His wife, Mary Arden, of Wilmcote, Warwickshire, came from an ancient family and was the heiress to some land.

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Although the amount of factual knowledge available about Shakespeare is surprisingly large for one of his station in life, many find it a little disappointing, for it is mostly gleaned from documents of an official character. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, when he was 18. His father, John Shakespeare, was a burgess of the borough, who in 1565 was chosen an alderman and in 1568 bailiff (the position corresponding to mayor, before the grant of a further charter to Stratford in 1664).
It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. William Shakespeare explained in five questions. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. No writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose notable plays included the tragedies Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, … The parish register of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, shows that he was baptized there on April 26, 1564; his birthday is traditionally celebrated on April 23.

Lastly, the claim that Amelia Bassano wrote all of William Shakespeare’s plays is a decidedly fringe notion, even within the world of Shakespearean authorship controversies. There are, however, many contemporary allusions to him as a writer, and these add a reasonable amount of flesh and blood to the biographical skeleton. Read the guide

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon), English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.

Where and exactly when are not known, but the episcopal registry at Worcester preserves a bond dated November 28, 1582, and executed by two yeomen of Stratford, named Sandells and Richardson, as a security to the bishop for the issue of a license for the marriage of William Shakespeare and “Anne Hathaway of Stratford,” upon the consent of her friends and upon once asking of the banns.

Comedy of present-day is quite different from a Shakespearean comedy which had humor, light-hearted play some immensely gripping drama. This is an alphabetically ordered list of plays by William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993.

The HTML versions of the plays provided here are placed in the public domain. William Shakespeare’s comedies were the reason for his early stage success in London.The plays often revolve around marriage and family matters, and have happy endings. 2 – The number of recorded performances of this play, the first of which was at Gray’s Inn Hall on the 28th December 1594. Characteristically it has marriage as a happy ending. Shakespeare first popularized the names Olivia, Cordelia, Jessica, and Miranda (with those spellings). For other Shakespeare resources, visit the Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet Web site. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers, but no writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. Get in touch here.

Stratford enjoyed a grammar school of good quality, and the education there was free, the schoolmaster’s salary being paid by the borough. Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.
Shakespeare’s comedies evolved over his career, losing much of the bawdy humor of his early work, and even approaching dark or black humor in his last plays. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time,” has been fulfilled. The original electronic source for this server was the Complete Moby(tm) Shakespeare.

Main (202) 544-4600Box Office (202) 544-7077. Each file type presents different advantages depending on your needs, whether you are a reader, student, educator, researcher, theater professional, or digital developer. Bookmark this Shakespeare timeline for your reference. Check out our Terms of Use!

In lieu of external evidence, such extrapolations about Shakespeare’s life have often been made from the internal “evidence” of his writings. To help determine which digital format would best serve your purposes, please refer to our usage guidelines for more comprehensive information on each file type’s features and limitations.

Dates of baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials; wills, conveyances, legal processes, and payments by the court—these are the dusty details. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating.

But this method is unsatisfactory: one cannot conclude, for example, from his allusions to the law that Shakespeare was a lawyer, for he was clearly a writer who without difficulty could get whatever knowledge he needed for the composition of his plays.

Site map. Birthplace of William Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The fact that his plays are performed and adapted around the world underscores the universal appeal of his storytelling. The Comedy of Errors.

With timeless texts and cutting-edge code, the Folger Shakespeare is your go-to source for high-quality, authoritative texts of Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets, and poems.

), HTML, TXT (i.e., plain text), XML, and TEI Simple. Unsure if what you want to do with these files falls within our guidelines? Shakespeare did not go on to the university, and indeed it is unlikely that the scholarly round of logic, rhetoric, and other studies then followed there would have interested him. I have decided to list these plays in chronological order. Shakespeare's parents, wife, and children were all likely illiterate. ", and Sonnet 130, which begins "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.". On February 2, 1585, twins were baptized, Hamnet and Judith.

Author of. However, the vicar of the local church wrote in his journal some fifty years later that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard; for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted." The next date of interest is found in the records of the Stratford church, where a daughter, named Susanna, born to William Shakespeare, was baptized on May 26, 1583. The most famous include Sonnet 18, with opening lines "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Asterisks indicate plays likely written by Shakespeare and other playwrights, though evidence has been disputed. Dates following titles indicate the dates the plays were written unless otherwise noted. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. It is a 1955 production of Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. (Anne died in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. (Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died 11 years later.). How Shakespeare spent the next eight years or so, until his name begins to appear in London theatre records, is not known.


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