William Shakespeare often called England’s national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery.

Who Was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.

Known throughout the world, Shakespeare’s writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.

There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work — the plays, poems and sonnets — and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday.

Family

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing, and the classics.

Wife and Children

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.

Shakespeare’s Lost Years

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the “lost years,” and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.

The King’s Men

By the early 1590s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.

Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King’s Men following the crowning of King James I in 1603. From all accounts, the King’s Men company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.

Shakespeare’s Writing Style

Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters.

However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

William Shakespeare’s Plays

While it’s difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II, and III), Richard II, and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.

Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

When Did Shakespeare Die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.

The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn’t recognized until the 19th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

 

Some Facts about William Shakespeare

1. Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564, Stratford.
2. Shakespeare is widely considered the world’s greatest dramatist.
3. He wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets.
4. Shakespeare is most likely to have received a classical Latin education at King’s New School in Stratford.
5. He married Anne Hathaway when he was only 18;
6. Shakespeare had seven brothers and sisters
7. Shakespeare worked as an actor, writer, and co-owner of a drama company called the ‘Lord Chamberlain’s Men’- Later known as the King’s Men.
8. His greatest plays include Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet.
9. The first publishing of Shakespeare’s works is the ‘First Folio’ published in 1623.
10. Romantic poet John Keats kept a bust of Shakespeare near his desk in the hope that Shakespeare would spark his creativity
11. Shakespeare acted in many of his plays.
12. Shakespeare was acquainted with Queen Elizabeth I.
13. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I and changed its name to the King’s Men.
14. Shakespeare is often referred to as an Elizabethan playwright, but most of his players were written in the Jacobean period.
15. In 1599, the company built its own theatre, The Globe on the south banks of the River Thames.
16. Shakespeare lived through an outbreak of the bubonic plague in London (1524-94) and 1609. The plague also came to Stratford, when Shakespeare was just 3 months old
17. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were based on historical accounts, dramatized by Shakespeare. He also dramatized stories from classical writers such as Plutarch and Holinshed.
18. Hamlet was based on a well-known Scandinavian legend called -Amleth,
19. Shakespeare’s plays contain 200 references to dogs and 600 references to birds.
20. In 1890, Eugene Schiffelin an American ‘Bardolator’ decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare but not native to America. This included a flock of 60 starlings released in New York. Starlings have now driven many native birds to the edge of extinction.
21. Shakespeare’s plays are usually separated into three main divisions
    Comedies– ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’
    Histories – ‘Henry V’
    Tragedies – ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Hamlet’, and ‘Othello’.
22. Shakespeare was the most quoted author in Samuel Johnson’s early “Dictionary of the English Language’
23. Before Shakespeare, the English language was much less codified with no official dictionary and many variations on spelling.
24. Shakespeare has given many words (estimate of 1,700 – 3,000) to the English language.
25. Estimations of Shakespeare’s vocabulary range from 17,000 to 29,000 words.
26. Shakespeare has given many memorable phrases to the English language, such as “wild goose chase”, “foregone conclusion” “in a pickle”
27. Shakespeare never seemed to spell his name properly, often signing his name “Willm Shakp,”
28. By others, he was referred to by over 80 different names, such as Shaxberd.” and “Shappere”
29. Macbeth was often unpopular for its reference to witches which created fear in the middle ages. There remains a long theatre superstition of saying aloud the name ‘Macbeth’
30. In his will, he appeared to only give his wife (Anne) a bed.
31. Shakespeare’s grave includes a curse against moving his bones.