[font="]William Shakespeare was
a writer and actor who lived in England about 400 years ago. He composed
beautiful love poetry and 38 outstanding plays, which are still performed
regularly in theatres all over the world. As a playwright, Shakespeare was a
wonderful storyteller. His rich variety of characters include ruthless kings
and murdering queens, ghosts and witches, shipwreck-survivors marooned on a
magical desert island, a money-lender who strikes a bloodthirsty bargain,
tragic lovers who are doomed to be apart and fun-loving fairies who play
naughty tricks on unsuspecting workmen. Today, Shakespeare is the most famous
writer in the world.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]THE ELIZABETHAN ERA[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]Shakespeare lived through the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
(1558-1603), a period of history now known as the Elizabethan era. It was an
extremely exciting time to be alive. Brave sailors set off on long, dangerous
voyages to explore the rest of the world. They brought back amazing tales of
new peoples, strange languages and items no one in Britain had seen before—such
as potatoes. All these new ideas and words caught the imagination of many
writers, artists and musicians, who created a wealth of brilliant work. This is
why people today often call the Elizabethan era “the Golden Age”. Shakespeare
became one of several extremely popular writers in his day, including
Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and Edmund Spenser.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]SHAKESPEARE’S CHILDHOOD[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]We are not sure exactly when Shakespeare was
born. A church record tells us that his baptism took place on Wednesday April
26, 1564. In those days, babies were usually baptized three days after they
were born. So we can work out that Shakespeare’s birthday was almost certainly
April 23, 1564 (St George’s Day).[/font]
[font="]William was the third child of John and Mary
Shakespeare, who lived in Stratford-upon-Avon in the west Midlands. John
Shakespeare was a town official who had a leather-working business and also
dealt in wool and grain. Mary was the daughter of a wealthy local
gentleman-farmer. The couple had four boys (William was the eldest son) and
four girls, although only one daughter survived beyond childhood. The family
lived in a house on Henley Street.[/font]
[font="]We are fairly sure that William went to junior
school to learn to read and write, then, at about seven, he moved up to the
King’s New Grammar School for boys. Here he studied famous poetry and plays
from ancient Roman times, which must have sparked off a lifelong love of
writing and acting.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]LIFE AFTER SCHOOL[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]There are no reliable records to tell us what
Shakespeare did after he left school at the usual age of 14 or 15. He may
perhaps have been a teacher for a while. What we do know for certain is that on
November 27, 1582, a marriage licence was issued for Shakespeare (aged 18) to
marry the farmer’s daughter Anne Hathaway (aged 26). On May 26, 1583, Anne gave
birth to a daughter, Susanna. Twins followed on February 2, 1585—a girl and boy
whom the couple named after their best friends, Judith and Hamnet.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]SHAKESPEARE SEEKS HIS FORTUNE IN LONDON[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]At some time during the next three years,
Shakespeare went to London and became an actor and writer. We do not know
exactly when or why.[/font]
[font="]Before the reign of Elizabeth I, people did not
think that being an actor was a very good job. There were no theatres in
England. Instead, groups of actors travelled around the country performing in
the yards of rowdy inns. Queen Elizabeth passed laws saying that every company
of actors had to own a licence granted by a nobleman. In 1574, a company called
The Earl of Leicester’s Men licensed the first theatre. It was called simply
The Theatre and was a roofless wooden building in a part of London called
Shoreditch. Several other outdoor playhouses quickly sprang up, and
theatre-going became an important part of the city’s daily life. Rich or poor,
everyone loved going to watch a play, just as people go to football matches
today.[/font]
[font="]As an actor, Shakespeare had a very busy, exciting
life. Acting companies presented a different play nearly every day, rehearsing
it in the morning before performing it in the afternoon. Only men were allowed
to act, as it was not thought respectable for women. So boys used to dress up
to play female characters. We think that Shakespeare wrote his first play, [i]Henry
VI Part One[/i], around 1589 to 1590, when he was about 25 years old. It was
probably first performed at a London theatre called The Rose.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]PLAGUE, POETRY AND PLAYS[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]In 1593, a terrible plague swept through
London, killing more than 33,000 people. The plague was so infectious that
public places like theatres were forced to close for a while. Instead of
writing plays, Shakespeare turned to writing poetry. Two long poems, [i]Venus
and Adonis[/i] and [i]The Rape of Lucrece[/i], were published in 1593 and 1594,
and they quickly became bestsellers. Shakespeare also wrote 154 wonderful
sonnets (14-line poems) around this time, although these were not published
until 1609. Sonnet 18, which begins, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
is one of the most famous love poems ever written.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]FAME AND FORTUNE[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]Shakespeare was quickly making a name for himself as one
of the most exciting writers around. In 1594 he jointly set up a company of
actors called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, for which he began to write fantastic
plays. At first Shakespeare composed mostly comedies, including [i]A Midsummer
Night’s Dream[/i], [i]The Merchant of Venice[/i], [i]As You Like it[/i] and [i]Twelfth
Night[/i]. At the same time he wrote nine history plays about medieval (from
the Middle Ages, around 400 to 1450) English kings, and two tragedies—[i]Titus
Andronicus[/i] and [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i]. The public flocked to see them.
Even Queen Elizabeth. She enjoyed Shakespeare’s work so much that The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men performed at her court more often than any other acting
company.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]SHAKESPEARE THE PROPERTY DEVELOPER[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]Shakespeare was rapidly growing rich from his share of
the acting company’s profits. In 1597 he bought one of the largest properties
in Stratford, the New Place. This was the first of several houses and a large
amount of land Shakespeare went on to buy. In 1599 he jointly paid for the
building of a spectacular theatre in London especially for The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, called The Globe. The wooden building was circular, three
storeys high, and held 3,000 people. Nobles and wealthy people sat in one of
three galleries. Workers stood in a central yard, just below stage level, with
the open roof overhead—so they often got rained on.[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]CHANGES IN WRITING STYLE[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]From around 1600, Shakespeare turned his hand mostly
to writing sad plays called tragedies, such as [i]Hamlet[/i], [i]Othello[/i], [i]King
Lear[/i] and [i]Macbeth[/i]. An actor called Richard Burbage played the lead
roles so well that he became famous. Today, many people think that these
tragedies are Shakespeare’s greatest works—perhaps even the finest plays ever
written.[/font]
[font="]In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and King James I came
to the throne. The new king honoured Shakespeare and The Lord Chamberlain’s Men
by renaming them The King’s Men, and in 1608 the company moved to an even
better indoor theatre at Blackfriars.[/font]
[font="]At about the same time, Shakespeare began to
slow down in his writing and experiment more. He composed four plays that are
mixtures of tragedy, comedy, love and magic, such as [i]The Winter’s Tale[/i]
and [i]The Tempest[/i]. He also began to work with other writers on several
plays including [i]Henry VIII[/i] and [i]The Two Noble Kinsmen[/i].[/font]
[b][color=#FFC000][font="]SHAKESPEARE RETIRES[/font][/color][/b]
[font="]We do not know why, but some time after
1611 Shakespeare gave up writing and moved back to Stratford and his family. He
may perhaps have lost heart in playwriting after The Globe accidentally burned
down on June 29, 1613.[/font]
[font="]Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 (his birthday),
aged 52. No one is sure what from. He was buried at Holy Trinity church in
Stratford-upon-Avon, which you can still visit today.[/font]
[b][font="]Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. ©
1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/font][/b]
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