William Shakespeare

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 of John Shakespeare, a glover and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed heiress. William, according to the church register, was the third of eight. Shakespeare attended the free grammar school in Stratford, however he never proceeded to University schooling.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and had three children: Susanna, Hamnet and Judith.

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).

Shakespeare's success is 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. It is noted that never before had a playwright enjoyed sufficient acclaim to see his works published and sold as popular literature in the midst of his career. While Shakespeare could not be accounted wealthy, by London standards, his success allowed him to purchase New House and retire in comfort to Stratford in 1611.

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."

In 1623, two working companions of Shakespeare from the Lord Chamberlain's Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, printed the First Folio edition of the Collected Works, of which half the plays contained therein were previously unpublished. The First Folio also contained Shakespeare's sonnets.

SOME PLAYS WRITTEN  BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

• Hamlet
• Macbeth
• Julius Caesar
• The Tempest
• King Lear
• Romeo and Juliet
• Much Ado about Nothing

In addition, William Shakespeare is known as " The Greatest Play Writer" because his works have been a major influeence on subsequent theatre. In addition, he also transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterisation, plot, action, language and genre.