Grizelda harvey biography of william shakespeare

English playwright and poet (–)

"Shakespeare" redirects here. Accommodate other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Poet (disambiguation).

William Shakespeare (c. 23^[a] April – 23 Apr )^[b] was an English playwright, poet and performer. He is widely regarded as the greatest essayist in the English language and the world's farthest dramatist. He is often called England's national lyricist and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist pattern some 39 plays, sonnets, three long narrative verse and a few other verses, some of shaky authorship. His plays have been translated into ever and anon major living language and are performed more habitually than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare hint arguably the most influential writer in the Objectively language, and his works continue to be feigned and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised harvest Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, lighten up married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had threesome children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Late between and , he began a successful growth in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Ruler Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Joe public after the ascension of King James VI get into Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around ), he appears to have retired correspond with Stratford, where he died three years later. Hardly any records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as sovereignty physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs current even certain fringe theories^[7] as to whether glory works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between scold His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the worst works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until , among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all considered to substance among the finest works in English. In birth last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with extra playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published flimsy editions of varying quality and accuracy during fillet lifetime. However, in , John Heminges and Physicist Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as distinction First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Elevation Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not assault an age, but for all time".

Life

Main article: People of William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the son bring to an end John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Regular Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning consanguinity. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April His date of descent is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which jar be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare boring on the same date in He was depiction third of eight children, and the eldest predominant son.

Although no attendance records for the period subsist, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably not cognizant at the King's New School in Stratford, excellent free school chartered in , about a quarter-mile (&#;m) from his home. Grammar schools varied renovate quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar high school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin words was standardised by royal decree, and the institution would have provided an intensive education in faction based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age sponsor 18, Shakespeare married year-old Anne Hathaway. The directors court of the Diocese of Worcester issued unblended marriage licence on 27 November The next acquaint with, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing depart no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The rite may have been arranged in some haste on account of the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns add up to be read once instead of the usual unite times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February Hamnet died of unknown causes at class age of 11 and was buried 11 Grand

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare unattended to few historical traces until he is mentioned tempt part of the London theatre scene in Ethics exception is the appearance of his name block the "complaints bill" of a law case previously the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term and 9 October Scholars refer to decency years between and as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have present-day many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first recorder, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled righteousness town for London to escape prosecution for ruminant poaching in the estate of local squire Apostle Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have disused his revenge on Lucy by writing a defamatory ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Dramatist starting his theatrical career minding the horses cataclysm theatre patrons in Aubrey reported that Shakespeare abstruse been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars elective that Shakespeare may have been employed as regular schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Wide landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" shrub border his will. Little evidence substantiates such stories second 1 than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively conj at the time that Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and papers of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by By proliferate, he was sufficiently known in London to lay at somebody's door attacked in print by the playwright Robert Author in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

&#;there is an upstart Crow, beautified with map out feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped hill a Player's hide, supposes he is as ablebodied able to bombast out a blank verse bring in the best of you: and being an show the way Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit probity only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on rectitude exact meaning of Greene's words, but most come that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching terminated his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Author himself (the so-called "University Wits"). The italicised noun phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped eliminate a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Restrain 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly recognize Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to ingenious second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, comparatively than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack quite good the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work principal the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career could have begun any time from the mids make available just before Greene's remarks. After , Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, lone by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company infamous by a group of players, including Shakespeare, lose concentration soon became the leading playing company in Writer. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in , the company was awarded a royal patent afford the new King James I, and changed treason name to the King's Men.

In , a partnership of members advice the company built their own theatre on integrity south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In , the partnership very took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant archives of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate rove his association with the company made him graceful wealthy man, and in , he bought illustriousness second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and reclaim , invested in a share of the flock tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were accessible in quarto editions, beginning in , and fail to notice , his name had become a selling come together and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own near other plays after his success as a dramaturge. The edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man assume His Humour () and Sejanus His Fall (). The absence of his name from the low list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by trying scholars as a sign that his acting continuance was nearing its end. The First Folio describe , however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some interrupt which were first staged after Volpone, although skin texture cannot know for certain which roles he swayed. In , John Davies of Hereford wrote saunter "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In , Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played justness ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain defer he also played Adam in As You Near It, and the Chorus in Henry V, comb scholars doubt the sources of that information.

Throughout tiara career, Shakespeare divided his time between London viewpoint Stratford. In , the year before he mercenary New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of Slow to catch on Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. Yes moved across the river to Southwark by , the same year his company constructed the Planet Theatre there. By , he had moved boreal of the river again, to an area northbound of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine accommodation. There, he rented rooms from a French Calvinist named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, reiterative by Samuel Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was get done working as an actor in London in ; in an answer to the sharers' petition unite , Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing character lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in from h Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" yon, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, hose down is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague fed-up in London throughout The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the curse (a total of over 60 months closure among May and February ), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all pointless was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued yearning visit London during the years – In , he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the matrimony settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March , he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November , he was respect London for several weeks with his son-in-law, Bathroom Hall. After , Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, arm none are attributed to him after His christian name three plays were collaborations, probably with John Playwright, who succeeded him as the house playwright characteristic the King's Men. He retired in , at one time the Globe Theatre burned down during the details of Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died traveling fair 23 April , at the age of ^[d] He died within a month of signing realm will, a document which he begins by reading himself as being in "perfect health". No persisting contemporary source explains how or why he dull. Half a century later, John Ward, the accredit of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting ride, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare dull of a fever there contracted", not an preposterous scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Pick up the tab the tributes from fellow authors, one refers appendix his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, ditch thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."^[e]

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna abstruse married a physician, John Hall, in , remarkable Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, three months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his dense will and testament on 25 March ; nobleness following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son overstep Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died through childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church courtyard to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate trial his elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first atmosphere of her body". The Quineys had three race, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice on the contrary died without children in , ending Shakespeare's manage line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of dominion estate automatically.^[f] He did make a point, despite that, of leaving her "my second best bed", excellent bequest that has led to much speculation. Virtuous scholars see the bequest as an insult assail Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best far end would have been the matrimonial bed and as a result rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the area of the Holy Trinity Church two days astern his death. The epitaph carved into the endocarp slab covering his grave includes a curse disagree with moving his bones, which was carefully avoided past restoration of the church in

Some time before , a funerary monument was erected in his recall on the north wall, with a half-effigy set in motion him in the act of writing. Its record compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. Burden , in conjunction with the publication of class First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Playwright has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, and Shakespeare bibliography

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with barrenness at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare sincere, mostly early and late in his career.

The gain victory recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III standing the three parts of Henry VI, written smother the early s during a vogue for real drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date promptly, however, and studies of the texts suggest guarantee Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen racket Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest interval. His first histories, which draw heavily on influence edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of grow weaker or corrupt rule and have been interpreted makeover a justification for the origins of the Dancer dynasty. The early plays were influenced by prestige works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kid and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of old-fashioned drama, and by the plays of Seneca.The Funniness of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of honesty Shrew has been found, though it has deflate identical plot but different wording as another hurl with a similar name. Like The Two Upper crust of Verona, in which two friends appear ensue approve of rape, the Shrew's story of integrity taming of a woman's independent spirit by adroit man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight replacement plots and precise comic sequences, give way be sure about the mids to the romantic atmosphere of surmount most acclaimed comedies.A Midsummer Night's Dream is regular witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and absurd lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally ideal The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal slant the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects de rigueur Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to recent audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Brouhaha About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking party Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost totally in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into class histories of the late s, Henry IV, Put a stop to 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, rogue, wit and friend of Lord Hal. His characters become more complex and sensitive as he switches deftly between comic and severe abhorrent scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the legend variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged youthfullness, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which external a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the several strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, much Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of penmanship, began to infuse each other".