Shakespeare

SHAKESPEARE'S EARLY LIFE

Very little is known for certain about William Shakespeare. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

William Shakespeare was baptised on 26 April 1564 at Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon. We don't know his actual birth date, but it would have been a few days earlier - traditionally baptisms were celebrated within three days of birth, and so his birthday is celebrated on 23 April, St George's Day.

William almost certainly went to one of Stratford's 'petty' or junior schools where he would have learnt his letters with the help of a hornbook. From the age of seven or thereabouts, he would have progressed to the King's New School where the emphasis would have been on Latin, it still being the international language of Europe in the 1500s. Shakespeare probably left school at the age of 14 or 15.

Shakespeare’s plays reveal a detailed knowledge of the curriculum taught in such schools which were geared to teaching pupils Latin, both spoken and written. The classical writers studied in the classroom influenced Shakespeare's plays and poetry; for example, some of his ideas for plots and characters came from Ovid's tales, the plays of Terence and Plautus, and Roman history.

It is not known what Shakespeare did when he left school, probably at the age of 14, as was usual.

SHAKESPEARE'S FAMILY

Shakespeare, his parents and his children were all born in Stratford-upon-Avon.

SHAKESPEARE'S PARENTS

William's father, John Shakespeare, was an affluent glove maker, tanner and wool dealer who owned property in Stratford. For a number of years he played a prominent role in the municipal life of the town. He served on the town council and was elected bailiff (mayor). In 1556 John bought the main part of the house in Henley Street which is now known as the 'Birthplace' and their family, including William, grew up there. Around 1576 John Shakespeare was beset by severe financial difficulties and he was forced to mortgage his wife's inheritance. John's principal business was that of a glover, but he also traded as a wool and corn merchant, and he is recorded in 1570 as being involved in money-lending.

William's mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a prosperous farmer, Robert Arden, who had left her some land in Wilmcote, near Stratford. John and Mary Shakespeare had eight children: four daughters, of whom only one (Joan) survived childhood and four boys, of which William was the eldest.

SHAKESPEARE'S WIFE AND CHILDREN

In 1582, when he was 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the 26-year-old daughter of a well-to-do farmer, Richard Hathaway of Hewlands Farm in nearby Shottery. Their first child, Susanna, was born in May 1583. Twins, Hamnet and Judith, were christened in February 1585. Anne’s home, now known as Anne Hathaway's Cottage, still stands in the village of Shottery.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596, age 11. His elder daughter, Susanna, married a doctor, John Hall in Stratford in 1607. Their only child, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1608, the year in which Shakespeare's mother died. Judith Shakespeare, his younger daughter, married a vintner, Thomas Quiney in 1616. They had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy; Richard (1618-1639) and Thomas (1620-1639).

Shakespeare's widow, Anne, died in 1623 and was buried beside him. Shakespeare's family line came to an end with the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth in 1670.

SHAKESPEARE'S ADULT LIFE

From 1585 until 1592, very little is known about Shakespeare. These are generally referred to as 'The Lost Years'. But by 1592 we know that he was in London where he was singled out by a rival dramatist, Robert Greene in his bitter deathbed pamphlet, A Groats-worth of Witte.

WRITING AND ACTING

Plague broke out in London in 1593, forcing the theatres to close. Shakespeare turned to writing poetry. In 1593 Shakespeare published an erotic poem, Venus and Adonis, dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, a young courtier and favourite of Queen Elizabeth.

Shakespeare's earliest plays included Henry VI Parts I, II & III, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Titus Andronicus. The sonnets were also written about this time, though they were not published until 1609.

In 1594, Shakespeare became a founding member, actor, playwright and shareholder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Richard Burbage was the company's leading actor. He played roles such as Richard III, Hamlet, Othello and Lear. Under James VI/I, the company was renamed The King's Men. They performed at court more often than any other company.

DRAMA IN SHAKESPEARE'S STRATFORD 

In Shakespeare's youth, Stratford was often visited by travelling troupes of professional actors. These players probably sparked his interest in the stage, and he may have entered the London theatre world though contacts made with them in Stratford.

We don't know when or why Shakespeare left Stratford for London, or what he was doing before becoming a professional actor and dramatist in the capital. There are various traditions and stories about the so-called 'lost years' between 1585 and 1592, a period for which there is virtually no evidence concerning his life.

WEALTH

Whereas John Shakespeare had lost a fortune, his son managed to amass great wealth in his lifetime.

In 1597, he bought New Place, one of the largest properties in Stratford. In 1598, he is listed as a resident of Chapel Street ward, in which New Place was situated. In 1601, when his father died, he may also, as the eldest son, have inherited the two houses in Henley Street.

In 1602 Shakespeare paid £320 in cash to William Combe and his nephew John for roughly 107 acres of land in Old Stratford.

He also bought a cottage and more land in Chapel Lane. In 1605, for £440, Shakespeare bought a half-interest in a lease of many tithes which brought him an annual interest of £60. When he died in 1616, he was a man of substantial wealth.

LAST YEARS

Sometime after 1611, Shakespeare retired to Stratford. On 25 March 1616, Shakespeare revised and signed his will. On 23 April, his presumed birthday, he died, aged 52. On 25 April, he was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, John Heminge and Henry Condell (two actors from The King's Company) had Shakespeare's plays published by William Jaggard and his son, Isaac. This first folio contained 36 plays and sold for £1.

Who was William Shakespeare's wife?

Born in 1556, Anne Hathaway is thought to have grown up on a 90-acre farm in Shottery in Warwickshire, a short distance from her husband's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. The oldest daughter in a large family, it is thought that Anne's mother died when she was around 10. When Anne's father died in 1581, he left a small sum of money to her in his will, which he dictated she should use to marry.

When and why did they get married?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway married in 1582, when Anne was already several months pregnant with their first child. The marriage was considered unusual at the time, as William was just eighteen years old and so had to obtain his father's permission to marry Anne, who was 26. To avoid the scandal of having a child out of wedlock, the couple obtained permission from the Bishop's Court in Worcester to speed up proceedings and so married outside of their home parish. Subsequently, no records exist of where the wedding actually took place.

How many children did William and Anne Shakespeare have?

William and Anne's first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after her parents married and was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th May 1583. The following year, Anne became pregnant with twins and Judith and Hamnet Shakespeare were born in 1585. Soon after the twins were born, Shakespeare left the family home, travelling to London to pursue a career as an actor and playwright. Much has been made of the nature of William and Anne's relationship in these intervening years; they had no more children together and lived apart until Shakespeare returned to Stratford sometime after 1611.

Were William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway related?

Although they grew up just miles away from each other in Warwickshire and both had large extended families in the region, there is no evidence that Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare's families were related.

What did Shakespeare leave Anne Hathaway in his will?

Much of the speculation surrounding the nature of Anne and William's relationship and marriage stems from the contents of William's will, famously examined by Carol Ann Duffy in her 1999 poem, ‘Anne Hathaway', from her collection The World's Wife. When he died on 23rd April 1616 (which was also his 52nd birthday), the only item that William Shakespeare left to his wife was his ‘second best bed…'.

Although this could be seen as a mark of disdain, scholars of the period have pointed out that as the first bed was often reserved for guests, the Bard is referring to the marital bed and so the gesture instead shows Shakespeare's affection for his wife. Anne outlived her husband and remained in their house until her death on 6th August 1623. William and Anne are both buried in the graveyard at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. 

Shakespeare’s reputation was established in London by 1592. It was during this time that Shakespeare wrote his earliest plays, including Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Titus Andronicus, though it is often debated which of these plays was actually the first.

Shakespeare’s first printed works were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). These two of Shakespeare's poems were both dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who had become his patron.  

After the plague epidemic subsided, Shakespeare and other actors who had previously belonged to different companies combined to form the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This new theatre company was under the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain, and Richard Burbage starred as its leading actor. As a member of the troupe, Shakespeare also became a sharer in the company's overall income. For almost twenty years William Shakespeare was its regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year. Shakespeare stayed with the Chamberlain’s Men, which would later evolve into the King’s Men under the patronage of King James I, for the rest of his career. He also became a member of the syndicates which owned the Globe and the Blackfriars Theatre.

During his lifetime, Shakespeare provoked the envy and admiration of fellow writers, as we know from their surviving comments in print. The First Folio, an unprecedented collection of a playwright's work, is the best illustration of the pre-eminence awarded to him. Ben Jonson's tribute to him, printed in this volume, famously praised him as:

".....Soule of the Age!
The applause! Delight! The wonder of our Stage...
He was not of an age, but for all time!"

The memorial statue erected by his family in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon also demonstrates his status as a prosperous man of property as well as a famous poet.

Shakespeare's Patrons

As a member of the acting company called the Chamberlain's Men, which from 1603 were known as the King's Men, Shakespeare enjoyed the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain George Carey 2nd Lord Hunsdon and then of James I. Early in his career as a writer Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The First Folio was dedicated after Shakespeare’s death to William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip who supported Shakespeare and his plays in his lifetime.

Elizabeth I was an active and generous patron of the theatre. She had her own acting company called the 'Queen's Men', and stood against the puritans who wished to close down the theatres. Without her support the Elizabethan theatres would not have survived. In the 1590s court performances by acting companies became popular and Shakespeare's company was selected more than any other. Shakespeare does not refer to Elizabeth very often. He makes only one direct reference to her: "a fair vestal throned by the west" (A Midsummer Night's Dream). There is a reference to her baptism at the end of Henry VIII, but that section of the play is believed to have been written by John Fletcher. It is believed that she liked the character of Falstaff so much, in Henry IV, Part One, that she asked Shakespeare to write a play that showed the character in love - this supposedly inspired The Merry Wives of Windsor. When Elizabeth died Shakespeare wrote no elegy for her, unlike most of the poets of the day. As you can see it is not easy to determine Shakespeare's relationship to Elizabeth I. It appears that he worked for her as she demanded but there is no indication that their relationship was closer than that.

With these words, Juliet suggests the name of a thing does not matter, only what that thing is. She did have a motive for thinking this, of course, as it was Romeo’s family name, Montague, that posed such a barrier to their love.

No matter what they were named, William Shakespeare’s plays would still be great works of art, so it may not matter what we call them. Generally though, Shakespeare wrote three types of plays: Tragedy, Comedy, and History. These names help us understand the archetypes of a play and better analyze its events. After all, The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet would be a very different play from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps it would be a farce about two star-crossed lovers, doomed to suffer humorous mistakes of identity and bumbling servants. It wouldn’t be the story of woe we are all so familiar with.

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=bDpW1sHrBaU

Often regarded as the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare is said to have died on April 23, 1616, which is believed to have been his 52nd birthday. The exact date of his death technically isn't certain, however; the only known end-of-life documentation for Shakespeare is a record of his burial on April 25. His death date is assumed to have been two days earlier.

When Shakespeare retired from London around 1610, he returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, the market town in which he was born that's about 100 miles west of London on the River Avon. He spent the last few years of his life in New Place, the town's largest house, which he had purchased in 1597. It is believed that Shakespeare’s death occurred in this house and that he would have been attended to by Dr. John Hall, the town physician who was also his son-in-law.

The Cause of Shakespeare’s Death

The cause of Shakespeare's death is not known, but some scholars believe that he had been sick for more than a month before he died. On March 25, 1616, Shakespeare signed his dictated will with a “shaky” signature, evidence of his frailty at the time. Also, it was customary in the early 17th century to draw up a will while on the deathbed, so Shakespeare was likely acutely aware that his life was coming to an end.

One theory of the cause of Shakespeare's death arose from a diary entry written by the vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon who, 45 years after the incident, noted that “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard; for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.” However, with Stratford-upon-Avon’s reputation in the 17th century for scandalous stories and rumors, it is difficult to authenticate this report, even if it was written by a vicar.

Shakespeare’s Burial

The Stratford Parish Register records Shakespeare’s burial as occurring on April 25, 1616. As a local gentleman, he was buried inside Holy Trinity Church beneath a stone slab engraved with this self-written epitaph:

To this day, Holy Trinity Church remains a place of interest for Shakespeare enthusiasts—it is where he was both baptized and buried, marking the beginning and end of the Bard’s life.

Shakespeare's Will

Shakespeare left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna, over his wife, Anne. Anne's share famously included Shakespeare's "second-best bed," which has drawn speculation that the couple had marital troubles. There is little evidence, however, that she had fallen out of favor. Some scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the marital bed, with the "first-best bed" being reserved for guests.

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=K66AFyeSoYE

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