became the Birthplace Trust, really started with the purchase of the house. It was a conservation purchase, it was self-consciously an effort to commemorate Shakespeare through a living memorial: a house. Charles Dickens, for example, thought that whereas he didn't really want to see a statue of Shakespeare that he did think a house was a good way of remembering a writer. Of course, Shakespeare's house is amongst the first of writers' houses in Britain to commemorate the writer in this way. Then follow lots of similar examples: for example, the Brontë Parsonage in the 1890s, is in a way modelled on the example that you can visit a place and visit the house of a writer.

CRYSTAL: Why are we talking about Shakespeare today rather than someone else? It starts at the time: before Shakespeare was 'Shakespeare', Marlowe was 'Shakespeare' and before Marlowe was 'Shakespeare', Lilley was 'Shakespeare'. There was always someone at the top of the tree. It was Marlowe who had the notion that if I give my characters poetry to speak, as their dialogue, and a particular type of poetry with a particular type of rhythm, that has the same rhythm as spoken English then they will sound normal and natural and at the same time at the same time heightened. Shakespeare took that idea and ran with it and realised that if he bent and broke that rhythm every now and again that it would replicate the same sort of non-fluency that we have now: the stuttering and the hesitations and the pauses and the fast-paced dialogue that the Greeks hundreds and thousands of years before had called stichomythia (rapid dialogue in poetry and plays). To sort of bridge it to now, the reason why he probably became popular then and is popular now is because he didn't ever write what it was to be from Stratford-upon-Avon or Warwick or England, he wrote what it was to be human. Whether it's being jealous of your best friend's girlfriend, or loving someone so much you want to kill them, or trying to understand what it is to be a king or a soldier or a strong woman in a patriarchal society. These are all things that we can relate to around the world; love and loss, yearning and hatred, jealousy and death. It's not like Pinter, where you have to have a bit of an understanding of what it is to rent a basement flat in Camden Town: the themes and the issues are universal.

Shakespeare became 'Shakespeare' only relatively recently, 100 or so years after he died. First of all, you've got the Puritanical regime in the civil war, where no theatre was put on. Then in the 1660s onwards, you have Shakespeare's plays being rewritten with happy endings. Then about 100 years later you have David Garrick, who started the Stratford Festival, and that's only really when Shakespeare started to become 'Shakespeare'. Then 15 years after that, such was the interest in Shakespeare, that for the very first time someone reordered the plays not by genre (as in tragedy, comedy and history) but chronologically. They didn't really know the chronology of the plays and the order in which they were performed and written: we still don't really know fully the exact ordering of them, but we have a pretty good guess. As soon as you start to think about the order in which the plays were written, it's hard not to blend that into at the arc of the man's life. As soon as you try to drill down deeper into when those plays were written and what things were happening in Elizabethan London at the time and the mirroring of, or the references to, the Irish skirmishes and Henry V and that kind of thing which places it quite firmly in 1599. Or the movement of his company, when his clown left in 1599 and the new clown arrived or the change of monarch. Then you start more and more to try to divine the man from the works and ascribe biography from the fiction, essentially.

WELLS: Shakespeare is more famous now than most of, but not all the other writers of his time. Some of them are highly regarded by people who take a specialised interest in literature and in drama. People like Christopher Marlowe, author of Doctor Faustus or Ben Jonson, author of great comedies like War Pony and so on; their plays are valued. But Shakespeare is valued much more than any of his contemporaries, for many reasons. One is that he wrote more plays than them and another is that he most of the plays he wrote are good plays or, successful plays. Another is that they are varied plays that he writes: light comedies like Two Gentlemen of Verona; profound tragedies like King Lear; fascinating histories about politics of the past which relate to the politics of his own time, quite strongly too. These are some of the reasons why Shakespeare remains popular but fundamentally, I think Shakespeare has outstripped his contemporaries because he is such a profound writer. His plays give us the greatest sense of the value of human life; of how people live; of how people love and of the importance of human relationships than any other writers of his time or of any other time. Shakespeare's plays are as popular as they are because he was perhaps the greatest writer who has ever lived. It's partly because he was writing plays which go on being performed and therefore which can be brought freshly to life for each generation by actors of the present. In other words, he's not simply a bookish writer like some other great writers of the past like John Milton or Alexander Pope who are great writers, but you've got to sit down with a book and read them. With Shakespeare, you can the full Shakespearean experience - you can only, indeed, get the full Shakespearean experience - seeing his plays acted. Preferably, I think, in the theatre but also in the cinema.

Every time the plays are acted they become slightly different, of course, because each time there is a necessary interaction between the text, which is what the actors are saying, and between the personalities and the skills of actors themselves. This is one of the reasons why one can go on seeing Shakespeare's plays with great pleasure and fascination over many decades. I've been seeing Shakespeare's plays for 60 years or more, and I can still keep go and see Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet or King Lear with expectations of not only pleasure but of having a somewhat different experience of the last time I saw that particular play because of the different styles in which it's performed and personalities of the actors, who are performing these great roles. Each time the plays are performed, they take on new resonances with life at the time they're being performed. They've been used sometimes for political purposes in Soviet Russia, for example: they became used often as an expression of dissidence from the current regime. Hamlet could be seen as a protester of the state. When Hamlet was performed in Romania during the regime of the dictator Ceauşescu, Claudius - the villain of the play - was actually played as Ceauşescu and Gertrude, his wife, as Madame Ceauşescu as a way of pointing political parallels with the time at which the play was being performed. That's just one example of the way the plays can take on new resonances in relation to the society prevailing at the time they're being performed.

REID: Well that's the end of this episode and it's the end of the series. Thank you to today's speakers, Paul, Stanley, Ben, Michael and Liz and to everyone whose spoken to me throughout this series. Thanks to the friends of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, as always, for making this podcast possible and thank you to you for joining me for the last ten weeks for a whistle-stop tour of some of the frequently asked questions about Shakespeare's life.

Related Posts:

- Shakespeare: 450 years young
- 1814- The Shakespeare Myths Grow
- Here we go round the mulberry tree

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This week's guests are: - Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute- Dr Elizabeth Dollimore, Outreach and Primary Learning Manager at the SBT- Professor Sir Stanley Wells, Honorary President of the SBT- Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the SBT- Ben Crystal, Actor, director and producer Narrator: Jennifer Reid DOBSON: Shakespeare got very popular in his own lifetime; and, in fact, from very early in his own career.

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this shows his plays and comedies and all of the information on them.

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Shakespeare's works | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Read, search, and download the complete works of William Shakespeare for free. Learn about plot, characters, and language in Shakespeare plays and poems.

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How did shakespeare impact modern life

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Ten ways in which Shakespeare changed the world

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This week marks 400 years since the death of our national poet. And yet his characters, the worlds he created, the thoughts he expressed – some raw, fashioned in fire, some exquisite and turned in silk – are for all people and all time

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Fun and.....fascinating facts.

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William Shakespeare’s life and times | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Discover more about the life and times of William Shakespeare, from his birth in 1564 through to his death 52 years later in 1616.

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What plays did Shakespeare write for his work?

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What plays did Shakespeare write for his work?

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This website talks all about shakespeares plays

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Skip to main content

Pick a play or poem and discover all the world's largest Shakespeare collection has to offer.
See all of Shakespeare's works, A - Z

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Learn more about Shakespeare's language, life, and world.

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Hear from artists and scholars in podcast interviews and articles.

For teachers, explore a selection of Folger Education's classroom-tested resources.

Shakespeare's most popular plays

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Explore the comedies, histories, tragedies, romances, and sonnets and poems.

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Shakespeare's works | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Read, search, and download the complete works of William Shakespeare for free. Learn about plot, characters, and language in Shakespeare plays and poems.

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Talks about his birth place

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The house now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace stands on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Documentary evidence allows us to trace who owned the house and who lived there, from the time of William's parents John and Mary Shakespeare, onwards.

John Shakespeare lived and worked in this house for fifty years. When he married Mary Arden she came to live with him and they had a total of eight children, including their son William Shakespeare. The house doubled as a glover's shop where John worked at the eastern end of the building, with a barn and workshops in the backyard.

During the 16th century the area behind Shakespeare's house would have served various practical purposes, partly in connection with John Shakespeare's glove-making and wool-dealing activities. Outbuildings for the storage of animal skins and liming pits may have been sited there, together with a barn and a stable. The family is likely to have kept livestock such as a pig and hens. They would also have grown a range of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees for cooking and medicine.

Around 20 years after its construction, a two-roomed cottage was added to the western end of the house, which is now known as Joan Hart's cottage. Shakespeare's sister Joan lived here with her husband William Hart in the early 17th century.

John Shakespeare died in 1601 and as the eldest surviving child, William inherited the house. He leased part of the property and it became an inn, later called the Swan and Maidenhead, which remained in the house until 1847. When Shakespeare died he left the house to his eldest daughter Susanna, although Joan Hart continued to rent the property as her home. When Susanna died the house passed to her daughter, Elizabeth.

Although Elizabeth married twice, she had no children, so when she died the house fell to Joan Hart's descendants. The house was owned by the Hart family until the late 18th century, until it went up for sale and was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1847. We have cared for it ever since.

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The house now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace stands on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Documentary evidence allows us to trace who owned the house and who lived there, from the time of William's parents John and Mary Shakespeare, onwards. John Shakespeare lived and worked in this house for fifty years.

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talks of everything shakespeare

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare's plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare's poems also remain popular to this day.

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to William Shakespeare's family that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ' The Lost Years '.

During his time in London, Shakespeare's first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King's Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare's legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place,the largest house in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare's New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. Read about his life and works.

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time as well as the most influential writer in the history of the English language. He originated hundreds of words and phrases that English speakers use to this day. His impact on literature is so massive that one could make an argument that every one of his works deserves a spot on this list, but these seven plays and one poetry collection are undoubtedly among his most important achievements.

Along with Hamlet and King Lear, Macbeth is the third of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. It is the story of a Scottish nobleman who, following the prophecy of three witches, becomes the ruler of his country after killing Duncan, the reigning king. Macbeth continues to kill potential political rivals. The guilt drives his wife, Lady Macbeth, mad. Ultimately, Macbeth is killed as a consequence of his political ambitions. The tragic rendering of Macbeth's downward spiral and the iconic depiction of Lady Macbeth's descent into madness make this one of Shakespeare's major works.

Written in the 1590s when Shakespeare's theatrical career was paused during an outbreak of plague, the sonnet cycle was finally published in 1609. The possibly autobiographical sonnets are divided into two sections. The first and much larger group of sonnets address an unnamed "Fair Youth," a male friend of the poet's. The second set focuses on a "Dark Lady." As a narrative, the sonnet sequence tells of strong attachment, of jealousy, of grief at separation, and of joy at being together and sharing beautiful experiences. The Dark Lady sonnets end the sequence on a disturbing note of sorrow and self-loathing.

The plot of The Tempest centers on Prospero, a magician and former duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda. The pair are stranded on a deserted island after Prospero was usurped from his dukedom by his brother, Antonio. Prospero uses his magic to create a storm that strands a group of people, including Antonio, on the island. Among that group is also Ferdinand, who falls in love with Miranda and helps precipitate the actions that lead to reconciliation among the main characters. Although not Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest seems like his farewell to the theater. It contains moving passages of reflection on what his powers as artist have been able to accomplish.

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A list of some of the most important and best-known works by William Shakespeare. More than 400 years after they were written, Shakespeare's plays and poems are still widely performed, read, and studied-not only in his native England, but also all around the world.

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Shakespear change the world

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

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There’s no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare’s influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language. He is known as one of the best English-language writers and h…

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Yup, most of shakespeare's society.

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Instructor: Stephan Flores
SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD/STAGE
The following entries are (unless otherwise noted) summaries (by various hands in English 345.01 Shakespeare Fall 1997) of sections in Stephen Greenblatt's "General Introduction" (1-76) to The Norton Shakespeare (Norton, 1997).
LIFE AND DEATH
During Shakespeare's time, people's lives were often short. As many as one-half of the children born never lived beyond fifteen years and, thus, never reached adulthood. Also, the average lifespan of an adult was only thirty years. These short lifespans were due to the limited medical knowledge. In a time when antiseptics and antibiotics weren't known, doctors used somewhat primitive forms of medication. One thing that really tested the medical knowledge was the bubonic plague. The disease that often plagued England always appeared suddenly and spread quickly. Ignorant of the disease, doctors typically prescribed anything from amulets to sweet-smelling things. In an attempt to slow the disease's spread, regulations were passed. One was to temporarily close all London theaters when the death rate was high. People believed this would help to prevent human contact. Another policy was to kill cats and dogs. Since there were few cats around to hunt rats, which carried the fleas that carried the plague, the bubonic plague was not hindered. At this time, England's food supply was uncertain, even when the plague was dormant. The poor could've easily starved if there was a series of bad harvests. Plus, their and the aristocrats' diets weren't very nutritious. This caused the whole population to acquire illnesses caused by vitamin deficiencies.
WEALTH
Despite diseases that plagued England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, populations still increased. Every year approximately 10,000 citizens migrated to London mainly because wages were about 50 percent higher than in other parts of the country.

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries England was at peace. This brought enterprise and prosperity. Landowners built homes and planted orchards. Even lower class laborers and yeomen worked hard and were able to accumulate wealth. Much of this wealth was spent on leisure activities: one theater historian calculated that London playhouses saw close to 50 million visitors.

The main source of the country's income was wool, which made up three-fourths of England's exports. As wool continued to grow in demand, sheep took priority over people. Farms that produced food for the country's citizens soon turned into grazing land for sheep. In reference to the problematic land "trade-offs," a character in Thomas More's Utopia complained, "the sheep are eating the people."

London became a booming trade station handling 85 percent of all exports. Wool textiles gained popularity as their quality and craftsmanship became known. Many people realized this, and as a result ranchers, laborers, merchants, and clerks throughout England profited, receiving healthy wages and incomes.
RIOT AND DISORDER
"London was a violent place in the first half of Shakespeare's career" (7). The urban rioters were mostly poor apprentices who picked on "foreigners, prostitutes, and gentlemen's servingmen" (8). City authorities didn't let disturbances get out of control, but also did not take them too seriously. The more serious rioting occurred in rural areas against enclosure of property by landlords and the crown. Lands included commons, waste lands, and forests. This type of protest was very popular during Shakespeare's career, especially from 1590-1610. Anti-enclosure riots were usually directed at property rather than individuals. Riots often had a carnival atmosphere, including drinking and song. Women and children participated in destruction of enclosures as well, which generally consisted of tearing up hedges and filling in ditches. Smaller riots occurred frequently because small village riots were considered a misdemeanor, whereas larger riots were considered treason. Large riots did occur though. The largest, known as Kett's Rebellion after its organizer, had 16,000 participants. Rioters were often jailed. Heads of uprisings, like Kett who died in jail, were tortured and sometimes executed.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN
During the time of William Shakespeare, the majority of women had very limited rights in England. Despite the fact that England was ruled by a female monarch for over four decades, most women had little power over the direction of their lives. Most writings about the life of the family during this time in history centered around the traditional partriarchal paradigm--that of "domination and submission." Just as the kingdom was ruled by a monarch, the father and head of the household ruled over his wife and children. Women were denied formal educations, the opportunity to hold office, and also guarded against speaking out too freely in fear of being labeled as a "scold." Such women were considered a threat to the public, and were corrected with such punishments as public humiliation and abuse.

Although women did endure such limits on their political and social rights, they did have extended to them greater econimic freedom. Single women were able to "inherit land, make a will, sign a contract, possess property . . . without a male guardian . . ."(10). Unfortuantely, such rights dissolved with marriage. History shows as well that many daughters were heirs to a father's property, if there were no male heir, despite the tradition of promigeniture. Wives as well could find themselves in charge of a large estate after the death of a husband, until an eldest son was old enough to do so.

WOMEN IN PRINT
Although literacy rates soared much earlier in the male population with the invention of the printing press, literacy among women did not begin to spread until the late sixteenth century, primarily in response to the Protestant push for the direct experience of the scriptures. Greenblatt notes that, "It is striking how many of Shakespeare's women are shown reading" (11). The appearance of this new audience spawned a rash of devotional and instructional works on everything from needlework to midwifery. Fiction for female audiences appeared later, around 1570. Despite the increase in literacy among women and in works created with them in mind, the overwhelming majority of these works-for-women were written by men. The central contention in these works was not what women should be, "chaste dutiful, shamefast and silent" (11), but rather, whether or not they succeeded in fulfilling this requirement. Joseph Swetnam's "Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Forward, and Unconstant Women" was published in 1615 and inspired a handful of responses attributed to women including an anonymous play "Swetnam the Woman-hater Arraigned by Women" (1618). The majority of women who did write were the sisters, wives, or daughters of men who wrote and limited themselves primarily to devotional texts and translation. However, there were a few exceptions including Jane Anger's "Jane Anger Her Protection for Women" (1589) and Elizabeth Cary's play "Tragedy of Miriam, the Fairy Queen of Jewry" (1613).
THE KINGDOM IN DANGER
Due to the stir caused by the Reformation in Europe, Queen Elizabeth of England sought to stabilize her country by compromising between the Protestants and Catholics. Tensions continued to mount and massacres were occurring on both sides. In 1572, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Catholics massacred French Calvinists (Huguenots). This was soon after some other Protestant purging and the assassination of the Protestant leader, William of Orange. In 1580, the pope stated that it would not be a mortal sin to assassinate the Queen of England. Hereafter, all Catholics, loyal or not, were under suspicion. Soon, it was discovered that Queen Mary was involved in an assassination plot and "Elizabeth signed the death warrant in February 1587, and her cousin was beheaded."

Soon, it became known that Catholic Spain, under direction of Philip II, was going to invade England. However, the Spanish fleet was routed by the English, then destroyed by storms at sea. In a "victory" speech the Queen stated, "We Princes [England] are set on stages in the sight and view of all the world."
THE JACOBEAN COURT
James I took the throne in 1603. His reign was lavish and extravagant. He hoped to unite Scotland and England under one title. James I longed to be crowned "King of Great Britain." His ultimate aim was to preserve peace. During James I's early years, his court was known for its "diplomacy, amibition, intrigue, and an intense jockeying for social position." The most highly regarded offices in the Jacobean Court were those serving the king during moments of vulnerability. The courtier's lifestyle was refined into an art form.

The Jacobean Court was ideal because the king was generous with money and affection. He had favorite courtiers who received exquisite gifts. King James' romantic attachments to his male courtiers spawned "rumors of widespread homosexual activities at court." James I might have been merely expressing affection for them based upon more classical models. James I and his courtiers were more likely expressing "passionate physical and spritual love." What is certain under James I's reign, male friendships and bonding played an important role in court and literature.

James I hosted celebrations, and masques were performed for court nobility. The lifestyle witnessed during the masques led to finanical strife for James I. James I's debts rose drastically. Unpopular duties were placed upon the king's subjects. Parliamentary disputes over the king's debts dampened King James I's court life.

JAMES'S RELIGIOUS POLICY AND THE PERSECUTION OF WITCHES

James's religious policy began quite radically, yet when he advanced to the throne in England in 1603 he became decidedly more conservative. While he ruled in Scotland in the 1500's he saw himself as sacred and felt he had insight into the agents of Satan. In 1597 he published his Demonology, a testament of the evil that threatened his divine rule. In the 1590's, in Scotland, thousands of women and some men were tortured and killed for alleged witchcraft. Yet, when he claimed the throne in England, he adopted the current laws. Although England had laws against witchcraft, they were far more just and objective than the Scottish laws at that time. James also moderated other religious views.

In 1599 James wrote Basilikon Doron which undeniably was against Puritan reform. However, when presented with a petition signed by a thousand ministers, he called a conference to deal with the ceremonies of the Church of England; this led to the publication of the King James Bible. In addition, the results persuaded James to publish the 1604 Canons, which required ministers to adhere to principles that eventually led to religious divisions and ultimately the murder of James's son Charles.
COSMIC SPECTACLES
During Shakespeare's lifetime, the Red Lion and James Burbage's playhouse, The Theatre, were the first public theaters in England. Prior to these theaters, the only plays that were being held in the towns of England were the "mystery plays." These plays were religious plays that chronicled the beginning of time to the death of Christ. However, with the Protestant Reformation in full swing, these plays soon became produced less frequently because there was a push to get rid of Catholic influence in England.

Early English theater took on a role that parodied some of the mystery plays and it became more popular as plays that addressed secular concerns became more predominant. With the addition of minstrels, common actors, and morality topics, the Early English theater became a rival to the church. Church leaders found themselves denouncing these secular plays because they found some of the themes blasphemous. However, in reality it was the competition between the church and the success of the professional players that was the real problem. The Church would never admit to this rivalry.
MUSIC AND DANCE
Playacting was a form of art that was often accompanied by music and dance. Whether comedy or tragedy, the music and dances incorporated into the plays were important additions to the theatrical world during Shakespeare's time--very frequently during this period a dance would signify the closing of a play.

The importance of dancing on stage was a reflection of dance's widespread popularity throughout the Renaissance period. However, even more central to the stage was music, which obviously is very closely related to dancing. The early part of the sixteenth century showed a loss of interest or even resentment towards music and as a result many organs of the church were destroyed and school choirs were shut down. But later in the century music made a comeback and began to spread until it was again incorporated into many aspects of everyday life. "Styles of secular music were developed that emphasized music's link to humanist eloquence..." This period shows music as not only important to life in the royal court, but rather widespread throughout the culture's domain and musical literacy was regarded as an important tool.

"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,/ Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils" Lorenzo states in the Merchant of Venice. This quote acts as a good example of the importance of music to Shakespeare's world, but sadly much of the music incorporated into Shakespeare's plays has been forgotten because their popularity may have been cause for nobody to write them down.
THE ENEMIES OF THE STAGE
Despite the popular sway wielded by touring players-and maybe even because of it, the stage evoked an enormous amount of hostility from the ecclesiastic and civic officials of Shakespeare's day. Social critics, for one, cited numerous concerns for the safety of the audiences, targeting among other things the unruly mobs of theater-goers, the unsanitary viewing conditions, and the unsavory rabble of prostitutes and riff-raff who frequented the spectacles. The atmosphere was, in their opinion, "inherently disorderly," and therefore represented a serious threat to the public well-being. Not to be outdone, though, the primary brunt of opposition seems to have been initiated by church officials who questioned the unwholesome moral content of the plays. Occasions of subversive blasphemy and theatrical transvestism eventually earned the stage a reputation as "Satan's domain," a place where decent, God-fearing people were led astray from the path of duty and piety. Summarizing the puritanical stance of William Prynne--a typical fanatic--and his select group of antitheatricalists, Greenblatt writes, "stage plays were part of a demonic tangle of obscene practices proliferating like a cancer in the body of society" (36). In light of such adversity it is amazing that the theater was not abolished altogether. However, with the financial backing of powerful patrons, the stage was able to weather such attacks and persevere until more receptive times.
CENSORSHIP AND REGULATION
The players and playwrights of the 1500's found an unexpected ally in those appointed by the monarchy to censor and regulate the stage. More precisely, the actors and authors depended on the censor's approval to give their works at least some legitimacy.

Queen Elizabeth issued a proposal in the late 1500's calling for the review of all pieces that were to be performed. In this proposal, she explicitly denies the privilage of viewing plays to audiences who are not, "grave and discreet," while acceptible authors must be people, "of authority, learning and wisdom." The plays were never to contain religious or political subject matter in connection with the leaders of the day. Interestingly, playwrights were not censored or banned for simply having contradictory beliefs--it was those plays which ridiculed the hierarchy (including influential foreign leaders), or threatened to unleash civil unrest that were most likely to meet with disapproval from the censor.

Later, the Master of Revels was appointed to provide a framework for the regulation of the stage. In her edict, the queen insisted that the Master of Revels personally review each play destined for the stage. This system of regulation, while ensuring that all legally licensed playhouses would be within London's city limits, also guaranteed the players protection from local authorities who may, and often did, disapprove of a play's subject matter.
THE THEATER OF THE NATION
Greenblatt's main focus in this section is the major developments of the sixteenth century that made Shakespeare's phenomenal career possible. The theater experienced paramount growth and change in this time, largely due to the rapidly changing society by which it was surrounded.

The rapid expansion of the market society, or the making of an urban "public," was the first important cultural formation aiding the success of sixteenth century theater. The unexplained urban population boom lent itself to the expansion and popularization of the theater. The sheer number of those able to frequent performances grew immensely. In addition, markets evolved from periodic to continuous affairs, prompting theater goers to regard theatric performances as more common, everyday occurrences, rather than mindfully reserve them for festivals and other special occasions.

The English nation existed in the sixteenth century largely as a "Theater State." In other words, regal power and prestige were closely aligned with theatric performance. Manifestations of power in courtly life were heavily dramatic, larger-than-life, much like the performances themselves. It was almost as if these powerful figures were players in their own extravagant performance. In addition to this real-life power play, regal figures often attended the theater, lending an air of prestige to theater goers and players alike.

Religious ritual proved a valuable aid to the state of sixteenth century theater. The Catholic practices banned by Protestant authorities could be theatricized and motivated theater goers. Greenblatt asserts, however, that despite the obvious influence on theater of the market society, Theater State, and the church, it could not fully identify with any of them. It was attacked as an enemy of economic activity and a competitor of religious gathering, making it out to be the adversary, not the result, of sixteenth century society.
FETISHES IN CLOTHING
In Shakespeare's time, and as a thread running through his plays, his characters are "known" by their clothing; their identify is tied up with their costume. In this section, Greenblatt suggests Shakespeare draws on "his culture's investment in costume, symbols of authority, visible signs of status--the fetishism of dress he must have witnessed from early childhood" (57). Greenblatt points out, "this culture seems deeply dependent on the clothes one wears. . . [or] one is permitted or compelled to wear, since there is little freedom in dress" (57).

The identity of Shakespeare's characters are clothed in disguise; in Twelfth Night, for example, although Viola's identity has been disclosed at the end, Orsino "continues to call her Cesario; he will do so . . . until she assumes her maid's garments, for only then will she be transformed into a woman: 'Cesario, come--/For so you shall be while you are a man;/But when in other habits you are seen,/Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen'" (5.1.372-75) (57). The characters here keep up the pretense of the disguise even though Viola's true role has been uncovered.

The royal crown, whose power men are willing to die for, is the zenith of the fetishism of costume. Not necessarily the 'actual' crown itself, but the power it confers upon the wearer. Anything that is a personal mark or trademark of a person, for instance, the "filthy blanket that transforms Edgar into Poor Tom to the coxcomb that is the badge of the licensed fool" (57), becomes the outward identify-conferring icon of the particular character. Another example of the identity of the wearer being tied to his clothing is Richard II. He was "divested of his crown and scepter" and experienced this as the "eradication of his name, the symbolic melting away of his identity," and he says, ". . . And know not now what name to call myself!" (58). Lear has this same problem when he passes off his clothes "in order to reduce himself to the nakedness of the Bedlam beggar" (58), and finds that he has not only lost his social identity, but experiences "the breakdown of his psychic order . . . expressing his reduction to the condition of the 'poor bare forked animal'" (58).

All of these scenes represent the Renaissance English culture as being a "characteristically deep and knowing commitment to illusion" (58). With the donning of male attire Viola, Rosalind, Portia, Jessica, and other of Shakespeare's female characters, "alter[s] what they can say and do, reveal[s] important aspects of their character, and change[s] their destiny" (59). In the end, though, Viola exclaims, "A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man" (59). Knowing how much the character depends upon her clothing to depict the role Shakespeare created, these women have really not become much more effectual than the articles of clothing they wear--not more important, not more relevant, nor more influential. They, in the end, must remove their new identities, along with their usurped clothing and become "themselves" again.
PARADOXES OF IDENTITY
Within Shakespeare's world there are few characters who escape from difficulties with identity. "There is a peculiar, recurrent lack of fit between costume and character in fools as in princes, that is not simply a matter of disguise and disclosure" (59). In other words, there constantly exists a separation between outward appearance, and the character's actual selfhood.

The character of the individual ends up being of great importance to Shakespeare, who manipulates how the audience will respond to each one. Examples of this kind of manipulation vary from Hamlet feigning madness, to Rosalind dressing as Ganymede, but with each consecutive character some intense kind of difference between their outward character and their true personality is evident.
THE POET OF NATURE
Shakespeare is not your average 16th century pastoral poet. The arena of nature is not unequivocally celebrated. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shakespeare undercuts general assumptions about the "natural." This is shown in the variety of romantic situations he creates that could fall under the definition of "perverse": cross-dressing women in the guise of men wooing other men, relationships between women and men that are too enthusiastic to escape notice, and events more bizarre: in A Midsummer Night's Dream a female character falls madly in love with a man whose head is that of an ass.

Shakespeare also subverts the "natural" hierarchy of his nation's political hierarchy. The Tudor dynasty propagated the idea that their reign was sanctioned by God and was brought about by His will after the country had been sufficiently steeped in blood. In essence the rulers of the Bard's time convinced the populous that they were chosen by God. Few of Shakespeare's characters are spared the rod of his chief tool, irony. The nobility and authority figures are not excepted. He doesn't allow his works to blindly follow any the popular ideology surrounding "the natural."
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYFUL LANGUAGE
The Renaissance was a pinnacle era in the use of developed rhetoric. The popular texts instructing the use of rhetoric made use of a certain number of syntactic forms known as figures, or "schemes", such as irony or hyperbole. Use of these "schemes" could enhance the language, emphasizing and drawing attention to certain words or combinations of words. Gramarians claim that Shakespeare knew and used over 200 of these schemes in his plays, both to express powerful feelings of his characters and to hide them. However, Shakespeare did not rely on complex rhetoric other than when it was necassary and frequently used simple and self-apparent phrases, neither style being more important nor more relied upon by Shakespeare. Shakespeare's working vocabulary of 20,000 words and his complex rhetoric did not dissuade readers but instead ignited their curiosities and wonder of language. His puns and ambiguous phrases show what a master of rhetoric, and grammar Shakespeare was, but most important to Shakepsear's work was his love and perhaps addiction to language, of which he was "the towering master and the most obedient, worshipful servant." His love instilled the vibrant life into his plays.

LONDON PLAYGOING AND THE LAW (from "The Shakespearean Stage" by

Andrew Gurr, in The Norton Shakespeare, 1997)

Playgoing in the 16th century was very different from what it is today, and at first it was not widely accepted. The Lord Mayor of London and other towns tried to suppress it whenever possible due to the fear than any large crowd of people had the potential to turn into a riot.

Because of monarchs like Queen Elizabeth, leading companies were supported by the lord mayors so that they could perform for her at Christmas. However, tight control was kept, and theaters were often closed for reasons such as plague outbreaks.

The people in general also had a distrust of the theater, often for religious reasons. Playacting was seen as deceit and deception and contrary to the Bible's teachings. The Puritans simply disliked shows of any kind. Still, plays were attended by the entire spectrum of the London population, from lords and ladies, to students, artisans, market women and even whores. All saw plays as a chance to enjoy a period of idle occupation.

Standing room for the poor was available for one penny, covered seating for twopence, and a lord's room cost sixpence, equal to an artisan's daily wage. Nobility often attended to be seen as well as to watch plays.

By the time Shakespeare became an active member of his company, he had the full support of the law behind him.
POST-RENAISSANCE THEATRICAL INNOVATIONS
Despite regulation by the crown, theatre continued after Shakespeare's death. It was temporarily stifled during the Puritan reign, but resurfaced with the restoration of Charles II to the throne. These new theatres implemented changes learned from foreign contacts and were operated by actor-managers. Finances were now handled by private investors rather than actors/shareholders of a company. Innovations in scenery came when William Davenant introduced moveable sets and the "picture-frame" stage.

The King's decree of 1662 included women as actors on the stage, marking a major shift in the way theatre had been performed for centuries in England. During Shakespeare's time, boys played the parts of females in plays. New actresses were paid less than men and were often treated as prostitutes by the male members of the company and audience.

In accordance with the common practice of the age, Davenant and others gave themselves liberal license to alter the Bard's works by cutting speeches, changing text, or adding their own words. Many modern scholars' perceptions of the plays come from these altered scripts.

Even the players themselves had a semi-permanent effect on the way Shakespeare's plays are seen or presented today. Thomas Betterton was the best-known actor in England during the late seventeenth century. He played the title role in Hamlet up to the age of 74. His portrayal became standardized and was imitated by later actors. Even the minute detail of Hamlet upsetting his chair when he first sees his father's ghost was religiously mimicked by his successors for some time.

Go to Stephan Flores' Home Page.

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Instructor: Stephan Flores SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD/STAGE The following entries are (unless otherwise noted) summaries (by various hands in English 345.01 Shakespeare Fall 1997) of sections in Stephen Greenblatt's "General Introduction" (1-76) to The Norton Shakespeare (Norton, 1997). LIFE AND DEATH During Shakespeare's time, people's lives were often short.

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how were the quartos edition the texts closest to Shakespeare's time?

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how were the quartos edition the texts closest to Shakespeare's time?

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Who was Shakespeare?

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. Very little is known about his life, but by 1592 he was in London working as an actor and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more. Many of these plays were very successful both at court and in the public playhouses. In 1613, Shakespeare retired from the theatre and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. He died and was buried there in 1616.

What did he write?
Shakespeare wrote plays and poems. His plays were comedies, histories and tragedies. His 17 comedies include A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his 10 history plays are Henry V and Richard III. The most famous among his 10 tragedies areHamlet, Othello, andKing Lear. Shakespeare's best-known poems areThe Sonnets, first published in 1609.
What are the quartos?

Shakespeare's plays began to be printed in 1594, probably with his tragedy Titus Andronicus. This appeared as a small, cheap pamphlet called a quarto because of the way it was printed. Eighteen of Shakespeare's plays had appeared in quarto editions by the time of his death in 1616. Another three plays were printed in quarto before 1642. In 1623 an expensive folio volume of 36 plays by Shakespeare was printed, which included most of those printed in quarto.

Why are the quartos important?

None of Shakespeare's manuscripts survive, so the printed texts of his plays are our only source for what he originally wrote. The quarto editions are the texts closest to Shakespeare's time. Some are thought to preserve either his working drafts (his foul papers) or his fair copies. Others are thought to record versions remembered by actors who performed the plays, providing information about staging practices in Shakespeare's day.

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plays; drama; comedies; tragedies; histories; shakespeare's quartos; william shakespeare; quartos; printing; publishing; english drama; elizabethan england; jacobean england; theatre history; stratford-upon-avon; a midsummer night's dream; hamlet; othello; king lear; titus andronicus; quotations; printer-friendly page

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Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. Very little is known about his life, but by 1592 he was in London working as an actor and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more.

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Shakespeare

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This year's 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare is not just an opportunity to commemorate one of the greatest playwrights of all time. It is a moment to celebrate the extraordinary ongoing influence of a man who - to borrow from his own description of Julius Caesar - "doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus."

Shakespeare's legacy is without parallel: His works translated into over 100 languages and studied by half the world's schoolchildren. As one of his contemporaries, Ben Jonson, said: "Shakespeare is not of an age, but for all time." He lives today in our language, our culture and society - and through his enduring influence on education.

Shakespeare played a critical role in shaping modern English and helping to make it the world's language. The first major dictionary compiled by Samuel Johnson drew on Shakespeare more than any other writer.

Three thousand new words and phrases all first appeared in print in Shakespeare's plays. I remember from my own childhood how many of them are found for the first time in Henry V. Words like dishearten, divest, addiction, motionless, leapfrog - and phrases like "once more unto the breach," "band of brothers" and "heart of gold" - have all passed into our language today with no need to reference their original context.

Shakespeare also pioneered innovative use of grammatical form and structure - including verse without rhymes, superlatives and the connecting of existing words to make new words, like bloodstained - while the pre-eminence of his plays also did much to standardize spelling and grammar.
But Shakespeare's influence is felt far beyond our language. His words, his plots and his characters continue to inspire much of our culture and wider society. Nelson Mandela, while a prisoner on Robben Island, cherished a quote from "Julius Caesar" which said "Cowards die many times before their death, the valiant never taste of death but once." While Kate Tempest's poem "My Shakespeare" captures the eternal presence of Shakespeare when she wrote that Shakespeare "...is in every lover who ever stood alone beneath a window... every jealous whispered word and every ghost that will not rest."
Shakespeare's influence is everywhere, from Dickens and Goethe to Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Brahms; from "West Side Story" to the Hamlet-inspired title of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" - the longest-running theatre production in London's West End today. While his original plays continue to entertain millions - from school halls across the world to the overnight queues as hundreds scrambled for last minute tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet at London's Barbican last year.
But perhaps one of the most exciting legacies of Shakespeare is his capacity to educate. As we see from the outreach work of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe and the impact of pioneering British charities like the Shakespeare Schools Festival, studying and performing Shakespeare can help improve literacy, confidence and wider educational attainment. So this January 5, Twelfth Night, and every day throughout 2016, Britain is inviting you to join us in celebrating the life and legacy of William Shakespeare. Today we are launching "Shakespeare Lives" - an exciting global program of activity and events to highlight his enduring influence and extend the use of Shakespeare as an educational resource to advance literacy around the world. The program will run in more than seventy countries, led by the British Council and the GREAT Britain campaign. You can share your favorite moment of Shakespeare on social media, watch never-before-seen performances on stage, film and online, visit exhibitions, take part in workshops and debates, and access new Shakespearean educational resources to get to grips with the English language. The Royal Shakespeare Company will tour China; Shakespeare's Globe will perform across the world from Iraq to Denmark. Young people will re-imagine Shakespeare in Zimbabwe. A social media campaign called "Play your Part" (#PlayYourPart) will invite the next generation of creative talent to produce their own digital tribute to the Bard - and, in partnership with the British charity Voluntary Services Overseas, we will raise awareness of the huge challenge of global child illiteracy and use Shakespeare to increase educational opportunities for children around the world. Beyond the great gift of language, the bringing to life of our history, his ongoing influence on our culture and his ability to educate, there is just the immense power of Shakespeare to inspire. From the most famous love story to the greatest tragedy; from the most powerful fantasy to the wittiest comedy; and from the most memorable speeches to his many legendary characters, in William Shakespeare we have one man, whose vast imagination, boundless creativity and instinct for humanity encompasses the whole of the human experience as no one has before or since. So, however you choose to play your part, please join us in 2016 in this unique opportunity to celebrate the life and enduring legacy of this man; ensuring that, as he himself put it, "all the world's a stage" and that through his legacy, truly, Shakespeare Lives.
David Cameron is the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

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This year's 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare is not just an opportunity to commemorate one of the greatest playwrights of all time. It is a moment to celebrate the extraordinary ongoing influence of a man who - to borrow from his own description of Julius Caesar - "doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus."

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William Shakespeare’s life and times | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Discover more about the life and times of William Shakespeare, from his birth in 1564 through to his death 52 years later in 1616.

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Shakespeare was born at Straford-Upon-Avon

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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It talks about his education

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William Shakespeare was one of the greatest playwrights in the English language. But what was life for him as a young boy and student in Stratford-Upon-Avon? Historians have pieced together his education based on available records and what similar boys who grew up then would have learned. Let's jump back to Shakespeare's childhood!

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What was life life like for William shake spear?

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What was life life like for William shake spear?

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https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-life#:~:text=We%20do%20know%20that%20Shakespeare's,both%20prosperous%20and%20well%2Dknown.

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Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes, just as we see with the 19th-century family scene at the top of this page.

Primary sources: Shakespeare Documented
Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials documenting Shakespeare's life. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works, as well as additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

On This Page: Birth and Childhood | Marriage and Children | London Theater | Final Years

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.
On Shakespeare Documented: Primary-source materials relating to Shakespeare's family

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An overview of Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Library, including his birth and childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon, his marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, his work in the London theaters, and his final years before his death in 1616.

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Society in Shakespeare's time was quite strictly divided by class. The very richest people were the lords and ladies – the nobility. The nobles were the ruling class, influencing what the monarch did, as well as owning large areas of land themselves.
SOCIETY :)

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language.

He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed how the world of poetry. This article will dive into the influence Shakespeare has had on literature across the world.
Career start
Shakespeare started his career as an actor in London. He also owned a company of actors named "King's Men". He began writing plays and poems during the 1590s, quite a different activity compared to the Polish " stare gry hazardowe za darmo". He emerged as one of the most prominent and influential writers in history. Before that, he was only known for his acting skills. His first poems, to be printed in 1593 and 1594, were Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His poems gathered much admiration and revived the concept of English literature.
Role in the modern curriculum
His efforts got him a lot of appreciation, and he became famous as the most powerful and prestigious dramatist in the history of English literature. Almost all high schools and colleges today include Shakespeare's writings in their curriculum. Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedy of Othello, and Macbeth are taught in many educational facilities. Shakespeare is now a common name among most, if not all, English Literature students.
Influence on writing style
Shakespeare created the most inspired plays in western literature. He wrote different plays, including characters that had a touch of both humour and seriousness especially in The Tragedy of Othello. Shakespeare linked poetry, drama and verse with each other, which had never been done before. For the versification of the English language, he used his rhetoric with higher expression. Through poetry, he gave strength to the language, and by writing dramas, he gave clear ideas that rarely left room for vagueness. Stephen Marche, a Canadian novelist, said that Shakespeare only used the English language as a tool to leave an impression on the audience. He was the special effects master of language and a key contributor to the formation of the English language as we know it today.
Influence on English language and literature
One of Shakespeare's most significant contributions is that he introduced a lot of new words to the English language. He invented 1700 commonly used words and many new phrases. For example, a widely used phrase "it's Greek to me" was created by Shakespeare. It is used to refer to something that is difficult to understand. Also, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare used the phrase "cold-blooded/hot-blooded" to equate blood temperature with emotional excitement - something now done very commonly.

These phrases were all invented by Shakespeare and are extensively used by modern writers in their works. For example, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Dogs of War by Robert Stone, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuels Johnson all use words and phrases coined by Shakespeare. Johnson is the one author who quotes Shakespeare more than anyone else. Shakespeare's original phrases are also still used in conversational language.

Shakespeare changed verbs into adverbs and adjectives. Connected words were not used together before him. He also added suffixes and prefixes to many words. The use of correct spellings became common during Shakespeare's time. Before Shakespeare, grammar rules were not adequately defined, and there wasn't any definite criterion for English grammar. To be precise, Shakespeare changed many aspects of the English language. His work gained importance in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, which helped the standardisation of the English language.

After Shakespeare, many other writers like Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe also adopted novel words and phrases to create new imaginative worlds and ideas. Shakespeare gave an utterly unique concept to romance. He presented it as an essential topic for tragedy. Shakespeare expanded the perspective of characterisation, plot language and genre in tragic plays. He used this idea to traverse the individual mind and created iconic duos like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare has tirelessly served English literature throughout his life. His existing work consists of 154 sonnets, 39 plays, two narrative poems and a few other verses. Shakespeare's writings have been translated into numerous languages across the world, and his plays are still performed in many theatres. Most people who read and understand Shakespeare and his writings become huge fans of his work. There's no denying that he made the English language a beautiful forte for creative and literary minds. Shakespeare had a unique grasp of language and sincerely employed themes of romance and tragedy in his work.
Inspiration to others
Modern writers, novelists and dramatists are greatly influenced by Shakespeare's plays and writings. Shakespeare has greatly influenced authors such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Dickens and William Faulkner. Charles Dickens derived almost 25 titles from Shakespeare's work. He used many quotations of Shakespeare in his work too. The character in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville was developed from the influence of Hamlet by Shakespeare. Many of Melville's writings have titles derived from Shakespeare's work as well.

Most modern-day movie makers derive ideas and plots from Shakespeare's writings and reshape them into new scripts. Movies like She is The Star and West Side Story were based on Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet, respectively.
Wrapping up
Shakespeare is and will always be accredited for creating new ideas, inventing, familiarising and repurposing the English language. His words, phrases and exceptional style of expression made him one of the best writers in the world. The stories, novels and plays that he wrote break barriers of time and culture and are equally relevant today.

Shakespeare is a name that is not just known to people who love literature. While Shakespeare is no longer among today's playwrights, his writings and efforts to promote the English language will uphold his name for years to come. English literature might not see such an extraordinary author ever again.
The editorial unit

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

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There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language. He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed [...]

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very important news

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William Shakespeare’s life and times | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Discover more about the life and times of William Shakespeare, from his birth in 1564 through to his death 52 years later in 1616.

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What did Shakespeare's printed plays look like?

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What did Shakespeare's printed plays look like?

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this is what his printed plays look like. This also goes into detail about it.

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Eighteen of Shakespeare's plays were printed during Shakespeare's lifetime, in a small, inexpensive format called a "quarto." A quarto is a book in which each printed sheet is folded twice-in half, and then in half again-to produce four double-sided leaves, or eight pages. Quartos were sold in flimsy bindings or sometimes no bindings at all, making them vulnerable to damage and loss over the years. The early Shakespeare quartos are now extraordinarily rare; some survive in only a single copy. The texts in the quartos sometimes differ significantly from the same plays in the 1623 First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, which was published seven years after he died.

The first quartos of Shakespeare's plays appeared in 1594 and included Titus Andronicus, and Henry VI Part 2 (as it is now titled). Some plays, such as Richard III and Henry IV Part 1, appeared in multiple quarto editions, showing their popularity. Many of the earliest of the quartos do not include Shakespeare's name but highlight instead the acting company that first performed the play.

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Eighteen of Shakespeare's plays were printed during Shakespeare's lifetime, in a small, inexpensive format called a "quarto." A quarto is a book in which each printed sheet is folded twice-in half, and then in half again-to produce four double-sided leaves, or eight pages.

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The theater that Shakespeare worked at burnt down in 1613. How did it burn down?

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The theater that Shakespeare worked at burnt down in 1613. How did it burn down?

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The website linked here shows the reasoning as to why the Globe Theater, to which Shakespeare worked at, burnt down. The theater burning down did not only possibly injure people, but it stopped Shakespeare's line of work.

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Poster for Help Build the Globe, n.d. Reproduced with kind permission of Shakespeare's Globe Archive

On 29th June 1613, a theatrical cannon misfired during a performance of Henry VIII and set fire to the thatch of the Globe Theatre, engulfing the roof in flames. Within minutes, the wooden structure was also alight, and in under an hour the Globe was destroyed. Incredibly, only one casualty was recorded. A man's breeches were said to have caught fire, and he doused himself in ale to put out the flames.

Built in 1599 on the south bank of the River Thames, the Globe Theatre had a difficult start. Owner, Richard Burbage had for some years operated another theatre in Shoreditch - quite simply known as The Theatre - however the land itself was on lease and after a legal dispute with the landlord, he and his players were forced to relocate. They dismantled the building and used the timbers to build the original Globe Theatre, with Shakespeare as both an actor and shareholder in the business.

After the fire destroyed the Globe, it was rebuilt with a tiled roof to prevent a similar disaster. However, theatres were gradually closed down in the subsequent years, with the Globe itself closed in 1644 to make way for residential buildings.

Centuries later, in the 1970s, actor and director Sam Wanamaker announced that he would reconstruct the Globe Theatre. He was amazed on visiting the original site that only a plaque remained to demonstrate this period of history and began planning an authentic reconstruction of the theatre on the South Bank. The idea of an 'authentic' Shakespearean theatre was debated throughout construction; plans needed to be modernised to account for today's more stringent health and safety regulations. Wanamaker worked tirelessly for decades to secure sufficient funding, and the balance between authenticity and practicality was a difficult one. This is explored in a letter to Mark Rylance, featured in our Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players and Performance resource. Andrew Gurr states here: 'The tiring house area presents a very specific version of the general challenge...to reconcile the original structure with modern needs'.

The structure was made using green oak and the timbers were fixed together using wooden pegs, as in the original construction. The thatch was also included, but this time was made of fire-retardant material.

Site photographs, 1994-1995, Reproduced with kind permission of Shakespeare's Globe Archive

The 40 Principles listed in the research bulletin for the opening season of the Globe highlight the need to maintain the authenticity of an Elizabethan theatre, while being sensitive to the need to adapt to a modern world. From this fusion of old and new, the Globe Theatre emerges as a theatrical experiment that honours the past while looking to the future.

Research bulletin for The Opening Season at the Globe, 4-5 Oct 1997. Reproduced with kind permission of Shakespeare's Globe Archive. Click the image to view the document for free until 27th July.

For more information on Shakespeare's Globe Archive, including trial and price enquiries, please contact info@amdigital.co.uk.

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My drops of tears I'll turn to sparks of fire: Burning down and...

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On 29th June 1613, a theatrical cannon misfired during a performance of Henry VIII and set fire to the thatch of the Globe Theatre, engulfing the roof in flames. Within minutes, the wooden structure was also alight, and in under an hour the Globe was destroyed.

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This article talks about his language and legacy

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Let us start out controversial. This week's language maestro is essentially, at least to some, the Marmite of literature. Those of you who have studied Shakespeare at school will probably know what we mean: there are only so many interpretations of Romeo and Juliet a person can sit through, and even everyone's favourite Macbeth has been done and then done some more.

But what about Shakespeare's impact on our everyday language? How much of the language that trips off of our tongues comes straight from the bard himself?

Let us delve in a little deeper to discover something about this maestro whose works have become so pivotal in our literary lives.
Fun facts...
Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, and is considered by many as the greatest English language writer ever. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, had three children with his wife Anne Hathaway, and produced most of his most well-known work between 1589 and 1613.

Not taking into considering any lost works that we do not know about, and some that are speculated about, Shakespeare is thought to have written 37 plays which includes the famous Hamlet, Othello and The Tempest, and 154 sonnets, including the arguably most popular Sonnet 116.

Controversy ...

Because what is a good story without controversy? There is the ever-present argument that much of Shakespeare's works were not actually penned by Shakespeare himself, and there are of course the stacks of literary 'evidence' about Shakespeare's sexual orientation. People do love a good gossip after all.
But what about a contribution?
Ah yes, we should focus on the important stuff rather than whatever the slander sheets of Shakespeare's day may or may not have been insinuating. Did you know that Shakespeare contributed over 1700 words to the English language? Bandit from Henry VI, lacklustre from As You Like It, and swagger from A Midsummer Night's Dream are just three examples of such words. How many did you know?

Shakespeare created these additions to our vocabulary by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, connecting words together that had previously not been used in such ways, adding prefixes and suffixes, and of course, inventing entirely new words.

As well as all of the individual words Shakespeare invented he is also responsible for some of the phrases we use in day to day speech: " seen better days", " strange bedfellows", and " full circle" to name but a few.
A Renaissance man...
Shakespeare's impact on the theatre of his day was truly phenomenal. By focusing on psychologically complex and therefore very human characters, he helped start, or at least contributed to a social upheaval because he explored every aspect of society, no matter the status of the individual. He showed that making mistakes was an integral part of what it is to be human in the first place, and this made his works incredibly universal and accessible for his audiences.

Perhaps one of the biggest influences Shakespeare had on the theatre was his fusion of tragedy and comedy into one play. His theatre, The Globe, played host to the notion of both of these aspects being interwoven throughout our daily lives; you could even argue, if you are a fan of Romeo and Juliet, that Shakespeare was one of the first to make us aware of teen angst.

Another crucial difference between Shakespeare's work and that of his contemporaries was the utilisation of his knowledge of Greek and Roman classics, which were up until that point suppressed by the Catholic church.
Learning a new language? Check out our Influence or imitation? free placement test to see how your level measures up!
Many a poet and playwright since Shakespeare's day could say that have been influenced in some way by the bard himself. John Keats was a huge fan, Thomas Carlyle showed the potential for some serious fangirling, and even Mumford & Sons borrowed the title of their debut album, Sigh No More, from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
And as if that wasn't enough...
A number of authors have used phrases from Shakespeare's extensive works as titles for their own books: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (The Tempest), The Undiscovered Country by Auther Schnitzer (Hamlet), and Bell, Book, and Candle by John van Druten (King John) are just a few of these examples.

Finally, there have been dozens of movies based on or adapted from Shakespeare's plays. Romeo and Juliet has of course been done to death, but 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999 (The Taming of the Shrew), O, 2001 (Othello) and The Boys from Syracuse, 1940 (The Two Gentlemen of Verona) are standout additional examples.

Some final random facts about the bard that perhaps you were not aware of.

Tolstoy was a hugely opposed to Shakespeare, saying that all he derived from his work was "irresistible repulsion and tedium"; we imagine that had Mr Tolstoy had a Twitter account available he may have been one of those trolls who couldn't stop themselves from leaving a nasty comment or three.

Shakespeare allegedly inspired an assassination that represents a huge stain on America's history. Following a performance as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar in 1864, John Wilkes Booth went on, just five months later, to assassinate president Abraham Lincoln.

Shakespeare named a lot of babies. Okay, perhaps not directly, but following the appearance of the name Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, multitudes of baby girls were given this name.

Lastly, Shakespeare's play Othello does a lot to highlight what seems to be the never ending issue of racism and prejudice against anything that is 'other'. The play showed quite clearly the racial prejudices experienced within the Venetian society; it is somewhat disappointing to know that despite the style of language used, this story is still very relevant today.

In short, Shakespeare's influence has been far-and-wide reaching, not only within the scope of literature but also throughout our society.

Next time in our series on language maestros, we will be looking at Cervantes. To quote Shakespeare himself: " Parting is such sweet sorrow... " we will see you again soon!

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Let us start out controversial. This week's language maestro is essentially, at least to some, the Marmite of literature. Those of you who have studied Shakespeare at school will probably know what we mean: there are only so many interpretations of Romeo and Juliet a person can sit through, and even everyone's favourite Macbeth has been done and then done some more.

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This gives a lot of information about how he impacted the English language .

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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Last week saw the anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth. To mark the occasion, we're taking a look inside David Crystal's recent Cambridge publications to share his work on the topic of Shakespeare and his enduring influence on the English language.

David Crystal is the author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language and David Crystal's 50 Questions About English Usage, in which he answers questions from English Language teachers and learners from around the world.

Why is Shakespeare difficult to read?

Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the most important writers in the English Language, and his plays are studied around the world - even though they were written nearly 500 years ago. We might assume that the difference in time period provides a straightforward answer to this question, but our first extract, taken from David Crystal's 50 Questions About English Usage suggests that we are mistaken. Professor Crystal begins his answer by stating:

There's a widespread belief that Shakespearean English is a totally different language from Modern English. Some have even argued that he needs to be translated into Modern English before we can understand him. But it's a myth.

He goes on to suggest that we should shift our view of Shakespeare as 'Elizabethan English' towards 'Early Modern English', changing our perception that his language is far removed from that we use today. He highlights how analysis has shown that only five percent of the words used in Shakespeare's plays and poems are 'different in some way between Shakespeare's day and now.' He goes on to encourage readers to experience Shakespeare as it was intended, by watching and listening to it - and in this way, allowing context and our 'Modern English intuitions' to make it more accessible.
Download the extract to learn more.

False friends in Shakespeare

'False friends' are a typical obstacle to the language learner - the excitement of 'recognising' a word because it looks similar to one in their own language, followed by frustration when the actual, and often unconnected, meaning is revealed.

As Professor Crystal explains in his introduction to the table below, taken from page 63 of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, one of the reasons readers may find Shakespeare's work difficult to understand is due to false friends from an earlier stage of the English language. These are false friends to all speakers of English, whether it is their first language or not.

How many words did Shakespeare invent?

In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language David Crystal explains that 'One of the questions most often asked about Shakespeare's vocabulary is: how many words did he invent?' He goes on to say that, unfortunately, it's not possible to provide a conclusive answer.

Professor Crystal explains that any exploration of the issue must focus on the 'first recorded uses' (FRUs) of words in a particular sense, but the fact that Shakespeare used them first in print doesn't mean that he created them. Instead, his writing is likely to be a reflection of words that were already present in the spoken language of the time. As a result, the number of FRUs attributed to Shakespeare is falling over time, as more and more works from the Early Modern period are studied and found to contain earlier uses.
Download the extract to learn more about this topic.
How has English changed in the last 400 years?

Our final extract, taken from David Crystal's 50 Questions About English Usage poses an intriguing question - how has the English we speak today changed since the time of Shakespeare and the English Renaissance? Professor Crystal explains:

All aspects of language have been affected, as the examples of spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation illustrate.

Download the extract to read examples of how each aspect of language has changed since Shakespeare's time.

Discover answers to more of the questions David Crystal has been asked by language teachers and learners in David Crystal's 50 Questions About English Usage.

Read more about the history, structure and worldwide use of English in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
We're here to support teachers build their knowledge, skills and confidence. If you would like to read more blog articles from our teaching experts, click here.

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Shakespeare And Modern English | Cambridge English

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Last week saw the anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth. To mark the occasion, we're taking a look inside David Crystal's recent Cambridge publications to share his work on the topic of Shakespeare and his enduring influence on the English language.

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Shakespeare's plays are as popular because he was rumored to be the greatest writer ever.

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During the decade-long period from roughly 1595 to 1605, Shakespeare's art continued to mature, allowing him to produce some of the greatest plays in the English language. Between 1595 and 1600 Shakespeare experienced numerous adversities. Although he wrote two important tragedies during this time, namely Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, more striking is the fact that this period of great difficulty produced several of Shakespeare's sunniest comedies, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It. He also wrote the strangely ambivalent comedy The Merchant of Venice during this time. Between 1600 and 1605 Shakespeare continued to produce comedies, including three of his very best: Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and All's Well That Ends Well. However, perhaps overshadowing these works are Shakespeare's immense achievements in tragedy. In a stunning feat of creative production, Shakespeare wrote seven important tragedies, including most especially Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

Several conditions enabled Shakespeare's art to mature to such a considerable degree. For one thing, during this period he wrote exclusively for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Not only did he have personal relationships with his actors, but this situation also allowed him to develop his scripts in close collaboration with them. For another thing, competition with other theater companies increased dramatically during this period. In addition to two splendid companies of boy actors, the Lord Chamberlain's Men competed with the Lord Admiral's Men. This competition required Shakespeare to keep pushing his art further and keep audiences coming. But what exactly changed in Shakespeare's approach to his art during this time? One significant change involved his use of the soliloquy to develop rich characters. Whereas his use of this technique felt a bit mechanical in the early play Richard III, Shakespeare had perfected it by the time of Hamlet, a play dominated by the soliloquys of a single character. Another significant change found Shakespeare increasingly refusing to provide his characters-and especially his villains-with clear motives. Removal of a clear motive afforded Shakespeare new opportunities to explore the contradictions of human nature.

In addition to his refinement of the soliloquy and the removal of clear motives, Shakespeare's most famous plays from this period also incorporate personal experiences and political happenings in more complex and unexpected ways. Hamlet, for instance, appears to express Shakespeare's grief over the loss of his son, Hamnet, yet the play does so by telling a story about the death of a father. With regard to Macbeth, Shakespeare incorporated unsettling echoes of the Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy Fawkes conspired to blow up King James and the Parliament. Shakespeare's treatment of the witches in this play also relates closely to known reports of King James's anxiety about occult experiences. Perhaps most complex of all is King Lear. The plot of this play comes from the old legend of King Leir, whose daughter Cordell saves him from the evil plotting of her sisters. But the details of the play also correspond to a real-life story of a man named Sir Brian Annesley, whose daughters, one of whom happened to be named Cordell, tried to get him certified insane. Yet King Lear also gives form to other personal and political anxieties, such as the problem of inheritance and royal succession, all without compromising the play's central, dramatic force.

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William Shakespeare's Life and Times: Shakespeare's Growing Success | SparkNotes

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During the decade-long period from roughly 1595 to 1605, Shakespeare's art continued to mature, allowing him to produce some of the greatest plays in the English language. Between 1595 and 1600 Shakespeare experienced numerous adversities.

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How did Shakespeare relate to the modern  world?

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How did Shakespeare relate to the modern  world?

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talks about if it is relevant to us and how it relates

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In English, we are currently talking about Shakespeare. There has recently been some debate about whether Shakespeare is still relevant, and I think that it is. This is an essay that I wrote explaining why I think Shakespeare is relevant today. Enjoy!

Teachers have been seriously debating about whether or not William Shakespeare's work should still be part of a student's education. Will he be voted off as irrelevant? Not if I have anything to do about it. In this essay, I will be going over reasons why the Bard's work is still relevant today, and why it should still be taught in school. Shakespeare's work is still significantly relevant today because the characters are relatable, works from long ago can still be relevant, and talking about the plays could make for an interesting conversation.

First, Shakespeare's work is still relevant today because we can relate to the characters. In the article I read that was against teaching Shakespeare, the teacher argues that we are "clinging to" the perspective of one man who lived 450 years ago. I disagree. Shakespeare wrote plays based on his view of life, and were written a long time ago, but his plays are still relatable, and that is one of the things I love about Shakespeare. Some people may say that they would never find themselves in the same situation as one of the people in the Bard's plays. While this may be true, experiences can still be related to the experiences of the characters.

Secondly, I found a quote from the article arguing that Shakespeare should still be taught in schools to be interesting. It says that "to dismiss Shakespeare on the grounds that life 450 years ago has no relation to life today is to dismiss every religious text, every piece of ancient mythology, and...everything that wasn't written in whatever time defined as now." This is a great argument, and one that I agree with. Just because a piece of written material wasn't written from a twenty-first century perspective doesn't mean that it should be dismissed as irrelevant, unimportant, or non-relatable.

My final argument for this case is that Shakespeare's tales can spark interesting conversation and possibly even begin friendships. Learning that someone else has read a Shakespeare play can make you appreciate them more and quite possibly make them appear smarter than they would otherwise.

Some might say that Shakespeare is no longer relevant because he wrote his plays 450 years ago and might not be relatable from our viewpoint today. This is not a valid point, because we still experience the same things that they did 450 years ago, and still act in some of the same ways as well.

In conclusion, the work of Shakespeare should still be taught in schools. Shakespeare's work is still relevant today because we can compare ourselves to the characters, works from a long time ago can still be relevant, and talking about the plays can possibly build friendships. The Bard's work is not irrelevant, and he is still one of the greatest writers of all time.

I hope you enjoyed this essay I wrote about the works of Shakespeare and why they are still relevant. See you next time!

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In English, we are currently talking about Shakespeare. There has recently been some debate about whether Shakespeare is still relevant, and I think that it is. This is an essay that I wrote explaining why I think Shakespeare is relevant today. Enjoy!

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What was William shake spears work life like?

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What was William shake spears work life like?

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https://www.bl.uk/people/william-shakespeare#:~:text=His%2017%20comedies%20include%20The,was%20first%20published%20in%201609.

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this is about his life and inspirations

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Shakespeare grew up in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. His mother was the daughter of a local farmer and his father was a glove-maker. They were one of the richest families in town. Shakespeare went to school in Stratford, where he would have learnt to read and write in Latin and Greek as well as English. One of the ways in which the students were taught was through the performance of Latin plays. He would also have learnt about plays from the travelling companies who performed in Stratford. Shakespeare's father was a and companies had to get a licence from him to perform in town.

At 18 Shakespeare married a local girl, Anne Hathaway. They had three children - a daughter called Susanna and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died in 1596 - Shakespeare appears to have named his most famous character, Hamlet, after his son. Apart from his marriage and children, there is no record of what Shakespeare was doing at this time, before he went to London. Some people have suggested he was a teacher.

The area in which he grew up influenced his plays - the Forest of Arden, to the north of Stratford, appears in As You Like It . As a country lad he knew plenty of names of plants and flowers, which feature all over his work - like the wild pansy, known as 'love in idleness', which, 'purple with love's wound', is the little flower which causes all the mischief in A Midsummer Night's Dream .

Did you know?

In Elizabethan times spelling was not fixed. You could choose how to spell certain things - including your own name! Shakespeare signed himself Shakespe, Shakspe, Shakspere and Shakespear.

Shakespeare's plays weren't published during his life - it was only after he died that his friends got together and paid for his plays to be collected. If they hadn't, most of the plays would not have survived to this day.

The only thing Shakespeare left to his wife in his will was his 'second-best bed' and its bedclothes. This would be their marriage bed - the best bed was kept for guests, and kept in a downstairs room, so that passers-by could see it and see how rich the house-owners were.

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Childhood and family - Shakespeare's life and inspirations - KS3 English Revision - BBC Bitesize

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Shakespeare grew up in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. His mother was the daughter of a local farmer and his father was a glove-maker. They were one of the richest families in town. Shakespeare went to school in Stratford, where he would have learnt to read and write in Latin and Greek as well as English.

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this is about shakespear artifacts

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William Shakespeare made some rounds in his time, and many, many more rounds after his time. The humorist in him would have appreciated that the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), which began in a Tudor mansion off the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood more than fifty years ago-and which included a one half-scale replica of the 1599 Globe Theatre interior-is now housed in a small building in the tiny, central-coast harbor town of Moss Landing, California.

And that building's content comprises an eclectic and expansive trove of Shakespeareana: costumes, masks, busts, playbills, figurines, posters, props, furnishings, and an assemblage of odd and whimsical artifacts. Among those worthies are many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century volumes of the Bard's collected plays, some enhanced by crisp prints from copperplate engravings that might hold the key to another fifty years of the SSA's thriving.

But before we continue, the prologue: The SSA was founded by theater producer/director Robert Thaddeus (Thad) Taylor in 1968. Between 1976 and 1979, the SSA staged the full Shakespeare canon, thirty-eight plays in all, in succession, and then repeated that feat between 1981 and 1984. Over time, they amassed its 3,000-strong rare book and reference collection, its 10,000-item theater arts archive, and a weighty assortment of museum documents, memorabilia, and miscellany.

When Thad Taylor died in 2006, the nonprofit was forced to relocate to smaller quarters but tried to stay true to his original goals. "The mission of the Shakespeare Society of America has always been about bringing the brilliance of the material out to the public, so they can actually see what was in original books, the original material from back then, and how important Shakespeare has been in that whole process," said Terry Taylor, Thad's nephew and current president of the SSA. "We have over a thousand books from earlier than 1900, and four hundred earlier than 1800. For various reasons, no one has seen every item in the collection. It's beyond control on one level, but we're preserving it for the future."

One could understand the difficulties trying to control vast resources in a small space, especially when the resources keep expanding. A recent donation from the estate of a high school English teacher from Pennsylvania filled a tabletop during a recent visit. Shakespeare-themed plates, books, buttons, keychains, and a hoard of pewter finger puppets from the plays-in all, thirty boxes of items, many still in those boxes.

Taylor displayed a set of Shakespeare's complete works from 1805 that was owned by the first John Barrymore, given to the SSA by John Barrymore II when his son, John Barrymore III, was playing Hamlet in nearby Carmel-by-the-Sea. Close at hand is a three-volume set of The National Shakespeare, a faithful reproduction of the first folio of 1623, produced with the Royal Society of Art in 1888-1889.

But it's the giant Collection of Prints, from pictures painted for the purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare published by John Boydell in 1803, that really catches the eye. Boydell, an engraver himself, engaged a host of other master artists and engravers to paint lavishly detailed scenes from the plays, which he displayed in a gallery. He had the engravers cast the scenes on copper plates, and then used a reverse printing process to emblazon the scenes on folio-sized paper. The ninety images are magnificent-a moonlight-on-water scene from The Merchant of Venice is mesmerizing, and Caliban has never been more vividly fiendish than in Boydell's print illustrating The Tempest.

Because copyright on these items has expired, Taylor intends to have a selection of the images printed on fine paper to sell online and at the SSA. "We have about thirty in high-definition film at the printer," he said. "I can call and have these produced in just about any size, shape, or color. But I just can't afford it."

The organization also has a license to reproduce and sell artful notecards and playing cards depicting all 181 flowers and other flora mentioned in Shakespeare's works, and he plans to branch out into SSA-branded merchandise.

At this point, Taylor can't meet the expense to properly catalogue the holdings of the SSA, much less optimally exhibit them. He's only had intermittent part-time help since the Moss Landing enterprise opened, and many promises of help and financing have fallen through. He's done a great deal of outreach to local schools and other institutions and suggested educational programs related to his archives, but in a time of restricted budgets and insurance concerns, it's a rare thing for a school district to fund field trips, he said. He is hopeful that a revamped website will bring more attention.

Taylor browsed the collection, pointing to and selecting at random volumes from his shelves, including a 1938 edition of Shakespeare: Twenty-three Plays and the Sonnets, published by the United States Armed Forces Institute, and the 1999 book, Shakespeare on Management, possibly advising on how to manage manic dreams on a midsummer's night. "Here's Dining with William Shakespeare," Taylor announced, and then picked up a copy of Hamlet in German, another donation.

"And my all-time favorite, The Medical Mind of Shakespeare," he said. "Wow. So he wrote thirty-eight plays with a quill, giving people medical conditions, describing them with descriptions that a doctor uses now to describe your condition when you go in to get checked out."

Shakespeare gave us nothing if not infinite variety, and that gift lives on, in a thousand guises, in Moss Landing, California.

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The Shakespeare Society of America struggles to preserve its historic collection

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William Shakespeare made some rounds in his time, and many, many more rounds after his time. The humorist in him would have appreciated that the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), which began in a Tudor mansion off the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood more than fifty years ago-and which included a one half-scale replica of the 1599 Globe Theatre interior-is now housed in a small building in the tiny, central-coast harbor town of Moss Landing, California.

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This web gave me all the information i needed for Shakespeare society

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SSA Mission

To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America.

Welcome Message from SSA President

ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969. In 1972 SSA rented a warehouse in West Los Angeles where R. Thad Taylor, Founding President designed, built and operated the Globe Playhouse with a replica of the interior of Shakespeare 's 1599 Globe Theatre originally located in London, England. The SSA Globe Theatre was first to stage all 38 Shakespeare Plays (aka Canon) in succession 1976 -1979, in 48 months, repeating the Canon 1981-1984 in 38 months. In October 2006 R. Thad Taylor passed away. By January 2007, SSA had to relocate. SSA administrators preserved a wide variety of assets consisting of a rare book and reference collection (3,000 + items), museum and memorabilia collection (1,000 + items), visual art collection (1,000 + items), and theatre arts archive (10,000 + items) consisting of playbills, posters, reviews, photographs, slides and props. Assets are known as the "SSA Collection".By September 2008 the Shakespeare Society of America relocated to Moss Landing in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The facility is called New Shakespeare Sanctuary.
Over 6000 visitors (nearly 50 countries) from all over the world have explored the New Shakespeare Sanctuary in the past 48 months. Nearly 30% of these Guests are/were education, cultural and performing arts advocates and encourage expanded distribution of public benefit programs. Thank You for exploring ShakespeareAmerica and our efforts to make public benefit programs available to all cultural and performing arts stakeholders ... Terry Taylor, President/CEO

Contact Information Shakespeare Society of America New Shakespeare Sanctuary 7981 Moss Landing Road Moss Landing, CA 95039 (831) 633-2989 admin@ShakespeareSocietyOfAmerica.org

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SSA Mission To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America. Welcome Message from SSA President ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969.

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good website because its a .edu

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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Interested in Willam Shakespeare facts? Below you can read seven quick facts about Shakespeare, or delve deeper into our longer selection of interesting facts about the great man and his life.

Bear in mind that very little in the way of hard facts is actually known about Shakespeare's life (unlike facts about Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which are fairly well documented), but we've researched long and hard to come up with this huge - and unique - selection of verifiable Shakespeare facts.

7 Quick William Shakespeare Facts...

1. Parents: John Shakespeare & Mary Shakespeare (nee Arden).

2. Born: Generally accepted as 23 April 1564, as he was baptised 26 April 1564.

3. Hometown: Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.

4. Works: 37 plays (at least), 154 sonnets, many poems.

5. Died: Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Facts About Shakespeare's Life

8. Shakespeare's father made gloves for a living

Shakespeare's parents were John and Mary Shakespeare (nee Arden). John came to Stratford upon Avon from Snitterfield before 1532 as an apprentice glover and tanner of leathers. He prospered and began to deal in farm products and wool before being elected to a multitude of civic positions.

9. Shakespeare was born 23rd April 1564

There is documentary proof that Shakespeare was baptised on 26th April 1564, and scholars believe that, in keeping with the traditions of the time, he would have been baptised when he was three days old, meaning Shakespeare was probably born on April 23rd. However, as Shakespeare was born under the old Julian calendar, what was April 23rd during Shakespeare's life would actually be May 3rd according to today's Gregorian calendar.

10. Shakespeare had seven siblings

Shakespeare had seven siblings: Joan (b 1558, only lived 2 months); Margaret (b 1562); Gilbert (b 1566); another Joan (b 1569); Anne (b 1571); Richard (b 1574) and Edmund (b 1580). Read more about Shakespeare's family.

11. Shakespeare married an older, pregnant lady at 18

Shakespeare married his wife Anne Hathaway when he was 18. She was 26 and three months pregnant with Shakespeare's child when they married. Their first child Susanna was born six months after the wedding.

12. Shakespeare had three children

Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children together - a son, Hamnet, who died in 1596, and two daughters, Susanna and Judith. His only granddaughter Elizabeth - daughter of Susanna - died childless in 1670. Shakespeare, therefore, has no descendants. Read more about Shakespeare's family.

13. Shakespeare moved to London as a young man

Shakespeare left Stratford upon Avon - likely in the late 1580s - and went to London. The first record of William Shakespeare in London is of him living in Bishopsgate in 1596 (see our post on where Shakespeare lived in London). The address is unknown, though is thought to be in the vicinity of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Avenue.

14. Shakespeare was an actor, as well as a writer

Few people realise that apart from writing his numerous plays and sonnets, Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights. There is evidence that he played the ghost in Hamlet and Adam in As You Like It.

15. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earing

It's likely that Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring in his left ear - a creative, bohemian look in the Elizabethan & Jacobean eras. This style is evidenced in the Chandos portrait, one of the most famous depictions of Shakespeare.

16. Shakespeare became very wealthy

During his lifetime Shakespeare became a very wealthy man with a large property portfolio. He was a brilliant businessman - forming a joint-stock company with his actors meaning he took a share in the company's profits, as well as earning a fee for each play he wrote.

17. Shakespeare lived between London and Stratford

Shakespeare lived a double life. By the seventeenth century, he had become a famous playwright in London but in his hometown of Stratford upon Avon, where his wife and children were, and which he visited frequently, he was a well-known and highly respected businessman and property owner.

18. Shakespeare's Stratford home was called 'New Place'

Shakespeare's family home in Stratford upon Avon was called New Place. The house stood on the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel Lane, and was the largest house in the town at that time.

19. Shakespeare performed before both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I

During his life William Shakespeare and his theatre company performed before both Queen Elizabeth I and, later, James I, who was an enthusiastic patron of his work.

20. Shakespeare was a favourite of King James I

Shakespeare had close connections with King James I. The King made the actors of Shakespeare's company 'Grooms of Chamber', in response to which Shakespeare changed the company's name from the 'Lord Chamberlain's Men' to the 'King's Men'. The new title made Shakespeare a favourite with the King and in much demand for Court performances.

21. Shakespeare had his own family coat of arms

Sometime after his unsuccessful application to become a gentleman, William Shakespeare took his father to the College of Arms to secure their own Shakespeare family crest. The crest was a yellow spear on a yellow shield, with the Latin inscription "Non Sans Droict", or "Not without Right".

22. Shakespeare left his wife his "second best best"

On his death, Shakespeare made several gifts to various people but left his property to his daughter, Susanna. The only mention of his wife in Shakespeare's own will is: "I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture". The "furniture" was the bedclothes for the bed.

23. Shakespeare died on his birthday

William Shakespeare's burial at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon is documented as happening on 25th April 1616. In keeping with traditions of the time it's likely he would have been buried two days after his death, meaning Shakespeare likely died 23rd April 1616 - his 52nd birthday.

24. Shakespeare put a curse on his grave

Shakespeare penned a curse for his grave, daring anyone to move his body from that final resting place. His epitaph was:

Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

Though it was customary to dig up the bones from previous graves to make room for others, the remains in Shakespeare's grave are still undisturbed.

25. Shakespeare was a Catholic

Although Catholicism was effectively illegal in Shakespeare's lifetime, the Anglican Archdeacon, Richard Davies of Lichfield, who had known him wrote some time after Shakespeare's death that he had been a Catholic.

Facts About Shakespeare's Era

26. Shakespeare was both an Elizabethan and Jacobean

Shakespeare is most often referred to as an Elizabethan playwright, but as most of his most popular plays were written after Elizabeth's death he was actually more of a Jacobean writer. His later plays also show the distinct characteristics of Jacobean drama.

27. There was no such thing as copyright

Copyright didn't exist in William Shakespeare's time, as a result of which there was a thriving trade in copied plays. To help counter this, actors got their lines only once the play was in progress - often in the form of cue acting where someone backstage whispered them to the person shortly before he was supposed to deliver them.

28. Waves of plague closed all theatres

An outbreak of the plague in Europe resulted in all London theatres being closed between 1592 and 1594. As there was no demand for plays during this time, Shakespeare began to write poetry, completing his first batch of sonnets in 1593, aged 29.

29. Females were not allowed to perform on stage

It was illegal for women and girls to perform in the theatre in Shakespeare's lifetime so all the female parts were written for boys. The text of some plays like Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra refer to that. It was only much later, during the Restoration, that the first woman appeared on the English stage.

30. The Globe Theatre burned down

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre came to a premature end on 29th June 1613 after a cannon shot set fire to the thatched roof during a performance of Henry VIII. Within two hours the theatre was burnt to the ground, to be rebuilt the following year. (See our article on interesting facts on The Globe Theatre.)

31. Writing by candlelight didn't happen

Candles were very expensive in Shakespeare's time so they were used only for emergencies, for a short time. Most writers wrote in the daytime and socialised in the evenings. There is no reason to think that William Shakespeare was any different from his contemporaries.

Facts About Shakespeare's Works

32. Shakespeare was incredibly productive

During his life, William Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and a number of poems! that we know of. In addition, there are a number of "lost plays" and plays that Shakespeare collaborated on. This means Shakespeare wrote an average of 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589.

33. Shakespeare is bested only by the bible for quotes

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, William Shakespeare wrote close to a tenth of the most quoted lines ever written or spoken in English. What's more, according to the Literature Encyclopaedia, Shakespeare is the second most quoted English writer after the writers of the bible (read our selection of Shakespeare's best quotes).

34. There are 13 suicides in Shakespeare's plays

Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare's plays, with three suicides occurring in both Antony & Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, and two suicides in Romeo and Juliet.

35. Two of Shakespeare's plays are written completely in verse

Only two of Shakespeare's plays are written entirely in verse: they are Richard II and King John. Many of the plays have half of the text in prose.

36. Shakespeare wrote at least two plays that have been lost

It's certain that Shakespeare wrote at least two plays that have been lost - titled Cardenio, and Love's Labour's Won. It's likely that Shakespeare wrote many more plays that have been lost.

37. Shakespeare's longest play is three times longer than his shortest

Shakespeare's shortest play, The Comedy of Errors contains just 1,770 lines and is only a third of the length of his longest, Hamlet, which takes four hours to perform.

38. Two Shakespeare plays are available in Klingon

Two of Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, have been translated into Klingon. The Klingon Language Institute plans to translate more! (If you're into quirky William Shakespeare facts check out our list of 23 things you never knew about Shakespeare.)

39. Shakespeare wrote his final play aged 49

Shakespeare's last play - The Two Noble Kinsmen - is reckoned to have been written in 1613 when he was 49 years old.

40. There's a conspiracy that Shakespeare didn't write his plays

Some scholars have maintained that Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him, with at least fifty writers having been suggested as the "real" author. However, the evidence for Shakespeare's having written the plays is very strong.

41. Shakespeare was a great collaborator

In Elizabethan theatre circles it was common for writers to collaborate on writing plays. Towards the end of his career, Shakespeare worked with other writers on plays that have been credited to those writers. Other writers also worked on plays that are credited to Shakespeare. We know for certain that Timon of Athens was a collaboration with Thomas Middleton; Pericles with George Wilkins; and The Two Noble Kinsmen with John Fletcher.

42. Shakespeare was never published in his lifetime

Shakespeare's plays were never actually published during his lifetime. They are known today only because two of his fellow actors - John Hemminges and Henry Condell - recorded and published 36 of them posthumously under the name 'The First Folio', which is the source of all William Shakespeare books published.

Fun Shakespeare Facts

43. Shakespeare got panned by critics in his time

Although Shakespeare is almost universally considered as one of the finest writers in the English language, his contemporaries were not always as impressed. The first recorded reference to Shakespeare, written by theatre critic Robert Greene in 1592, was as an "upstart crow, beautified with our feathers".

44. The first purchase by the National Portrait Gallery was a Shakespeare portrait

The National Portrait Gallery in London's first acquisition in 1856 was the 'Chandos' portrait of Shakespeare, attributed to the artist John Taylor. It's now considered the only representation of the writer that has any real claim to having been painted from life. (See a gallery of Shakespeare portraits.)

45. Shakespeare's relative was executed for plotting against the queen

One of Shakespeare's relatives on his mother's side, William Arden, was arrested for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed.

46. Did you know...

'William Shakespeare' is an anagram of 'I am a weakish speller'.

47. The bible contains a hidden message to Shakespeare (maybe!)

In the King James Bible the 46th word of Psalm 46 is 'shake' and the 46th word from the end of the same Psalm is 'spear'. Some think this was a hidden birthday message to the Bard, as the King James Bible was published in 1611 - the year of Shakespeare's 46th birthday.

48. Uranus' moons are named after Shakespeare characters

The moons of Uranus were originally named in 1852 after magical spirits from English literature. The International Astronomy Union subsequently developed the convention to name all further moons of Uranus (of which there are 27) after characters in Shakespeare's plays or Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock.

49. Starlings exist in the USA because of Shakespeare

The United States has Shakespeare to thank for its estimated 200 million starlings. In 1890 an American bardolator, Eugene Schiffelin, embarked on a project to import each species of bird mentioned in Shakespeare's works that were absent from the US. Part of this project involved releasing two flocks of 60 starlings in New York's Central Park.

50. Abraham Lincoln and his assassin were both bang into Shakespeare

The American President Abraham Lincoln was a great lover of Shakespeare's plays and frequently recited from them to his friends. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a famous Shakespearean actor.

51. Shakespeare was John Keats' creative muse

Rumour has it that poet John Keats was so influenced by Shakespeare that he kept a bust of the Bard beside him while he wrote, hoping that Shakespeare would spark his creativity.

52. The RSC perform to half a million people each year

The Royal Shakespeare Company sells more than half a million tickets a year for Shakespeare productions at their theatres in Stratford-on-Avon, London, and Newcastle - introducing an estimated 50,000 people to a live Shakespeare performance for the first time each year.

53. Shakespeare's name was spelled at least 80 ways

There are more than 80 variations recorded for the spelling of Shakespeare's name. In the few original signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelt his name "Willm Shaksp," "William Shakespe," "Wm Shakspe," "William Shakspere," "Willm Shakspere," and "William Shakspeare". There are no records of him ever having spelt it "William Shakespeare", as we know him today.

54. Shakespeare's grave now shows him holding a quill

Shakespeare's original grave marker showed him holding a bag of grain. Citizens of Stratford replaced the bag with a quill in 1747.

55. Shakespeare introduced 3,000 words to the English language

Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language. Estimations of his vocabulary range from 17,000 to a dizzying 29,000 words - at least double the number of words used by the average conversationalist.

56. Shakespeare used 7,000 words just once each in his works

According to Shakespeare professor Louis Marder, "Shakespeare was so facile in employing words that he was able to use over 7,000 of them - more than occur in the whole King James Version of the Bible - only once and never again."

Congratulations on making it all the way through these William Shakespeare facts!

Are you still in need of even more facts about Shakespeare? If so, check out our list of 23 things you never knew about Shakespeare. And if these extra William Shakespeare facts aren't enough for you to understand the Bard and his life, check out our complete biography of Shakespeare, or this Shakespeare timeline.

What do you think of these Shakespeare facts - any that surprise you, or that you didn't know? Or perhaps you'd like to share your own facts about William Shakespeare. Please let us know in the comments section below!

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Shakespeare's works | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Read, search, and download the complete works of William Shakespeare for free. Learn about plot, characters, and language in Shakespeare plays and poems.

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How did Shakespeare begin to be printed?

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How did Shakespeare begin to be printed?

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Shakespeare's works 1 2

The first of Shakespeare's plays to be printed in quarto was Titus Andronicus, in 1594. The earliest quartos were anonymous. Shakespeare's name did not appear on a title-page until 1598, with Love's Labour's Lost. Until recently, scholars have been agreed that Shakespeare took no interest in the printing of his plays. Fresh research suggests that he and his company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, intended to have his plays printed.

Nineteen of Shakespeare's plays had appeared in quarto by 1622. In the following year the first folio added another 18. A handful of plays were excluded from the first folio, probably because they were known not to be wholly by Shakespeare. One of these, Pericles, is now accepted as his. At least one of the excluded plays, Cardenio (which Shakespeare wrote in collaboration with John Fletcher in 1612-1613), is now lost.

Many of the plays which had been printed before the first folio continued to appear in new quarto editions after 1623. One, The Taming of the Shrew, was printed in quarto for the first time in 1631. The first folio was followed by a second folio in 1632. The first folio divided Shakespeare's plays into comedies, histories, and tragedies, and they have been thought of in this way ever since.

Seventeen of Shakespeare's plays are usually thought of as comedies:

The Taming of the Shrew, created in about 1590-1591 or perhaps earlier. First printed in the first folio of 1623. Reprinted in quarto in 1631.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, created in about 1592-1593. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

The Comedy of Errors, created by 1594. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Love's Labour's Lost, created in about 1594-1595. First printed in quarto in 1598.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, created in about 1595-1596. First printed in quarto in 1600.

The Merchant of Venice, created between 1596 and 1598. First printed in quarto in 1600.

Much Ado About Nothing, created in about 1598-1599. First printed in quarto in 1600.

As You Like It, created in about 1599. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, created in about 1599-1600. First printed in quarto in 1602.

Twelfth Night, created in about 1601. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Troilus and Cressida, created in about 1601. First printed in quarto in 1609.

All's Well that End's Well, created in about 1603-1604. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Measure for Measure, created in about 1604. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Pericles, created in about 1607-1608. George Wilkins may have written part of the play. First printed in quarto in 1609. Excluded from the first folio of 1623.

Cymbeline, created in about 1609. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

The Winter's Tale, created in about 1611. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

The Tempest, created in about 1611. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Spenser's
The Shepheardes Calender was one of Shakespeare's sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream . Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, 1579. British Library, G.11532, f. 16r. Larger image

Shakespeare wrote 10 plays which drew on English history:

Henry VI, Part 2, created by 1591. First printed in quarto, with the title The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, in 1594.

Richard III, created in about 1591. First printed in quarto in 1597.

Henry VI, Part 3, created by 1592. First printed in octavo, with the title The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt, in 1595.

Henry VI, Part 1, created in about 1592. Shakespeare may have collaborated with other dramatists, including Thomas Nash. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

King John, created between 1593 and 1596. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Richard II, created in about 1595. First printed in quarto in 1597.

Henry IV, Part 1, created in about 1596-1597. First printed in quarto in 1598.

Henry IV, Part 2, created in about 1597. First printed in quarto in 1600.

Henry V, created in about 1599. First printed in quarto in 1600.

Henry VIII (All is True), created in 1613. Shakespeare may have collaborated with John Fletcher. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Hall's chronicle was used by Shakespeare as a source for several of his history plays . Edward Hall,
The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrate Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke, 1548. British Library, C.122.h.4. Titlepage. Larger image

Shakespeare wrote 10 tragedies:

Titus Andronicus, created in about 1593. First printed in quarto in 1594.

Romeo and Juliet, created in about 1595. First printed in quarto in 1597.

Julius Caesar, created in about 1599. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Hamlet, created in about 1600-1601. First printed in quarto in 1603.

Othello, created in about 1601-1602. First printed in quarto in 1622.

King Lear, created in about 1605-1606. First printed in quarto in 1608.

Macbeth, created in about 1606. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Anthony and Cleopatra, created in about 1606-1607. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Timon of Athens, created in about 1607-1608. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Coriolanus, created in about 1608. First printed in the first folio of 1623.

Shakespeare's plays admired. Francis Meres,
Palladis Tamia, 1598. British Library, G.10375, f. 282. Larger image

At least three other plays were written by Shakespeare in collaboration with others:

Sir Thomas More, written in collaboration with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker and Thomas Heywood. This play survives only in a manuscript, now in the British Library (Harley MS 7368). One section of the play is thought to be in Shakespeare's hand.

The Raigne of King Edward the Third, created between 1588 and 1595. First printed in quarto in 1596. Excluded from the first folio of 1623.

The Two Noble Kinsmen, written with John Fletcher in about 1613-1614. Excluded from the first folio of 1623. First published in quarto in 1634.

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William Shakespeare's plays - William Shakespeare in quarto

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Facts about William Shakespeare's thirty seven plays - the comedies, histories and tragedies

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list of plays that Shakespeare wrote

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The navigation menu to the left shows the plays in the order in which Shakespeare is believed to have written them. Below are alphabetical and chronological listings.

PLAYS ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY:

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PLAYS ARRANGED IN HISTORICAL ORDER:

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LibGuides: Shakespeare's Plays: Alphabetical & Historical Lists of Shakespeare's Plays

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What was life like when Shakespeare was alive?

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What was life like when Shakespeare was alive?

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This is what life was like around the time of Wiliam Shakespeare was alive.

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Instructor: Stephan Flores
SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD/STAGE
The following entries are (unless otherwise noted) summaries (by various hands in English 345.01 Shakespeare Fall 1997) of sections in Stephen Greenblatt's "General Introduction" (1-76) to The Norton Shakespeare (Norton, 1997).
LIFE AND DEATH
During Shakespeare's time, people's lives were often short. As many as one-half of the children born never lived beyond fifteen years and, thus, never reached adulthood. Also, the average lifespan of an adult was only thirty years. These short lifespans were due to the limited medical knowledge. In a time when antiseptics and antibiotics weren't known, doctors used somewhat primitive forms of medication. One thing that really tested the medical knowledge was the bubonic plague. The disease that often plagued England always appeared suddenly and spread quickly. Ignorant of the disease, doctors typically prescribed anything from amulets to sweet-smelling things. In an attempt to slow the disease's spread, regulations were passed. One was to temporarily close all London theaters when the death rate was high. People believed this would help to prevent human contact. Another policy was to kill cats and dogs. Since there were few cats around to hunt rats, which carried the fleas that carried the plague, the bubonic plague was not hindered. At this time, England's food supply was uncertain, even when the plague was dormant. The poor could've easily starved if there was a series of bad harvests. Plus, their and the aristocrats' diets weren't very nutritious. This caused the whole population to acquire illnesses caused by vitamin deficiencies.
WEALTH
Despite diseases that plagued England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, populations still increased. Every year approximately 10,000 citizens migrated to London mainly because wages were about 50 percent higher than in other parts of the country.

During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries England was at peace. This brought enterprise and prosperity. Landowners built homes and planted orchards. Even lower class laborers and yeomen worked hard and were able to accumulate wealth. Much of this wealth was spent on leisure activities: one theater historian calculated that London playhouses saw close to 50 million visitors.

The main source of the country's income was wool, which made up three-fourths of England's exports. As wool continued to grow in demand, sheep took priority over people. Farms that produced food for the country's citizens soon turned into grazing land for sheep. In reference to the problematic land "trade-offs," a character in Thomas More's Utopia complained, "the sheep are eating the people."

London became a booming trade station handling 85 percent of all exports. Wool textiles gained popularity as their quality and craftsmanship became known. Many people realized this, and as a result ranchers, laborers, merchants, and clerks throughout England profited, receiving healthy wages and incomes.
RIOT AND DISORDER
"London was a violent place in the first half of Shakespeare's career" (7). The urban rioters were mostly poor apprentices who picked on "foreigners, prostitutes, and gentlemen's servingmen" (8). City authorities didn't let disturbances get out of control, but also did not take them too seriously. The more serious rioting occurred in rural areas against enclosure of property by landlords and the crown. Lands included commons, waste lands, and forests. This type of protest was very popular during Shakespeare's career, especially from 1590-1610. Anti-enclosure riots were usually directed at property rather than individuals. Riots often had a carnival atmosphere, including drinking and song. Women and children participated in destruction of enclosures as well, which generally consisted of tearing up hedges and filling in ditches. Smaller riots occurred frequently because small village riots were considered a misdemeanor, whereas larger riots were considered treason. Large riots did occur though. The largest, known as Kett's Rebellion after its organizer, had 16,000 participants. Rioters were often jailed. Heads of uprisings, like Kett who died in jail, were tortured and sometimes executed.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN
During the time of William Shakespeare, the majority of women had very limited rights in England. Despite the fact that England was ruled by a female monarch for over four decades, most women had little power over the direction of their lives. Most writings about the life of the family during this time in history centered around the traditional partriarchal paradigm--that of "domination and submission." Just as the kingdom was ruled by a monarch, the father and head of the household ruled over his wife and children. Women were denied formal educations, the opportunity to hold office, and also guarded against speaking out too freely in fear of being labeled as a "scold." Such women were considered a threat to the public, and were corrected with such punishments as public humiliation and abuse.

Although women did endure such limits on their political and social rights, they did have extended to them greater econimic freedom. Single women were able to "inherit land, make a will, sign a contract, possess property . . . without a male guardian . . ."(10). Unfortuantely, such rights dissolved with marriage. History shows as well that many daughters were heirs to a father's property, if there were no male heir, despite the tradition of promigeniture. Wives as well could find themselves in charge of a large estate after the death of a husband, until an eldest son was old enough to do so.

WOMEN IN PRINT
Although literacy rates soared much earlier in the male population with the invention of the printing press, literacy among women did not begin to spread until the late sixteenth century, primarily in response to the Protestant push for the direct experience of the scriptures. Greenblatt notes that, "It is striking how many of Shakespeare's women are shown reading" (11). The appearance of this new audience spawned a rash of devotional and instructional works on everything from needlework to midwifery. Fiction for female audiences appeared later, around 1570. Despite the increase in literacy among women and in works created with them in mind, the overwhelming majority of these works-for-women were written by men. The central contention in these works was not what women should be, "chaste dutiful, shamefast and silent" (11), but rather, whether or not they succeeded in fulfilling this requirement. Joseph Swetnam's "Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Forward, and Unconstant Women" was published in 1615 and inspired a handful of responses attributed to women including an anonymous play "Swetnam the Woman-hater Arraigned by Women" (1618). The majority of women who did write were the sisters, wives, or daughters of men who wrote and limited themselves primarily to devotional texts and translation. However, there were a few exceptions including Jane Anger's "Jane Anger Her Protection for Women" (1589) and Elizabeth Cary's play "Tragedy of Miriam, the Fairy Queen of Jewry" (1613).
THE KINGDOM IN DANGER
Due to the stir caused by the Reformation in Europe, Queen Elizabeth of England sought to stabilize her country by compromising between the Protestants and Catholics. Tensions continued to mount and massacres were occurring on both sides. In 1572, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Catholics massacred French Calvinists (Huguenots). This was soon after some other Protestant purging and the assassination of the Protestant leader, William of Orange. In 1580, the pope stated that it would not be a mortal sin to assassinate the Queen of England. Hereafter, all Catholics, loyal or not, were under suspicion. Soon, it was discovered that Queen Mary was involved in an assassination plot and "Elizabeth signed the death warrant in February 1587, and her cousin was beheaded."

Soon, it became known that Catholic Spain, under direction of Philip II, was going to invade England. However, the Spanish fleet was routed by the English, then destroyed by storms at sea. In a "victory" speech the Queen stated, "We Princes [England] are set on stages in the sight and view of all the world."
THE JACOBEAN COURT
James I took the throne in 1603. His reign was lavish and extravagant. He hoped to unite Scotland and England under one title. James I longed to be crowned "King of Great Britain." His ultimate aim was to preserve peace. During James I's early years, his court was known for its "diplomacy, amibition, intrigue, and an intense jockeying for social position." The most highly regarded offices in the Jacobean Court were those serving the king during moments of vulnerability. The courtier's lifestyle was refined into an art form.

The Jacobean Court was ideal because the king was generous with money and affection. He had favorite courtiers who received exquisite gifts. King James' romantic attachments to his male courtiers spawned "rumors of widespread homosexual activities at court." James I might have been merely expressing affection for them based upon more classical models. James I and his courtiers were more likely expressing "passionate physical and spritual love." What is certain under James I's reign, male friendships and bonding played an important role in court and literature.

James I hosted celebrations, and masques were performed for court nobility. The lifestyle witnessed during the masques led to finanical strife for James I. James I's debts rose drastically. Unpopular duties were placed upon the king's subjects. Parliamentary disputes over the king's debts dampened King James I's court life.

JAMES'S RELIGIOUS POLICY AND THE PERSECUTION OF WITCHES

James's religious policy began quite radically, yet when he advanced to the throne in England in 1603 he became decidedly more conservative. While he ruled in Scotland in the 1500's he saw himself as sacred and felt he had insight into the agents of Satan. In 1597 he published his Demonology, a testament of the evil that threatened his divine rule. In the 1590's, in Scotland, thousands of women and some men were tortured and killed for alleged witchcraft. Yet, when he claimed the throne in England, he adopted the current laws. Although England had laws against witchcraft, they were far more just and objective than the Scottish laws at that time. James also moderated other religious views.

In 1599 James wrote Basilikon Doron which undeniably was against Puritan reform. However, when presented with a petition signed by a thousand ministers, he called a conference to deal with the ceremonies of the Church of England; this led to the publication of the King James Bible. In addition, the results persuaded James to publish the 1604 Canons, which required ministers to adhere to principles that eventually led to religious divisions and ultimately the murder of James's son Charles.
COSMIC SPECTACLES
During Shakespeare's lifetime, the Red Lion and James Burbage's playhouse, The Theatre, were the first public theaters in England. Prior to these theaters, the only plays that were being held in the towns of England were the "mystery plays." These plays were religious plays that chronicled the beginning of time to the death of Christ. However, with the Protestant Reformation in full swing, these plays soon became produced less frequently because there was a push to get rid of Catholic influence in England.

Early English theater took on a role that parodied some of the mystery plays and it became more popular as plays that addressed secular concerns became more predominant. With the addition of minstrels, common actors, and morality topics, the Early English theater became a rival to the church. Church leaders found themselves denouncing these secular plays because they found some of the themes blasphemous. However, in reality it was the competition between the church and the success of the professional players that was the real problem. The Church would never admit to this rivalry.
MUSIC AND DANCE
Playacting was a form of art that was often accompanied by music and dance. Whether comedy or tragedy, the music and dances incorporated into the plays were important additions to the theatrical world during Shakespeare's time--very frequently during this period a dance would signify the closing of a play.

The importance of dancing on stage was a reflection of dance's widespread popularity throughout the Renaissance period. However, even more central to the stage was music, which obviously is very closely related to dancing. The early part of the sixteenth century showed a loss of interest or even resentment towards music and as a result many organs of the church were destroyed and school choirs were shut down. But later in the century music made a comeback and began to spread until it was again incorporated into many aspects of everyday life. "Styles of secular music were developed that emphasized music's link to humanist eloquence..." This period shows music as not only important to life in the royal court, but rather widespread throughout the culture's domain and musical literacy was regarded as an important tool.

"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,/ Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils" Lorenzo states in the Merchant of Venice. This quote acts as a good example of the importance of music to Shakespeare's world, but sadly much of the music incorporated into Shakespeare's plays has been forgotten because their popularity may have been cause for nobody to write them down.
THE ENEMIES OF THE STAGE
Despite the popular sway wielded by touring players-and maybe even because of it, the stage evoked an enormous amount of hostility from the ecclesiastic and civic officials of Shakespeare's day. Social critics, for one, cited numerous concerns for the safety of the audiences, targeting among other things the unruly mobs of theater-goers, the unsanitary viewing conditions, and the unsavory rabble of prostitutes and riff-raff who frequented the spectacles. The atmosphere was, in their opinion, "inherently disorderly," and therefore represented a serious threat to the public well-being. Not to be outdone, though, the primary brunt of opposition seems to have been initiated by church officials who questioned the unwholesome moral content of the plays. Occasions of subversive blasphemy and theatrical transvestism eventually earned the stage a reputation as "Satan's domain," a place where decent, God-fearing people were led astray from the path of duty and piety. Summarizing the puritanical stance of William Prynne--a typical fanatic--and his select group of antitheatricalists, Greenblatt writes, "stage plays were part of a demonic tangle of obscene practices proliferating like a cancer in the body of society" (36). In light of such adversity it is amazing that the theater was not abolished altogether. However, with the financial backing of powerful patrons, the stage was able to weather such attacks and persevere until more receptive times.
CENSORSHIP AND REGULATION
The players and playwrights of the 1500's found an unexpected ally in those appointed by the monarchy to censor and regulate the stage. More precisely, the actors and authors depended on the censor's approval to give their works at least some legitimacy.

Queen Elizabeth issued a proposal in the late 1500's calling for the review of all pieces that were to be performed. In this proposal, she explicitly denies the privilage of viewing plays to audiences who are not, "grave and discreet," while acceptible authors must be people, "of authority, learning and wisdom." The plays were never to contain religious or political subject matter in connection with the leaders of the day. Interestingly, playwrights were not censored or banned for simply having contradictory beliefs--it was those plays which ridiculed the hierarchy (including influential foreign leaders), or threatened to unleash civil unrest that were most likely to meet with disapproval from the censor.

Later, the Master of Revels was appointed to provide a framework for the regulation of the stage. In her edict, the queen insisted that the Master of Revels personally review each play destined for the stage. This system of regulation, while ensuring that all legally licensed playhouses would be within London's city limits, also guaranteed the players protection from local authorities who may, and often did, disapprove of a play's subject matter.
THE THEATER OF THE NATION
Greenblatt's main focus in this section is the major developments of the sixteenth century that made Shakespeare's phenomenal career possible. The theater experienced paramount growth and change in this time, largely due to the rapidly changing society by which it was surrounded.

The rapid expansion of the market society, or the making of an urban "public," was the first important cultural formation aiding the success of sixteenth century theater. The unexplained urban population boom lent itself to the expansion and popularization of the theater. The sheer number of those able to frequent performances grew immensely. In addition, markets evolved from periodic to continuous affairs, prompting theater goers to regard theatric performances as more common, everyday occurrences, rather than mindfully reserve them for festivals and other special occasions.

The English nation existed in the sixteenth century largely as a "Theater State." In other words, regal power and prestige were closely aligned with theatric performance. Manifestations of power in courtly life were heavily dramatic, larger-than-life, much like the performances themselves. It was almost as if these powerful figures were players in their own extravagant performance. In addition to this real-life power play, regal figures often attended the theater, lending an air of prestige to theater goers and players alike.

Religious ritual proved a valuable aid to the state of sixteenth century theater. The Catholic practices banned by Protestant authorities could be theatricized and motivated theater goers. Greenblatt asserts, however, that despite the obvious influence on theater of the market society, Theater State, and the church, it could not fully identify with any of them. It was attacked as an enemy of economic activity and a competitor of religious gathering, making it out to be the adversary, not the result, of sixteenth century society.
FETISHES IN CLOTHING
In Shakespeare's time, and as a thread running through his plays, his characters are "known" by their clothing; their identify is tied up with their costume. In this section, Greenblatt suggests Shakespeare draws on "his culture's investment in costume, symbols of authority, visible signs of status--the fetishism of dress he must have witnessed from early childhood" (57). Greenblatt points out, "this culture seems deeply dependent on the clothes one wears. . . [or] one is permitted or compelled to wear, since there is little freedom in dress" (57).

The identity of Shakespeare's characters are clothed in disguise; in Twelfth Night, for example, although Viola's identity has been disclosed at the end, Orsino "continues to call her Cesario; he will do so . . . until she assumes her maid's garments, for only then will she be transformed into a woman: 'Cesario, come--/For so you shall be while you are a man;/But when in other habits you are seen,/Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen'" (5.1.372-75) (57). The characters here keep up the pretense of the disguise even though Viola's true role has been uncovered.

The royal crown, whose power men are willing to die for, is the zenith of the fetishism of costume. Not necessarily the 'actual' crown itself, but the power it confers upon the wearer. Anything that is a personal mark or trademark of a person, for instance, the "filthy blanket that transforms Edgar into Poor Tom to the coxcomb that is the badge of the licensed fool" (57), becomes the outward identify-conferring icon of the particular character. Another example of the identity of the wearer being tied to his clothing is Richard II. He was "divested of his crown and scepter" and experienced this as the "eradication of his name, the symbolic melting away of his identity," and he says, ". . . And know not now what name to call myself!" (58). Lear has this same problem when he passes off his clothes "in order to reduce himself to the nakedness of the Bedlam beggar" (58), and finds that he has not only lost his social identity, but experiences "the breakdown of his psychic order . . . expressing his reduction to the condition of the 'poor bare forked animal'" (58).

All of these scenes represent the Renaissance English culture as being a "characteristically deep and knowing commitment to illusion" (58). With the donning of male attire Viola, Rosalind, Portia, Jessica, and other of Shakespeare's female characters, "alter[s] what they can say and do, reveal[s] important aspects of their character, and change[s] their destiny" (59). In the end, though, Viola exclaims, "A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man" (59). Knowing how much the character depends upon her clothing to depict the role Shakespeare created, these women have really not become much more effectual than the articles of clothing they wear--not more important, not more relevant, nor more influential. They, in the end, must remove their new identities, along with their usurped clothing and become "themselves" again.
PARADOXES OF IDENTITY
Within Shakespeare's world there are few characters who escape from difficulties with identity. "There is a peculiar, recurrent lack of fit between costume and character in fools as in princes, that is not simply a matter of disguise and disclosure" (59). In other words, there constantly exists a separation between outward appearance, and the character's actual selfhood.

The character of the individual ends up being of great importance to Shakespeare, who manipulates how the audience will respond to each one. Examples of this kind of manipulation vary from Hamlet feigning madness, to Rosalind dressing as Ganymede, but with each consecutive character some intense kind of difference between their outward character and their true personality is evident.
THE POET OF NATURE
Shakespeare is not your average 16th century pastoral poet. The arena of nature is not unequivocally celebrated. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shakespeare undercuts general assumptions about the "natural." This is shown in the variety of romantic situations he creates that could fall under the definition of "perverse": cross-dressing women in the guise of men wooing other men, relationships between women and men that are too enthusiastic to escape notice, and events more bizarre: in A Midsummer Night's Dream a female character falls madly in love with a man whose head is that of an ass.

Shakespeare also subverts the "natural" hierarchy of his nation's political hierarchy. The Tudor dynasty propagated the idea that their reign was sanctioned by God and was brought about by His will after the country had been sufficiently steeped in blood. In essence the rulers of the Bard's time convinced the populous that they were chosen by God. Few of Shakespeare's characters are spared the rod of his chief tool, irony. The nobility and authority figures are not excepted. He doesn't allow his works to blindly follow any the popular ideology surrounding "the natural."
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYFUL LANGUAGE
The Renaissance was a pinnacle era in the use of developed rhetoric. The popular texts instructing the use of rhetoric made use of a certain number of syntactic forms known as figures, or "schemes", such as irony or hyperbole. Use of these "schemes" could enhance the language, emphasizing and drawing attention to certain words or combinations of words. Gramarians claim that Shakespeare knew and used over 200 of these schemes in his plays, both to express powerful feelings of his characters and to hide them. However, Shakespeare did not rely on complex rhetoric other than when it was necassary and frequently used simple and self-apparent phrases, neither style being more important nor more relied upon by Shakespeare. Shakespeare's working vocabulary of 20,000 words and his complex rhetoric did not dissuade readers but instead ignited their curiosities and wonder of language. His puns and ambiguous phrases show what a master of rhetoric, and grammar Shakespeare was, but most important to Shakepsear's work was his love and perhaps addiction to language, of which he was "the towering master and the most obedient, worshipful servant." His love instilled the vibrant life into his plays.

LONDON PLAYGOING AND THE LAW (from "The Shakespearean Stage" by

Andrew Gurr, in The Norton Shakespeare, 1997)

Playgoing in the 16th century was very different from what it is today, and at first it was not widely accepted. The Lord Mayor of London and other towns tried to suppress it whenever possible due to the fear than any large crowd of people had the potential to turn into a riot.

Because of monarchs like Queen Elizabeth, leading companies were supported by the lord mayors so that they could perform for her at Christmas. However, tight control was kept, and theaters were often closed for reasons such as plague outbreaks.

The people in general also had a distrust of the theater, often for religious reasons. Playacting was seen as deceit and deception and contrary to the Bible's teachings. The Puritans simply disliked shows of any kind. Still, plays were attended by the entire spectrum of the London population, from lords and ladies, to students, artisans, market women and even whores. All saw plays as a chance to enjoy a period of idle occupation.

Standing room for the poor was available for one penny, covered seating for twopence, and a lord's room cost sixpence, equal to an artisan's daily wage. Nobility often attended to be seen as well as to watch plays.

By the time Shakespeare became an active member of his company, he had the full support of the law behind him.
POST-RENAISSANCE THEATRICAL INNOVATIONS
Despite regulation by the crown, theatre continued after Shakespeare's death. It was temporarily stifled during the Puritan reign, but resurfaced with the restoration of Charles II to the throne. These new theatres implemented changes learned from foreign contacts and were operated by actor-managers. Finances were now handled by private investors rather than actors/shareholders of a company. Innovations in scenery came when William Davenant introduced moveable sets and the "picture-frame" stage.

The King's decree of 1662 included women as actors on the stage, marking a major shift in the way theatre had been performed for centuries in England. During Shakespeare's time, boys played the parts of females in plays. New actresses were paid less than men and were often treated as prostitutes by the male members of the company and audience.

In accordance with the common practice of the age, Davenant and others gave themselves liberal license to alter the Bard's works by cutting speeches, changing text, or adding their own words. Many modern scholars' perceptions of the plays come from these altered scripts.

Even the players themselves had a semi-permanent effect on the way Shakespeare's plays are seen or presented today. Thomas Betterton was the best-known actor in England during the late seventeenth century. He played the title role in Hamlet up to the age of 74. His portrayal became standardized and was imitated by later actors. Even the minute detail of Hamlet upsetting his chair when he first sees his father's ghost was religiously mimicked by his successors for some time.

Go to Stephan Flores' Home Page.

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Instructor: Stephan Flores SHAKESPEARE'S WORLD/STAGE The following entries are (unless otherwise noted) summaries (by various hands in English 345.01 Shakespeare Fall 1997) of sections in Stephen Greenblatt's "General Introduction" (1-76) to The Norton Shakespeare (Norton, 1997). LIFE AND DEATH During Shakespeare's time, people's lives were often short.

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This is a very interesting website and also has a cool video.

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Shakespeare's Tomb
Shakespeare's death is a mystery. It's been speculated that he died of syphilis or was even murdered. Helen explores the theory that comes from a diary written by a Stratford Vicar 50 years after Shakespeare's death. It tells of Shakespeare going out drinking with his writing friends and then dying of a fever shortly afterward.

Aired: 04/18/16

Rating: TV-PG

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Shakespeare's Tomb | How Did Shakespeare Die?

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Shakespeare's Tomb Shakespeare's death is a mystery. It's been speculated that he died of syphilis or was even murdered. Helen explores the theory that comes from a diary written by a Stratford Vicar 50 years after Shakespeare's death. It tells of Shakespeare going out drinking with his writing friends and then dying of a fever shortly afterward.

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This website talks a lot about his life.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare's plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare's poems also remain popular to this day.

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to William Shakespeare's family that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ' The Lost Years '.

During his time in London, Shakespeare's first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King's Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare's legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place,the largest house in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare's New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. Read about his life and works.

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this is about how shakespearr plays changed society

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SSA Mission

To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America.

Welcome Message from SSA President

ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969. In 1972 SSA rented a warehouse in West Los Angeles where R. Thad Taylor, Founding President designed, built and operated the Globe Playhouse with a replica of the interior of Shakespeare 's 1599 Globe Theatre originally located in London, England. The SSA Globe Theatre was first to stage all 38 Shakespeare Plays (aka Canon) in succession 1976 -1979, in 48 months, repeating the Canon 1981-1984 in 38 months. In October 2006 R. Thad Taylor passed away. By January 2007, SSA had to relocate. SSA administrators preserved a wide variety of assets consisting of a rare book and reference collection (3,000 + items), museum and memorabilia collection (1,000 + items), visual art collection (1,000 + items), and theatre arts archive (10,000 + items) consisting of playbills, posters, reviews, photographs, slides and props. Assets are known as the "SSA Collection".By September 2008 the Shakespeare Society of America relocated to Moss Landing in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The facility is called New Shakespeare Sanctuary.
Over 6000 visitors (nearly 50 countries) from all over the world have explored the New Shakespeare Sanctuary in the past 48 months. Nearly 30% of these Guests are/were education, cultural and performing arts advocates and encourage expanded distribution of public benefit programs. Thank You for exploring ShakespeareAmerica and our efforts to make public benefit programs available to all cultural and performing arts stakeholders ... Terry Taylor, President/CEO

Contact Information Shakespeare Society of America New Shakespeare Sanctuary 7981 Moss Landing Road Moss Landing, CA 95039 (831) 633-2989 admin@ShakespeareSocietyOfAmerica.org

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SSA Mission To provide Public Benefit Programs which inspire education and personal development Through the Works of William Shakespeare Relating to history, culture, literature, theatre and art in America. Welcome Message from SSA President ShakespeareAmerica is the newly branded department created to expand distribution of public benefit programs provided by the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), a California Public Benefit Corporation since 1968, IRS 501(c)3 since 1969.

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The complete work of William Shakespeare!!

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The complete work of William Shakespeare!!

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All of Shakespeare's plays in order of genre!! :)

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Complete list of Shakespeare's plays, by genre :|: Open Source Shakespeare

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https://www.bardweb.net/bio.html

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Shakespeare's Last Will and Testament

For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history. There are just two primary sources for information on the Bard: his works, and various legal and church documents that have survived from Elizabethan times. Naturally, there are many gaps in this body of information, which tells us little about Shakespeare the man.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, allegedly on April 23, 1564. Church records from Holy Trinity Church indicate that he was baptized there on April 26, 1564. Young William was born of John Shakespeare, a glover and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed local heiress. William, according to the church register, was the third of eight children in the Shakespeare household—three of whom died in childhood. John Shakespeare had a remarkable run of success as a merchant, alderman, and high bailiff of Stratford, during William's early childhood. His fortunes declined, however, in the late 1570s.

There is great conjecture about Shakespeare's childhood years, especially regarding his education. Scholars surmise that Shakespeare attended the grammar school in Stratford. While there are no records extant to prove this claim, Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek would tend to support this theory. In addition, Shakespeare's first biographer, Nicholas Rowe, wrote that John Shakespeare had placed William "for some time in a free school." John Shakespeare, as a Stratford official, would have been granted a waiver of tuition for his son. As the records do not exist, we do not know how long William may have attended the school, but the literary quality of his works suggests a solid educational foundation. What is certain is that William Shakespeare never proceeded to university schooling, which has contributed to the debate about the authorship of his works.

The next documented event in Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582. William was 18 at the time, and Anne was 26-and pregnant. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. The couple later had twins, Hamnet and Judith, born February 2, 1585 and christened at Holy Trinity. Hamnet died in childhood at the age of 11, on August 11, 1596.

For the seven years following the birth of his twins, William Shakespeare disappears from all records, finally turning up again in London some time in 1592. This period, known as the " Lost Years," has sparked as much controversy about Shakespeare's life as any period. Rowe notes that young Shakespeare was quite fond of poaching, and may have had to flee Stratford after an incident with Sir Thomas Lucy, whose deer and rabbits he allegedly poached. There is also rumor of Shakespeare working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire for a time, though this is circumstantial at best.

It is estimated that Shakespeare arrived in London around 1588 and began to establish himself as an actor and playwright. Evidently Shakespeare garnered some envy early on, as related by the critical attack of Robert Greene, a London playwright, in 1592: "...an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country."

Greene's bombast notwithstanding, Shakespeare must have shown considerable promise. By 1594, he was not only acting and writing for the Lord Chamberlain's Men (called the King's Men after the ascension of James I in 1603), but was a managing partner in the operation as well. With Will Kempe, a master comedian, and Richard Burbage, a leading tragic actor of the day, the Lord Chamberlain's Men became a favorite London troupe, patronized by royalty and made popular by the theatre-going public.

Shakespeare's accomplishments are apparent when studied against other playwrights of this age. His company was the most successful in London in his day. He had plays published and sold in octavo editions, or "penny-copies" to the more literate of his audiences. Never before had a playwright enjoyed sufficient acclaim to see his works published and sold as popular literature in the midst of his career. In addition, Shakespeare's ownership share in both the theatrical company and the Globe itself made him as much an entrepeneur as artist. While Shakespeare might not be accounted wealthy by London standards, his success allowed him to purchase New House and retire in comfort to Stratford in 1611.

William Shakespeare wrote his will in 1611, bequeathing his properties to his daughter Susanna (married in 1607 to Dr. John Hall). To his surviving daughter Judith, he left £300, and to his wife Anne left "my second best bed." William Shakespeare allegedly died on his birthday, April 23, 1616. This is probably more of a romantic myth than reality, but Shakespeare was interred at Holy Trinity in Stratford on April 25. In 1623, two working companions of Shakespeare from the Lord Chamberlain's Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, printed the First Folio edition of his collected plays, of which half were previously unpublished.

William Shakespeare's legacy is a body of work that will never again be equaled in Western civilization. His words have endured for 400 years, and still reach across the centuries as powerfully as ever. Even in death, he leaves a final piece of verse as his epitaph:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Mrs. Shakespeare: Anne Hathaway

What we don't know about Anne Shakespeare could fill a book. Or several, judging from the published speculation focused on her life and marriage.

Shakespeare's "Lost Years"

William Shakespeare may be the most famous writer in Western literature, but his whereabouts from 1585 to 1592 are a mystery. The ensuing speculation has spawned many interesting theories without producing much hard evidence.

Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare

Leigh T. Denault presents a great succinct biography sketch of Shakespeare.

Searching for Shakespeare

Searching for Shakespeare is an online mseum exhibition curated by the Centre of Archaeology at Staffordshire University in collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Shakespeare Biography

From Absolute Shakespeare; describes all that is known about Shakespeare's life from available documentation including court and church records, marriage certificates and criticisms by Shakespeare's rivals.

Shakespeare's Biography (Shakespeare Online)

An in-depth and accurate biography of William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Documented

This is the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

Shakespeare's Life (Folger Shakespeare Library)

From the website of the world-renowned Folger Shakespeare Library, the largest collection of Shakespeare materials and other Renaissance works.

Shakespeare's Life and Times

Who was William Shakespeare? What was life like in Stratford-upon-Avon and London when he was alive? Get the answers to these and other questions about Shakespeare's life from the venerable Royal Shakespeare Company.

The Shakespeare Paper Trail: The Early Years

The BBC presents Michael Wood's search through the limited historical record of Shakespeare's early life in Stratford.

William Shakespeare—Biography

The William Shakespeare page at Biography.com.

William Shakespeare—Biography and Works

An brief biography of William Shakespeare from The Literature Network.

William Shakespeare—English Author

Encyclopædia Britannica's biography page of William Shakespeare

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For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history. There are just two primary sources for information on the Bard: his works, and various legal and church documents that have survived from Elizabethan times.

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What was Shakespeare's impact on the English Alphabet.

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What was Shakespeare's impact on the English Alphabet.

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He changed how the English language was spoken because of his latin plays.

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How the English Language Is Shakespeare's Language | Grammarly Blog

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Almost all students of English, native and non-native speakers alike, have to study the works of William Shakespeare. Most do so begrudgingly. Part of this reaction is because, despite reassurances from teachers that Shakespeare was one of the most influential writers in the English language (and in the world), many students don't understand exactly how profound Shakespeare's influence was on the development of the English language.

Here's a tip: Want to make sure your writing always looks great? Grammarly can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues on all your favorite websites.

Shakespeare's influence on the English language

Here's some food for thought:

Before Shakespeare's time, written English was, on the whole, not standardized. His works contributed significantly to the standardization of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. Shakespeare introduced 1,700 original words into the language, many of which we still use (despite significant changes to the language since Shakespeare's time). These words include: "lonely," "frugal," "dwindle," and many more.

In addition to all these words, many phrases that we use daily originated in Shakespeare's work. When you talk about "breaking the ice" or having a "heart of gold," or when you use any number of other phrases, you're using Shakespeare's language.

Finally, Shakespeare had a profound impact on poetry and literature that has lasted centuries. He perfected blank verse, which became a standard in poetry. Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Charles Dickens were all heavily influenced by Shakespeare. The impact led George Steiner to conclude that romantic English poets were "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."

Because of the profound impact of Shakespeare's language on the way we speak today, studying the works of Shakespeare is an indispensable part of cultural education. Exploring the thousands of ways we still use Shakespeare's language and themes is not only worthwhile and fascinating, but also fun.

Did you study Shakespeare's works? What did you like? What did you dislike?

Here's a tip: Grammarly's Citation Generator ensures your essays have flawless citations and no plagiarism. Try it for citing Shakespeare in Chicago , MLA , and APA styles.

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How the English Language Is Shakespeare's Language

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Almost all students of English, native and non-native speakers alike, have to study the works of William Shakespeare. Most do so begrudgingly. Part of this...

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Great knowledge.

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Ten ways in which Shakespeare changed the world

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This week marks 400 years since the death of our national poet. And yet his characters, the worlds he created, the thoughts he expressed – some raw, fashioned in fire, some exquisite and turned in silk – are for all people and all time

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His work.

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A Shakespeare Timeline | Will's Quotes o' the Day

(picture credit: Folger Shakespeare Library)

William Shakespeare, in terms of his life and his body of work, is the most written-about author in the history of Western civilization. His canon includes 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 epic narrative poems. The First Folio (cover shown at left) was published posthumously in 1623 by two of Shakespeare's acting companions, John Heminges and Henry Condell. Ever since then, the works of Shakespeare have been studied, analyzed, and enjoyed as some of the finest masterpieces of the English language.

It is all the more wondrous when one can study the works and see Shakespeare developing as a playwright right there upon the pages. Love's Labours Lost and the early comedies are the work of a gifted and clever author. Perhaps such plays alone would have earned him literary fame in later days. The grandeur of a Hamlet or King Lear, however, is the work of a master who learned from his own writing and long practice.

In his time, Shakespeare was the most popular playwright of London. As centuries have passed, his genius eclipses all others of his age; Jonson, Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, Dekker, Heywood—none approach the craft or the humanity of character that marks the Bard's work. He took the art of dramatic verse and honed it to perfection. He created the most vivid characters of the Elizabethan stage. His usage of language, both lofty and low, shows a remarkable wit and subtlety. Most importantly, his themes are so universal that they transcend generations to stir the imaginations of audiences everywhere to this day.

His plays generally fall into four categories:

The first period has its roots in Roman and medieval drama—the construction of the plays, while good, is obvious and shows the author's hand more brusquely than the later works. The earliest Shakespeare also owes a debt to Christopher Marlowe, whose writing probably gave much inspiration at the onset of the Bard's career.

The second period showed more growth in style, and the construction becoming less labored. The histories of this period are Shakespeare's best, portraying the lives of kings and royalty in most human terms. He also begins the interweaving of comedy and tragedy, which would become one of his stylistic signatures. His comedies mature in this period as well, portraying a greater characterization in their subjects.

The third period marks the great tragedies, and the principal works which would earn the Bard his fame in later centuries. His tragic figures rival those of Sophocles, and might well have walked off the Greek stage straight onto the Elizabethan. Shakespeare is at his best in these tragedies. The comedies of this period, however, show Shakespeare at a literary crossroads—moody and without the clear comic resolution of previous comedies. Hence, the term "problem plays" to describe them.

The fourth period encompasses romantic tragicomedy. Shakespeare at the end of his career seemed preoccupied with themes of redemption. The writing is more serious yet more lyrical, and the plays show Shakespeare at his most symbolic. It is argued between scholars whether this period owed more to Shakespeare's maturity as a playwright or merely signified a changing trend in Elizabethan theatre at the time.

In 1621, two longtime colleagues of William Shakespeare decided that their deceased friend should be canonized for his work as a playwright. The resulting First Folio has become one of the most important-and valuable-books in English ever committed to print.

While the fool is an archetype nearly as old as the hero, Shakespeare took this standard trope and adapted it to suit a variety of situations.

Shakespeare made sparing use of ghosts in his plays, but when he used them, he made them memorable. But why use them at all? And was Shakespeare evincing a belief in actual ghosts?

A look at how Shakespeare's play King Henry the Fifth compares with English history.

A look at how Shakespeare's play King John compares with English history.

A look at how Shakespeare's play King Richard the Second compares with English history.

Shakespeare's Richard III: Portrait of a Villain

The real Richard III probably wasn't as wicked, deformed, or witty as the villain we know from Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's Source Material

William Shakespeare was a gifted writer that made a career out of borrowing from a variety of sources.

Shakespeare's Worst Speaking Roles

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Then there are these roles.

Internet Shakespeare Editions

The aim of the Internet Shakespeare Editions is to make scholarly, fully annotated texts of Shakespeare's plays available in a form native to the medium of the Internet. Includes records of the original quarto and folio versions, available to scholars, teachers, and the general public for educational purposes.

The Oxford Shakespeare

The 1914 Oxford edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare ranks among the most authoritative published this century. Bartleby.com presents this edition online in its entirety. Edited by W. J. Craig.

New Oxford Shakespeare Online

The New Oxford Shakespeare presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship.

Project Gutenburg

The Shakespeare page at the Internet's original provider of free online texts.

Shakespeare at Play

Shakespeare at Play merges full-length video and text of Shakespeare's plays using multitouch technology in an innovative iOS app.

Shakespeare Uncovered

Shakespeare Uncovered combines history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis, and the personal passions of its celebrated hosts.

Shakespeare's Works (Folger Shakespeare Library)

The Folger has copies of every play, from the earliest printings to modern editions, and offers carefully edited print and digital texts. Resources include plot synopses, brief textual histories, and selected images from the Folger collection.

William Shakespeare in Quarto Archive

This British Library archive is a digital collection of the 21 known pre-1642 quarto editions of William Shakespeare's plays.

The Works of William Shakespeare at MIT

The Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993.

A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy

A. C. Bradley's classic work goes online thanks to the Shakespeare Navigators' Web site. It's the complete book, which makes it a valuable resource.

Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, by William Hazlitt (1817)

Wikisource presents an e-book of Hazlitt's original 19th century work on the Bard's plays.

International Shakespeare Association (ISA)

The International Shakespeare Association is an umbrella organization to connect Shakespearians and Shakespeare societies around the world.

Limbs of Alarbus Shakespeare Blog

Dr. Alfred J. Drake presents his collection of lecture notes on Shakespeare's plays.

Samuel Johnson's "Shakespeare" Preface

The preface to Samuel Johnson's famous 1765 work on Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Association of America (SAA)

The Shakespeare Association of America (SAA) is a non-profit, academic organization devoted to the study of William Shakespeare and his plays and poems, the cultural and theatrical milieu in which he lived and worked, and the various roles he has played in both Anglo-American and world culture ever since.

Shakespeare in Connotations

A listing Shakespeare-dedicated articles from Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate, including links to online articles.

Shakespeare Online

Here you will find many resources to help you in the study of Shakespeare and his works. Shakespeare Online has something to offer everyone, whether you are a teacher, a student, or a Shakespeare enthusiast in general.

The Shakespeare Study Guide

Mike Cummings, a freelance writer based in Pennsylvania, presents a number of essays and analyses that explore the works of Shakespeare.

University of Basel, Switzerland

The University of Basel English Department has pages dedicated to Shakespeare criticism from the 16th to early 20th centuries as well as a recent criticism page.

World Shakespeare Bibliography

Provides over 83,000 annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions and their reviews, audiovisual and electronic media related to Shakespeare and published or produced between 1969 and 2012.

ELH—Early Literary History Journal

Since 1934, ELH has consistently published superior studies that interpret the conditions affecting major works in English and American literature. Edited by Ronald Paulson.

Early Modern Literary Studies

Early Modern Literary Studies is a refereed journal serving as a formal arena for scholarly discussion and as an academic resource for researchers in the area. Articles in EMLS examine English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A convergence of in-depth and up-to-the-minute information from Shakespeare scholars, teachers, and theatre professionals.

A magazine dedicated to exploring and celebrating the life and works of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare Magazine aims to give a new voice to Shakespeare fans everywhere.

Shakespeare Quarterly

Founded in 1950 by the Shakespeare Association of America, Shakespeare Quarterly is a refereed journal committed to publishing articles in the vanguard of Shakespeare studies.

SHAKSPER: The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference

SHAKSPER is the international electronic conference for Shakespearean researchers, instructors, students, and those who share their academic interests and concerns.

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A Shakespeare Timeline | Will's Quotes o' the Day (picture credit: Folger Shakespeare Library) William Shakespeare, in terms of his life and his body of work, is the most written-about author in the history of Western civilization.

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How did Shakespeare's quarto editions get completed. 

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How did Shakespeare's quarto editions get completed. 

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Background Information on Shakespeare in Print - Shakespeare in quarto

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Background information on Shakespeare’s quartos

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This talks about shakespear most important works most and least popular

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William Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time as well as the most influential writer in the history of the English language. He originated hundreds of words and phrases that English speakers use to this day. His impact on literature is so massive that one could make an argument that every one of his works deserves a spot on this list, but these seven plays and one poetry collection are undoubtedly among his most important achievements.

Along with Hamlet and King Lear, Macbeth is the third of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. It is the story of a Scottish nobleman who, following the prophecy of three witches, becomes the ruler of his country after killing Duncan, the reigning king. Macbeth continues to kill potential political rivals. The guilt drives his wife, Lady Macbeth, mad. Ultimately, Macbeth is killed as a consequence of his political ambitions. The tragic rendering of Macbeth's downward spiral and the iconic depiction of Lady Macbeth's descent into madness make this one of Shakespeare's major works.

Written in the 1590s when Shakespeare's theatrical career was paused during an outbreak of plague, the sonnet cycle was finally published in 1609. The possibly autobiographical sonnets are divided into two sections. The first and much larger group of sonnets address an unnamed "Fair Youth," a male friend of the poet's. The second set focuses on a "Dark Lady." As a narrative, the sonnet sequence tells of strong attachment, of jealousy, of grief at separation, and of joy at being together and sharing beautiful experiences. The Dark Lady sonnets end the sequence on a disturbing note of sorrow and self-loathing.

The plot of The Tempest centers on Prospero, a magician and former duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda. The pair are stranded on a deserted island after Prospero was usurped from his dukedom by his brother, Antonio. Prospero uses his magic to create a storm that strands a group of people, including Antonio, on the island. Among that group is also Ferdinand, who falls in love with Miranda and helps precipitate the actions that lead to reconciliation among the main characters. Although not Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest seems like his farewell to the theater. It contains moving passages of reflection on what his powers as artist have been able to accomplish.

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A list of some of the most important and best-known works by William Shakespeare. More than 400 years after they were written, Shakespeare's plays and poems are still widely performed, read, and studied-not only in his native England, but also all around the world.

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language.

He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed how the world of poetry. This article will dive into the influence Shakespeare has had on literature across the world.
Career start
Shakespeare started his career as an actor in London. He also owned a company of actors named "King's Men". He began writing plays and poems during the 1590s. He emerged as one of the most prominent and influential writers in history. Before that, he was only known for his acting skills. His first poems, to be printed in 1593 and 1594, were Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His poems gathered much admiration and revived the concept of English literature.
Role in the modern curriculum
His efforts got him a lot of appreciation, and he became famous as the most powerful and prestigious dramatist in the history of English literature. Almost all high schools and colleges today include Shakespeare's writings in their curriculum. Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedy of Othello, and Macbeth are taught in many educational facilities. Shakespeare is now a common name among most, if not all, English Literature students.
Influence on writing style
Shakespeare created the most inspired plays in western literature. He wrote different plays, including characters that had a touch of both humour and seriousness especially in The Tragedy of Othello. Shakespeare linked poetry, drama and verse with each other, which had never been done before. For the versification of the English language, he used his rhetoric with higher expression. Through poetry, he gave strength to the language, and by writing dramas, he gave clear ideas that rarely left room for vagueness. Stephen Marche, a Canadian novelist, said that Shakespeare only used the English language as a tool to leave an impression on the audience. He was the special effects master of language and a key contributor to the formation of the English language as we know it today.
Influence on English language and literature
One of Shakespeare's most significant contributions is that he introduced a lot of new words to the English language. He invented 1700 commonly used words and many new phrases. For example, a widely used phrase "it's Greek to me" was created by Shakespeare. It is used to refer to something that is difficult to understand. Also, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare used the phrase "cold-blooded/hot-blooded" to equate blood temperature with emotional excitement - something now done very commonly.

These phrases were all invented by Shakespeare and are extensively used by modern writers in their works. For example, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Dogs of War by Robert Stone, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuels Johnson all use words and phrases coined by Shakespeare. Johnson is the one author who quotes Shakespeare more than anyone else. Shakespeare's original phrases are also still used in conversational language.

Shakespeare changed verbs into adverbs and adjectives. Connected words were not used together before him. He also added suffixes and prefixes to many words. The use of correct spellings became common during Shakespeare's time. Before Shakespeare, grammar rules were not adequately defined, and there wasn't any definite criterion for English grammar. To be precise, Shakespeare changed many aspects of the English language. His work gained importance in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, which helped the standardisation of the English language.

After Shakespeare, many other writers like Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe also adopted novel words and phrases to create new imaginative worlds and ideas. Shakespeare gave an utterly unique concept to romance. He presented it as an essential topic for tragedy. Shakespeare expanded the perspective of characterisation, plot language and genre in tragic plays. He used this idea to traverse the individual mind and created iconic duos like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare has tirelessly served English literature throughout his life. His existing work consists of 154 sonnets, 39 plays, two narrative poems and a few other verses. Shakespeare's writings have been translated into numerous languages across the world, and his plays are still performed in many theatres. Most people who read and understand Shakespeare and his writings become huge fans of his work. There's no denying that he made the English language a beautiful forte for creative and literary minds. Shakespeare had a unique grasp of language and sincerely employed themes of romance and tragedy in his work.
Inspiration to others
Modern writers, novelists and dramatists are greatly influenced by Shakespeare's plays and writings. Shakespeare has greatly influenced authors such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Dickens and William Faulkner. Charles Dickens derived almost 25 titles from Shakespeare's work. He used many quotations of Shakespeare in his work too. The character in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville was developed from the influence of Hamlet by Shakespeare. Many of Melville's writings have titles derived from Shakespeare's work as well.

Most modern-day movie makers derive ideas and plots from Shakespeare's writings and reshape them into new scripts. Movies like She is The Star and West Side Story were based on Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet, respectively.
Wrapping up
Shakespeare is and will always be accredited for creating new ideas, inventing, familiarising and repurposing the English language. His words, phrases and exceptional style of expression made him one of the best writers in the world. The stories, novels and plays that he wrote break barriers of time and culture and are equally relevant today.

Shakespeare is a name that is not just known to people who love literature. While Shakespeare is no longer among today's playwrights, his writings and efforts to promote the English language will uphold his name for years to come. English literature might not see such an extraordinary author ever again.
The editorial unit

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

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There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language. He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed [...]

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This is the web I used to get all the information I needed on what shakespeare did for a living/work

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Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes, just as we see with the 19th-century family scene at the top of this page.

Primary sources: Shakespeare Documented
Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials documenting Shakespeare's life. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works, as well as additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

On This Page: Birth and Childhood | Marriage and Children | London Theater | Final Years

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.
On Shakespeare Documented: Primary-source materials relating to Shakespeare's family

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An overview of Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Library, including his birth and childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon, his marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, his work in the London theaters, and his final years before his death in 1616.

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This website is good to use because it shows interesting fact and also its a .org website.

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William Shakespeare’s life and times | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Discover more about the life and times of William Shakespeare, from his birth in 1564 through to his death 52 years later in 1616.

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What happened during Shakespeare's life? 

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What happened during Shakespeare's life? 

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childhood, theater, final years

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Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare: A Brief Biography of the Bard of Avon

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What was Shakespeare's impact on modern life?  

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What was Shakespeare's impact on modern life?  

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This website talks about how Shakespeare impacted modern day English

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Bushnell, R., 2019. Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages by Tanya Pollard. American Journal of Philology, 140(1), pp.182-184.

Murphy, S., 2019. Shakespeare and his contemporaries: Designing a genre classification scheme for Early English Books Online 1560-1640. ICAME Journal, 43(1), pp.59-82.

Chiari, S., 2019. Climatic issues in early modern England: Shakespeare's views of the sky. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, p.e578.

Zirker, A., 2019. William Shakespeare and John Donne: Stages of the soul in early modern English poetry.

Newman, H., 2019. Impressive Shakespeare: Identity, Authority and the Imprint in Shakespearean Drama. Routledge.

Karim, M.R., 2019. Shakespearean Style and Technique in Modern Assamese Drama: A Study of Reception and Response. AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number4.

Hillman, R., 2019. Staging romance across the Channel: French-English exchanges and generic common ground. Cahiers Élisabéthains, p.0184767819835566.

Sato, K., 2019. The Relative Which with Personal Antecedents in Shakespeare's History Plays. Neophilologus, 103(2), pp.273-291.

Oh, E., 2019. The Gatekeeper within: Early Modern English Architectural Tropes of Female Consent. Humanities, 8(1), p.40.

Vilas, M.G., Santilli, M., Mikulan, E., Adolfi, F., Caro, M.M., Manes, F., Herrera, E., Sedeño, L., Ibáñez, A. and García, A.M., 2019. Reading Shakespearean tropes in a foreign tongue: Age of L2 acquisition modulates neural responses to functional shifts. Neuropsychologia, 124, pp.79-86.

Freebury-Jones, D., 2019. Michael Bogdanov's Iconoclastic Approach to Political Shakespeare. New Theatre Quarterly, 35(2), pp.99-111.

Putriana, E., Jufrizal, J. and Fitrawati, F., 2019. The Affix Changes from Middle English to Modern English Found In The Miller's Tale Written by Geoffrey Chaucer and Its Modern English Version. E-Journal English Language and Literature, 8(1).

Aldoory, A.H., 2019. William Shakespeare in the Eyes of Modern Arab Poets. Journal Of Al-Frahedis Arts, 2(27), pp.412-421.

Gray, P., 2019. Shakespeare versus Aristotle: Anagnorisis, Repentance, and Acknowledgment. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 49(1), pp.85-111.

Pizzato, M., 2019. Early Modern Mixtures in England, Spain, and the New World (1500s-1600s). In Mapping Global Theatre Histories (pp. 133-151). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Jong, I., Boynton, E., Craighead, C., Gibbs, M., Lawrence, M., Haas, S. and Brown, E., 2019. The Making of a Tyrant: Seattle Shakespeare Company and upstart crow collective's Richard III. Early Modern Culture, 14(1), p.35.

Burton, S.J., Hollmann, J. and Parker, E.M., 2019. Introduction: Nicholas of Cusa and Early Modern Reform: Towards a Reassessment. In Nicholas of Cusa and the Making of the Early Modern World (pp. 1-46). BRILL.

Reynolds, B. and Zimmerman, G., 2019. A strange lobster tale of self-sacrificial transversality: or, transversal poetics flourishes in the spectral ether of Deleuze, Bataille, and Shakespeare. Journal for Cultural Research, pp.1-21.

Ingham, M., 2019. "Admit me Chorus to this history": Shakespeare's MCs and Choric Commentators-How Medieval, How Early Modern?. Neophilologus, 103(2), pp.255-271.

Danner, R.B. and Musa, R., 2019. Evaluation of Methods Teachers Use in Teaching Shakespearean Drama in Senior Secondary Schools in Edo State. Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, 7(2).

Linwick, S., 2019. Dramatic Geography: Romance, Intertheatricality, and Cultural Encounter in Early Modern Mediterranean Drama. Laurence Publicover. Early Modern Literary Geographies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. xiv+ 204 pp. $65. Renaissance Quarterly, 72(2), pp.740-742.

Walsh, B.C., 2020. 'Like a Madd Dogge': Demonic Animals and Animal Demoniacs in Early Modern English Possession Narratives. In Gothic Animals (pp. 21-39). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Joubin, A.A., 2020. "Others within: Ethics in the age of global Shakespeare." Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation, ed. Christy Desmet, Sujata Iyengar, and Miriam Jacobson (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 25-36. The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation, pp.25-36.

Skretkowicz, V., 2018. European erotic romance: Philhellene Protestantism, Renaissance translation and English literary politics.

Sohmer, S., 2018. Shakespeare for the wiser sort: Solving Shakespeare's riddles in The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, King John, 1-2 Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Othello, Macbeth and Cymberline.

Joubin, A.A., 2018. 1616: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's China eds. by Tian Yuan Tan, Paul Edmondson, and Shih-pe Wang. Asian Theatre Journal, 35(1), pp.241-243.

Semple, E. and Vyroubalová, E., 2018. Shakespeare and Early Modern Europe: A Critical Survey. Shakespeare, 14(1), pp.80-96.

Schupak, E.B., 2018. Shakespeare and Performance Pedagogy: Overcoming the Challenges. Changing English, 25(2), pp.163-179.

Fikkers, L., 2018. The Poetry of Kissing in Early Modern Europe: From the Catullan Revival to Secundus, Shakespeare and the English Cavaliers.

Houlahan, M., 2018. The curious case of Mr. William Shakespeare and the red herring: Twelfth Night in its sources. In Rethinking Shakespeare source study (pp. 238-250). Routledge.

Gadaleto, M.J., 2018. The Island Nation and Its Discontents: Transnationalism in English Renaissance Literature from Shakespeare to Milton (Doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University).

Craik, K.A., 2018. Patrick Cheney. English Authorship and the Early Modern Sublime: Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson.

Karpova, O., 2018. Shakespeare Terminology with Special Reference to Shakespeare Arden Dictionaries. Respectus Philologicus, (33 (38)), pp.9-16.

Rack, M.J., 2018. The Poetry of Kissing in Early Modern Europe: From the Catullan Revival to Secundus, Shakespeare and the English Cavaliers. Sidney Journal, 36(2), pp.117-122.

Sperry, E., 2018. Kissing, By The Book The Poetry of Kissing in Early Modern Europe: From the Catullan Revival to Secundus, Shakespeare and the English Cavaliers. By Alex Wong.

Mentz, S., 2017. Shipwreck and ecology: toward a structural theory of Shakespeare and romance. In The Shakespearean international yearbook (pp. 165-182). Routledge.

Jordan, P., 2017. Gender fluidity in men's fashion: From Shakespeare's modern English to the new millennium. Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, 4(2), pp.171-184.

Das, N. and Davis, N. eds., 2016. Enchantment and Dis-enchantment in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama: Wonder, the Sacred, and the Supernatural. Taylor & Francis.

Stern, T.P., 2015. Time for Shakespeare: Hourglasses, sundials, clocks, and early modern theatre. Journal of the British Academy, 3.

Walker, J., 2015. "Just songs in the end": Historical Discourses in Shakespeare and Martin. Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, pp.71-91.

Raffield, P., 2014. The Trials of Shakespeare: Courtroom Drama and Early Modern English Law. Law and Humanities, 8(1), pp.53-76.

Ioppolo, G., 2013. Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood: Authorship, authority and the playhouse. Routledge.

Hornback, R., 2013. The English Clown Tradition from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare (Vol. 26). DS Brewer.

Hoenselaars, A.J. and Hoenselaars, T. eds., 2012. The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare and contemporary dramatists. Cambridge University Press.

400, S. (2016, April 18). Our Front Cover. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from Shakespeare Banner: http://ourfrontcover.com/homepageposts/shakespeares-talented-sister/shakespeare-banner/.

Lanier, D., 2010. Recent Shakespeare adaptation and the mutations of cultural capital. Shakespeare Studies, 38, p.104.

Holderness, G., 2008. 'Silence bleeds': Hamlet across borders: The Shakespearean adaptations of Sulayman Al-Bassam. European Journal of English Studies, 12(1), pp.59-77.

Stanivukovic, G.V., 2007, January. "Mounting Above the Truthe": On Hyperbole in English Renaissance Literature. In Forum for Modern Language Studies (Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 9-33). Oxford University Press.

Burley, S., 2005. The impact of a language education programme on the development of PGCE English student teachers' perceptions of subject identity. Changing English, 12(1), pp.137-146.

Farooq A. Kperogi, P. (2015, August 9). Notes From Atlanta: Shakespearean Expressions that Sound Illiterate by Today's Standards. Retrieved August 9, 2015, from Shakespearean Expressions that Sound Illiterate by Today's Standards:

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2015/08/shakespearean-expressions-that-sound.html

Wei-min, L.I., 2005. Earnest Call for Love On the Christian Tendency of King Lear by Shakespeare [J]. Journal of Sichuan International Studies University, 1.

Hinojosa, L.W., 2003. Shakespeare and (Anti-German) Nationalism in the Writing of English Literary History, 1880-1923. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 46(3), pp.227-249.

Swärdh, A., 2003. Rape and religion in English Renaissance literature: a topical study of four texts by Shakespeare, Drayton, and Middleton (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).

Brookshire, C.A., 2001. Virginia Standards of Learning (Grades 6 through 12) That Are Covered When Students Attend Live Performances of Shakespeare's Plays.

Sönmez, M., 2001. The influence of early monolingual dictionaries and word lists on the standardisation of English spelling. Anglia-Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, 119(2), pp.207-231.

Brookshire, C.A., 2001. Virginia Standards of Learning (Grades 6 through 12) That Are Covered When Students Attend Live Performances of Shakespeare's Plays.

Kroh, S., 2001. The Merchant"-A Historical Drama? Arnold Weskers Adaptation of William Shakespeares" The Merchant of Venice. GRIN Verlag.

James, W.C., 2001. Religion-and-literature studies in Canada: Then and now. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 30(2), pp.193-205.

Edwards, J., 2001. Languages and language learning in the face of world English. Profession, pp.109-120.

Deaneries, O. A. (2018, October 28). Shakespeare in the Alley- a concert at St Mary and St Nicholas, Littlemore. Retrieved October 28, 2018, from Sounds and SOngs of Little More: http://oxfordanglican.co.uk/events/shakespeare-in-the-alley-a-concert-at-st-mary-and-st-nicholas-littlemore/

Milroy, J., 2001. Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of sociolinguistics, 5(4), pp.530-555.

Dispository, B. (2017, April 1). Shakespeare's Sonnets and Other Poems. Retrieved April 1, 2017, from b-w interior: https://www.bookdepository.com/Shakespeares-Sonnets-Other-Poems-William-Shakespeare/9781626869714

Newmark, P., 2001. A Translator's Approach to Literary Language. Across Languages and Cultures, 2(1), pp.5-14.

Acheson, K.O., 2001. 'Outrage your face': Anti-theatricality and Gender in Early Modern Closet Drama by Women. Early Modern Literary Studies, 6(7), pp.1-16.

Gordon, A. and Klein, B. eds., 2001. Literature, Mapping, and the Politics of Space in Early Modern Britain. Cambridge University Press.

Shakespeare, S. O. (2017, August 28). Inspire Yourself, Beaming notes. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from https://beamingnotes.com/2017/08/28/summary-sonnet-18-shakespeare/

Dubinsky, S. and Richey, W., 2001. Assessing the Stylistic Proclivity of the Poet: Evidence from the-ed/-'d Alternation. SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, 25, pp.136-144.

Wisse, R.R., 2001. The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Language and Culture. Simon and Schuster.

Vasvári, L.O., 2001. Examples of the Motif of the Shrew in European Literature and Film. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 4(1), p.3.

Machan, T.W., 2001. Time-Bound Words: Semantic and Social Economies from Chaucer's England to Shakespeare's by Peggy A. Knapp. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 23(1), pp.568-571.

Schendl, H., Dalton-Puffer, C. and Ritt, N., 2000. The third person present plural in Shakespeare's First Folio: A case of interaction of morphology and syntax. Words, structure, meaning, function: A festschrift for Dieter Kastovsky, pp.263-76.

Machan, T.W., 2000. " I Endowed Thy Purposes": Shakespeare, Editing, and Middle English Literature. Text, 13, pp.9-25.

Bruti, S., 2000. Address pronouns in Shakespeare's English: a re-appraisal in terms of markedness. The History of English in a Social Context: A Contribution to Historical Sociolinguistics, pp.25-51.

Igboanusi, H.S., 2000. Ethnic Englishes in Nigeria: The role of literature in the development of Igbo English. Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(1), p.219.

Fan, S., 1999. Translation of English fiction and drama in Modern China: social context, literary trends, and impact. Meta: Journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators' Journal, 44(1), pp.154-177.

Barrell, B., 1999. Technology and change in Atlantic Canada's new secondary English language arts curriculum. English Education, 31(3), pp.231-247.

2018, S. F. (2018, August 1-17). Shakespeare in COncert 2018. Retrieved August 1-17, 2018, from Shakespeare Festival in Kronborg Castle 1-17th August | ESFN: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fesfn.eu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F03%2Fhs-forestillingsbilleder-uk7.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fesfn.eu%2Fnews%2Fshakespeare-festival-in-kronborg-castle-1-17th-august&docid=mlEELTTX_QVWrM&tbnid=xAYDMX

Maley, W., 1997. Spenser's Irish English: Language and Identity in Early Modern Ireland. In Salvaging Spenser (pp. 34-47). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Hamlet Live, S. 4. (2016, June - August 10-17). Denmark's Kronborg Castle - A World Heritage Site and the 'Real-Life' Home of Hamlet - Commemorates the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's Passing. Retrieved June - August 10-17, 2016, from Internatinal committee for artistic on peace: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Ficapeace.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2FIMG_8082AA.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ficapeace.org%2F%3Fp%3D717&docid=ti5lNB5g6WMlGM&tbnid=pW-gLnHJU7gmMM%3A&vet=1&w=1366&h=800&itg=1&bih=608&biw=1366&ve

Tilson, A., 1990. English Language, English Literature: The Creation of an Academic Discipline by Jo McMurtry. ESC: English Studies in Canada, 16(4), pp.483-486.

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THE INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IN MODERN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE | Parvin | European Journal of English Language Teaching

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Bushnell, R., 2019. Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages by Tanya Pollard. American Journal of Philology, 140(1), pp.182-184. Murphy, S., 2019. Shakespeare and his contemporaries: Designing a genre classification scheme for Early English Books Online 1560-1640. ICAME Journal, 43(1), pp.59-82. Chiari, S., 2019. Climatic issues in early modern England: Shakespeare's views of the sky.

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https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-life

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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William Shakespeare had a lot of famous plays like, hamlet,macbeth,Romeo and Juliet, and more

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".

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Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".

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TIMELINEEE!!!

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Before Shakespeare's Birth

1248

Earliest known English reference to the Shakespeare name, relating to William Sakspear from the nearby village of Clopton

1520s

John Shakespeare born in the village of Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon

c 1555

Anne Hathaway, William's future wife, is born

c 1557

John Shakespeare marries Mary Arden, a farmer's daughter

1558

John and Mary's first child Joan is born

c 1560

Joan Shakespeare dies in infancy

1562

John and Mary's second child Margaret is born

1563

Margaret Shakespeare dies in infancy

Shakespeare's Early Years

Adult Life In Stratford

Shakespeare In London

Back To Stratford

After Shakespeare

1623

The First Folio of Shakespeare's work is published by John Heminges (1566-1630) and Henry Condell (1576-1627), sole surviving members of the original Chamberlain's Men/King's Men players

1623

Anne Hathaway dies, aged c. 68

1642

The King's Men are disbanded following Parliament's order to close all theatres, enacted on the eve of the English Civil War

1646

William's sister Joan dies, aged 77

1662

William's eldest daughter Judith dies, aged 77

1709

Nicholas Rowe publishes Works, in which he records a number of stories from Shakespeare's life, including one regarding William getting caught poaching game from local landowner Sir Thomas Lucy, and needing to leave Stratford to avoid prosecution as a result

Read more fascinating facts about the life of Shakespeare

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Shakespeare Timeline * History in Numbers

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1248 Earliest known English reference to the Shakespeare name, relating to William Sakspear from the nearby village of Clopton 1520s John Shakespeare born in the village of Snitterfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon c 1555 Anne Hathaway, William's future wife, is born c 1557 John Shakespeare marries Mary Arden, a farmer's daughter 1558

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How did Shakespeare make an impact to modern life?

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How did Shakespeare make an impact to modern life?

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This website tells about how he made an influence on modern life, and it has lots of good information

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William Shakespeare played a major role in the transformation of the English language. Many words and phrases were first written down in his plays.

'Elbow room' ( King John), 'heart of gold' ( Henry V), 'tower of strength' ( Richard III) and 'Wild-goose chase' ( Romeo and Juliet) - just a handful of the many well-known English phrases that we've learnt from Shakespeare and use in our day to day lives more than 400 years later.

Shakespeare's early play, Love's Labour's Lost, is known for its elaborate wordplay and puns. (Gregory Doran production, 2008)

The early modern English language was less than 100 years old in 1590 when Shakespeare was writing. No dictionaries had yet been written and most documents were still written in Latin. He contributed 1,700 words to the English language because he was the first author to write them down.

As well as inventing completely new words, he used existing words in inventive ways, for example he was the first person to use 'friend' as a verb, as well as 'unfriended' ( Twelfth Night) and from 'gloom' he invented the word 'gloomy' ( Titus Andronicus).

Iambic pentameter

This is the rhythm that Shakespeare uses in his plays. The rhythm of iambic pentameter is like a heartbeat, with one soft beat and one strong beat repeated five times. In the video below, RSC Voice Practitioner Nia Lynn defines what we mean by Iambic Pentameter and explores, together with RSC actors, what it can reveal about characters and their emotions.

Listen to Michael Pennington, an actor who has played some of Shakespeare's most linguistically demanding roles, talking to Jonathan Bate about how the 'nuts and bolts' of Shakespeare's poetic language work from the actor's point of view.

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Shakespeare's language | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Many words and phrases in the English language were first written down by William Shakespeare in his plays and poetry.

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society in Shakespeare's time was very strict.

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talks about his career starting

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William Shakespeare ( bapt. 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. His works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died 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 whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. 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 1608, among them , Romeo and Juliet, , , and , all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that included all but two of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John 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 evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit:

... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called " University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

"All the world's a stage,
and all the men and 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, 139-142

In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although one 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 Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in , though scholars doubt the sources of that information.

Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the 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 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611-1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned down during the performance of on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why 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 too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, his new son-in-law, Thomas Quiney was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, who had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered 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 elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the 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 during restoration of the church in 2008:

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

(Modern spelling: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, / To dig the dust enclosed here. / Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones.)

Some time before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with 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 and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of , written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical , written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, parts 1 and , and . His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar-based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives-which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, , has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins " To be or not to be; that is the question". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In , the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In , the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In , the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: , The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.

Performances

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592-93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV, Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest ... and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice. After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear. In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.

Textual sources

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. Many of the plays had already appeared in quarto versions-flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies". Nor did Shakespeare plan or expect his works to survive in any form at all; those works likely would have faded into oblivion but for his friends' spontaneous idea, after his death, to create and publish the First Folio.

Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre-1623 versions as " bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of , however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

Published in 1609, the were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate ..."

-Lines from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical-written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.

However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of Romeo and Juliet, , and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and . Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly-
And prais'd be rashness for it-let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well ...

After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In , for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35-38); "... pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air ..." (1.7.21-25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works. These include three operas by Giuseppe Verdi, , and , whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" ( Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" ( Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.

Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era;" Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language. Actor and theatre director Simon Callow writes, "this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture - German, Italian, Russian - was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone."

According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Critical reputation

"He was not of an age, but for all time."

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower, and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", although he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art" (lacked skill).

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare". For several decades, Rymer's view held sway; but during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet. In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal, and Victor Hugo.

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation. "This King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as " bardolatry", claiming that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for post-modern studies of Shakespeare. By the 1980s, Shakespeare studies were open to movements such as structuralism, feminism, New Historicism, African-American studies, and queer studies. Comparing Shakespeare's accomplishments to those of leading figures in philosophy and theology, Harold Bloom wrote, "Shakespeare was larger than Plato and than St. Augustine. He encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions."

Classification of the plays

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.

In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies, Dowden's term is often used. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term " problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and . "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy.

Speculation

Authorship

Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed. Only a small minority of academics believe there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion, but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the Church of England, where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried. Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse. In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford. Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.

Portraiture

No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, repaintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.

Notes and references

1. Dates follow the ^ Julian calendar, used in England throughout Shakespeare's lifespan, but with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates). Under the Gregorian calendar, adopted in Catholic countries in 1582, Shakespeare died on 3 May.

2. The "national cult" of Shakespeare, and the "bard" identification, dates from September 1769, when the actor ^ David Garrick organised a week-long carnival at Stratford to mark the town council awarding him the freedom of the town. In addition to presenting the town with a statue of Shakespeare, Garrick composed a doggerel verse, lampooned in the London newspapers, naming the banks of the Avon as the birthplace of the "matchless Bard".

3. The exact figures are unknown. See ^ Shakespeare's collaborations and Shakespeare Apocrypha for further details.

4. The ^ crest is a silver falcon supporting a spear, while the motto is Non Sanz Droict (French for "not without right"). This motto is still used by Warwickshire County Council, in reference to Shakespeare.

5. Inscribed in Latin on his funerary monument: ^ AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR (In his 53rd year he died 23 April).

6. Grady cites ^ Voltaire's Philosophical Letters (1733); Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795); Stendhal's two-part pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare (1823-25); and Victor Hugo's prefaces to (1827) and William Shakespeare (1864).

7. For example, ^ A.L. Rowse, the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear-in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."

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McDonald, Russ (2006). Shakespeare's Late Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511483783. ISBN 978-0-511-48378-3 - via Cambridge Core.

McMichael, George; Glenn, Edgar M. (1962). Shakespeare and his Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy. New York: Odyssey Press. OCLC 2113359.

Mowat, Barbara; Werstine, Paul (n.d.). "Sonnet 18". Folger Digital Texts. Folger Shakespeare Library.

"Did He or Didn't He? That Is the Question". The New York Times. 22 April 2007.

Paraisz, Júlia (2006). "The Author, the Editor and the Translator: William Shakespeare, Alexander Chalmers and Sándor Petofi or the Nature of a Romantic Edition". Editing Shakespeare. Shakespeare Survey. Vol. 59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 124-135. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521868386.010. ISBN 978-1-139-05271-9 - via Cambridge Core.

Pollard, Alfred W. (1909). Shakespeare Quartos and Folios: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare's Plays, 1594-1685. London: Methuen. OCLC 46308204.

Roe, John, ed. (2006). The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint. The New Cambridge Shakespeare (2nd revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85551-8.

Rowe, Nicholas (1997) [first published 1709]. Gray, Terry A. (ed.). Some Account of the Life &c of Mr. William Shakespear.

Schoch, Richard W. (2002). "Pictorial Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 58-75. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521792959.004. ISBN 978-0-511-99957-4 - via Cambridge Core.

Smith, Irwin (1964). Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse. New York: New York University Press.

"Shakespeare Memorial". Southwark Cathedral. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

Taylor, Gary (1987). William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-812914-1.

Wells, Stanley; Taylor, Gary; Jowett, John; Montgomery, William, eds. (2005). The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926717-0.

"Visiting the Abbey". Westminster Abbey. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016.

Wilson, Richard (2004). Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7024-2.

Wood, Manley, ed. (1806). The Plays of William Shakespeare with Notes of Various Commentators. Vol. I. London: George Kearsley.

External links

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William Shakespeare ( bapt. 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").

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Among them were the triumphant late dramas The Winter's Tale (first performed at the Globe in May 1611) and The Tempest (first performed in November 1611). Shakespeare was doing well financially, too: that March, he had bought an apartment in the Blackfriars complex, near the company's indoor theatre. It was his first property investment in London, adding to a substantial portfolio back home in Stratford-upon-Avon.

He was also hard at work on a new play: he and a younger playwright, John Fletcher, were finalising a script called All is True, a historical thriller based on the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (to modern audiences, it is usually named after its hero, Henry VIII). Packed with spectacular pageantry and effects, it was a new mode for the playwright - perhaps a new beginning.

That summer, All is True finally went on stage. On 29 June 1613, in the mid-afternoon, the Globe playhouse on Bankside was packed; the performance, probably the play's third or fourth outing, seemed to be going smoothly. When a set of stage cannons were fired near the end of Act One to mark the entrance of King Henry for a masque scene at Cardinal Wolsey's residence, barely anyone in the crowd noticed that a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons had landed on the theatre's thatched roof. Even when smoke began to curl upwards, no one paid much attention; in the words of one eyewitness, "their eyes [were] more attentive to the show".

An engraving from an early portrait of William Shakespeare, published on the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, 1623. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

But within minutes the fire had run around the inside of the roof "like a train", and the Globe was doomed. As the flames consumed the all-wooden structure there was a panicked evacuation, so rapid that a number of people left their cloaks behind. One man apparently had his clothes set on fire and had to throw a bottle of ale over himself. According to another account, someone else was burned after attempting to save a child. No one is reported to have died, but for Shakespeare's playhouse, the most famous theatre in England, it was the end. The day was hot and dry, and within little more than an hour only smoking ruins were left. The fire raged so intensely that a house next door went up too.

That we know so much about the most infamous fire in theatre history indicates what major news it was at the time: several eyewitnesses noted the event, and it must have been the talk of Jacobean London. Much of this information derives from a letter written by the diplomat and politician Sir Henry Wotton a few days later, which recorded the catastrophe in remarkable detail, from the "paper or other stuff" that set fire to the thatch to the unfortunate theatregoer who "had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have broyled him, if he had not by the benefit of a provident wit, put it out with a bottle of ale".

Much of the information about the Globe theatre fire derives from a letter written by Sir Henry Wotton. (Photo by Michael Nicholson/Corbis via Getty Images)

The tone of this account is jocular - perhaps because Wotton seems to have been irked by common players depictingrevered historical figures such Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, and felt that Shakespeare and his theatre had got their just deserts. Theatre-hating puritans couldn't help crowing, too, detecting divine vengeance in the "sudden fearful burning". Not long after the conflagration a street ballad appeared, marking the event (its author is unknown). Its refrainpuns on the title of the play that had caused the tragedy:

This fearful fire began above,

A wonder strange and true,

And to the stage-house did remove,

As round as tailor's clew;

And burnt down both beam and snag,

And did not spare the silken flag.

Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet all this is true.

An artist's reconstruction of a 16th-century playhouse in the time of Elizabeth I. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Indeed, the burning of the Globe was anything but a comedy for Shakespeare and his fellow shareholders in the King's Men. Not only would the theatre have to be rebuilt - in an era before buildings insurance, they would have to foot the cost - it would need to be done in a hurry, because every day without a playhouse depleted their reserves even more. The company could continue to perform at the Blackfriars, but that theatre only seated a few hundred ticket-buyers; at the open-air Globe, they could cram in as many as 3,000.

It has been speculated that the shock of the fire destroyed Shakespeare's health; as one of the authors of All is True, he might even have felt somehow responsible, particularly as the fire was caused by a boastful piece of staging (it was more usual to fire cannons for battle scenes rather than for the entrance of a monarch). Certainly, when the King's Men banded together to pay £1,400 for the erection of the new Globe, which took a year to build - this time with a fireproof tiled roof - Shakespeare was not among them, having apparently sold his shares in the company in the interim.

Shakespeare's last script, The Two Noble Kinsmen, another collaboration with Fletcher, was probably written later that year; its Prologue refers to "our losses" in what looks wistfully like a reference to the fire. By the end of the year, Shakespeare seems to have been based full-time in Stratford and engaged in bitter litigation over his land rights. His writing career was over. Two years later, in April 1616, he was dead.
Andrew Dickson is a broadcaster and author. His books include The Globe Guide to Shakespeare (2016) and Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe (2015) This article was originally published by HistoryExtra in 2018

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The Globe theatre fire of 1613: when Shakespeare's playhouse burned down

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On 29 June 1613, the original Globe theatre in London, where most of William Shakespeare's plays debuted, was destroyed by fire during a performance of All is True (known to modern audiences as Henry VIII). But what caused the fire and when was the new Globe theatre rebuilt?

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How did shake spear impact other writers?

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How did shake spear impact other writers?

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Shakespeare's influence extends from theater and literatures to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language itself. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through innovation in characterization, plot, language and genre. Shakespeare's writings have also impacted many notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and Maya Angelou, and continue to influence new authors even today. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world after the various writers of the Bible; many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages. According to Guinness Book of World Records Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Early Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux. When William Shakespeare began writing his plays, the English language was rapidly absorbing words from other languages due to wars, exploration, diplomacy and colonization. By the age of Elizabeth, English had become widely used with the expansion of philosophy, theology and physical sciences, but many writers lacked the vocabulary to express such ideas. To accommodate this, writers such as Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare expressed new ideas and distinctions by inventing, borrowing or adopting a word or a phrase from another language, known as neologising. Scholars estimate that, between the years 1500 and 2018, nouns, verbs and modifiers of Latin, Greek and modern Romance languages added 30,000 new words to the English language.[citation needed ]

Shakespeare's works have been a major influence on subsequent theatre. He developed theatre to an amazing extent and changed the way theatre is today. Shakespeare created some of the most admired plays in Western literature (with and being ranked among the world's greatest plays), and transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through plot and language. Specifically, in plays like Hamlet, Shakespeare "integrated characterization with plot," such that if the main character was different in any way, the plot would be totally changed. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare mixed tragedy and comedy together to create a new romantic tragedy genre (previous to Shakespeare, romance had not been considered a worthy topic for tragedy). Through his soliloquies, Shakespeare showed how plays could explore a character's inner motivations and conflict (up until Shakespeare, soliloquies were often used by playwrights to "introduce [characters], convey information, provide an exposition or reveal plans").

His plays exhibited "spectacular violence, with loose and episodic plotting, and with a mingling of comedy with tragedy". In , Shakespeare had deliberately brought together two plots of different origins. Shakespeare's work is also lauded for its insight into emotion. His themes regarding the human condition make him more acclaimed than any of his contemporaries. Humanism and contact with popular thinking gave vitality to his language. Shakespeare's plays borrowed ideas from popular sources, folk traditions, street pamphlets, and sermons. Shakespeare also used groundlings widely in his plays. The use of groundlings "saved the drama from academic stiffness and preserved its essential bias towards entertainment in comedy". is an outstanding example of "groundlings" quickness and response. Use of groundlings enhanced Shakespeare's work practically and artistically. He represented English people more concretely and not as puppets. His skills have found expression in chronicles, or history plays, and tragedies.

Shakespeare's earliest years were dominated by history plays and a few comedies that formed a link to the later written tragedies. Nine out of eighteen plays he produced in the first decade of his career were chronicles or histories. His histories were based on the prevailing Tudor political thought. They portrayed the follies and achievements of kings, their misgovernment, church and problems arising out of these. "In shaping, compressing, and altering chronicles, Shakespeare gained the art of dramatic design; and in the same way he developed his remarkable insight into character, its continuity and its variation". His characters were very near to reality.

"Shakespeare's characters are more sharply individualized after Love's Labour's Lost". His Richard II and Bolingbroke are complex and solid figures whereas Richard III has more "humanity and comic gusto". The Falstaff trilogy is in this respect very important. Falstaff, although a minor character, has a powerful reality of his own. "Shakespeare uses him as a commentator who passes judgments on events represented in the play, in the light of his own superabundant comic vitality". Falstaff, although outside "the prevailing political spirit of the play", throws insight into the different situations arising in the play. This shows that Shakespeare had developed a capacity to see the plays as whole, something more than characters and expressions added together. In the Falstaff trilogy, through the character of Falstaff, he wants to show that in society "where touchstone of conduct is a success, and in which humanity has to accommodate itself to the claims of expediency, there is no place for Falstaff", a loyal human being.

Shakespeare united the three main streams of literature: verse, poetry, and drama. To the versification of the English language, he imparted his eloquence and variety giving highest expressions with elasticity of language. The second, the sonnets and poetry, was bound in structure. He imparted economy and intensity to the language. In the third and the most important area, the drama, he saved the language from vagueness and vastness and infused actuality and vividness. Shakespeare's work in prose, poetry, and drama marked the beginning of the modernization of English language by introduction of words and expressions, style and form to the language.

Shakespeare influenced many writers in the following centuries, including major novelists such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner. Examples of this influence include the large number of Shakespearean quotations throughout Dickens' writings and the fact that at least 25 of Dickens' titles are drawn from Shakespeare, while Melville frequently used Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies, in . In fact, Shakespeare so influenced Melville that the novel's main antagonist, Captain Ahab, is a classic Shakespearean tragic figure, "a great man brought down by his faults." Shakespeare has also influenced a number of English poets, especially Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge who were obsessed with self-consciousness, a modern theme Shakespeare anticipated in plays such as . Shakespeare's writings were so influential to English poetry of the 1800s that critic George Steiner has called all English poetic dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."

Influence on the English language

Shakespeare's writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to and during Shakespeare's time, the grammar and rules of English were not standardized. But once Shakespeare's plays became popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer. He expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases, experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and grammatical structures.

Among Shakespeare's greatest contributions to the English language must be the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which have enriched the language making it more colourful and expressive. Some estimates at the number of words coined by Shakespeare number in the several thousands. Warren King clarifies by saying that, "In all of his work - the plays, the sonnets and the narrative poems - Shakespeare uses 17,677 words: Of those, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare." He is also well known for borrowing from the classical literature and foreign languages. He created these words by "changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original." Many of Shakespeare's original phrases are still used in conversation and language today. These include, but are not limited to; "seen better days, strange bedfellows, a sorry sight," and "full circle". Shakespeare added a considerable number of words to the English language when compared to additions to English vocabulary made in other times. Shakespeare helped to further develop style and structure to an otherwise loose, spontaneous language. Written Elizabethan English stylistically closely followed the spoken language. The naturalness gave force and freedom since there was no formalized prescriptive grammar binding the expression. While lack of prescribed grammatical rules introduced vagueness in literature, it also expressed feelings with profound vividness and emotion which created, "freedom of expression" and "vividness of presentment". It was a language which expressed feelings explicitly. Shakespeare's gift involved using the exuberance of the language and decasyllabic structure in prose and poetry of his plays to reach the masses and the result was "a constant two way exchange between learned and the popular, together producing the unique combination of racy tang and the majestic stateliness that informs the language of Shakespeare".

While it is true that Shakespeare created many new words (the Oxford English Dictionary records over 2,000), an article in National Geographic points out the findings of historian Jonathan Hope who wrote in "Shakespeare's 'Native English'" that "the Victorian scholars who read texts for the first edition of the OED paid special attention to Shakespeare: his texts were read more thoroughly and cited more often, so he is often credited with the first use of words, or senses of words, which can, in fact, be found in other writers."

Many critics and scholars consider Shakespeare's first plays experimental and believe the playwright was still learning from his own mistakes. Gradually his language followed the "natural process of artistic growth, to find its adequate projection in dramatic form". As he continued experimenting, his style of writing found many manifestations in plays. The dialogues in his plays were written in verse form and followed a decasyllabic rule.[citation needed ] In Titus Andronicus, decasyllables have been used throughout. "There is a considerable pause; and though the inflexibility of the line sound is little affected by it, there is a certain running over of sense". His work is still experimental in Titus Andronicus. However, in Love's Labour's Lost and The Comedy of Errors, there is "perfect meter-abundance of rime [rhyme], plenty of prose, the arrangement in stanza". After these two comedies, he kept experimenting until he reached a maturity of style. "Shakespeare's experimental use of trend and style, as well as the achieved development of his blank verses, are all evidence of his creative invention and influences".[citation needed ] Through experimentation of tri-syllabic substitution and decasyllabic rule he developed the blank verse to perfection and introduced a new style.

"Shakespeare's blank verse is one of the most important of all his influences on the way the English language was written".[citation needed ] He used the blank verse throughout in his writing career experimenting and perfecting it. The free speech rhythm gave Shakespeare more freedom for experimentation. "Adaptation of free speech rhythm to the fixed blank-verse framework is an outstanding feature of Shakespeare's poetry". The striking choice of words in commonplace blank verse influenced "the run of the verse itself, expanding into images which eventually seem to bear significant repetition, and to form, with the presentation of character and action correspondingly developed, a more subtle and suggestive unity". Expressing emotions and situations in form of a verse gave a natural flow to language with an added sense of flexibility and spontaneity.

He introduced in poetry two main factors - "verbal immediacy and the moulding of stress to the movement of living emotion". Shakespeare's words reflected the passage of time with "fresh, concrete vividness" giving the reader an idea of the time frame. His remarkable capacity to analyze and express emotions in simple words was noteworthy:

"When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies-"

In the sonnet above, he has expressed in very simple words "complex and even contradictory attitudes to a single emotion".

The sonnet form was limited structurally, in theme and in expressions. The liveliness of Shakespeare's language and strict discipline of the sonnets imparted economy and intensity to his writing style. "It encouraged the association of compression with a depth of content and variety of emotional response to a degree unparalleled in English". Complex human emotions found simple expressions in Shakespeare's language.

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Shakespeare's influence extends from theater and literatures to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language itself. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through innovation in characterization, plot, language and genre.

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What was Shakespeare's impact on society?

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What was Shakespeare's impact on society?

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Shakespeare was well respected and honored in the comunity for his plays.

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language.

He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed how the world of poetry. This article will dive into the influence Shakespeare has had on literature across the world.
Career start
Shakespeare started his career as an actor in London. He also owned a company of actors named "King's Men". He began writing plays and poems during the 1590s. He emerged as one of the most prominent and influential writers in history. Before that, he was only known for his acting skills. His first poems, to be printed in 1593 and 1594, were Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His poems gathered much admiration and revived the concept of English literature.
Role in the modern curriculum
His efforts got him a lot of appreciation, and he became famous as the most powerful and prestigious dramatist in the history of English literature. Almost all high schools and colleges today include Shakespeare's writings in their curriculum. Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tragedy of Othello, and Macbeth are taught in many educational facilities. Shakespeare is now a common name among most, if not all, English Literature students.
Influence on writing style
Shakespeare created the most inspired plays in western literature. He wrote different plays, including characters that had a touch of both humour and seriousness especially in The Tragedy of Othello. Shakespeare linked poetry, drama and verse with each other, which had never been done before. For the versification of the English language, he used his rhetoric with higher expression. Through poetry, he gave strength to the language, and by writing dramas, he gave clear ideas that rarely left room for vagueness. Stephen Marche, a Canadian novelist, said that Shakespeare only used the English language as a tool to leave an impression on the audience. He was the special effects master of language and a key contributor to the formation of the English language as we know it today.
Influence on English language and literature
One of Shakespeare's most significant contributions is that he introduced a lot of new words to the English language. He invented 1700 commonly used words and many new phrases. For example, a widely used phrase "it's Greek to me" was created by Shakespeare. It is used to refer to something that is difficult to understand. Also, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare used the phrase "cold-blooded/hot-blooded" to equate blood temperature with emotional excitement - something now done very commonly.

These phrases were all invented by Shakespeare and are extensively used by modern writers in their works. For example, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Dogs of War by Robert Stone, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuels Johnson all use words and phrases coined by Shakespeare. Johnson is the one author who quotes Shakespeare more than anyone else. Shakespeare's original phrases are also still used in conversational language.

Shakespeare changed verbs into adverbs and adjectives. Connected words were not used together before him. He also added suffixes and prefixes to many words. The use of correct spellings became common during Shakespeare's time. Before Shakespeare, grammar rules were not adequately defined, and there wasn't any definite criterion for English grammar. To be precise, Shakespeare changed many aspects of the English language. His work gained importance in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, which helped the standardisation of the English language.

After Shakespeare, many other writers like Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe also adopted novel words and phrases to create new imaginative worlds and ideas. Shakespeare gave an utterly unique concept to romance. He presented it as an essential topic for tragedy. Shakespeare expanded the perspective of characterisation, plot language and genre in tragic plays. He used this idea to traverse the individual mind and created iconic duos like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare has tirelessly served English literature throughout his life. His existing work consists of 154 sonnets, 39 plays, two narrative poems and a few other verses. Shakespeare's writings have been translated into numerous languages across the world, and his plays are still performed in many theatres. Most people who read and understand Shakespeare and his writings become huge fans of his work. There's no denying that he made the English language a beautiful forte for creative and literary minds. Shakespeare had a unique grasp of language and sincerely employed themes of romance and tragedy in his work.
Inspiration to others
Modern writers, novelists and dramatists are greatly influenced by Shakespeare's plays and writings. Shakespeare has greatly influenced authors such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Dickens and William Faulkner. Charles Dickens derived almost 25 titles from Shakespeare's work. He used many quotations of Shakespeare in his work too. The character in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville was developed from the influence of Hamlet by Shakespeare. Many of Melville's writings have titles derived from Shakespeare's work as well.

Most modern-day movie makers derive ideas and plots from Shakespeare's writings and reshape them into new scripts. Movies like She is The Star and West Side Story were based on Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet, respectively.
Wrapping up
Shakespeare is and will always be accredited for creating new ideas, inventing, familiarising and repurposing the English language. His words, phrases and exceptional style of expression made him one of the best writers in the world. The stories, novels and plays that he wrote break barriers of time and culture and are equally relevant today.

Shakespeare is a name that is not just known to people who love literature. While Shakespeare is no longer among today's playwrights, his writings and efforts to promote the English language will uphold his name for years to come. English literature might not see such an extraordinary author ever again.
The editorial unit

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How Shakespeare changed literature around the world

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There's no denying the influence that Shakespeare has had in the realm of English literature. Shakespeare's influence has expanded from traditional literature and theatre to present-day movies, western philosophy and the English language. He is known as one of the best English-language writers and has introduced innovative ideas to novels, plays, dramas and even changed [...]

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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what caused his career to start/end and how did it affect people.

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what caused his career to start/end and how did it affect people.

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This talks about everything his career, and answers the questions above.

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Shakespeare's reputation was established in London by 1592. It was during this time that Shakespeare wrote his earliest plays, including Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Titus Andronicus, though it is often debated which of these plays was actually the first.

Shakespeare's first printed works were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). These two of Shakespeare's poems were both dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who had become his patron.

After the plague epidemic subsided, Shakespeare and other actors who had previously belonged to different companies combined to form the Lord Chamberlain's Men. This new theatre company was under the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain, and Richard Burbage starred as its leading actor. As a member of the troupe, Shakespeare also became a sharer in the company's overall income. For almost twenty years William Shakespeare was its regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year. Shakespeare stayed with the Chamberlain's Men, which would later evolve into the King's Men under the patronage of King James I, for the rest of his career. He also became a member of the syndicates which owned the Globe and the Blackfriars Theatre.

During his lifetime, Shakespeare provoked the envy and admiration of fellow writers, as we know from their surviving comments in print. The First Folio, an unprecedented collection of a playwright's work, is the best illustration of the pre-eminence awarded to him. Ben Jonson's tribute to him, printed in this volume, famously praised him as:

".....Soule of the Age!
The applause! Delight! The wonder of our Stage...
He was not of an age, but for all time!"

The memorial statue erected by his family in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon also demonstrates his status as a prosperous man of property as well as a famous poet.

Shakespeare's Patrons

As a member of the acting company called the Chamberlain's Men, which from 1603 were known as the King's Men, Shakespeare enjoyed the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain George Carey 2nd Lord Hunsdon and then of James I. Early in his career as a writer Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The First Folio was dedicated after Shakespeare's death to William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip who supported Shakespeare and his plays in his lifetime.

Elizabeth I was an active and generous patron of the theatre. She had her own acting company called the 'Queen's Men', and stood against the puritans who wished to close down the theatres. Without her support the Elizabethan theatres would not have survived. In the 1590s court performances by acting companies became popular and Shakespeare's company was selected more than any other. Shakespeare does not refer to Elizabeth very often. He makes only one direct reference to her: "a fair vestal throned by the west" (A Midsummer Night's Dream). There is a reference to her baptism at the end of Henry VIII, but that section of the play is believed to have been written by John Fletcher. It is believed that she liked the character of Falstaff so much, in Henry IV, Part One, that she asked Shakespeare to write a play that showed the character in love - this supposedly inspired The Merry Wives of Windsor. When Elizabeth died Shakespeare wrote no elegy for her, unlike most of the poets of the day. As you can see it is not easy to determine Shakespeare's relationship to Elizabeth I. It appears that he worked for her as she demanded but there is no indication that their relationship was closer than that.

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Read about William Shakespeare's early career as he built his reputation in London.

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don't know when he moved there. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple's relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.

Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene." The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare's earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603). Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world; his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages.

Final years and death

Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), as well as from his writing and acting. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

Find out what's on, read our latest stories, and learn how you can get involved.

Sign up

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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how did shakespeare influence modern culture

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how did shakespeare influence modern culture

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It talks about how he had influenced modern culture

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NoHo Arts District - Theatre, Food, Bars, Shopping and a buzzing community.

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It's more than 400 years since his death, and the works of William Shakespeare still have a strong impact on modern western culture. Perhaps more than any other artist from his period, Shakespeare's works have stayed relevant enough to make their way into our language, politics, entertainment industry, and even the way we perceive history.

In this article, we'll be taking a closer look at how Shakespeare has influenced some of the less obvious facets of our culture.

Our Language

With his literary works, Shakespeare contributed around 1,700 words and phrases to the English language, including Green-Eyed (to describe jealousy), to Elbow (as a verb), Bloodsucking, and even the first recorded use of the word Anchovy in written English.

There is some debate about whether many of these words were already in common usage, and Shakespeare was simply the first to write them down. However, we do know that the Bard took artistic license with the English language, changing nouns into verbs, combining two words into one, and adding additional suffixes or prefixes in search of the perfect word to fit the scene.

Historical Revision

Shakespeare is responsible for the elevation of certain historical characters through is works, the most famous being Cleopatra.

Considered somewhat of a historical side note before Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, the titular character was so elevated in the public consciousness that she would go on to have 17 films made about her, including one of the most expensive films of all time, a range of beauty cream, soap, and lotions, thousands of art pieces, and even a set of free Cleopatra slots from Casino Smash.

All of this despite the most memorable details of her life, such as being killed by the venom of an asp, bathing in milk, and much of the detail around her relationships with Ceasar and Anthony being made up by Shakespeare to make his play more interesting.

While Cleopatra gets the glamorous end of the stick, Richard III is slightly less fortunate. The image of the twisted and evil monarch with his hunched back was so fixed in our cultural idea of the man that people were shocked that, when his remains were found beneath a Leicester car park, that he was a fairly standard shape, not the monster Shakespeare portrayed.

Politics

Shakespeare's works are unashamedly political, with plays like Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth still being held up as masterclasses in how to tell a gripping political story. Perhaps because of this, many political leaders from around the globe have been inspired by Shakespeare.

Despite growing up nearly 6,000 miles from Britain, Nelson Mandela was hugely fond of Shakespeare's works and kept a volume of them with him during his incarceration, often reading from it to groups of other inmates.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both visited Shakespeare's grave in Stratford, and there is even a statue of the Bard in New York's Central Park, which was erected after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

One of the few surviving examples of Shakespeare's is in a manuscript for a play called The Book of Sir Thomas More. In this collaborative work, Shakespeare contributes more than 147 lines of a handwritten monologue calling for mercy and kindness on behalf of an immigrant population, a speech that is as relevant now as it was then.

Other Media

Such is the draw of Shakespeare that his works are often translated into other media. Verdi loved Shakespeare's plays, and Macbeth, Otello, and Falstaff are considered three of his best operas.

Romeo and Juliet has become one of the most translated works in human history, having started as a play, and then being adapted into a ballet, a song by Taylor Swift, the basis for West Side Story, and a celebrated Baz Luhrmann film.

Famous actors have always clamored to play the lead in Shakespeare adaptations, with names like Sir Ian McKellen, Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, and John Gielgud attached to the more famous renditions of his plays.

With Shakespeare's works continuing to inspire many art forms, there is no doubt that they will also continue to have a significant influence on our cultural roadmap going into the future.

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Shakespeare's Surprising Influence on Modern Culture

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NoHo Arts District is L.A's entertainment hub. Filled with live theatre, bars, buzzing nightlife, restaurants, studios and so much more. NoHo is home to the Emmy statue and only a mile from Universal Studios. It's a perfect community for Millenials and seniors with a bohemian vibe of the arts.

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This shows some of Shakespeare's plays, both tragedy and comedies.

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LibGuides: English Literature: Shakespeare and Poetry: Tragedies

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Shakespeare's life  and how his childhood was

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Shakespeare's life  and how his childhood was

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His mom was the kid of a local farmer and his father was a glove-maker. They were one of the richest families in their small town. Shakespeare went to school in Stratford, where he learned to read and write in Latin and Greek as well as English.