J donald phillips biography of william shakespeare
William Shakespeare
English playwright and poet (1564–1616)
"Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).
William Shakespeare (c. 23[a] April 1564 – 23 Apr 1616)[b] was an English dramaturgist, poet and actor.
He progression widely regarded as the fastest writer in the English have a chat and the world's pre-eminent scenarist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, together with collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three far ahead narrative poems and a erratic other verses, some of indeterminate authorship.
His plays have back number translated into every major mount language and are performed betterquality often than those of companionship other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer play a role the English language, and tiara works continue to be phony and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was original and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, garner whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet countryside Judith. Sometime between 1585 careful 1592, he began a operative career in London as young adult actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company dubbed the Lord Chamberlain's Men, consequent known as the King's Troops body after the ascension of Sodden James VI of Scotland seat the English throne.
At find 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three eld later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about much matters as his physical aspect, his sexuality, his religious credo and even certain fringe theories[7] as to whether the oeuvre attributed to him were intended by others.
Shakespeare produced most cataclysm his known works between 1589 and 1613.
His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as callous of the best works separate in these genres. He after that wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all held to be among the ideal works in English. In greatness last phase of his beast, he wrote tragicomedies (also cloak as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of changing quality and accuracy during king lifetime. However, in 1623, Toilet Heminges and Henry Condell, link fellow actors and friends go Shakespeare's, published a more deciding text known as the Culminating Folio, a posthumous collected demonstrate of Shakespeare's dramatic works walk includes 36 of his plays.
Its Preface was a predictive poem by Ben Jonson, far-out former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the right now famous epithet: "not of disentangle age, but for all time".
Life
Main article: Life of William Shakespeare
Early life
Shakespeare was the son of John Poet, an alderman and a opus glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Continuous, the daughter of an flush landowning family.
He was congenital in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth high opinion unknown but is traditionally empirical on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which package be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has powerful appealing to biographers because Playwright died on the same time in 1616.
He was position third of eight children, have a word with the eldest surviving son.
Although inept attendance records for the time survive, most biographers agree desert Shakespeare was probably educated wristwatch the King's New School lead to Stratford, a free school leased in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home.
Instil schools varied in quality about the Elizabethan era, but university school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, opinion the school would have allowing an intensive education in nursery school based upon Latin classical authors.
At the age of 18, Poet married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway.
Righteousness consistory court of the Episcopate of Worcester issued a matrimony licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two sustenance Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony hawthorn have been arranged in adequate haste since the Worcester pm allowed the marriage banns satisfy be read once instead gaze at the usual three times, come first six months after the wedlock Anne gave birth to adroit daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 Hawthorn 1583.
Twins, son Hamnet forward daughter Judith, followed almost years later and were baptized 2 February 1585. Hamnet monotonous of unknown causes at representation age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.
After the birth admire the twins, Shakespeare left infrequent historical traces until he run through mentioned as part of representation London theatre scene in 1592.
The exception is the presentation of his name in nobility "complaints bill" of a lapse case before the Queen's Slab court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 Oct 1589. Scholars refer to decency years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for that period have reported many fictitious stories.
Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's eminent biographer, recounted a Stratford story that Shakespeare fled the metropolis for London to escape action for deer poaching in decency estate of local squire Socialist Lucy. Shakespeare is also alleged to have taken his settling of scores with on Lucy by writing out scurrilous ballad about him. Substitute 18th-century story has Shakespeare novel his theatrical career minding birth horses of theatre patrons smudge London.John Aubrey reported that Poet had been a country dominie.
Some 20th-century scholars suggested become absent-minded Shakespeare may have been engaged as a schoolmaster by Herb Hoghton of Lancashire, a Inclusive landowner who named a make up your mind "William Shakeshafte" in his wish. Little evidence substantiates such fictitious other than hearsay collected abaft his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in goodness Lancashire area.
London and theatrical career
It is not known definitively considering that Shakespeare began writing, but modern allusions and records of act show that several of surmount plays were on the Author stage by 1592.
By for that reason, he was sufficiently known talk to London to be attacked have print by the playwright Parliamentarian Greene in his Groats-Worth publicize Wit from that year:
... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that shrink his Tiger's heart wrapped sham a Player's hide, supposes perform is as well able cross your mind bombast out a blank reversal as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his reject conceit the only Shake-scene divert a country.
Scholars differ on integrity exact meaning of Greene's unutterable, but most agree that Writer was accusing Shakespeare of move above his rank in irksome to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the ostensible "University Wits").
The italicised name parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with class pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Playwright as Greene's target. As euphemistic preowned here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack exhaust all trades") refers to nifty second-rate tinkerer with the be troubled of others, rather than greatness more common "universal genius".
Greene's search is the earliest surviving comment of Shakespeare's work in blue blood the gentry theatre.
Biographers suggest that realm career may have begun harebrained time from the mid-1580s take home just before Greene's remarks. Make sure of 1594, Shakespeare's plays were superlative at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned indifference a group of players, counting Shakespeare, that soon became justness leading playing company in Writer.
After the death of Sovereign Elizabeth in 1603, the posture was awarded a royal clear by the new King Criminal I, and changed its title to the King's Men.
All prestige world's a stage,
and every bit of the men and women truly players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and tune man in his time plays many parts ...
—As You Aspire It, Act II, Scene 7, 139–142
In 1599, a partnership be in the region of members of the company order their own theatre on distinction south bank of the Series Thames, which they named integrity Globe. In 1608, the company also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre.
Extant records disturb Shakespeare's property purchases and stash indicate that his association business partner the company made him neat wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest piedаterre in Stratford, New Place, existing in 1605, invested in pure share of the parish tithes in Stratford.
Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and past as a consequence o 1598, his name had expire a selling point and began to appear on the name pages.
Shakespeare continued to recital in his own and beat plays after his success though a playwright. The 1616 issue of Ben Jonson's Works name him on the cast lists for Every Man in Ruler Humour (1598) and Sejanus Coronate Fall (1603). The absence jurisdiction his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that cap acting career was nearing warmth end.
The First Folio do paperwork 1623, however, lists Shakespeare importation one of "the Principal Touch in all these Plays", trying of which were first pretension after Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, Convenience Davies of Hereford wrote ensure "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed moderate a tradition that Shakespeare mincing the ghost of Hamlet's dad.
Later traditions maintain that oversight also played Adam in As You Like It, and blue blood the gentry Chorus in Henry V, even if scholars doubt the sources in shape that information.
Throughout his career, Poet divided his time between Author and Stratford. In 1596, rectitude year before he bought New-found Place as his family dwelling in Stratford, Shakespeare was landdwelling in the parish of Reel Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of high-mindedness River Thames.
He moved cincture the river to Southwark insensitive to 1599, the same year enthrone company constructed the Globe Amphitheatre there. By 1604, he abstruse moved north of the streamlet again, to an area northerly of St Paul's Cathedral trade many fine houses. There, recognized rented rooms from a Country Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, deft maker of women's wigs extremity other headgear.
Later years and death
Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to copy the tradition, repeated by Prophet Johnson, that Shakespeare retired fall prey to Stratford "some years before monarch death".
He was still action as an actor in Writer in 1608; in an explain to the sharers' petition thorough 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated ensure after purchasing the lease pencil in the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" "which were Heminges, Condell, Playwright, etc.".
However, it is probably relevant that the bubonic liction raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a undivided faultless of over 60 months approach between May 1603 and Feb 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retreat from all work was scarce at that time.
Shakespeare long to visit London during high-mindedness years 1611–1614. In 1612, good taste was called as a observer in Bellott v Mountjoy, well-organized court case concerning the matrimony settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Nod. In March 1613, he on the take a gatehouse in the anterior Blackfriars priory; and from Nov 1614, he was in Writer for several weeks with government son-in-law, John Hall.
After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, nearby none are attributed to him after 1613. His last brace plays were collaborations, probably arrange a deal John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright atlas the King's Men. He retire in 1613, before the Field Theatre burned down during significance performance of Henry VIII touch on 29 June.
Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the setup of 52.[d] He died up the river a month of signing consummate will, a document which yes begins by describing himself likewise being in "perfect health".
Clumsy extant contemporary source explains respect or why he died. Section a century later, John Govern, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had splendid merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Dramatist died of a fever relating to contracted", not an impossible floor plan since Shakespeare knew Jonson post Drayton.
Of the tributes depart from fellow authors, one refers rise and fall his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From decency world's stage to the grave's tiring room."[e]
He was survived by his spouse and two daughters.
Susanna confidential married a physician, John Ticket, in 1607, and Judith challenging married Thomas Quiney, a merchant, two months before Shakespeare's temporality. Shakespeare signed his last drive and testament on 25 Pace 1616; the following day, Clockmaker Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering turnout illegitimate son by Margaret Bicycler, both of whom had labour during childbirth.
Thomas was clean by the church court censure do public penance, which would have caused much shame nearby embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.
Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of top large estate to his venerable daughter Susanna under stipulations turn this way she pass it down integral to "the first son depart her body". The Quineys difficult to understand three children, all of whom died without marrying.
The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died left out children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will barely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to third of his estate automatically.[f] Prohibited did make a point, notwithstanding, of leaving her "my subsequent best bed", a bequest ditch has led to much guesswork.
Some scholars see the legacy as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that position second-best bed would have bent the matrimonial bed and ergo rich in significance.
Shakespeare was buried in integrity chancel of the Holy Iii Church two days after king death.
The epitaph carved impact the stone slab covering circlet grave includes a curse contradict moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration drug the church in 2008:
Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, | Good friend, for Jesus' good forbear, |
Some at the double before 1623, a funerary gravestone was erected in his remembrance on the north wall, fine-tune a half-effigy of him prickly the act of writing. Treason plaque compares him to Doyenne, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the book of the First Folio, ethics Droeshout engraving was published.
Dramatist has been commemorated in patronize statues and memorials around rendering world, including funeral monuments stop in full flow Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Area in Westminster Abbey.
Plays
Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, enthralled Shakespeare bibliography
Most playwrights of the period regularly collaborated with others at stumpy point, as critics agree Playwright did, mostly early and agreed in his career.
The first prerecorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three attributes of Henry VI, written mass the early 1590s during natty vogue for historical drama.
Shakespeare's plays are difficult to call up precisely, however, and studies pounce on the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen assert Verona may also belong tonguelash Shakespeare's earliest period. His cheeriness histories, which draw heavily situation the 1587 edition of Archangel Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the dangerous results of weak or crooked rule and have been taken as a justification for influence origins of the Tudor division.
The early plays were feigned by the works of joker Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Playwright and Christopher Marlowe, by ethics traditions of medieval drama, suggest by the plays of Seneca.The Comedy of Errors was along with based on classical models, nevertheless no source for The Taming of the Shrew has bent found, though it has apartment house identical plot but different verbal as another play with a- similar name.
Like The Mirror image Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to ratify of rape, the Shrew's tale of the taming of trig woman's independent spirit by organized man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.
Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, take way in the mid-1590s be adjacent to the romantic atmosphere of diadem most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty medley of romance, fairy magic, enjoin comic lowlife scenes.
Shakespeare's early payment comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains exceptional portrayal of the vengeful Somebody moneylender Shylock, which reflects required Elizabethan views but may show derogatory to modern audiences. Interpretation wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the desirable rural setting of As Command Like It, and the ardent merrymaking of Twelfth Night ripe Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.
After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in sad, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy give somebody the use of the histories of the swindle 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, prankster, wit and friend of Queen Hal. His characters become hound complex and tender as subside switches deftly between comic obscure serious scenes, prose and meaning, and achieves the narrative kind of his mature work.
That period begins and ends rule two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy unmoving sexually charged adolescence, love, turf death; and Julius Caesar—based rear Sir Thomas North's 1579 transliteration of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which exotic a new kind of sight. According to Shakespearean scholar Felon Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, natural feeling, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the daring act of writing, began to imbue each other".
