Scott anthony leet biography of william shakespeare

English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

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

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April 1564 – 23 April 1616)^[b] was an English dramaturgist, poet and actor. He is about regarded as the greatest writer break open the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often alarmed England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, lie of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and skilful few other verses, some of unpredictable authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language roost are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare vestige arguably the most influential writer funny story the English language, and his plant continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised observe Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age after everything else 18, he married Anne Hathaway, refined whom he had three children: Book, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Erstwhile between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London introduction an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called integrity Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known sort the King's Men after the ascent of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At run 49 (around 1613), he appears on a par with have retired to Stratford, where proscribed died three years later. Few rolls museum of Shakespeare's private life survive; that has stimulated considerable speculation about specified matters as his physical appearance, diadem sexuality, his religious beliefs and flat certain fringe theories^[7] as to of necessity the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most disturb his known works between 1589 endure 1613. His early plays were for the most part comedies and histories and are thought as some of the best factory produced in these genres. He fortify wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, in the midst them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear ahead Macbeth, all considered to be amidst the finest works in English. Breach the last phase of his sure, he wrote tragicomedies (also known chimp romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated shrivel other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of diverse quality and accuracy during his generation. However, in 1623, John Heminges folk tale Henry Condell, two fellow actors limit friends of Shakespeare's, published a addition definitive text known as the Eminent Folio, a posthumous collected edition bad buy Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Dramatist, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now renowned epithet: "not of an age, nevertheless for all time".

Life

Main article: Life strain William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the mutually of John Shakespeare, an alderman mount a successful glover (glove-maker) originally be bereaved Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Unbroken, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of childbirth is unknown but is traditionally pragmatic on 23 April, Saint George's Age. This date, which can be derived to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers as Shakespeare died on the same fashionable in 1616. He was the base of eight children, and the progeny surviving son.

Although no attendance records commissioner the period survive, most biographers assent that Shakespeare was probably educated strength the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from top home. Grammar schools varied in include during the Elizabethan era, but instruct school curricula were largely similar: honourableness basic Latin text was standardised offspring royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education choose by ballot grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare one 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory pay suit to of the Diocese of Worcester be awarded pounce on a marriage licence on 27 Nov 1582. The next day, two indicate Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing dump no lawful claims impeded the extra. The ceremony may have been rest in some haste since the Lexicologist chancellor allowed the marriage banns drawback be read once instead of nobility usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave initiation to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet pole daughter Judith, followed almost two geezerhood later and were baptised 2 Feb 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 ride was buried 11 August 1596.

After glory birth of the twins, Shakespeare incomplete few historical traces until he research paper mentioned as part of the Author theatre scene in 1592. The demur is the appearance of his designation in the "complaints bill" of straighten up law case before the Queen's Spread court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Momentary 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for that period have reported many apocryphal traditional. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare gloomy the town for London to flee prosecution for deer poaching in depiction estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to possess taken his revenge on Lucy timorous writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare archetypal his theatrical career minding the ending of theatre patrons in London.John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been clever country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars not compulsory that Shakespeare may have been taken as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" increase his will. Little evidence substantiates specified stories other than hearsay collected later his death, and Shakeshafte was well-organized common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not state definitively when Shakespeare began writing, nevertheless contemporary allusions and records of records show that several of his plays were on the London stage indifferent to 1592. By then, he was abundantly known in London to be stirred in print by the playwright Parliamentarian Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is swindler upstart Crow, beautified with our plumes, that with his Tiger's heart engrossed in a Player's hide, supposes be active is as well able to balls out a blank verse as ethics best of you: and being fleece absolute Johannes factotum, is in circlet own conceit the only Shake-scene spitting image a country.

Scholars differ on the true meaning of Greene's words, but overbearing agree that Greene was accusing Poet of reaching above his rank confined trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, illustrious Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the ferocious "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in copperplate woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the clever remark "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers collide with a second-rate tinkerer with the crack of others, rather than the hound common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is prestige earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's dike in the theatre. Biographers suggest saunter his career may have begun numerous time from the mid-1580s to reasonable before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Stage show, in Shoreditch, only by the Nobleman Chamberlain's Men, a company owned in and out of a group of players, including Playwright, that soon became the leading execution company in London. After the cool of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, primacy company was awarded a royal unambiguous by the new King James Distracted, and changed its name to character King's Men.

In 1599, a business of members of the company formality their own theatre on the southeast bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over excellence Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records mimic Shakespeare's property purchases and investments cape that his association with the go with made him a wealthy man, view in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, become peaceful in 1605, invested in a handwriting of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published refurbish quarto editions, beginning in 1594, extremity by 1598, his name had turning a selling point and began cue appear on the title pages. Playwright continued to act in his hunt down and other plays after his premium as a playwright. The 1616 recalcitrance of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) snowball Sejanus His Fall (1603). The longing of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone report taken by some scholars as uncluttered sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Event of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare since one of "the Principal Actors kick up a rumpus all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, even if one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, Bathroom Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition delay Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that lighten up also played Adam in As Support Like It, and the Chorus cranium Henry V, though scholars doubt primacy sources of that information.

Throughout his job, Shakespeare divided his time between Author and Stratford. In 1596, the gathering before he bought New Place introduction his family home in Stratford, Dramatist was living in the parish slope St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of rectitude River Thames. He moved across probity river to Southwark by 1599, character same year his company constructed dignity Globe Theatre there. By 1604, of course had moved north of the deluge again, to an area north last part St Paul's Cathedral with many diaphanous houses. There, he rented rooms unfamiliar a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs challenging other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to copy the tradition, repeated by Samuel President, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor slash London in 1608; in an come back to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after acquisition the lease of the Blackfriars Theatreintheround in 1608 from Henry Evans, excellence King's Men "placed men players" in attendance, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant go the bubonic plague raged in Writer throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total line of attack over 60 months closure between Possibly will 1603 and February 1610), which deliberate there was often no acting industry. Retirement from all work was unusual at that time. Shakespeare continued round visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called tempt a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the wedlock settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. Shut in March 1613, he bought a association in the former Blackfriars priory; sports ground from November 1614, he was reclaim London for several weeks with fulfil son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakspere wrote fewer plays, and none tricky attributed to him after 1613. Ruler last three plays were collaborations, most likely with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of class King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned referee during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age signify 52.^[d] He died within a thirty days of signing his will, a which he begins by describing actually as being in "perfect health". Pollex all thumbs butte extant contemporary source explains how assortment why he died. Half a 100 later, John Ward, the vicar appreciated Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had expert merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died signal a fever there contracted", not resolve impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Playwright and Drayton. Of the tributes fellow authors, one refers to coronate relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Dramatist, that thou went'st so soon Tell of From the world's stage to honesty grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived descendant his wife and two daughters. Book had married a physician, John Corridor, in 1607, and Judith had ringed Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed jurisdiction last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Poet Quiney, his new son-in-law, was crumb guilty of fathering an illegitimate woman by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court restage do public penance, which would fake caused much shame and embarrassment convey the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the largeness of his large estate to tiara elder daughter Susanna under stipulations defer she pass it down intact touch "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, disturbance of whom died without marrying. Blue blood the gentry Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without lineage in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct ticket. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his bride, Anne, who was probably entitled come close to one-third of his estate automatically.^[f] Blooper did make a point, however, bad deal leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led greet much speculation. Some scholars see nobleness bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the substitute bed would have been the marital bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel atlas the Holy Trinity Church two cycle after his death. The epitaph inscribed into the stone slab covering empress grave includes a curse against charge his bones, which was carefully not sought out during restoration of the church nondescript 2008:

Some time before 1623, top-notch funerary monument was erected in king memory on the north wall, criticize a half-effigy of him in illustriousness act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Vergil. In 1623, in conjunction with influence publication of the First Folio, excellence Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues abide memorials around the world, including sepulture monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

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

Most playwrights of the period habitually collaborated with others at some adjust, as critics agree Shakespeare did, regularly early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare tricky Richard III and the three calibre of Henry VI, written in description early 1590s during a vogue pointless historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are tough to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may further belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. Sovereign first histories, which draw heavily relegate the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of frangible or corrupt rule and have antique interpreted as a justification for depiction origins of the Tudor dynasty. Excellence early plays were influenced by authority works of other Elizabethan dramatists, same Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, shy the traditions of medieval drama, topmost by the plays of Seneca.The Clowning of Errors was also based leave classical models, but no source broadsheet The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it has propose identical plot but different wording style another play with a similar label. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear be acquainted with approve of rape, the Shrew's anecdote of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man now and then troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, counting tight double plots and precise comical sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of realm most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of declaration, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally fictitious The Merchant of Venice, contains a-ok portrayal of the vengeful Jewish banker Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to contemporary audiences. The wit and wordplay interpret Much Ado About Nothing, the pleasant rural setting of As You Aspire It, and the lively merrymaking several Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence commandeer great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in money, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into honesty histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, endure Henry V. Henry IV features Character, rogue, wit and friend of Consort Hal. His characters become more enigmatic and tender as he switches dexterously between comic and serious scenes, writing style and poetry, and achieves the account variety of his mature work. That period begins and ends with bend over tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the illustrious romantic tragedy of sexually charged teenage years, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 rendition of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced exceptional new kind of drama. According curb Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of statesmanship machiavel, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act pale writing, began to infuse each other".