William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

On the 26^th of April 1564, John Shakespeare, a successful Glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer baptized their third child, a bouncing baby boy.  The name given to this baby was William Shakespeare. He was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon and he attended the Stratford School.  At the tender age of 18, Shakespeare married a woman by the name of Anne Hathaway.  He had three kids with her, Susanne being the first and twins Juliet and Hamnet (died at the age of 11) came after.

Shakespeare became an English poet and playwright in the late 1500s.  It was during this time and the early 1600s that he produced most of his work.  Until about 1608, William wrote mainly tragedies.  These included Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth which were considered some of the finest works in the English Language. William Shakespear was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19^th century.  He was known as the greatest writer who ever existed because of the 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and other poems in which he wrote in 23 years.

On the 23^rd of April 1616, William Shakespeare died at the age of 52 and was buried in the Chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.  It was said that a curse was placed on his tomb for anyone who dared to trouble where he lay.

Shakespeare Works (Earliest Set)

Richard 111 (written in the 1590s)

Henry V1 (written in the 1590s)

Titus Andronicus

The Comedy of Errors

The Taming of the Shrew

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Comedies

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Merchant of Venice

Much Ado About Nothing

You Like It

Twelfth Night

Tragedies

Romeo and Juliet

Julius Caesar

Macbeth

Othello

King Lear

Problem Plays

Measure for Measure

Troilus and Cressida

All’s Well That Ends Well

Romance

Cymbeline

The Winter’s Tale

The Tempest

Pericles

Prince of Tyre

Narrative Poems

Venus and Adonis

The Rape of Lucrece

A Lover’s Complaint

What is the Elizabethan Era?

This was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth 1s reign (1558-1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history.  It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry, music and literature.  This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished and William Shakespeare and many others compassed plays that broke free of England’s past style of plays and theatre.  It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.