3. William Shakespeare

Born in Strarford-uponavon. Known as the greatest playwright of the English language.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

BIOGRAPHY

SHAKESPEARE Who was he?  Date

of Birth? (1564)  We know this from the earliest record we have of his life; his baptistm which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564.  We don`t actually know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similary by knowing the famous Bard`s baptism date, we can guess that he was born three day earlier on St. George`s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this.

Biography William was the son of John and Mary Shakespeare. From baptism records we know William’s father was John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a local businessman who dabbled in tanning, leatherwork and withetawering which is working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade.

John was also a prominent man in Stratford. By 1560, he was one of the towns burgesses which formed the town’s council. Interestingly, William himself is often described as a town businessman so we can assume he got his business acumen from his father. William’s mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and farming estate when he died.

Since we know Stratford’s famous Bard lived with his father, J. Shakespeare, we can presume that he grew up in Henley Street, some one hundred miles northwest of London. Very little is known about literature’s most famous playwright. We know that the King’s New Grammar School taught basic reading and writing. We assume William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no definite proof.

Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are studied at Universities, never attended one himself. A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen year old William married the twentysix and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire life.

His daughter Susanna was baptized in Stratford sometime in May, 1583. His twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1592. Hamnet, William’s only son died in 1596, just eleven years old.

The ten historical plays of Shakespeare cover a period in English history of 320 years. Thanks to the great dramatist, this period is more familiar to the average man or woman than any similar reach of years in all England history. The weaknesses of Henry VI, the baseness of king John, the murderous evil of Richard of Gloucester, the strength of Henry , the blind assumption of Richard II are all common knowledge to the man who knows nothing of the characters of Charles I, of George II, or even of Victoria.

One reads Shakespeare when one does not reads history, and the genius of the playwright has delineated ably the times, the character, the personality, the intrigues, the strength and the weakness of his leading characters. Shakespeare's inspired pen has limned indelibly the features of the more prominent personages who lived between the years 1215 and 1533; each character in his plays is a living human being, moving in reality, full sized and clear; and from the time when the curtain rises on King John receiving Chatillon, the French Ambassador, to the moment when that same curtain rings down on Cranmer’s prophecy of Elizabeth’s greatness, the pageant of English history is unfolded for us in a manner which has never yet been equalled.

It is the genius of Shakespeare that has caused the events of his period to impress themselves so indelibly on the minds of those who read his plays. There is no doubt that Shakespeare wrote all of his plays for his immediate present, and it is possible that the Bard himself would be most surprised of all to discover that the world revered his name as it does three hundred years after his death.

W.Shakespeare THE GLOBE THEATRE  The

Globe was built during Shakespeare’s early period in 1599 by one of his long-standing associates.  The theatre had a total capacity of betwen 2,000 and 3,000 spectators.

W.Shakespeare WORKS

PLAYS

SONNETS

PLAYS Comedy 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

All’s Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love’s Labors Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives of Windsor Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Troulist and Cressida Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona Winter’s Tale

History Henry IV, part Henry IV, part 5. Henry V 6. Henry VI, part 7. Henry VI, part 8. Henry VI, part 9. Henry VIII 10. King John 11. Richard II 12. Richard III 3. 4.

1 2 1 2 3

MORE PLAYS 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

TRAGEDY Anthony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Richard III

Sonnets - Shakespeare          

Sonnet 2 brow Sonnet 18 Sonnet 29 men’s Sonnet 55 Sonnet 109 Sonnet 116 Sonnet 126 Sonnet 130 Sonnet 133 Sonnet 147

When forty winters shall besiege thy Shall I compare thee to a summers day When in disgrace with fortune and eyes Not marble nor the gilded monuments O never say that I was false of heart Let me to the marriage of true minds O thou my lovely boy My Mistress eyes Beshrew that heart My love is

PHOTOS OF THE COMEDIES & MOVIES

TAMING OF THE SHREW

MORE PHOTOS

TITUS ANDRONICUS

JULIUS CAESAR

PHOTOS

THE TEMPEST

ROMEO AND JULIET