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William ShakespeareFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the poet and playwright. For other persons of the same name, see William Shakespeare (disambiguation). For other uses of "Shakespeare", see Shakespeare (disambiguation).
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".[2][nb 2] His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[3] Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. 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. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.[4] Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.[5][nb 4] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".[6] In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. |
William Shakespeare was born. His father was a rich citizen whose buisness was making and seeling leather groves. His mother was a daughter of an important farmer. When hi was nineteen, William married Anne . She was a farmer's daughter and she was some years older than himself. During that year he may have helped his father in the family busines or may have been a country schoolmaster for a time, we don't know exactly. Shakespeare had three children- Susannah, the eldest, then twins - son, Hamlet, and another girl, Judith. In 1587 Shakespeare went to work in London, leaving Anne and the children at home. Some years later Shakespeare began to write plays. The perents did not even guess that their son would be such an important figure in English poetry and drama and that his plays would still be acted four handred years later in England and all over the world. By 1592 Shakespeare was an important member of a well-known company. In 1599 the famous Globe Theatre was built on the south bank of the river Thames . In that theatre most of his plays were performed. It was a round building with the stage in the centre, open to the sky. If it was raining, the actors got wet; if the weather was too bad, there was no performance at all. By 1603 Shakespeare was the leading poet and dramatist of his time . he countinued to write for the next ten years. In 1613 he finally stopped writing and went to live in Stratfort where he died in 1616. He is buried in Stratfort-on-Avon. |
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