William Shakespeare
The English playwright, poet and actor, William Shakespeare, is said to be the greatest writer in English language. Overall, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 3 long narrative poems.
He was born on the 23rd of April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. This globally known writer lived in the early modern period, between the Middle Ages and the industrial revolution (Renaissance). At that time, London was gaining importance as a trading city and was growing rapidly, becoming one of the first metropolis in Europe.
Shakespeare was the third of eight children of John Shakespeare, a successful glove maker and alderman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a wealthy family. At a young age his two older sisters died, and he became the eldest son. Most likely he was educated at a grammar school in Stradford, where he learnt how to read and write Latin. There are no records of him attending a university.
At the age of 18, he married the 26-year-old Anne Hatheway. It was quite unusual for men to marry an older woman. But six months later, the reason was discovered. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born (1585). It is believed that their marriage was not a happy one…
It isn’t known when Shakespear started writing, but an article by Robert Greene (popular English author) in 1592 reveals that Shakespeare was already well known in London at that time. This is the earliest record of Shakespeare’s work in theatre.
Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and a Midsummer night’s Dream. In his early period of writing, he mostly concentrated on historical drama. His writing later developed towards romance and comedy. At the peak of his success, Shakespeare mostly wrote tragedies. As he got older, he then returned to romance and tragicomedy.
Shakespeare wrote his first plays in the conventional style at the time: elaborate metaphors written for actors to declaim rather than speak. With time, he developed his own style. The transition can be seen in Romeo and Juliet, where he mixed the different styles. In the mid-1590s his poetry started to sound more natural (e.g. in Midsummer night’s Dream). His standard poetic form was blank verse (written with regular and metrical, but unrhymed lines), composed in Iambic Pentameter. In the last part of his career, he adopted many different techniques like enjambement, irregular pauses and stops. In addition, he used a variation in sentence structure and length to make his poetry sound less monotone.
From 1594 onwards, most of his plays were performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s men (a group of actors) in a theatre in Shoreditch. Later, he became part of the performing company and helped it succeed. The partnership with the company also brought him many financial benefits.
Shakespeare’s twins, Judith and Hamnet, were born in 1596. At the age of 11 Hamnet died of unknown causes. After the birth of his twins Shakespeare disappeared for sometimes and we lost any records of his whereabouts. Speculations about his absence are abundant, but until now, no one knows the truth. After some years, he appeared again on the cast lists of numerous plays. The Lord Chamberlain’s men even became the owners of a theatre in Shoreditch. Unfortunately, a dispute with the landowner on which the theatre was built forced them to dismantle the theatre beam-by-beam in one night of 1599. The theatre was transported to the other side of the river Thames on the South Bank. During the next year the performing company rebuilt it and named it The Globe. From then on, the theater became the main performance venue for Shakespeare’s plays.
According to the 18th century Shakespeare’s biographer Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare retired to Stradford some years before his death. Shakespeare continued to visit London and act in plays. Around 1609, the bubonic plague raged in London and most public playhouses were forced to close. Shakespeare became less active. He wrote his last play in 1613, the same year in which The Globe theatre went up in flames during a performance of “Henry VIII”. A cannon used for sound effects caused the fire.
Shakespeare died on the 23rd April 1616, aged 52. A month before, he had written his will and his oldest daughter Susanna inherited all his wealth. Since Susanna’s children died and Judith (younger sister) didn’t have descendants, Shakespear’s direct line of succession ended there. In his will he didn’t mention his wife much, except, that he would give her his “second best bed”. Two days after his death, he was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stradford-upon-Avon.
The legacy of England’s most famous writer is immense. On top of writing plays and poems he revolutionized poetry and theater by modernizing the style. He is credited with inventing 1,700 words in English.
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