William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Biographical Details
Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
Family home in Stratford was called New Place.
Eldest son and third of eight children of John Shakespeare, a glover, and Mary Arden.
Married Anne Hathaway at 18; she was eight years his senior.
Had three children: Hamnet (who died in 1596), Susanna, and Judith.
Education focused on Latin grammar, rhetoric, and composition; English was forbidden in upper forms.
Died on April 23, 1616; buried in Holy Trinity, Stratford, where a monument was erected before 1623.
Penned a curse for his grave against moving his body.
Epitaph: "Good friend for Jesus's sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves by bones."
Left property to his daughter, Susanna.
Only mention of his wife in his will: "I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture" (bed clothes).
Shakespeare's Works and Theatrical Career
First published play: Henry VI, Part II (1590-91).
Wrote 154 sonnets and 37 plays.
Plays were not published by Shakespeare himself; known today due to John Heminges and Henry Condell who published 36 plays posthumously as 'The First Folio'.
Partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, founded in 1594 (later the King's Men).
Wrote plays for the Globe Theatre.
The Globe burnt down on June 29, 1613, due to a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII, but was rebuilt in 1614.
The Globe Theatre was demolished in 1644.
His collective sonnets were first published in 1609.
The Comedy of Errors is his shortest play, with 1770 lines.
Shakespeare was known as the Bard of Stratford.
'King Lear' was banned for satirizing the monarchy and King George III.
'Love's Labour's Lost' has the highest percentage of rhyming lines.
No record of 'Alls well that Ends Well' being performed in his lifetime.
He never attended a university.
Invented the words assassination and bump.
Lived through the Black Death.
Had quarrels with play critic Robert Greene.
First recorded reference to Shakespeare by Robert Greene in 1592 as an "upstart crow, beautified with our feathers".
Mentions of suicide occur 13 times times in his works.
None of his plays were acted out by women.
Believed to have died on his birthday.
When Shakespeare was alive, the town was called Stratford, not Stratford-upon-Avon.
Shakespeare was a Baptist when he was born, but was a Roman Catholic when he died.
The motto of the Globe Theatre was totus mundus agit historionem (all the world's a stage).
Wrote 'King John' the same year his son died.
Last play: 'Two Noble Kinsmen'.
Documentary proof of baptism on April 26, 1564; scholars believe he was likely born on April 23rd.
Had seven siblings : Joan (b. 1569); Margaret (b. 1562); Gilbert (b. 1566), another Joan (b. 1569); Anne (b. 1571); Richard (b. 1574) and Edmund (b. 1580).
William Arden, a relative, was arrested for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned, and executed.
Evidence suggests he played the Ghost in 'Hamlet' and Adam in 'As You Like It'.
Performed before Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
Collaborated with other writers: 'Timon of Athens' (Thomas Middleton), 'Pericles' (George Wilkins), 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' (John Fletcher).
'Hamlet' and 'Much Ado About Nothing' translated into Klingon.
Had close connections with King James I; company name changed from the 'Lord Chamberlains Men to the King's Men'.
Poet John Keats was influenced by Shakespeare; he kept a bust of the Bard beside him while he wrote, hoping that Shakespeare would spark his creativity.
Believed to have coined certain words: "Fashionable" (Troilus and Cressida), "Sanctimonious" (Measure for Measure), "Eyeball" (A Midsummer Night's Dream), "Lackluster" (As You Like It) and the expressions "Forgone conclusion" (Othello), "in the pickle (The Tempest), "Wildgoose Chase" (Romeo and Juliet) and "one fell swoop" (Macbeth).
Quotes About Shakespeare
S.T. Coleridge: "The greatest genius that perhaps human nature has yet produced, our myriad-minded Shakespeare".
John Dryden: "He was the man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul".
T.S. Eliot: "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third".
Ben Jonson: "He was not of an age, but for all time!"
Dr. Johnson: "His story requires Romans or Kings, but the things only on men".
Ben Jonson: "There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned".
Samuel Johnson: United laughter and sorrow in one composition.
Robert Greene: Called him an "upstart crow, beautified with our feathers".
Matthew Arnold: "Shakespeare, Shakespeare, you are as obscure as life is".
John Keats: "He has left nothing to say about nothing or anything".
George Bernard Shaw: "Hamlet's experience simply could not have happened to a plumber".
Ben Jonson: "Sweet Swan of Avon!"
D.H. Lawrence: Wonder at trivial people thundering in lovely language.
Matthew Arnold: "Others abide our question, Thou art free. We ask and ask - Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge".
Samuel Johnson: The stream of Time passes without injury.
William Wordsworth: "Scorn not the Sonnet. Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart."
John Milton: "And so sepulcher'd, in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die".
John Keats: "Shakespeare led a life of Allegory; his works are the comments on it".
Shakespeare's Plays by order of composition
Compiled from the Oxford Shakespeare, ed. S. Wells and G. Taylor (1988).
The dates of the early plays are conjectural.
1590-91 Two Gentlemen of Verona
1590-91 The Taming of the Shrew
1591 Henry VI, Part 2
1592 Henry VI, Part 1
1592-93 Richard III
1593 Venus and Adonis
1594 The Rape of Lucrece
1594 The Comedy of Errors
1594-95 Love's Labour's Lost
1595 Richard II
1595 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1596 King John
1596-97 The Merchant of Venice
1596-97 Henry IV, Part 1
1597-98 The Merry Wives of Windsor
1597-98 Henry IV, Part 2
1598 Much Ado About Nothing
1598-99 Henry V
1599 Julius Caesar
1599-1600 As You Like It
1602 Hamlet
1601 Twelfth Night
1602 Troilus and Cressida
1603 Measure For Measure
1603-04 Othello
1604-05 All's Well That Ends Well
1605 Timon of Athens
1605-06 King Lear
1606 Macbeth
1606 Antony and Cleopatra
1607 Pericles, Prince of Tyre
1608 Coriolanus
1609 The Winter's Tale
1609 Sonnets
1610 Cymbeline
1611 The Tempest
1613 Henry VIII
1613-14 Two Noble Kinsmen
Important context about Shakespeare's most notable works.
'Love's Labour's Lost' is a satire on pretentious scholars.
'Much Ado About Nothing' features lovers, Beatrice and Benedick, who mocked each other in public.
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' features magic and fairy land.
'The Comedy of Errors' reworks Plautus' comedies using twins.
'Twelfth Night' explores the eccentricity of each person.
'Henry VI' is a chronicle play about England's war with France.
'Richard III' explores how a man becomes king through murder.
'Richard II' explores the themes monarchy and history.
'Henry IV' introduces Falstaff, symbolizing gluttony, lust, and sloth.
'The Merchant of Venice' explores humility, wit, and dignity, but includes anti-Jewish themes.
'Romeo and Juliet' attacks society's hypocrisy about star-crossed lovers.
'Julius Caesar' is about the erosion of a republic.
'Hamlet' is a Senecan tragedy with vengeance, murder and madness.
'Othello' deals with human jealousy, distrust, and vulnerability.
'King Lear' is about the failure of an egotistical man.
'Macbeth' is about succession, kingship, and social order and the moral corruption of a man.
'Antony and Cleopatra' deals with dissolving empires and history themes.
'Timon of Athens' is a caricature of politics based on cash.
'The Tempest' deals with colonial domination, slavery and love.
Most history plays deal with dynastic succession, exploring the human dimensions of power.
Early plays are mostly comedy and history.
Shakespeare's Clowns and Fools
Fools were usually male, wearing motley costumes, coxcombs, and carrying baubles.
A Fool - Timon of Athens
Autolycus - The Winter's Tale
Citizen - Julius Caesar
Cloten - Cymbeline
Clown - Othello
Clown - Titus Andronicus
Costard - Love's Labours Lost
Dogberry - Much Ado About Nothing
Dromio of Ephesus - The Comedy of Errors
Dromio of Syracuse - The Comedy of Errors
Falstaff - Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Feste - Twelfth Night
Grumio - The Taming of the Shrew
Launce - Two Gentlemen of Verona
Launcelot Gobbo - The Merchant of Venice
Lavache - All's Well That Ends Well
Nick Bottom - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Pompey - Measure For Measure
Puck - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Speed - Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Fool - King Lear
The Gravediggers - Hamlet
The Porter - Macbeth
Thersites - Troilus and Cressida
Touchstone - As You Like It
Trinculo - The Tempest
Yorick - Hamlet
Notable Plays
The Merchant of Venice
Combines fairy tale plot of caskets with male friendship and Shylock with the pound of flesh.
Themes: Humility, wit, and dignity.
Controversial anti-Jewish themes.
Drew on Italian short stories and Marlowe's Jew of Malta.
Elements of fairy tale with simple, symbolic characters.
Shylock is a figure of power and dignity, almost redeeming him into tragedy.
Portia's speech on mercy is ironic.
Play has various elements that do not fit together.
As You Like It
Derives from Thomas Lodge's prose pastoral romance, 'Rosalynde'.