William Shakespeare
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Biography of William Shakespeare
Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth. He did not continue his formal education at university, nor did he come under the mentorship of a senior artist, nor did he marry into wealth or prestige. His talent as an actor seems to have been modest, since he is not known for starring roles. His success as a playwright depended in part upon royal patronage. Yet in spite of these limitations, Shakespeare is now the most performed and read playwright in the world.
Born to John Shakespeare, a glove-maker and tradesman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent farmer, William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in a church in Stratford-upon-Avon. At that time, infants were baptized three days after their birth, thus scholars believe that Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day on which he died at age 52 in 1616. As the third of eight children, young William grew up in this small town 100 miles northwest of London, far from the cultural and courtly center of England.
Shakespeare's One Room School
Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, King's New School, where the curriculum would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, Roman comedy, ancient history, rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his childhood, Shakespeare's father struggled with serious financial debt. Therefore, unlike his fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, he did not attend university. Rather, in 1582 at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior and three months pregnant. Their first child, Susanna, was born in 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, came in 1585. In the seven years following their birth, the historical record concerning Shakespeare is incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable; scholars refer to this period as his “lost years.”
Ann Hathaway's House
In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene, Shakespeare reappears as an “upstart crow” flapping his poetic wings in London. Evidently, it did not take him long to land on the stage. Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, and The Comedy of Errors were performed. When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague, the playwright wrote two narrative poems, Venus and Adonisand The Rape of Lucrece, and probably began writing his richly textured sonnets. One hundred and fifty four of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. By 1594, he had also written, The Taming of the Shrew, The TwoGentlemen of Verona and Love's Labor's Lost.
Having established himself as an actor and playwright, in 1594 Shakespeare became a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most popular acting companies in London. He remained a member of this company for the rest of his career, often playing before the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare entered one of his most prolific periods around 1595, writing Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant ofVenice. With his newfound success, Shakespeare purchased the second largest home in Stratford in 1597, though he continued to live in London. Two years later, he joined others from the Lord Chamberlain's Men in establishing the polygonal Globe Theatre on the outskirts of London. When King James came to the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players, organizing them as the King's Men. During King James's reign, Shakespeare wrote many of his most accomplished plays about courtly power, including King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In 1609 or 1611, Shakespeare's sonnets were published, though he did not live to see the First Folio of his plays published in 1623.
In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare revised his will. Since his only son Hamnet had died in 1596, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his two daughters, with monetary gifts set aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. A fascinating detail of his will is that he bequeathed the family's “second best bed” to his wife Anne. He died one month later, on April 23, 1616, and was buried in the local church which also contains a bust of him. To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems.
When William Shakespeare died in his birthplace of Stratford-upon- Avon, he was recognized as one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. In the four centuries since, he has come to be seen as not only a great English playwright, but the greatest playwright in the English language. Reflecting upon the achievement of his peer and sometimes rival, Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”
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Shakespeare's Missing Head
It is a mystery that has gripped historians and Shakespeare experts for generations and one to which that archaeologists believe that they could have finally found an answer. After a hi-tech investigation concluded the legendary playwright's skull was probably taken by trophy hunters more than 200 years ago, which direction should the search for his missing bones now take? As a British television documentary reveals his Stratford resting place has been disturbed at the head end, and proves a mystery skull thought to be his is actually that of a woman, new theories about what happened to Shakespeare's head are beginning to emerge. However, recently both experts and enthusiasts gave their opinions on where the hunt for the elusive part of his skeleton should continue to go on or whether it is finally time to let him rest in peace.
Shakespeare's Memorial in Trinity Church
"It's not quite back to square one but we need to look at the legends of other churches to see if they hold the key" said Kevin Colls, a Staffordshire University archaeologist who led the investigation into Shakespeare's grave at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
He firmly believes the findings of a disturbance of, and repair to, the tomb are too similar to the trophy-hunting allegations printed in 1879 to dismiss them and plans to keep looking for the skull. "Our research will continue. We're going to try and do as much as we can to locate it," he said. "Because we had two possible locations, Holy Trinity and St Leonard's in Beoley and we've ruled out those, We now need to look through documents again to help us find where it could be. It's not quite back to square one. We need to look at the myths and legends surrounding other churches in Stratford and the West Midlands to see if any of those could hold the key. It is of course possible that the skull was removed before the burial, and what our research has done is open a whole can of worms. But the fact is that our findings correlate so well with the documented theft in 1879 - particularly the reference to the grave being shallow. If it was going to be made up, the story would be entirely different. The evidence of disturbance to the grave and repair to the chancel floor leads us to this conclusion. "
Shakespeare's Grave in Trinity Church
Chris Laoutaris, of the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute, is a Renaissance burial customs expert and wonders whether a loved one is responsible for the disappearance of the playwright's skull, which he thinks could lie in a relative's tomb. "Of course, it's possible that his head was looted in 1794, as the Argosy Magazine had claimed somewhat controversially in 1879," he said."But then another question occurred to me: what if Shakespeare's skull was disinterred not long after his burial and reburied with another family member or loved one? In an age in which high mortality rates meant that death was a far more vivid and ever-present reality than today, reacquainting oneself with the relics of the dearly departed in this manner may have seemed less strange, and was not in fact unheard of. The most well known example is that of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII and England's greatest humanist scholar, whose head was believed to have been lovingly preserved after his execution in 1534 by his devoted daughter Margaret More Roper. In 1978, archaeologists opened the Roper family burial vault in the Church of St Dunstan in Canterbury and discovered a mysterious niche behind which were remnants of a skull, almost certainly belonging to More. Could the mystery of Shakespeare's own skull, if indeed it is missing from his grave, owe something to a loved one's desire to be reunited with him in death? Perhaps we will never know.
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Shakespeare Quotes
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,creeps in this petty pace from day to day,to the last syllable of recorded time;and all our yesterdays have lighted foolsthe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,and then is heard no more. It is a taletold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
This above all; to thine own self be true.
Nothing can come of nothing.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.
The wheel is come full circle.
In time we hate that which we often fear.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
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Common English Words Created by Shakespeare