Poets - 06 - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare was born on the 23rd April 1564, in the small town of Stratford – on – Avon, England. His father was a prosperous glove maker who held several positions in the town government. His mother Mary Arden was the daughter of a wealthy landowner.

By the age of seven Shakespeare was attending the local grammar school. Not much is known about Shakespeare’s early life.

In 1582 when he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the twenty six year old daughter of a farmer who lived about a mile from Stratford. Over the next three years the couple had a daughter – Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith.

From 1585 to 1592, the period some scholars call ‘Shakespeare’s lost years’ virtually nothing is known about his life. From 1592 on, the records are much fuller. Sometime during the so called ‘lost years’, Shakespeare moved to London and became a part of the city’s busy theatrical life.

By 1594 he was a shareholder, or part owner, in one of London’s most popular acting companies, ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’. During the period at least six of his plays had been produced.

Each shareholder contributed in some way to the company. Shakespeare was both a writer and actor; he is said to have played the ‘ghost’ in ‘Hamlet’. The more popular his plays, the larger his share of the company’s income became.

In 1599 the company built the ‘Globe Theatre’, the most famous of Elizabethan theatres.

After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603, ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’ were sponsored by King James I and became known as ‘The King’s Men’. In 1608 the company acquired a second theatre in Black friars, a fashionable district of London.

Shakespeare seems to have retired from acting about this time. His name does not appear in the list of players after 1607.

Between 1608 and 1613 Shakespeare wrote his last five plays: ‘Pericles’ , ‘Cymbeline’, ‘The Winter’s Tale’ , ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Henry VIII’. While he was writing these plays Shakespeare lived mostly in Stratford, where he was regarded as one of the town’s most important citizens.

In addition to his plays and two narrative poems, Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 Sonnets. They were probably written in the 1590s. Sonnet 18, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 30, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 116, are among them. (The numbering of Sonnets was done by scholars later.)

Venus And Adonais
The Passionate Pilgrim
The Rape of Lucrece
A Lover’s Complaint
The Phoenix And The Turtle

Are his other poems.

Shakespeare died on the 23rd April 1616 in Stratford, and was buried in the yard of the Holy Trinity Church there.
The plays written by William Shakespeare

Comedies :

The Tempest

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Comedy of Errors

Love’s Labour Lost

The Merchant of Venice

The Taming of the Shrew

Twelfth Night

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Measure for Measure

Much Ado about Nothing

Midsummer Night’s Dream

As You Like It

All Is Well That Ends Well

The Winter’s Tale

Histories :

The Life and Death of King John

The Life and Death of King Richard II

The First Part of King Henry IV

The Life of King Henry V

The Second Part of King Henry IV

The First Part of King Henry VI

The Second Part of King Henry VI

The Third Part of King Henry VI

The Life and Death of Richard III

The Life of King Henry VIII

Tragedies :

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

Romeo and Juliet

The Life and Death of Julius Ceasar

King Lear

Antony and Cleopatra

Titus Andronicus

Timon of Athens

The Tragedy of Hamlet

Othello

Cymbaline King of Britain