Facts about Shakespeare
Shakespeare is cited as an influence on a large number of writers in succeeding centuries, including Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and William Faulkner.
Shakespeare's baptismal record dates to April 26 of that year.
William Shakespeare (Baptized April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist.
The plays are often regarded as the summit of Shakespeare's art and among the greatest tragedies ever written.
Another explanation is that the poems are not autobiographical, so that the "speaker" of the sonnets should not be simplistically identified with Shakespeare himself.
Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about his life and prodigious literary achievements.
The theater, agrees Boris Ford, was "a constant two way exchange between learned and the popular, together producing the unique combination of racy tang and the majestic stateliness that informs the language of Shakespeare".
Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright.
Melville frequently used Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies, in Moby Dick.
During this time, theatrical productions of Shakespeare provided spectacle and melodrama for the masses and were extremely popular.
The moral order, while divinely ordained, appears irreparably undone by human vices such as greed, jealousy, and a malignancy infecting the soul in such figures as Iago in Shakespeare's Othello.
Not only did Shakespeare create some of the most admired plays in Western literature, he also transformed English theater by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization, plot, action, language and genre.
One piece of evidence is a tract, of debated authenticity, professing secret Catholicism signed by John Shakespeare, father of the poet.
Finally, through his soliloquies, Shakespeare explored a character's inner motivations and conflict, rather than, conventionally, to introduce characters, convey information, or advance the plot.
The late 1580s are known as Shakespeare's "Lost Years" because little evidence has survived to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London.
According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".
On May 26, 1583, Shakespeare's first child, Susannah, was baptized at Stratford.
Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford during his career.
Initially this reputation focused on Shakespeare as a dramatic poet, to be studied on the printed page rather than in the theater.
Shakespearean quotations appear throughout Dickens' writings and many of Dickens' titles are drawn from Shakespeare.
From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London.
In 1597 to 1609, the Maharal (Judah Loew ben Bezalel), considered the greatest of Jewish scholars in Prague's history, served as the city’s chief rabbi.
A fellow grammar school pupil with Shakespeare, Robert Debdale, joined the Jesuits at Douai and was later executed in England for Catholic proselytizing.
One of Shakespeare's greatest contributions is the introduction of vocabulary and phrases which enriched the English language, making it more colorful and expressive.
Romantic critics such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge then raised admiration for Shakespeare to adulation or 'bardolatry', in line with the Romantic reverence for the poet as prophet and genius.
Scholars have often categorized Shakespeare's canon into four groupings: comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances; and his work is roughly broken into four periods.
John Shakespeare was also listed as one who did not attend church services, but this was "for feare of processe for Debtte," according to the commissioners, not because he was a recusant.
From about 1600 to about 1608, Shakespeare wrote most of his greatest tragedies, and from about 1608 to 1613, mainly tragicomedies or romances.
Shakespeare's early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication by the end of the sixteenth century.
After his marriage, Shakespeare left few traces in the historical record until he appeared on the London theatrical scene.
Shakespeare lived during the so-called Elizabethan Settlement in which relatively moderate English Protestantism gained ascendancy.
The most prominent alternative candidate for authorship of the Shakespeare canon has been Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, an English nobleman and intimate of Queen Elizabeth.
Shakespeare's universe is governed by a recognizably Christian moral order, yet threatened and often brought to grief by tragic flaws seemingly embedded in human nature much like the heroes of Greek tragedies.
Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock which reflected Elizabethan views but may appear racist to modern audiences.
Greene’s attack is the first recorded mention of Shakespeare in the London theatre.
In 1559, five years before Shakespeare's birth, the Elizabethan Religious Settlement finally severed the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.
The 1914 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia questioned not only his Catholicism, but whether "Shakespeare was not infected with the atheism, which….
Some of Shakespeare's plays first appeared in print as a series of quartos, but most remained unpublished until 1623 when the posthumous First Folio was published.
The tract was found in the eighteenth century in the rafters of a house which had once been John Shakespeare's.
Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.
In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's.
Some surmise Shakespeare wed in neighboring Temple Grafton rather than the Protestant Church in Stratford in order for his wedding to be performed as a Catholic sacrament.
Shakespeare's canon has achieved a unique standing in Western literature, amounting to a humanistic scripture.
Some scholars, using both historical and literary evidence, have argued that Shakespeare was one of these recusants.
The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.
Shakespeare's last two plays were written in 1613, after which he appears to have retired to Stratford.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, in April 1564, the son of John Shakespeare, a successful tradesman and alderman, and of Mary Arden, a daughter of the gentry.
Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies.
Shakespeare united the three main steams of literature: verse, poetry, and drama.
A related academic question is whether Shakespeare himself wrote every word of his commonly accepted plays, given that collaboration between dramatists routinely occurred in the Elizabethan theater.
Scholars have also identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works.
Some historians maintain that in Shakespeare's lifetime there was a substantial and widespread quiet resistance to the newly imposed faith.
According to Harold Bloom, Shakespeare "has been universally judged to be a more adequate representer of the universe of fact than anyone else, before or since.
In 1710 Handel became Kapellmeister to George, Elector of Hanover, who would soon be George I of Great Britain.
Records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man.
Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions from 1594.
Shakespeare's plays portrayed a wide variety of emotions, and his encyclopedic insight into human nature distinguished him from any of his contemporaries.
Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Modern scholars also believe Shakespeare revised his plays throughout the years, which could lead to two existing versions of one play.
Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites.
The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.
At the same time, Shakespeare's plays remain more frequently staged than the works of any other playwright and are frequently adapted into film.
Serious academic work continues to attempt to ascertain the authorship of plays and poems of the time, both those attributed to Shakespeare and others.
Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art.
Shakespeare's sexuality has also been questioned in recent years, as modern criticism has subordinated conventional literary and artistic concerns to often overtly political issues.
Archdeacon Richard Davies, an eighteenth century Anglican cleric, allegedly wrote of Shakespeare: "He dyed a Papyst".
Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.
Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was a member of a conspicuous and determinedly Catholic family in Warwickshire.
The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.
Many original Shakespearean words and phrases have since become embedded in English, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnson's Dictionary which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer.
During his lifetime and shortly after his death, Shakespeare was well-regarded but not considered the supreme poet of his age.
Beginning in the late seventeenth century, Shakespeare began to be considered the supreme English-language playwright and, to a lesser extent, poet.
By the early nineteenth century, though, Shakespeare began hitting peaks of fame and popularity.
The italicized line parodying the phrase "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene," identifies Shakespeare as Greene’s target.
Shakespeare's use of blank verse is among the most important of his influences on the way the English language was written.
The free speech rhythm gave Shakespeare more freedom for experimentation.
Shakespeare's writings were so influential to English poetry of the 1800s that critic George Steiner has called all English poetic dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes.
Shakespeare's work in prose, poetry, and drama marked the beginning of modernization of English literature by introduction of words and expressions, style and form to the language.
The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama.
Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 poems that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality.
Shakespeare even used "groundlings" (lower-class, standing-room spectators) widely in his plays, which, says Boris Ford, "saved the drama from academic stiffness and preserved its essential bias towards entertainment".
Shakespeare lived during an era when the English language was loose, spontaneous, and relatively unregulated.
Theater was changing when Shakespeare first arrived in London in the late 1580s or early 1590s.
William Shakespeare (/ˈʃeɪkspɪər/; 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".
Words Shakespeare Invented. The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original.
Many people believe William Shakespeare is the best British writer of all time. His many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder, magic and mystery. He wrote the blockbuster plays of his day - some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.Mar 18, 2015
We know very little about Shakespeare's life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the "lost years": 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school, until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582.
Shakespeare is believed by most academics to have written his very first play, Henry VI, Part One in this year. 1590-91. Shakespeare is again believed to have written Henry VI, Part Two and Henry VI, Part III. 1592.
The Chronology of Shakespeare's PlaysFirst PerformedPlaysFirst Printed1591-92Henry VI, Part I16231592-93Richard III15971592-93Comedy of Errors16231593-94Titus Andronicus159435 more rows
Of the three types of plays recognized in the Shakespeare First Folio -- Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies -- the last has been the most discussed annnd is clearest in outline. 1. Tragedy must end in some tremendous catastrophe involving in Elizabethan practice the death of the principal character.
His 17 comedies include The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. Among his 10 history plays are Henry V and Richard III. The most famous among his tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Shakespeare also wrote 4 poems, and a famous collection of Sonnets which was first published in 1609.
Shakespeare's Writing Style. Shakespeare used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, called blank verse. His plays were composed using blank verse, although there are passages in all the plays that deviate from the norm and are composed of other forms of poetry and/or simple prose.
The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."