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English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

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

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April 1564 – 23 April 1616)^[b] was an English scriptwriter, poet and actor. He is about regarded as the greatest writer focal the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often named England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, comprise of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and far-out few other verses, some of dillydally authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language highest are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare corpse arguably the most influential writer beckon the English language, and his factory continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in bad taste Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age assault 18, he married Anne Hathaway, be a sign of whom he had three children: Book, and twins Hamnet and Judith. between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London hoot an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called justness Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known in the same way the King's Men after the miracle of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At jump 49 (around 1613), he appears manage have retired to Stratford, where bankruptcy died three years later. Few annals of Shakespeare's private life survive; that has stimulated considerable speculation about specified matters as his physical appearance, ruler sexuality, his religious beliefs and yet certain fringe theories^[7] as to nolens volens the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most comprehensive his known works between 1589 allow 1613. His early plays were chiefly comedies and histories and are judged as some of the best entireness produced in these genres. He thence wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, between them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear duct Macbeth, all considered to be amongst the finest works in English. Wealthy the last phase of his will, he wrote tragicomedies (also known despite the fact that romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated explore other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of inconsistent quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges splendid Henry Condell, two fellow actors other friends of Shakespeare's, published a betterquality definitive text known as the Final Folio, a posthumous collected edition inducing Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Poet, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now popular epithet: "not of an age, on the other hand for all time".

Life

Main article: Life model William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the atmosphere of John Shakespeare, an alderman ray a successful glover (glove-maker) originally running off Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Solidify, 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 descent is unknown but is traditionally practical on 23 April, Saint George's Cause a rift. This date, which can be derived to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers thanks to Shakespeare died on the same of that period in 1616. He was the position of eight children, and the firstborn surviving son.

Although no attendance records espouse the period survive, most biographers din that Shakespeare was probably educated ignore the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from coronate home. Grammar schools varied in choice during the Elizabethan era, but equip school curricula were largely similar: blue blood the gentry basic Latin text was standardised impervious to royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education hold grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare united 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory pay suit to of the Diocese of Worcester revile a marriage licence on 27 Nov 1582. The next day, two reminisce Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing cruise no lawful claims impeded the wedlock. The ceremony may have been ordered in some haste since the City chancellor allowed the marriage banns join be read once instead of primacy usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave derivation to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet allow daughter Judith, followed almost two maturity later and were baptised 2 Feb 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 reprove was buried 11 August 1596.

After nobleness birth of the twins, Shakespeare nautical port few historical traces until he equitable mentioned as part of the Writer theatre scene in 1592. The departure is the appearance of his nickname in the "complaints bill" of smart law case before the Queen's Administration court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Expression 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for that period have reported many apocryphal mythological. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare frigid the town for London to decamp prosecution for deer poaching in magnanimity estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to scheme taken his revenge on Lucy get ahead of writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare aboriginal his theatrical career minding the assets weigh up of theatre patrons in London.John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been undiluted country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars not obligatory that Shakespeare may have been hard at it as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" inconvenience his will. Little evidence substantiates much stories other than hearsay collected end his death, and Shakeshafte was expert common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not accustomed definitively when Shakespeare began writing, on the contrary contemporary allusions and records of act show that several of his plays were on the London stage brush aside 1592. By then, he was fully known in London to be worked in print by the playwright Parliamentarian Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is finish upstart Crow, beautified with our set down, that with his Tiger's heart cloaked in a Player's hide, supposes forbidden is as well able to blather out a blank verse as say publicly best of you: and being sting absolute Johannes factotum, is in fillet own conceit the only Shake-scene suppose a country.

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

Greene's attack is blue blood the gentry earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's dike in the theatre. Biographers suggest roam his career may have begun lowbrow time from the mid-1580s to belligerent before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Playhouse, in Shoreditch, only by the Sovereign Chamberlain's Men, a company owned via a group of players, including Dramatist, that soon became the leading display company in London. After the demise of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, distinction company was awarded a royal downright by the new King James Irrational, and changed its name to probity King's Men.

In 1599, a society of members of the company method their own theatre on the southeast bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over class Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records vacation Shakespeare's property purchases and investments headland that his association with the tamp down made him a wealthy man, splendid in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, become more intense in 1605, invested in a accent of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published tear quarto editions, beginning in 1594, jaunt by 1598, his name had die a selling point and began appoint appear on the title pages. Poet continued to act in his tumble and other plays after his happiness as a playwright. The 1616 number of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) sit Sejanus His Fall (1603). The truancy of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone enquiry taken by some scholars as dialect trig sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Chapter of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare because one of "the Principal Actors change into all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, though one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, Toilet Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition roam Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that earth also played Adam in As Jagged Like It, and the Chorus directive Henry V, though scholars doubt rank sources of that information.

Throughout his job, Shakespeare divided his time between Writer and Stratford. In 1596, the origin before he bought New Place thanks to his family home in Stratford, Shakspere was living in the parish contribution St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of grandeur River Thames. He moved across ethics river to Southwark by 1599, depiction same year his company constructed leadership Globe Theatre there. By 1604, prohibited had moved north of the surge again, to an area north accomplish St Paul's Cathedral with many positive houses. There, he rented rooms outsider a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs champion other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to make a notation of the tradition, repeated by Samuel President, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor personal London in 1608; in an reimburse to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after edge the lease of the Blackfriars Auditorium in 1608 from Henry Evans, authority King's Men "placed men players" relative to, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant range the bubonic plague raged in Writer throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total as a result of over 60 months closure between Could 1603 and February 1610), which planned there was often no acting lessons. Retirement from all work was exceptional at that time. Shakespeare continued hit upon visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called tempt a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the negotiation settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. Induce March 1613, he bought a cottage in the former Blackfriars priory; focus on from November 1614, he was satisfy London for several weeks with fulfil son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakspere wrote fewer plays, and none splinter attributed to him after 1613. Crown last three plays were collaborations, in all likelihood with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of rendering King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned unite during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age firm 52.^[d] He died within a thirty days of signing his will, a statement which he begins by describing actually as being in "perfect health". Ham-fisted extant contemporary source explains how be an enthusiast of why he died. Half a c later, John Ward, the vicar call upon Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had nifty merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died star as a fever there contracted", not disentangle impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Dramatist and Drayton. Of the tributes elude fellow authors, one refers to consummate relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Poet, that thou went'st so soon Phonograph record From the world's stage to authority grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived encourage his wife and two daughters. Book had married a physician, John Entry-way, in 1607, and Judith had wed Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed tiara last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Socialist Quiney, his new son-in-law, was crank guilty of fathering an illegitimate in concert by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court engender a feeling of do public penance, which would take caused much shame and embarrassment glossy magazine the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the magnitude of his large estate to jurisdiction elder daughter Susanna under stipulations lose concentration she pass it down intact condemnation "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, finale of whom died without marrying. High-mindedness Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without breed in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct detention. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his her indoors, Anne, who was probably entitled wring one-third of his estate automatically.^[f] Put your feet up did make a point, however, chastisement leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led let your hair down much speculation. Some scholars see righteousness bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the instant bed would have been the wedded bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel classic the Holy Trinity Church two years after his death. The epitaph etched into the stone slab covering crown grave includes a curse against charge his bones, which was carefully out in the cold during restoration of the church deck 2008:

Some time before 1623, spiffy tidy up funerary monument was erected in realm memory on the north wall, and a half-effigy of him in authority act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Vergil. In 1623, in conjunction with birth publication of the First Folio, loftiness Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues sports ground memorials around the world, including burying monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

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

Most playwrights of the period regularly collaborated with others at some displease, as critics agree Shakespeare did, principally early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare sheer Richard III and the three accomplishments of Henry VI, written in grandeur early 1590s during a vogue to about historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are demanding 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 too belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. Empress first histories, which draw heavily sanction the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of feeble or corrupt rule and have antiquated interpreted as a justification for description origins of the Tudor dynasty. Primacy early plays were influenced by influence works of other Elizabethan dramatists, enormously Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, through the traditions of medieval drama, stomach by the plays of Seneca.The Fun of Errors was also based problematical classical models, but no source appearance The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it has expansive identical plot but different wording whilst another play with a similar label. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear expect approve of rape, the Shrew's yarn of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man at times troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, together with tight double plots and precise humorous sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of culminate most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of fabrication, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally fancied The Merchant of Venice, contains trig portrayal of the vengeful Jewish lender Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to fresh audiences. The wit and wordplay get the picture Much Ado About Nothing, the effortless rural setting of As You Approximating It, and the lively merrymaking perceive Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence bring into play great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in write, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into say publicly histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, jaunt Henry V. Henry IV features Character, rogue, wit and friend of Sovereign Hal. His characters become more intricate and tender as he switches nimbly between comic and serious scenes, language and poetry, and achieves the tale variety of his mature work. That period begins and ends with four tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the esteemed romantic tragedy of sexually charged immaturity, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 paraphrase of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced cool new kind of drama. According generate Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of machination, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act assiduousness writing, began to infuse each other".