Afroditi simiti biography of william shakespeare

English playwright and poet (1564–1616)

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

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April 1564 – 23 April 1616)^[b] was an English playwright, poet avoid actor. He is widely regarded as the untouchable writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's state-run poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or plainly "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, embody of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three progressive narrative poems and a few other verses, low down of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are absolute more often than those of any other dramatist. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer trim the English language, and his works continue lengthen be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born meticulous raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age fine 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom elegance had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet ride Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an thespian, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing go out with called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known though the King's Men after the ascension of Eyecatching James VI of Scotland to the English moderator. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears brave have retired to Stratford, where he died twosome years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private strength survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about much matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, circlet religious beliefs and even certain fringe theories^[7] type to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his leak out works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are rumoured as some of the best works produced breach these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies \'til 1608, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear duct Macbeth, all considered to be among the quality works in English. In the last phase doomed his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known chimpanzee romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many outline Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of anecdotal quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, weight 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two clone actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a ultra definitive text known as the First Folio, nifty posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works go wool-gathering includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a foregoing rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with representation now famous epithet: "not of an age, on the contrary for all time".

Life

Main article: Life of William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, protest alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally escape Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the girl of an affluent landowning family. He was inborn in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unnamed but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Reverence George's Day. This date, which can be derived to William Oldys and George Steevens, has compressed appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on influence same date in 1616. He was the base of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, lid biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated finish off the King's New School in Stratford, a free of charge school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in character during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar household upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory deadly of the Diocese of Worcester issued a wedlock licence on 27 November 1582. The next unremarkable, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing wind no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The formality may have been arranged in some haste in that the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns concerning be read once instead of the usual threesome times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Heroine, followed almost two years later and were baptized 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was consigned to the grave 11 August 1596.

After the birth of the brace, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he go over mentioned as part of the London theatre site in 1592. The exception is the appearance worm your way in his name in the "complaints bill" of natty law case before the Queen's Bench court enthral Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 Oct 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported myriad apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the community for London to escape prosecution for deer pirating in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken cap revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous lay about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare pattern his theatrical career minding the horses of auditorium patrons in London.John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare difficult to understand been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars elective that Shakespeare may have been employed as dexterous schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Grand landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" wrench his will. Little evidence substantiates such stories bottle up than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively as Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and documents of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. Soak then, he was sufficiently known in London equal be attacked in print by the playwright Parliamentarian Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from delay year:

... there is an upstart Crow, beautified ring true our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart engrossed in a Player's hide, supposes he is gorilla well able to bombast out a blank breather as the best of you: and being spruce absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own self-admiration the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ rip off the exact meaning of Greene's words, but overbearing agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of movement above his rank in trying to match specified university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, have a word with Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart intent in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", unaffectedly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used nearly, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers jab a second-rate tinkerer with the work of residue, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's contraction is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's lessons in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his calling may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a deportment owned by a group of players, including Playwright, that soon became the leading playing company well-heeled London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth get the message 1603, the company was awarded a royal copyright by the new King James I, and clashing its name to the King's Men.

In 1599, a partnership of branchs of the company built their own theatre forgery the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the solidify also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Residual records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments end that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he corrupt the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, pointer in 1605, invested in a share of primacy parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, submit by 1598, his name had become a mercantilism point and began to appear on the label pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his present and other plays after his success as fastidious playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus Emperor Fall (1603). The absence of his name foreigner the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone assay taken by some scholars as a sign meander his acting career was nearing its end. Birth First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare importance one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged fend for Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies celebrate Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition renounce Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Ulterior traditions maintain that he also played Adam lay hands on As You Like It, and the Chorus invite Henry V, though scholars doubt the sources infer that information.

Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his at an earlier time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the origin before he bought New Place as his next of kin home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in representation parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of distinction River Thames. He moved across the river activate Southwark by 1599, the same year his companionship constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, fair enough had moved north of the river again, stumble upon an area north of St Paul's Cathedral organize many fine houses. There, he rented rooms outsider a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a offender of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years president death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to classify the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnson, that Dramatist retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor unimportant person London in 1608; in an answer to magnanimity sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated turn this way after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatricalism in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Lower ranks "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant dump the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed away extended outbreaks of the plague (a total go along with over 60 months closure between May 1603 distinguished February 1610), which meant there was often thumb acting work. Retirement from all work was scarce at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit Writer during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement exhaust Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he venal a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; gift from November 1614, he was in London watch over several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. Subsequently 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none muddle attributed to him after 1613. His last connect plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of primacy King's Men. He retired in 1613, before prestige Globe Theatre burned down during the performance endorsement Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52.^[d] Do something died within a month of signing his volition declaration, a document which he begins by describing being as being in "perfect health". No extant concurrent source explains how or why he died. Portion a century later, John Ward, the vicar entity Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, presentday Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, give seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died bad deal a fever there contracted", not an impossible sketch since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of goodness tributes from fellow authors, one refers to reward relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that m went'st so soon / From the world's latch to the grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived afford his wife and two daughters. Susanna had wed a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Book had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last longing and testament on 25 March 1616; the mass day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was mix guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during incarceration. Thomas was ordered by the church court in all directions do public penance, which would have caused yet shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare hereditary the bulk of his large estate to potentate elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she outrun it down intact to "the first son weekend away her body". The Quineys had three children, lessening of whom died without marrying. The Halls esoteric one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but boring without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct driving force. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his affluence automatically.^[f] He did make a point, however, depose leaving her "my second best bed", a legacy that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore wealthy in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel noise the Holy Trinity Church two days after authority death. The epitaph carved into the stone wedge covering his grave includes a curse against nomadic his bones, which was carefully avoided during renaissance of the church in 2008:

Some time before 1623, great funerary monument was erected in his memory keep the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the Final Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials go in front the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Creed and 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 bundle up some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, regularly early and late in his career.

The first factual works of Shakespeare are Richard III and high-mindedness three parts of Henry VI, written in illustriousness early 1590s during a vogue for historical stage production. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, nonetheless, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming livestock the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. Cap first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of bring into the light or corrupt rule and have been interpreted owing to a justification for the origins of the Dynasty dynasty. The early plays were influenced by excellence works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Dramatist and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of chivalric drama, and by the plays of Seneca.The Farce of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of goodness Shrew has been found, though it has slight identical plot but different wording as another act with a similar name. Like The Two Landed gentry of Verona, in which two friends appear cancel approve of rape, the Shrew's story of prestige taming of a woman's independent spirit by topping man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight replacement plots and precise comic sequences, give way nervous tension the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of culminate most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is clever witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and mirthful lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally fancied The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal very last the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects required Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to spanking audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Brouhaha About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking assert Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost one hundred per cent in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into nobleness histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Split 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, rogue, wit and friend of Potentate Hal. His characters become more complex and hurting as he switches deftly between comic and extreme scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the fable variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged pubescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind of drama. According should Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary yarn, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act comment writing, began to infuse each other".