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William Shakespeare

2/9/2013

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright widely

regarded as the greatest writer in English language. He is often called as

England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. Shakespeare was born

on or about 23 April in 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glover

and commodities merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was from a

gentry class. His parents, John and Mary, were married about 1557.

Shakespeare grew up in the Tudor market town of Stratford-on-Avon, a

lovely village surrounded by extensive, unspoiled woods. He was the

eldest son and had several sisters and one brother. By 1568, John had

risen through the rank of town government and he held he position of

high bailiff, similar to the mayor.

William did his primary schooling in the local grammar school in

Stratford where he lived with his parents. At the age of 18, in 27th

November 1582, William married Anne Hathaway, a local farmer’s

daughter who was eight years his senior. Six months after their

marriage, their first daughter Susanna was born and baptized on 26th

May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two

years later and were baptized on 2nd February 1585.

William’s life can be divided into three periods, his first 20 years in

Stratford, which includes his schooling, early marriage and fatherhood;

the next 25 years as an actor and playwright in London; and the last 5

years in retirement back in Stratford where he enjoyed moderate wealth

gained from his theatrical successes. The first two periods are referred

to as the “dark years” due to lack of information about Shakespeare.

Anne HathawayWilliam

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare left his school at his 15th age and took some sort of job,

since this was the period of his father’s financial difficulty. At some

point during the “dark years”, William began his career with a London

theatrical company, probably in 1589, for he was already an actor and

playwright of some note in 1592. Shakespeare wrote and acted for

Pembroke’s Men as well as numerous others, in particular Strange’s

Men, which later became the Chamberlain’s Men, with whom William

remained for the rest of his career.

In 1592, the Plague closed the theaters for about two years. At this time

Shakespeare started writing narrative poetry. The most notable were

“Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of Lucrece”. Both were dedicated to

the Earl of Southampton, whom scholars accept as Shakespeare’s

friend.

During this same year Shakespeare also started to write sonnets. Again

when the theaters reopened in 1594, he returned to play writing and

stopped publishing poetry. Shortly before his retirement, his sonnets

were published without his consent in the year 1609.

In the year 1596, Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet died at the age of 11.

This was of great loss to Shakespeare. But this did not interrupt

Shakespeare’s career. In 1599, in London, he became one of the

partners in the new Globe Theater which was built by the Chamberlain’s

Men.

When King James of Scotland, cousin of Queen Elizabeth succeeded

her after her death in 1603, the Chamberlain’s Men was renamed the

King’s Men. Shakespeare’s popularity and productivity continued

uninterrupted. He also invested in real estate and , one year after his

retirement, he purchased a second theater, the Black friars Gatehouse,

in partnership with his actors.

Most of Shakespeare’s plays had never been published in anything

except pamphlet form, and were simply extant as acting scripts stored

in the Globe. The efforts of two of his company, John Heminges and

Henry Condell, preserved Shakespeare’s 36 plays in the First Folio.

Pericles which was the thirty seventh play was not included in the First

Folio.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days

later in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church where he was baptized

exactly 52 years earlier. The cause of his death was not reported. In1623

the same year when Shakespeare’s widow, Anne Hathaway

Shakespeare, died, the first collection of Shakespeare’s works was

published. The published collection was known as the First Folio. (The

word “folio” refers to a book made up of sheets of paper folded once to

form two leaves of equal size, or four pages.)

The First Folio did not include Pericles, Prince of Tyre or The Two Noble

Kinsmen. The First Folio contained eighteen plays which had never

been previously published. These eighteen plays included: All’s Well

That Ends Well; Antony and Cleopatra; As You Like It; The Comedy of

Errors; Coriolanus; Cymbeline; Henry VI, Part One; Henry VIII; Julius

Caesar; King John; Macbeth; Measure for Measure; The Taming of the

Shrew; The Tempest; Timon of Athens; Twelfth Night; Two Gentlemen of

Verona; and The Winter’s Tale. The other eighteen plays which were

included in the First Folio had been published before. It was published

as a quarto edition. (The word “Quarto” refers to a book made up of

sheets of paper folded twice to form four leaves of equal size, or eight

pages.)

In 1632, the Second collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays was

published as the Second Folio. It was a reprint of the First Folio but

many changes were made in order to modernize the spellings and

correct stage directions and names.

The Third Folio was published in 1663 and it contained corrections to

the text of the Second Folio. It also introduced errors that were not

found in the previous editions. The Third Folio was again reprinted in

the year 1664 and it included within it seven new plays. One of these

plays, Pericles, is generally accepted as Shakespeare’s work even

though some believe another dramatist may have collaborated.

The Fourth Folio was published in 1685 and it was the last of the Folio

editions of the plays.

William Shakespeare

Famous William Shakespeare quotes-----------------------------------------------------------------

1. Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

2. I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.

3. Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent.

4. I would be better to be eaten to death with rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.

5. I will praise any man that will praise me.

6. It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

7. I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

8. I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man.

9. When   I first saw you I fell in love and you smiled because you knew.

10.Maybe love won't let you down. All of your failures are training grounds and just as your back's turned you'll be surprised...as your solitude subsides 

11.Speak low, if you speak love.

12.An overflow of good converts to bad.”

13.“What's done can't be undone.”

14.“If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die.”

15.“Say as you think and speak it from your souls.”

16.“Give thy thoughts no tongue.”