Biography of William Shakespeare.(Life story of William Shakespeare)

The life story

The William Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616. He was a famous playwright and an English poet. In the English language, William Shakespeare is regarded as one of the greatest writer and is also considered as one of the pre-eminent dramatist. According to recent research, he has written various poems, 38 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. Many of the times, he is known as national poet of England and "Bard of Avon" or simply "The Bard".

Shakespeare, the famous English poet, dramatist, and actor is considered by many to be the utmost dramatist of all time. Some of Shakespeare's plays: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, are among the most renowned literary pieces of the world. Very little is recognized about Shakespeare's early life, and his later works have inspired a number of elucidations. There are not a large amount of records of Shakespeare´s personal life. Rumors arise from time to time that he did not write his own plays.

Shakespeare, however, possessed a large vocabulary for his day, having used around twenty-nine thousand diverse words in his plays. Today, the average English-speaking people use something like two thousand words in day by day speech.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford, a small country town. The town was famous for its malting. William was the eldest son of Mary, the daughter of a local landowner, and her husband, John Shakespeare, a Glover and wood dealer.

At the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married a local girl, Anne, who was eight years older. Shakespeare and Anne's first child, Susannah, was born within six months, and their twins Hamnet and Judith were born in the year 1585.Unfortunately, Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, died in the year 1596, at the tender age of eleven.

William Shakespeare is assumed to have been educated at Stratford Grammar School, and he had spent the years 1580-82 as a teacher for the Roman Catholic Houghton family in Lancashire. After the year 1582, Shakespeare probably joined as an actor in one or several companies of players. By the year 1584, he emerged as a rising dramatist in London, and became soon a vital figure in London´s leading Theater Company. He wrote many great plays for the group.

A new theater, called The Globe, was built in 1599. His plays were performed in this theatre. However, the original Globe burned down in 1613, and was rebuilt next year. Shakespeare's later plays were also carried out at the Black friars Theatre, which was run by a seven-man syndicate.

Shakespeare's leading drama, Hamlet was first printed in 1603. He also composed two heroic narrative poems, Lucrece, Venus and Adonis. His sonnets were written earliest by the year 1598 and published in the year 1609. Romeo and Juliet play was based on real lovers who lived in Verona, Italy, and died for each other in the year 1303.

About 1610 Shakespeare returned to his birthplace, where he had a dwelling, named New Place. He stayed there as a country gentleman. He co-wrote with John Fletcher, The Two Noble Kinsmen, first published in 1634. A number of Shakespeare's plays came out during his lifetime, but none of the creative dramatic manuscripts have endured.

Shakespeare breathed his last breath on April 23, 1616. His widow was lawfully entitled to a third of the estate. Anne Hathaway died seven years after her husband's death. It has been said that Anne and her daughter wished to be buried in Shakespeare's grave.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and was raised here. At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway and then from which hey had three children. Shakespeare went to London between 1585 and 1592 and there he became an actor, writer and Lord Chamberlain's Men, which was later known as King's Men's part owner and from this he got huge financial success. Shakespeare died in 1613 at the age of 52 in Stratford.

Play

All of the plays, which were attributed to Shakespeare, were not completely written by him. Revision, collaboration or both are found sometimes in writings of Shakespeare. Accurate establishment of Shakespeare's plays cannot be made for chronology. During his lifetime, quarto versions were printed which varied the quality. However, no evidence was found regarding the involvement of Shakespeare in this publication. In 1623, after seven years of death of Shakespeare, two former colleague of Shakespeare, John Heminges and Henry Condell published the book First Folio. There were 36 Shakespeare's plays, and remained the only extant source for around sixteen of them.

Sonnets

Collection of approximately 154 poems combines to a sonnet of Shakespeare which has the themes of love, beauty, and mortality and this style is named as the Shakespearean sonnet, and today also this is in use. The poem included in the sonnet comprises of 14 lines with 3 quatrains, and closing couplet follows these lines and quatrains. The rhyme scheme which is followed is abab cdcd efef gg (each letter corresponding to a rhyming line).

In the year 1609, from these 154 poems, two poems were published in SHAKE-SPEARE'S Sonnets; which numbers are138 ("When my love swears that she is made of truth") and 144 ("Two loves have I, of comfort and despair") and these were initially published in 1599 in The Passionate Pilgrim.

Style

When we will look and read Shakespeare poems and plays it will be observed that some passages written by Shakespeare are in prose, and his plays and poems large portion is written in iambic pentameter. In order to strengthen the rhythm, punctuation was added in his early works. For evaluating the poetry of drama, Shakespeare and other dramatists of his time occasionally used this type of blank verses for dialogues between characters. Macbeth is a typical example for the same, in which stage was left by Macbeth in order to murder Duncan and he says:

"Hear it not Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell."

Reputation

Shakespeare was not pre-eminent in his life but gained popularity during the same. He was singled out by Francis Meres in 1598, from the English poets group, which was compared by him with the Greece and Rome greatest, and he was described among the English poets as "the most excellent" for both comedy and tragedy. Ben Johnson, who was his rival, after his death, gave him both praise and criticism. According to him, Shakespeare was "soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage".

William Shakespeare's biography begins a little like this...

They were about two ales into the festivities when another member of the group walked in. It was John Fletcher. He was the one of the few among the group that had a job. It was the first Friday of the month and the normal gang was there.

John liked acting and was thinking how this whole thing got started. He had a job so it wasn't surprising that he came in late. Everyone had gotten used to him coming in late and trying to catch up with the others. The group started gathering a few months back and their numbers had grown in size. They were very diverse but most were from the theater district.

There in the mist of the group were two gentlemen debating about King James and whether he was good for England or just good for them. Since they had become the King's Men they have prospered mightily. They were very busy acting in the King's court and other noble courts as well as their own theater which was full every time they performed.

It appeared as if they would come to blows as the debate was getting heated. When all of a sudden John heard Ben say to William that he was not educated and did not deserve to be in the position he was in. Ben then boasted that he had attended Cambridge and deserved everything he got.

John thought that Ben had made a mistake. So he said to William Shakespeare that he thought he, Shakespeare, was a graduate of Oxford or some other great institution.

But William Shakespeare said with a laugh that he was not as lucky as his esteemed companion. He then began to tell his story. Some had heard parts of it before but most had not. So all eyes and ears were on William.

William Shakespeare told about his meager beginnings while being born in Stratford-Upon-Avon about 95 miles southeast of London. His father was not schooled and could not even write his name nor could his mother.

But William Shakespeare decided not to continue his story as he was not ready. He was very lucky to have done what he did but he was not ready to tell his story quite yet.