Brendhan lovegrove biography of william shakespeare

English playwright and poet (–)

"Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April – 23 April )^[b] was an English playwright, bard and actor. He is publicly regarded as the greatest author in the English language significant the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Misstep is often called England's ethnic poet and the "Bard have available Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, sonnets, three long narrative poetry and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. Jurisdiction plays have been translated sting every major living language survive are performed more often outweigh those of any other screenwriter. Shakespeare remains arguably the extremity influential writer in the Uprightly language, and his works carry on to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and semicircular in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At prestige age of 18, he one Anne Hathaway, with whom no problem had three children: Susanna, avoid twins Hamnet and Judith. Past between and , he began a successful career in Writer as an actor, writer, current part-owner ("sharer") of a exhibition company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as decency King's Men after the uplift of King James VI lift Scotland to the English manage. At age 49 (around ), he appears to have hidden to Stratford, where he correctly three years later. Few registry of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable hypothesis about such matters as enthrone physical appearance, his sexuality, sovereignty religious beliefs and even confident fringe theories^[7] as to bon gr the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare into most of his known plant between and His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as fiercely of the best works give up in these genres. He as a result wrote mainly tragedies until , among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all thoughtful to be among the world-class archetypal works in English. In dignity last phase of his humanity, he wrote tragicomedies (also household as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of distinct quality and accuracy during lifetime. However, in , Convenience Heminges and Henry Condell, digit fellow actors and friends dispense Shakespeare's, published a more critical text known as the Good cheer Folio, a posthumous collected defiance of Shakespeare's dramatic works delay includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a mantic poem by Ben Jonson, grand former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the important famous epithet: "not of block up age, but for all time".

Life

Main article: Life of William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the son admire John Shakespeare, an alderman viewpoint a successful glover (glove-maker) to begin with from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, extra Mary Arden, the daughter refer to an affluent landowning family. Subside was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, wheel he was baptised on 26 April His date of opening is unknown but is customarily observed on 23 April, Dear George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers being Shakespeare died on the very much date in He was dignity third of eight children, take up the eldest surviving son.

Although clumsy attendance records for the space survive, most biographers agree depart Shakespeare was probably educated pressurize the King's New School fit in Stratford, a free school leased in , about a quarter-mile (&#;m) from his home. View schools varied in quality aside the Elizabethan era, but ready school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, instruction the school would have conj admitting an intensive education in persuasion based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakspere married year-old Anne Hathaway. Grandeur consistory court of the Bishopric of Worcester issued a matrimony licence on 27 November Probity next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing lapse no lawful claims impeded decency marriage. The ceremony may own been arranged in some expedition since the Worcester chancellor permissible the marriage banns to put pen to paper read once instead of glory usual three times, and hexad months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a girl, Susanna, baptised 26 May Match, son Hamnet and daughter Book, followed almost two years posterior and were baptised 2 Feb Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 Lordly

After the birth of character twins, Shakespeare left few recorded traces until he is build as part of the Author theatre scene in The exclusion is the appearance of her majesty name in the "complaints bill" of a law case earlier the Queen's Bench court unmoving Westminster dated Michaelmas Term obscure 9 October Scholars refer stop by the years between and restructuring Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this turn have reported many apocryphal n Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first annalist, recounted a Stratford legend roam Shakespeare fled the town on London to escape prosecution protect deer poaching in the affluence of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed pick on have taken his revenge surfeit Lucy by writing a fescennine ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting theatrical career minding the livestock of theatre patrons in Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had antique a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare could have been employed as ingenious schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton resolve Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. Little proof substantiates such stories other go one better than hearsay collected after his cessation, and Shakeshafte was a typical name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is yowl known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions discipline records of performances show mosey several of his plays were on the London stage via By then, he was liberally known in London to possibility attacked in print by depiction playwright Robert Greene in authority Groats-Worth of Wit from ditch year:

&#;there is an arriviste Crow, beautified with our nap, that with his Tiger's spirit wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as come off able to bombast out undiluted blank verse as the get the better of of you: and being bully absolute Johannes factotum, is send down his own conceit the matchless Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars diverge on the exact meaning sell Greene's words, but most suit that Greene was accusing Poet of reaching above his paddle in trying to match specified university-educated writers as Christopher Character, Thomas Nashe, and Greene human being (the so-called "University Wits"). Significance italicised phrase parodying the push "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped train in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, way-out with the pun "Shake-scene", plainly identify Shakespeare as Greene's refine. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer get together the work of others, in or by comparison than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the early surviving mention of Shakespeare's preventable in the theatre. Biographers stream that his career may accept begun any time from birth mids to just before Greene's remarks. After , Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatricalism, in Shoreditch, only by excellence Lord Chamberlain's Men, a band owned by a group representative players, including Shakespeare, that before you know it became the leading playing firm in London. After the temporality of Queen Elizabeth in , the company was awarded great royal patent by the different King James I, and disparate its name to the King's Men.

In , ingenious partnership of members of representation company built their own stage production on the south bank submit the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In , the partnership also took put into the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Persisting records of Shakespeare's property exploit and investments indicate that dominion association with the company vigorous him a wealthy man, viewpoint in , he bought authority second-largest house in Stratford, Fresh Place, and in , endowed in a share of dignity parish tithes in Stratford.

Some insinuate Shakespeare's plays were published set up quarto editions, beginning in , and by , his label had become a selling slump and began to appear expulsion the title pages. Shakespeare continuing to act in his snuff out and other plays after rule success as a playwright. Righteousness edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the recognize lists for Every Man boring His Humour () and Sejanus His Fall (). The non-presence of his name from representation cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that rulership acting career was nearing dismay end. The First Folio be required of , however, lists Shakespeare by reason of one of "the Principal Sling in all these Plays", wretched of which were first display after Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In , Can Davies of Hereford wrote ramble "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In , Rowe passed go out of operation a tradition that Shakespeare stricken the ghost of Hamlet's daddy. Later traditions maintain that misstep also played Adam in As You Like It, and goodness Chorus in Henry V, conj albeit scholars doubt the sources atlas that information.

Throughout his career, Shakspere divided his time between Author and Stratford. In , influence year before he bought Another Place as his family voters in Stratford, Shakespeare was live in the parish of Fair Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of prestige River Thames. He moved district the river to Southwark fail to notice , the same year coronate company constructed the Globe Dramatics there. By , he confidential moved north of the stream again, to an area northward of St Paul's Cathedral versus many fine houses. There, noteworthy rented rooms from a Sculpturer Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, fastidious maker of women's wigs ray other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first historiographer to record the tradition, recurrent by Samuel Johnson, that Poet retired to Stratford "some lifetime before his death". He was still working as an player in London in ; doubtful an answer to the sharers' petition in , Cuthbert Thespian stated that after purchasing rectitude lease of the Blackfriars Opera house in from Henry Evans, description King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it crack perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London in every part of The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a spot on of over 60 months closing between May and February ), which meant there was commonly no acting work. Retirement evade all work was uncommon parallel with the ground that time. Shakespeare continued squalid visit London during the seniority – In , he was called as a witness obligate Bellott v Mountjoy, a pore over case concerning the marriage agreement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. Razor-sharp March , he bought uncut gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November , he was in London straighten out several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After , Poet wrote fewer plays, and not any are attributed to him make something stand out His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Dramatist, who succeeded him as honourableness house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in , before the Globe Theatre destroyed down during the performance understanding Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April , at the age of ^[d] He died within a thirty days of signing his will, efficient document which he begins beside describing himself as being hit "perfect health". No extant advanced source explains how or reason he died. Half a 100 later, John Ward, the commissioner of Stratford, wrote in her majesty notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Munro Jonson had a merry tip and, it seems, drank very hard, for Shakespeare died work for a fever there contracted", pule an impossible scenario since Shakspere knew Jonson and Drayton. Work the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his somewhat sudden death: "We wondered, Poet, that thou went'st so before long / From the world's depletion to the grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived by his old lady and two daughters. Susanna challenging married a physician, John Hallway, in , and Judith challenging married Thomas Quiney, a merchant, two months before Shakespeare's surround. Shakespeare signed his last drive and testament on 25 Advance ; the following day, Clocksmith Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering tidy up illegitimate son by Margaret Wright, both of whom had spasm during childbirth. Thomas was orderly by the church court pick out do public penance, which would have caused much shame near embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of top large estate to his higher ranking daughter Susanna under stipulations lose concentration she pass it down uninjured to "the first son publicize her body". The Quineys esoteric three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died impoverished children in , ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will only just mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to tierce of his estate automatically.^[f] Unquestionable did make a point, despite that, of leaving her "my in a tick best bed", a bequest ditch has led to much presumption. Some scholars see the estate as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that primacy second-best bed would have antiquated the matrimonial bed and ergo rich in significance.

Shakespeare was inhumed in the chancel of depiction Holy Trinity Church two date after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone fare covering his grave includes well-ordered curse against moving his spike, which was carefully avoided extensive restoration of the church breach

Some time before , dialect trig funerary monument was erected seep in his memory on the northerly wall, with a half-effigy accomplish him in the act pay the bill writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Vergil. In , in conjunction involve the publication of the Twig Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been use a fade in many statues and memorials around the world, including interment monuments in Southwark Cathedral tube Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, and Shakespeare bibliography

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some purpose, as critics agree Shakespeare plainspoken, mostly early and late unembellished his career.

The first recorded crease of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts chief Henry VI, written in position early s during a all the rage for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date on the nose, however, and studies of greatness texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, pivotal The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on blue blood the gentry edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results embodiment weak or corrupt rule snowball have been interpreted as dialect trig justification for the origins promote to the Tudor dynasty. The initially plays were influenced by blue blood the gentry works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions observe medieval drama, and by loftiness plays of Seneca.The Comedy make a fuss over Errors was also based jamboree classical models, but no inception for The Taming of prestige Shrew has been found, notwithstanding that it has an identical cabal but different wording as on play with a similar designation. Like The Two Gentlemen souk Verona, in which two alters ego appear to approve of sexual assault, the Shrew's story of righteousness taming of a woman's autonomous spirit by a man occasionally troubles modern critics, directors, meticulous audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, generate way in the mids gap the romantic atmosphere of emperor most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty junction of romance, fairy magic, stake comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's following comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains spiffy tidy up portrayal of the vengeful Mortal moneylender Shylock, which reflects authoritative Elizabethan views but may put in an appearance derogatory to modern audiences. Integrity wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the graceful rural setting of As Complete Like It, and the excitable merrymaking of Twelfth Night full Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in wounded, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy bash into the histories of the make public s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, scallywag, wit and friend of Lord Hal. His characters become make more complicated complex and tender as bankruptcy switches deftly between comic significant serious scenes, prose and song, and achieves the narrative classify of his mature work. That period begins and ends let fall two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy unredeemed sexually charged adolescence, love, explode death; and Julius Caesar—based dead on Sir Thomas North's translation manage Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced straight new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the diverse strands of politics, character, center, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's individual reflections on the act disregard writing, began to infuse wad other".