William Shakespeare

Written by Rebecca Hofstede

October 26, 2015

 

English intelligence at its greatest. The subject of our interest: a man named William Shakespeare, poet, playwright, and actor, one of the most renowned men Europe has ever seen, that the world has ever seen.

The man behind the creation of some of the most hilarious, witty, and heart-breaking wordplay in English literature was born in England in 1564. He received a thorough education, and at the age of eighteen, married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior.

There is little historical record of William’s early life, but the next thing we know, his early plays are being enacted by travelling drama companies across England.

He joined an acting company in the 1590s, called The King’s Men, who were very popular, and his writings were sold as popular literature. The first few plays and dramas William wrote were histories, such as Richard II and Henry VI,  with the exception of Romeo and Juliet, and several comedies, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice.

Later in his life, he wrote the tragedies of Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear.

William Shakespeare is said to have died on his birthday, April 26, in 1616, at the age of 52.

Speculation arose after his death as to whether his plays were written by others, but the doubts remained doubts, and most scholars believe Shakespeare was the artist behind the creations.

Though it may be rather difficult to decipher the rich, old-fashioned English in which these works are written, from them we get a picture of what Elizabethan England was like.

Sources: Wikipedia-the free Encyclopedia—Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger—created 2001

               Biography.com—registered 2015

                The Complete Works of William Shakespeare—HarperCollins Publishers—published 2006