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Short Biography William Shakespeare

Short bio of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23rd April 1564.

His father William was a successful local businessman, and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner. Relatively prosperous, it is likely the family paid for Williams education, although there is no evidence he attended university.

In 1582 William, aged only 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Juliet. Their only son Hamnet died aged just 11.

Due to some well-timed investments, Shakespeare was able to secure a firm financial background, leaving time for writing and acting. The best of these investments was buying some real estate near Stratford in 1605, which soon doubled in value.

It seemed Shakespeare didn’t mind being absent from his family – he only returned home during Lent when all the theatres were closed. It is thought that during the 1590s he wrote the majority of his sonnets. This was a time of prolific writing and his plays developed a good deal of interest and controversy. His early plays were mainly comedies (e.g. Much Ado about Nothing , A Midsummer’s Night Dream ) and histories (e.g. Henry V )

By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy. These plays, such as Hamlet , Othello and King Lear , often hinge on some fatal error or flaw in the lead character and provide fascinating insights into the darker aspects of human nature. These later plays are considered Shakespeare’s finest achievements.

When writing an introduction to Shakespeare’s First Folio of published plays in 1623, Johnson wrote of Shakespeare:

“not of an age, but for all time”

Shakespeare the Poet

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets mostly in the 1590s. These short poems, deal with issues such as lost love. His sonnets have an enduring appeal due to his formidable skill with language and words.

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove:”

– Sonnet CXVI

The Plays of Shakespeare

The plays of Shakespeare have been studied more than any other writing in the English language and have been translated into numerous languages. He was rare as a play-write for excelling in tragedies, comedies and histories. He deftly combined popular entertainment with an extraordinary poetic capacity for expression which is almost mantric in quality.

 “This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!”

– Lord Polonius, Hamlet Act I, Scene 3

During his lifetime, Shakespeare was not without controversy, but he also received lavish praise for his plays which were very popular and commercially successful.

His plays have retained an enduring appeal throughout history and the world. Some of his most popular plays include:

• Twelfth Night
• Romeo and Juliet

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…”

Death of Shakespeare

Shakespeare died in 1616; it is not clear how he died, and numerous suggestions have been put forward. John Ward, the local vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), writes in a diary account that:

“Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.”

In 1616, there was an outbreak of typhus (“The new fever”) which may have been the cause. The average life expectancy of someone born in London, England in the Sixteenth Century was about 35 years old, Shakespeare died age 52.

Was Shakespeare really Shakespeare?

Some academics, known as the “Oxfords,” claim that Shakespeare never actually wrote any plays. They contend Shakespeare was actually just a successful businessman, and for authorship suggest names such as Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford .  Arguments have also been made for Francis Bacon . The argument that Shakespeare was actually the Earl of Oxford relies on circumstantial evidence and similarities in his writing style and relationships between his life and the play of Shakespeare. 

However, there is no hard evidence tying the Earl of Oxford to the theatre or writing the scripts.  By contrast, there is evidence of William Shakespeare working in theatres and he received a variety of criticism from people such as Ben Johnson and Robert Greene. Also, the Earl of Oxford died in 1604, and it is generally agreed there were 12 plays published after this date. (Oxfords contend these plays were finished by other writers.)

It is also hard to believe the vain Earl of Oxford (who killed one of his own servants) would write such amazing scripts and then be happy with anonymity. Also, to maintain anonymity, it would also require the co-operation of numerous family members and other figures in the theatre world. The theory of other writers to Shakespeare only emerged centuries after the publishing of the First Folio.

Shakespeare’s Epitaph

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare Blessed by y man y spares hes stones And curst be he y moves my bones

– More interesting facts on Shakespeare

Quotes on Shakespeare

“Shakespeare, no mere child of nature; no automaton of genius; no passive vehicle of inspiration possessed by the spirit, not possessing it; first studied patiently, meditated deeply, understood minutely, till knowledge became habitual and intuitive, wedded itself to his habitual feelings, and at length gave birth to that stupendous power by which he stands alone, with no equal or second in his own class; to that power which seated him on one of the two glorysmitten summits of the poetic mountain, with Milton’s his compeer, not rival.”

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Biographia Literaria (1817)

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of William Shakespeare”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net , 18th May 2006. Last updated 1 March 2019.

Popular quotes of Shakespeare

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

– Polonius, giving Laertes a pep talk. ( Hamlet )

“To be, or not to be: that is the question Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;”

– Hamlet

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

– Hamlet (to Horatio on seeing a ghost)

“We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

– The Tempest (Prospero)

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Julius Caesar (Cassius to Brutus)

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

– Macbeth (on learning of the death of Queen)

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

— Hamlet in Hamlet

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”

—Dauphin in Henry V

“Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.”

—Lucio in Measure for Measure

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition at Amazon

Shakespeare: The Biography

Shakespeare: The Biography at Amazon

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• Jokes about Shakespeare
• Facts about Shakespeare
• Popular poems of William Shakespeare
• Shakespeare at BBC

William Shakespeare

Playwright and poet William Shakespeare is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery.

Quick Facts

Wife and children, shakespeare’s lost years, poems and sonnets, the king’s men: life as an actor and playwright, globe theater, william shakespeare’s plays, later years and death, legacy and controversies, who was william shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was an English poet , playwright , and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men theatrical company from roughly 1594 onward. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare’s works—at least 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 narrative poems—capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. Details about his personal life are limited, though some believe he was born and died on the same day, April 23, 52 years apart.

FULL NAME: William Shakespeare BORN: c. April 23, 1564 DIED: c. April 23, 1616 BIRTHPLACE: Stratford-upon-Avon, England, United Kingdom SPOUSE: Anne Hathaway (1582-1616) CHILDREN: Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

The personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat of a mystery . There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work, and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When Was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday. Located about 100 miles northwest of London, Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road during Shakespeare’s time.

Parents and Siblings

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local heiress to land. John held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s. Eventually, he recovered somewhat and was granted a coat of arms in 1596, which made him and his sons official gentleman.

John and Mary had eight children together, though three of them did not live past childhood. Their first two children—daughters Joan and Margaret—died in infancy, so William was the oldest surviving offspring. He had three younger brothers and two younger sisters: Gilbert, Joan, Anne, Richard, and Edmund. Anne died at age 7, and Joan was the only sibling to outlive William.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing, and the classics, including Latin. He attended until he was 14 or 15 and did not continue to university. The uncertainty regarding his education has led some people question the authorship of his work.

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18, and Anne was 26 and, as it turns out, pregnant.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet died of unknown causes at age 11.

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist: after the birth of his twins in 1585 until 1592. Scholars call this period Shakespeare’s lost years, and there is wide speculation about what he was doing during this period.

One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from local landlord Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. Some scholars believe he was in London, working as a horse attendant at some of London’s finer theaters before breaking on the scene.

By 1592, there is evidence Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592, edition of the Stationers’ Register , a guild publication, includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare:

“...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.”

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene’s way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe , Thomas Nashe, or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention and patronage of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). In fact, these long narrative poems—1,194 and 1,855 lines, respectively—were Shakespeare’s first published works. Wriothesley’s financial support was a helpful source of income at a time when the theaters were shuttered due to a plague outbreak.

Shakespeare’s most well-known poetry are his 154 sonnets, which were first published as a collection in 1609 and likely written as early as the 1590s. Scholars broadly categorize the sonnets in groups based on two unknown subjects that Shakespeare addresses: the Fair Youth sonnets (the first 126) and the Dark Lady sonnets (the last 28). The identities of the aristocratic young man and vexing woman continue to be a source of speculation.

In 1594, Shakespeare joined Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the London acting company that he worked with for the duration of his career. Later called the King’s Men, it was considered the most important troupe of its time and was very popular by all accounts. Some sources describe Shakespeare as a founding member of the company, but whatever the case, he became central to its success. Initially, he was an actor and eventually devoted more and more time to writing.

Records show that Shakespeare, who was also a company shareholder, had works published and sold as popular literature. Although The Taming of the Shrew is believed to be the first play that Shakespeare wrote, his first published plays were Titus Andronicus and Henry VI Part 2 . They were printed in 1594 in quarto, an eight-page pamphlet-like book. By the end of 1597, Shakespeare had likely written 16 of his 37 plays and amassed some wealth.

At this time, civil records show Shakespeare purchased one of the largest houses in Stratford, called New Place, for his family. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it’s believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed. However, Shakespeare expert and professor Sir Stanley Wells posits that the playwright might have spent more time at home in Stratford than previously believed, only commuting to London when he needed to for work.

Although the theater culture in 16 th century England was not greatly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors. Two notable exceptions were Queen Elizabeth I , who was a fan of Lord Chamberlain’s Men by the late 1590s after first watching a performance in 1594, and her successor King James I. Following his crowning in 1603, the company changed its name to the King’s Men.

By 1599, Shakespeare and several fellow actors built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. Julius Caesar is thought to be the first production at the new open-air theater. Owning the playhouse proved to be a financial boon for Shakespeare and the other investors.

In 1613, the Globe caught fire during a performance of Henry VII I and burned to the ground. The company quickly rebuilt it, and it reopened the next year. In 1642, Puritans outlawed all theaters, including the Globe, which was demolished two years later. Centuries passed until American actor Sam Wanamaker began working to resurrect the theater once more. The third Globe Theater opened in 1997, and today, more than 1.25 million people visit it every year.

It’s difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, but over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote 37 plays revolving around three main themes: history, tragedy, and comedy. Some plays blur these lines, and over time, our interpretation of them has changed, too.

Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

Many of Shakespeare’s first plays were histories. All three Henry VI plays, Richard II , and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. Other histories include Richard III , King John , the two Henry IV plays, and Henry VIII . With exception of Henry VIII , which was Shakespeare’s last play, these works were likely written by 1599.

Although Shakespeare wrote three tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet , before 1600, it wasn’t until after the turn of the century that he truly explored the genre. Character in Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.

Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet , which explores betrayal, retribution, incest, and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

Julius Caesar , written in circa 1599, portrays upheaval in Roman politics that might have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Titus Andronicus , Anthony and Cleopatra , Timon of Athens , and Coriolanus are Shakespeare’s other tragic plays.

Shakespeare wrote comedies throughout his career, including his first play The Taming of the Shrew . Some of his other early comedies, written before 1600 or so, are: the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream , the romantic Merchant of Venice , the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing , and the charming As You Like It .

Some of his comedies might be better described as tragicomedies. Among these are Pericles , Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest . Although graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Additional Shakespeare comedies include:

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona ,
• The Comedy of Errors ,
• Love’s Labour’s Lost ,
• The Merry Wives of Windsor ,
• Twelfth Night ,
• Measure for Measure , and
• All’s Well That Ends Well

Troilus and Cressida is emblematic of the Shakespearean “problem play,” which defies genres. Some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries classified it as a history or a comedy, though the original name of the play was The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida .

Collaborations and Lost Play

Shakespeare is known to have created plays with other writers, such as John Fletcher. They co-wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen around 1613–14, making it Shakespeare’s last known dramatic work. They also collaborated on Cardenio , a play which was not preserved. Shakespeare’s other jointly written plays are Sir Thomas More and The Raigne of King Edward the Third . When including these works, Shakespeare has 41 plays to his name.

Around the turn of the 17 th century, Shakespeare became a more extensive property owner in Stratford. When his father, John, died in 1601, he inherited the family home. Then, in 1602, he purchased about 107 acres for 320 pounds.

In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him uninterrupted time to write his plays.

A couple years prior, around 1603, Shakespeare is believed to have stopped acting in the King’s Men productions, instead focusing on his playwriting work. He likely spent the last three years of his life in Stratford.

When Did Shakespeare Die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52 nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Holy Trinity Church on April 25, 1616. The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown , though many people believe he died following a brief illness.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna, who by then was married. Although entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his “second-best bed.” This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor or that the couple was not close.

However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term “second-best bed” often refers to the bed belonging to the household’s master and mistress, the marital bed, and the “first-best bed” was reserved for guests.

The Bard of Avon has gone down in history as the greatest dramatist of all time and is sometimes called England’s national poet. He is credited with inventing or introducing more than 1,700 words to the English language, often as a result of combining words, changing usages, or blending in foreign root words. If you’ve used the words “downstairs,” “egregious,” “kissing,” “zany,” or “skim milk,” you can thank Shakespeare. He is also responsible for many common phrases, such as “love is blind” and “wild goose chase.”

First Folio

Although some of Shakespeare’s works were printed in his lifetime, not all were. It is because of the First Folio that we know about 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including Macbeth , Twelfth Night , and Julius Caesar . John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors in the King’s Men, created the 36-play collection, which celebrates its 400 th anniversary this year. It was published with the title Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare died.

In addition to its literary importance, the First Folio contains an original portrait of Shakespeare on the title page. Engraved by Martin Droeshout, it’s considered one of the two authentic portraits of the writer. The other is a memorial bust at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Today, there are 235 surviving copies of the First Folio that date back to 1623, but experts estimate roughly 750 First Folios were printed. Three subsequent editions of Shakespeare’s Folio, with text updates and additional plays, were published between 1632 and 1685.

Did Shakespeare Write His Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, and Francis Bacon —men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration—as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare’s life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare’s works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19 th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.

Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society, founded in 1957, put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17 th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.” The Oxfordians cite de Vere’s extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.

They contend that King’s New School in Stratford had a curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare’s authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare’s life doesn’t mean his life didn’t exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona , The Comedy of Errors , and King John .

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King’s Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare’s plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in the late 16 th and early 17 th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn’t recognized until the 19 th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20 th century, new movements in scholarship and performance rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays remain highly popular and are constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

• The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
• This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
• There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
• Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
• Lord, what fools these mortals be!
• To weep is to make less the depth of grief.
• In time we hate that which we often fear.
• Men at some time are masters of their fates: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
• What’s done cannot be undone.
• We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
• Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
• The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
• All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
• I say there is no darkness but ignorance.
• I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
• Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

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William Shakespeare Biography

Who was william shakespeare.

• In this section

An Introduction

William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon . His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see  When was Shakespeare born ), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems  also remain popular to this day. 

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to  William Shakespeare’s family  that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden , and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school . 

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen,  Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway , who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna , was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins  Hamnet and Judith . Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

• For an overview of William Shakespeare's life, see Shakespeare's Life: A Timeline

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ‘ The Lost Years ’.

During his time in London, Shakespeare’s first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years. 

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King’s Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth , as well as great romances, like The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest . 

• For more about Shakespeare's patrons and his work in London see; Shakespeare's Career

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether  Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry. 

Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare’s success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase  New Place ,   the largest house in the borough of  Stratford-upon-Avon . Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town. 

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare’s New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

• Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died  in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

All the world's a stage /And all the men and women merely players. / They have their exits and their entrances, / And one man in his time plays many parts. — As You Like It, Act 2 Scene 7

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William Shakespeare

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 7, 2019 | Original: October 3, 2011

Considered the greatest English-speaking writer in history and known as England’s national poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has had more theatrical works performed than any other playwright. To this day, countless theater festivals around the world honor his work, students memorize his eloquent poems and scholars reinterpret the million words of text he composed. They also hunt for clues about the life of the man who inspires such “bardolatry” (as George Bernard Shaw derisively called it), much of which remains shrouded in mystery. Born into a family of modest means in Elizabethan England, the “Bard of Avon” wrote at least 37 plays and a collection of sonnets, established the legendary Globe theater and helped transform the English language.

Shakespeare’s Childhood and Family Life

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a bustling market town 100 miles northwest of London, and baptized there on April 26, 1564. His birthday is traditionally celebrated on April 23, which was the date of his death in 1616 and is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England. Shakespeare’s father, John, dabbled in farming, wood trading, tanning, leatherwork, money lending and other occupations; he also held a series of municipal positions before falling into debt in the late 1580s. The ambitious son of a tenant farmer, John boosted his social status by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic landowner. Like John, she may have been a practicing Catholic at a time when those who rejected the newly established Church of England faced persecution.

Did you know? Sources from William Shakespeare's lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the handful of signatures that have survived, he himself never spelled his name “William Shakespeare,” using variations such as “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” instead.

William was the third of eight Shakespeare children, of whom three died in childhood. Though no records of his education survive, it is likely that he attended the well-regarded local grammar school, where he would have studied Latin grammar and classics. It is unknown whether he completed his studies or abandoned them as an adolescent to apprentice with his father.

At 18 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway (1556-1616), a woman eight years his senior, in a ceremony thought to have been hastily arranged due to her pregnancy. A daughter, Susanna, was born less than seven months later in May 1583. Twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Susanna and Judith would live to old age, while Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died at 11. As for William and Anne, it is believed that the couple lived apart for most of the year while the bard pursued his writing and theater career in London. It was not until the end of his life that Shakespeare moved back in with Anne in their Stratford home.

Shakespeare’s Lost Years and Early Career

To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins’ baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an “upstart crow” (evidence that he had already made a name for himself on the London stage). What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven “lost” years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician’s estate.

Whatever the answer, by 1592 Shakespeare had begun working as an actor, penned several plays and spent enough time in London to write about its geography, culture and diverse personalities with great authority. Even his earliest works evince knowledge of European affairs and foreign countries, familiarity with the royal court and general erudition that might seem unattainable to a young man raised in the provinces by parents who were probably illiterate. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. (Most scholars and literary historians dismiss this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.)

Shakespeare’s Plays and Poems

Shakespeare’s first plays, believed to have been written before or around 1592, encompass all three of the main dramatic genres in the bard’s oeuvre: tragedy (“Titus Andronicus”); comedy (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Taming of the Shrew”); and history (the “Henry VI” trilogy and “Richard III”). Shakespeare was likely affiliated with several different theater companies when these early works debuted on the London stage. In 1594 he began writing and acting for a troupe known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (renamed the King’s Men when James I appointed himself its patron), ultimately becoming its house playwright and partnering with other members to establish the legendary Globe theater in 1599.

Between the mid-1590s and his retirement around 1612, Shakespeare penned the most famous of his 37-plus plays, including “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “The Tempest.” As a dramatist, he is known for his frequent use of iambic pentameter, meditative soliloquies (such as Hamlet’s ubiquitous “To be, or not to be” speech) and ingenious wordplay. His works weave together and reinvent theatrical conventions dating back to ancient Greece, featuring assorted casts of characters with complex psyches and profoundly human interpersonal conflicts. Some of his plays—notably “All’s Well That Ends Well,” “Measure for Measure” and “Troilus and Cressida”—are characterized by moral ambiguity and jarring shifts in tone, defying, much like life itself, classification as purely tragic or comic.

Also remembered for his non-dramatic contributions, Shakespeare published his first narrative poem—the erotic “Venus and Adonis,” intriguingly dedicated to his close friend Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton—while London theaters were closed due to a plague outbreak in 1593. The many reprints of this piece and a second poem, “The Rape of Lucrece,” hint that during his lifetime the bard was chiefly renowned for his poetry. Shakespeare’s famed collection of sonnets, which address themes ranging from love and sensuality to truth and beauty, was printed in 1609, possibly without its writer’s consent. (It has been suggested that he intended them for his intimate circle only, not the general public.) Perhaps because of their explicit sexual references or dark emotional character, the sonnets did not enjoy the same success as Shakespeare’s earlier lyrical works.

Shakespeare’s Death and Legacy

Shakespeare died at age 52 of unknown causes on April 23, 1616, leaving the bulk of his estate to his daughter Susanna. (Anne Hathaway, who outlived her husband by seven years, famously received his “second-best bed.”) The slabstone over Shakespeare’s tomb, located inside a Stratford church, bears an epitaph—written, some say, by the bard himself—warding off grave robbers with a curse: “Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones.” His remains have yet to be disturbed, despite requests by archaeologists keen to reveal what killed him.

In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s former colleagues published a collection of his plays, commonly known as the First Folio. In its preface, the dramatist Ben Jonson wrote of his late contemporary, “He was not of an age, but for all time.” Indeed, Shakespeare’s plays continue to grace stages and resonate with audiences around the world, and have yielded a vast array of film, television and theatrical adaptations. Furthermore, Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words “fashionable” (“Troilus and Cressida”), “sanctimonious” (“Measure for Measure”), “eyeball” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and “lackluster” (“As You Like It”); and the expressions “foregone conclusion” (“Othello”), “in a pickle” (“The Tempest”), “wild goose chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and “one fell swoop” (“Macbeth”).

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William Shakespeare Biography

This page offers a complete biography of Shakespeare, from birth to death. Read the whole William Shakespeare biography , or skip to the section of Shakespeare’s life you’re most interested in:

Shakespeare’s Birth and Family Shakespeare’s Childhood & Education Shakespeare’s Marriage & Children Shakespeare’s Lost Years Shakespeare’s London Years Shakespeare’s Retirement Shakespeare’s Death

A Very Brief William Shakespeare Biography

• Parents: John Shakespeare & Mary Shakespeare (nee Arden).
• Date of Birth: Generally accepted as 23rd April 1564. Shakespeare was baptised on 26th April, 1564.
• Wife: Anne Hathaway (married 1582).
• Children : Susanna (born 1583), Hamnet and Judith (twins, born 1585).
• Resided: Born and raised in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Prime working years spent away from family in London. Returned to family in Stratford-Upon-Avon upon retirement.
• Career: Writer, actor, theatre owner and producer.
• Body of Work : 37 plays. 149 sonnets. 2 long narrative poems.
• Died: 23 April 1616, aged 52. Buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon . Read 50 fun facts about Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Birth and Family

Shakespeare was the third of the eight children born to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23rd 1564.

John Shakespeare ran his own business as a glove maker and a wool dealer. He held local public positions and was a bailiff (like a mayor) in the town council. After 1567 it is alleged that he was in financial difficulties. In 1557 John married Mary Arden who had no formal education at all.  John and Mary had lost two daughters prior to William’s birth, leaving him as their oldest surviving child. William’s younger siblings were Gilbert (born in 1566), Joan (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). Anne died at the age of eight, but William’s four other younger siblings lived into adulthoods.

Shakespeare’s family lived in a townhouse on Henley Street in the centre of Stratford-Upon-Avon. John used one of his downstairs rooms as a workshop for his glove business, displaying his gloves on his house windowsill for passers-by to peruse and buy. Read more about Shakespeare’s birthplace .

Shakespeare’s family home on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare’s Childhood and Education

During Shakespeare’s time it was typical for boys to start their education at grammar school at seven and be taught a curriculum with Latin at is centre. Children would be expected to learn long passages of prose and poetry. In addition, children were drilled in grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic and astronomy. Children of public officials received free tuition. Girls did not receive a school education.

It is likely that William lived with his family and was taught according to the above principles at his local grammar school. This was called The King’s New School , and was just a five-minute walk from his home on Henley Street. When William was fourteen his father lost his public position, so it’s  probable that William left school and joined his father in business, making and selling gloves. There is no record of Shakespeare going to university. His contemporary Christopher Marlowe did go to Cambridge, but most playwrights, including Ben Johnson , did not.

To get a feel for Shakespeare’s childhood it’s interesting to note that when Shakespeare was a child water was not clean enough to drink. Attitudes towards hygiene differed hugley to our modern understanding of cleanliness., and tt’s believed that in Tudor times bathing occurred only once a year – probably in May. After the water had been fetched it would be boiled and poured into a large barrel or tub. The father bathed first, followed by any other men who lived in the house, then the women, and finally the children, in order of their age. Talking of such issues, the toilet facilities were quite basic with a simple pewter chamber-pot (a wide jug with a handle) serving as a toilet to be used indoors. Outside, garden privies would consist of a wooden seat with a hole cut in it, sitting over a cess-pit or open sewer.

Read more about Shakespeare’s early childhood >>

Read more about Shakespeare’s teen & school years >>

Shakespeare’s likely classroom at The King’s New School

Shakespeare’s Marriage and Children

Parish records show that when Shakespeare was 18 years old he married Anne Hathaway, a 26 year old, wealthy farmer’s daughter , in Canterbury Province, Worcester.

Anne was three months pregnant when they married, with their first daughter, Susanna, born on the 26th May 1583. William and Anne went on to have twins Hamnet (a boy) and Judith (a girl), born on the 2nd February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at 11 years old, but William’s daughters and wife outlived him. Judith went on to marry Thomas Quinney in 1616 and had three sons: Shakespeare, Richard, and Thomas. Shakespeare died in infancy and Richard and Thomas both died bachelors in 1639 leaving behind no legitimate descendants. There are legitimate descendants stemming from Shakespeare’s sister Joan who married William Hart some time before 1600.

Portrait of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife

Shakespeare’s Lost Years

The seven year period after the birth of Hamnet and Judith is known as Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’ as there are no recordings about him, other than one mention of him visiting London in 1616 to see his son-in-law, John Hall.

Speculation about this time is rife. One prominent speculative theory is that Shakespeare fled from Stratford to avoid prosecution as a poacher. This theory could explain why he left his wife and children in Stratford and reappeared 90 miles away in London. Other theories are that Shakespeare toured with an acting troupe possibly in Italy. This latter theory is given weight as 14 plus of his plays include Italian settings, and a 16th Century guest book in Rome signed by pilgrims includes three cryptic signings that some attribute to Shakespeare. This is not a watertight argument though because Italian literature would have been widely read at the time. In addition, there is speculation that Shakespeare met John Florio , an apostle of Italian culture in England and tutor to Shakespeare’s patron; Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton . The possibility that Shakespeare was a soldier has also been debated widely but there is no proof to support this claim.

The truth is though that no one actually knows where Shakespeare lived or worked. What historians are certain of is that during this time Shakespeare left behind the image of a country youth and re-emerged as a playwright and businessman, so at some point during this time he learned his trade as a writer in London.

Shakespeare in London

The late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century is referred to as the golden age of English drama, due to the popularity of theatre, and volume of plays produced at that time. There was fierce competition among the twenty or so theatres in London, keeping scores of writers busy churning out new plays. Shakespeare became one of those writers, though we are not sure exactly how this occurred.

It seems that Shakespeare did not maintain a London household, but lived in several lodgings with landlords and other lodgers during his London years. He was always within walking distance of the theatre zone, so we can imagine him walking to work every day.

By the early 1590s, court records show Shakespeare was living somewhere in Bishopsgate, London. By then he had written Two Gentlemen of Verona , Love’s Labours Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Romeo and Julie t, Richard II , and The Merchant of Venice . He seems to have been interested in writing poems: in addition to his day job of writing plays – he also wrote his two long poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece . Not only that, but this is the period when he started work on his sonnets .

In 1595 documents show that Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men , along with William Kempe and Richard Burbage . Shakespeare was involved with this company of actors in London for most of his career, as actor, producer, theatre owner and, of course, a very popular playwright.

It’s evident that Shakespeare was earning good money from his theatre business, as civil records show that in 1597 he bought New Place, one of Stratford’s biggest houses, and moved his family into it. In this same year, his son Hamnet died of unknown causes, aged eleven.

By 1599 Shakespeare was living in Bankside, on the south side of The Thames near the infamous Clink Prison. It was in this area Shakespeare and his business partners Kempe and Burbage built their own theater on the south bank of The Thames river, which they called the Globe Theater . and tt’s likely Shakespeare moved to Bankside to be near to the building site. Shakespeare’s playwriting would have been a necessity to provide material to fill his company’s new theatre every day. Between 1599 and 1604 he wrote at least seven plays, including Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 , The Merry Wives of Windsor , As You Like It , Much Ado About Nothing , Henry V and Julius Caesar .

Records show that in 1604 Shakespeare moved back to the City of London and rented a room in the house in Cripplegate, near St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him an income of 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Shakespeare lived in Cripplegate for about eight years writing many plays, including Twelfth Night , Hamlet , Troilus and Cressida , Alls Well That Ends Well , Measure for Measure , Othello , King Lear , Macbeth , Antony and Cleopatra , Coriolanus , Timon of Athens , Pericles , Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale , and The Tempest .

In 1607 his older daughter, Susanna, married and his mother died the following year. His sonnets were published in 1609.

It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it’s believed that Shakespeare spent all of his time in London writing and acting except for the 40-day Lenten period when theatres were closed when he travelled back to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon.

A map of London in Shakespeare’s time

Shakespeare’s Retirement

After a glittering career as an actor, playwright, and theatre proprietor in London, Shakespeare ‘retired’ to Stratford sometime after 1611 whilst in his late 40s. He rejoined his wife and two surviving children. By this time he also had a granddaughter, Elizabeth, daughter of Judith.

Retirement for Shakespeare was not a matter of sitting around in slippers and letting the world pass him by. He had a portfolio of properties and many business interests, including some in the corn and malt trades. He also continued to make the occasional long journey to London. Before leaving London Shakespeare had built up a selection of plays that hadn’t yet been performed. These included The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Cymbeline. It is likely that he visited London for some of these first performances, most probably those of The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, which were performed to King James.

On June 29th, 1613 Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was burnt down. It is likely that this event meant more time spent in London for Shakespeare. Shakespeare was definitely in Westminster on 11th May 1612 where he appeared as a witness in the case of Bellot v. Mountjoy . At one time Shakespeare had been a lodger in Christopher Mountjoy’s house in Cripplegate, and now Mountjoy was being sued by his son-in-law, Stephen Bellott for defaulting on a promised marriage settlement. Shakespeare had been involved in the dowry negotiations and so was called to give evidence in the case.

Shakespeare enjoyed visits from his many friends in the world of theatre, arts, and letters to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. He continued to collaborate with younger playwrights , participating in the writing of Henry VIII , Two Noble Kinsmen , and also the lost play, Cardenio , with his friend John Webster .

Shakespeare’s Death

We aren’t sure of the exact date of his death but it is assumed, from a record of his burial two days later at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-Upon-Avon that he died on his 52nd birthday on 23rd April 1616. His gravestone remains there and bears the following engraving:

Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust enclosed heare; Blese be ye man yt spares these stones And curst be he yt moves my bones

It is believed that Shakespeare’s death occurred in New House, where he would have been attended by his son-in-law, Dr John Hall, the local physician.

Most historians agree that in the 17th Century Stratford-Upon-Avon had a reputation for scandalous stories and rumours with no basis in fact. This means that we must be cautious in believing for certain the commonly held theory about the cause of Shakespeare’s death:

in 1661, many years after Shakespeare’s death John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church noted in his diary : “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems drank too hard; for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.” It is therefore often stated that Shakespeare died from a fever after a drinking binge with fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton . There are other reports that Michael Drayton and Ben Johnson visited Shakespeare a week before he died and spent the evening eating and drinking together.

This may be true, but there is a further theory that Shakespeare was sick for over a month before he died. The evidence comes from the fact that on 25th March 1616 (just 4 weeks before his death) Shakespeare dictated his will – in keeping with the 17th Century tradition of drawing up wills on one’s deathbed. This points to the fact that Shakespeare was aware his life was coming to an end. Some scholars also point to his signature on his will being somewhat shaky, suggesting his frailty at the time. As an aside, there is lots of historical discussion and exploration about whether bequeathing his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway was a slight against her or not. It probably wasn’t but we don’t know for sure.

Despite all of the theories, the cause of Shakespeare’s death at the age of just 52 will likely remain a mystery. Shakespeare died a grandfather after living a relatively long and healthy life where the average life expectancy was just 35.

Shakespeare was buried on 25th April, 1616, in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

William Shakespeare’s grave in Holy Trinity Church, complete with curse and flowers

Buy Peter Ackroyd’s “Shakespeare The Biography” on Amazon

Buy Michael Wood’s “In Search of Shakespeare” on Amazon

Buy Harold Bloom’s “Shakespeare, The Invention of Human” on Amazon

Buy Bill Bryson’s “Shakespeare” on Amazon

Read Our Favourite Shakespeare Biographies in Print

There are so many books out there about Shakespeare and his life, but these four below are our all-time favourites. Each one is readable, informative and well worth relaxing with for a few hours to get a deeper understanding about the man himself:

Author’s Notes

Despite William Shakespeare’s fame as a historical figure, there are very few hard facts known about him. Historians use the following primary sources to piece together his life:

• Shakespeare’s works — the plays, poems and sonnets.
• Official records such as church and court records ( available here ).
• Written commentary about Shakespeare and his work from contemporaries such as Robert Green and Ben Johnson.

Biographers over the years have amassed an immense amount of knowledge and information Some fact, some opinion. A key purpose of this biography of William Shakespeare has been to make clear what is supposition or assumption rather than fact. We acknowledge here our reference to the following established secondary sources:

Bill Bryson. Shakespeare. London. Wilkie Collins. 2016 Peter Ackroyd. Shakespeare the biography. London. Vintage 2006. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/ https://www.rsc.org.uk/ https://www.folger.edu/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare/ http://theshakespeareblog.com/http://www.william-shakespeare.info/ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/ http://www.literarygenius.info/education-of-william-shakespeare.htm http://www.william-shakespeare.info/ http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareeducation.html

As an Amazon Associate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Read More About Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s life | Shakespeare timeline | Shakespeare biography | Shakespeare’s early childhood | Shakespeare’s teenage years | Shakespeare’s lost years | Shakespeare’s London years | Shakespeare’s final years | Shakespeare’s death

Read More About Shakespeare’s Family

Shakespeare’s family |  Shakespeare’s family tree | Shakespeare’s grandparents | Shakespeare’s parents | Mary Arden, Shakespeare’s mother | John Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s father | Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare wife | Shakespeare’s children | Judith Quiney | Hamnet Shakespeare |  Shakespeare’s grandchildren

• Pinterest 0

thanks this biography helped me with a school project!

Same Here!! lol :D

this will help me with my school project for history and i have probably gone beyond what we have learent in school

WoW! Thanks alot!! I actually had to do reasearch on william shakesphere for school!!! :)

you spelled it wrong

More process information and knowledge in terms of facts and his plays is needed otherwise, this is one of the few websites helping me to do my presentation on Shakey! Thanks for the help!

You guys can add some more stuff to it. Although this proved to be helpful for me yet I’d say that more points about Shakespeare’s life can be added.

can’t find quiz

I have very recently discovered that my Great+ grandfather, Thomas Ffoxe, Jr. lived on Silver Street, which was only a block long, and on which Shakespeare lived 1602-1612. Thomas was baptized at St. Olave’s Church, which was Hugenot, or Scandinavian, in 1618. I am still researching to see if Thomas’ father of the same name lived there before him. This church was catecorner to the Mountjoy House, a headdress maker and shop, where Shakespeare lived as a lodger during this period.

Enjoyed reading this and thank you .

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Twelfth Night

William shakespeare: biography.

The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare, long believed to be the only portrait painted from life, until one other recently appeared.

William Shakespeare (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”. His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of around38 plays,   154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , and  Macbeth , considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges andHenry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare’s. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as “not of an age, but for all time”. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his work has been repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Additional information on Shakespeare’s life, work, and influence can be found here. 

• William Shakespeare. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Image of Shakespeare. Authored by : John Taylor. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare.jpg . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little Greek and read the Roman dramatists. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years his senior. Together, they raised two daughters: Susanna, who was born in 1583, and Judith (whose twin brother died in boyhood), born in 1585.

Little is known about Shakespeare’s activities between 1585 and 1592. Robert Greene’s A Groatsworth of Wit alludes to him as an actor and playwright. Shakespeare may have taught at school during this period, but it seems more probable that shortly after 1585 he went to London to begin his apprenticeship as an actor. Due to the plague, the London theaters were often closed between June 1592 and April 1594. During that period, Shakespeare probably had some income from his patron, Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first two poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). The former was a long narrative poem depicting the rejection of Venus by Adonis, his death, and the consequent disappearance of beauty from the world. Despite conservative objections to the poem’s glorification of sensuality, it was immensely popular and was reprinted six times during the nine years following its publication.

In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s company of actors, the most popular of the companies acting at Court. In 1599, Shakespeare joined a group of Chamberlain’s Men that would form a syndicate to build and operate a new playhouse: the Globe, which became the most famous theater of its time. With his share of the income from the Globe, Shakespeare was able to purchase New Place, his home in Stratford.

While Shakespeare was regarded as the foremost dramatist of his time, evidence indicates that both he and his contemporaries looked to poetry, not playwriting, for enduring fame. Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed between 1593 and 1601, though not published until 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare , consists of 154 sonnets, all written in the form of three quatrains and a couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean . The sonnets fall into two groups: sonnets 1–126, addressed to a beloved friend, a handsome and noble young man, and sonnets 127–152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady,” who the poet loves in spite of himself. Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine the inevitable decay of time, and the immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.

In his poems and plays, Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French, and native roots. His impressive expansion of the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary , includes such words as: arch-villain, birthplace, bloodsucking, courtship, dewdrop, downstairs, fanged, heartsore, hunchbacked, leapfrog, misquote, pageantry, radiance, schoolboy, stillborn, watchdog, and zany.

Shakespeare wrote more than thirty plays. These are usually divided into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances. His earliest plays were primarily comedies and histories such as Henry VI and The Comedy of Errors , but in 1596, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet , his second tragedy, and over the next dozen years he would return to the form, writing the plays for which he is now best known: Julius Caesar , Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , Macbeth , and Antony and Cleopatra . In his final years, Shakespeare turned to the romantic with Cymbeline , A Winter’s Tale , and The Tempest .

Only eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays were published separately in quarto editions during his lifetime; a complete collection of his works did not appear until the publication of the First Folio in 1623, several years after his death. Nonetheless, his contemporaries recognized Shakespeare's achievements. Francis Meres cited “honey-tongued” Shakespeare for his plays and poems in 1598, and the Chamberlain’s Men rose to become the leading dramatic company in London, installed as members of the royal household in 1603.

Sometime after 1612, Shakespeare retired from the stage and returned to his home in Stratford. He drew up his will in January of 1616, which included his famous bequest to his wife of his “second best bed.” He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at Stratford Church.

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William Shakespeare

The most famous of all English playwrights was born in 1564 and died on St Georges Day, in 1616. His birthday is celebrated on 23rd April in Stratford-upon-Avon…

Ben Johnson

The most famous of all English playwrights was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. William’s father John was a wealthy merchant and a respectable member of the community within the small Warwickshire town.

It appears the John’s business interests may have taken a turn for the worse when William was in his early teens, as William failed to follow his father into the family business.

Little is known of William’s early life, but it is thought that he may have attended the town’s free grammar school, learning Latin and Greek amongst many other subjects.

What he did immediately after leaving school is also a little vague; local Warwickshire legends recall tales of him poaching deer at the nearby Charlecote Estate, and nights of heavy drinking sessions in several of the local village pubs. Perhaps the former would have closely followed the latter!

What is known is that an 18 year-old William married Anne Hathaway, a farmer’s daughter from the nearby village of Shottery in 1582. Anne was 26 at the time, and very, very shortly after the wedding, their daughter Susanna was born. Two years later Anne gave birth to twins, Hammet and Judith. Many believe that in these early years of marriage, William may well have supported his new family by becoming a schoolteacher.

Why William came to leave Stratford and his young family is again unclear; perhaps to seek his fortune in London. He appears to have arrived in the capital sometime around 1590. Initially he earned a living as an actor, before his first poem ‘Venus and Adonis’ was published in 1592. He certainly started to earn his fortune in the years that followed; between 1594 and 1598 William’s considerable output, which included six comedies, five histories as well as the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, took the London theatre world by storm.

Although generally considered to be happy and prosperous years for William, his personal life was dealt a severe blow by the sudden death of his son Hammet aged 11 in 1596. Perhaps in part due to this blow, William re-established his ties with the town of his birth by buying and renovating a large and imposing mansion in Stratford called New Place. His father’s fortunes also appear to have a turn for the better as he was awarded his own coat-of-arms the following year.

These were the last years of Elizabeth I ’s reign, and following her death in 1603 she was succeeded by King James I and VI of Scotland. James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, the first king to rule over both Scotland and England.

Perhaps by coincidence, it is generally accepted that Shakespeare wrote one his greatest tragedies, his famous ‘Scottish Play’ Macbeth sometime between 1604 and 1606. This story of two ancient Scottish kings is mixed with strange tales of witches and the supernatural; ‘coincidently’, King James had written a book on the subject of spirits and witchcraft called Daemononlogie just a few years earlier.

The play also depicts Macbeth’s friend Banquo as a noble and loyal man. Chroniclers suggest however, that Banquo was in fact an accomplice in Macbeth’s murder of Duncan. As the new king claimed ancestry from Banquo, to have shown him as a murderer of kings would perhaps not have endeared the playwright to James.

King James appears to have been so greatly impressed by Shakespeare that he conferred his own royal patronage on him and his partners; they became the ‘King’s Men’, receiving twice the pay they had received previously from Queen Elizabeth.

In the years that followed William gradually relinquished his commitments to the King’s Men which allowed him to resume his position as head of the Shakespeare family back in Stratford. Although his parents had died some years earlier, his daughter Susanna had married and William’s first grandchild, Elizabeth was born in 1608.

Whilst most of his remaining days were to be spent in Stratford, William continued to visit London in order to look after his many business interests,

Through his will William had sought to keep the estate he had created intact for the benefit of his descendants; unfortunately his direct line ended when his granddaughter died childless in 1670.

However the works that Shakespeare created continue live on through the countless school, amateur and professional productions performed across the world each year. Just a few of these are mentioned below along with the approximate dates that they were first performed;

Early Plays:

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590-91) Henry VI, Part I (1592) Henry VI, Part II (1592) Henry VI, Part III (1592) Titus Andronicus (1592) The Taming of the Shrew (1593) The Comedy of Errors (1594) Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594-95) Romeo and Juliet (1595)

Richard III (1592) Richard II (1595) King John (1595-96) Henry IV, Part I (1596-97) Henry IV, Part II (1596-97) Henry V (1598-99)

Later Comedies:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-96) The Merchant of Venice (1596-97) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597-98) Much Ado about Nothing (1598) As You Like It (1599-1600) Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1601) Troilus and Cressida (1602) Measure for Measure (1601) All’s well that Ends Well (1604-05)

Roman Plays:

Julius Caesar (1599) Antony and Cleopatra (1606) Coriolanus (1608)

Later Tragedies:

Hamlet (1600-01) Othello (1603-04) Timon of Athens (1605) King Lear (1605-06) Macbeth (1606)

Late Plays:

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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, the United Kingdom in April 1564.  He was a son of the middle-class parents, John and Mary Shakespeare. They lived in a small town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, Shakespeare was the first surviving son, for two earlier children, Joan and Margaret, who died in childhood. His early life was spent at two locations; Stratford, his native town, and London , the hub of English theatre. His father passed away in 1601 at the age of 70, while around seven years later his mother, too, breathed her last in 1608.

Starting his early education at the age of seven at the Stratford Grammar School, William Shakespeare underwent rigors of learning grammar and literature which received special focus at school. He also learned basic manners and prayers in a theological setting besides traditional subjects of rhetoric , logic, history, Latin and the works of great classical authors. Unfortunately, the financial crisis forced him to quit his education. In spite of the challenges, Shakespeare retained his reading addiction and theatrical interests.

Married Life

Shakespeare married Anny Hathaway at eighteen in 1582. It is, however, interesting that Anny was seven years senior and pregnant at the time of their marriage. Therefore, they had to welcome Susanna, their first child very soon. After a few years, they welcome twins. Sadly, one of the twins died at eleven. Due to severe poverty Shakespeare decided to go to London. He wanted to try his luck in theatrical companies as an actor. Despite his talent in acting, he succeeded in making a name as a writer.

It is said that Shakespeare always had a sound mind and perfect health. However, he lost his life on 25th April 1616. The actual cause of his demise is unknown. However, he wrote a will almost a month before his death in which he described himself as a perfect man.

Some Important Facts of His Life

• He is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in his home town of Stratford, Warwickshire.
• In 1585, Shakespeare disappeared for almost seven years, and historians call this period of life as “the lost years.”
• When in 1952 he emerged as an actor and a playwright, he received the title of “upstart crow” from Robert Greene.
• Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary to have introduced almost 3,000 words in the English language.
• He wrote 37 plays and more than 150 sonnets and other poems .

Writing Career

Though Shakespeare left school at the age of fourteen forced by the financial crisis, he was sufficiently educated. Hence, he earned a good name in acting and writing. He moved to London where he established his career as an actor and writer. He wrote his first play ,  Henry-VI Part-I, in 1590 and Henry-VI Part-III and IV in 1591. He won unprecedented popularity due to his outstanding literary out. Despite this, in 1592, Robert Greene’s Groatworth of Wit  famously calls Shakespeare an ”upstart crow,” a negatively discouraging term. According to Robert Greene, Shakespeare was not capable enough to produce the finest pieces. He believed that Shakespeare borrowed ideas from others. His accusation, however, did not impact his writings. He continued producing masterpieces after masterpieces until his death. In 1593, he started working on his 124 sonnet collection. Despite facing criticism patiently, he never let himself derailed from the literary path. He established himself as an excellent poet and a great playwright with masterpieces such as The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth , Othello , Venus and Adonis’, The Rape of Lucrece and Hamlet to his credit.  

Shakespeare established his career as an actor first and then as a playwright. Shakespeare stepped into the world of literature and theatre, leaving lasting impressions. He became popular due to his traditional writing style in the early part of his career. First, he strictly followed iambic pentameter in his blank verse plays, but gradually he moved toward more conventional practices, adopting his own distinctly personal style in writing based on minute observation of human life and nature. It is stated that he added almost 1700 new words to English vocabulary during the depiction of the university of human nature and experience. The recurring themes of most of his poems and plays are love, death, betrayal, and jealousy. Regarding literary devices , he often used extended metaphors , heavy diction , conceits and soliloquies to create a unique style in his plays and poems.

William Shakespeare’s Works

Best Plays:   William Shakespeare has tried his hands in both plays as well as poetry.  Some of his best plays include; The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Othello, King Lear , Mid-Summer Night ’s Dream, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Best Poems:   Some of the best poems he has written includes; “The Rape of Lucrece”, “The Phoenix and the Turtle”, “ Sonnet 20 ”, “Sonnet 1”, “ Sonnet 73 ”, “Venus and Adonis”, “ Sonnet 29 ”, “ Sonnet 130 ”, “ Sonnet 116 ” and “Sonnet 18.”

William Shakespeare’s Impacts on Future Literature

His pen brought revolutionary changes to the world of literature. Even today, researchers tend to investigate how his works evolved social, political and theatrical settings. He not only wrote plays and poetry but also managed to leave a permanent mark on how we live and speak in contemporary culture. His writings are still subject to interpretation and translation in various languages. His writing style influenced a large number of renowned writers such as Charles Dickens , Maya Angelou, John Keats , and Herman Melville . Various writers and poets use his style as a guiding model for writing plays and poetry. Also, genres of tragedy , comedy , and tragi-comedy owe a great deal to Shakespeare for popularity and universal recognition.

William Shakespeare’s Famous Quotes

• “To be, or not to be: that is the question”.Hamlet (Act III, Scene I).
• “This above all: to thine own self be true ”. Hamlet (Act I, Scene III).
• “But, for my own part, it was Greek to me”. Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II).
• “ Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry”. Hamlet (Act I, Scene III).
• “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”. Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene II).

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Biography of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the English language, known for both his plays and sonnets. Though much about his life remains open to debate due to incomplete evidence, the following biography consolidates the most widely accepted facts about Shakespeare's life and career.

In the mid-sixteenth century, William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, moved to the idyllic town of Stratford-upon-Avon. There, he became a successful landowner, moneylender, glove maker, and dealer of wool and agricultural goods. In 1557, he married Mary Arden.

During John Shakespeare's time, the British middle class was expanding in both size and wealth, allowing its members more freedoms and luxuries, as well as a stronger collective voice in local government. John took advantage of the changing times and became a member of the Stratford Council in 1557, which marked the beginning of his illustrious political career. By 1561, he was elected as one of the town's fourteen burgesses, and subsequently served as Constable, then Chamberlain, and later, Alderman. In all of these positions, the elder Shakespeare administered borough property and revenues. In 1567, he became bailiff—the highest elected office in Stratford and the equivalent of a modern-day mayor.

Town records indicate that William Shakespeare was John and Mary's third child. His birth is unregistered, but legend pins the date as April 23, 1564, possibly because it is known that he died on the same date 52 years later. In any event, William's baptism was registered with the town of Stratford on April 26, 1564. Little is known about his childhood, although it is generally assumed that he attended the local grammar school, the King's New School. The school was staffed by Oxford-educated faculty who taught the students mathematics, natural sciences, logic, Christian ethics, and classical languages and literature.

Shakespeare did not attend university, which was not unusual for the time. University education was reserved for wealthy sons of the elite, and even then, mostly just those who wanted to become clergymen. The numerous classical and literary references in Shakespeare’s plays are a testament, however, to the excellent education he received in grammar school, and speaks to his ability as an autodidact. His early plays in particular draw on the works of Seneca and Plautus. Even more impressive than Shakespeare's formal education is the wealth of general knowledge he exhibits in his work. His vocabulary exceeds that of any other English writer of his time by a wide margin.

In 1582, at the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married twenty-six-year-old Anne Hathaway . Their first daughter, Susanna, was not baptized until six months after her birth—a fact that has given rise to speculation over the circumstances surrounding the marriage. In 1585, Anne bore twins, baptized Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare. Hamnet died at the age of eleven, by which time William Shakespeare was already a successful playwright. Around 1589, Shakespeare wrote Henry VI, Part 1 , which is considered to be his first play. Sometime between his marriage and writing this play, he moved to London, where he pursued a career as a playwright and actor.

Although many records of Shakespeare's life as a citizen of Stratford have survived, including his marriage and birth certificates, very little information exists about his life as a young playwright. Legend characterizes Shakespeare as a roguish young man who was once forced to flee London under suspect circumstances, perhaps related to his love life, but the paltry amount of written information does not necessarily confirm this facet of his personality.

In any case, young Will was not an immediate universal success. The earliest written record of Shakespeare's life in London comes from a statement by rival playwright Robert Greene. In Groatsworth of Witte (1592), Greene calls Shakespeare an "upstart crow...[who] supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you." While this is hardly high praise, it does suggest that Shakespeare rattled London's theatrical hierarchy from the beginning of his career. In retrospect, it is possible to attribute Greene's complaint to jealousy of Shakespeare's ability, but the scarcity of evidence renders the comment ambiguous.

With Richard III , Henry VI , The Comedy of Errors , and Titus Andronicus under his belt, Shakespeare became a popular playwright by 1590. (The dates of composition and debut performance of almost all of Shakespeare's plays remain uncertain. The dates used here are widely agreed upon by scholars, but there is still significant debate around the dates of completion for many of his plays.) The year 1593, however, marked a major leap forward in his career when he secured a prominent patron: the Earl of Southampton. In addition, Venus and Adonis was published; it was one of the first of Shakespeare's known works to be printed, and it was a huge success. Next came The Rape of Lucrece . By this time, Shakespeare had also made his mark as a poet, as most scholars agree that he wrote the majority of his sonnets in the 1590s.

In 1594, Shakespeare returned to the theater and became a charter member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men—a group of actors who changed their name to the King's Men when James I ascended the throne. By 1598, Shakespeare had been appointed the "principal comedian" for the troupe; by 1603, he was "principal tragedian." He remained associated with the organization until his death. Although acting and playwriting were not considered noble professions at the time, successful and prosperous actors were relatively well respected. Shakespeare’s success left him with a fair amount of money, which he invested in Stratford real estate. In 1597, he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford—known as "the New Place"—for his parents. In 1596, Shakespeare applied for a coat of arms for his family, in effect making himself a gentleman. Consequently, his daughters made “good matches,” and married wealthy men.

The same year that he joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet , Love's Labour's Lost , The Taming of the Shrew , and several other plays. In 1600, he wrote two of his greatest tragedies, Hamlet and Julius Caesar . Many literary critics and historians consider Hamlet to be the first modern play because of its multi-faceted main character and unprecedented depiction of the human psyche.

The first decade of the seventeenth century witnessed the debut performances of several of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works, including many of his so-called history plays: Othello in 1604 or 1605, Antony and Cleopatra in 1606 or 1607, and King Lear in 1608. The last of Shakespeare's plays to be performed during his lifetime was most likely King Henry VIII in either 1612 or 1613.

William Shakespeare died in 1616. His wife Anne died in 1623, at the age of 67. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of his church at Stratford. The lines above his tomb, allegedly written by Shakespeare himself, read:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Study Guides on Works by William Shakespeare

All's well that ends well william shakespeare.

Composed sometime between 1595 and 1603, the first recorded performance of William Shakespeare’s tragicomedy All’s Well That Ends Well took place on November 8, 1623. That the next recorded performance did not occur until 1741 provides some...

• Study Guide
• Lesson Plan

Antony and Cleopatra William Shakespeare

Shakespeare lived in a time of great transformation for Western Europe. New advances in science were overturning ancient ideas about astronomy and physics. The discovery of the Americas had transformed the European conception of the world....

As You Like It William Shakespeare

As You Like It was likely written between 1598 and 1600. It was entered in the Stationers' Register on August 4, 1600 but no edition followed the entry, thereby leading to the ambiguity in its publication date. Two topical references have been...

Cardenio William Shakespeare

Cardenio is considered a lost play. The authors are believed to be John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. The attribution is based primarily upon two 1613 performances by the King’s Men acting troupe of a play listed by either the title Cardenno...

Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. It was first printed in the First Folio in 1623, and the earliest known performance is recorded to have been at Gray's Inn, one of London's law schools, on December 28th, 1594. However,...

Coriolanus William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's principal source for the story of Coriolanus is a history written by Plutarch, of a Coriolanus who supposedly lived in ancient Rome. Shared with this source material is a concern for the overlap between virtue and valour; whereas, in...

Cymbeline William Shakespeare

Cymbeline , one of Shakespeare's most ambitious and complicated plays, tells the story of a mythic king of England, Cymbeline, who reigned during the first century A.D. Its several plots trace the tribulations of the King and his royal family on...

Hamlet William Shakespeare

The story of the play originates in the legend of Hamlet (Amleth) as recounted in the twelfth-century Danish History, a Latin text by Saxo the Grammarian. This version was later adapted into French by Francois de Belleforest in 1570. In it, the...

Henry IV Part 1 William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part One first appeared in print in 1598, when two separate quartos were made. The second quarto serves as the standard text for most modern editions, and was followed closely by five more quartos in 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, and 1622. The...

Henry IV Part 2 William Shakespeare

Henry v william shakespeare.

Henry V was probably the greatest military leader that England ever had. He laid claim to the French throne in 1414 by invoking an English royal claim, and managed to win the Battle of Agincourt the following year against seemingly impossible...

Henry VIII William Shakespeare

Although Henry VIII is attributed to the Shakespeare canon and found in nearly every single collection of his plays, the general consensus has long been that the play which brings into the cycle of Shakespeare’s histories the most drama-worthy of...

Julius Caesar William Shakespeare

The only authoritative edition of Julius Caesar is the 1623 First Folio, which appears to have used the theater company's official promptbook rather than Shakespeare's manuscript. Some anomalies exist, most notably in Act Four where there is...

King Lear William Shakespeare

The story of King Lear and his three daughters existed in some form up to four centuries before Shakespeare recorded his vision. Lear was a British King who reigned before the birth of Christ, allowing Shakespeare to place his play in a Pagan...

Love's Labour's Lost William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to be one of his early comedies performed for the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Perhaps more than any Shakespeare play, Love’s Labour’s Lost seems to be directed toward the specific...

Macbeth William Shakespeare

Legend says that Macbeth was written in 1605 or 1606 and performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark. Whether it was first performed at the royal court or was premiered at the Globe...

Measure for Measure William Shakespeare

The first performance of Measure for Measure is believed to have taken place in 1604, during the reign of King James I. By this time, Shakespeare is believed to have begun writing his plays for performance at the Blackfriars theatre, a small,...

Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare

The Merchant of Venice was first printed in 1600 in quarto, of which nineteen copies survive. This was followed by a 1619 printing, and later an inclusion in the First Folio in 1623. The play was written shortly after Christopher Marlowe's...

The Merry Wives of Windsor William Shakespeare

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy written by William Shakespeare which, tradition dictates, was composed at the request of Queen Elizabeth I. The play premiered in 1597 with publication occurring in 1602. Were it not for the appearance of ...

A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream is first mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, leading many scholars to date the play between 1594 and 1596. It is likely to have been written around the same period Romeo and Juliet was created. Indeed, many similarities...

Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing was first published in 1600 and was likely written in 1598. The 1600 printing was the only copy published during Shakespeare's lifetime, and bears the title inscription describing that the play "hath been sundrie times...

Othello William Shakespeare

The plot of Shakespeare's Othello is largely taken from Giraldi Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi , a tale of love, jealousy, and betrayal; however, the characters, themes, and attitudes of the two works are vastly different, with Shakespeare's play being...

Pericles, Prince of Tyre William Shakespeare

There are some significant doubts over the authorship of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a Jacobean play most frequently attributed to William Shakespeare. It is widely agreed that the Bard was the author of the main portion of the play that follows...

The Phoenix and the Turtle William Shakespeare

“The Phoenix and the Turtle,” first published in 1601, is one of William Shakespeare’s non-dramatic poems. While Shakespeare is most famous for his plays and sonnets, he also wrote a number of shorter poems. Of these, “The Phoenix and the Turtle”...

Rape of Lucrece William Shakespeare

T’was a plague that gave birth to William Shakespeare’s long narrative poem “The Rape of Lucrece.” Between June 1592 and May 1594, acting companies were banished from London and the theater essentially became non-existent. The reason for this was...

Richard II William Shakespeare

Richard II was first printed in 1597 in a good quality text most likely taken from Shakespeare's manuscript. Two reprints in 1598 mention Shakespeare as the author. Later prints in 1608 and 1615 appear to be taken from the earlier versions, but...

Richard III William Shakespeare

Richard III generated a great deal of interest both during and after Shakespeare's lifetime. It was published in quarto at least five times after being performed in 1592. Richard Burbage first played Richard the Third and made the "poisonous...

Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet , Shakespeare's most famous tragedy and one of the world's most enduring love stories, derives its plot from several sixteenth century sources. Shakespeare's primary inspiration for the play was Arthur Brooke's Tragical History of...

Shakespeare's Sonnets William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's sonnets comprise 154 poems in sonnet form that were published in 1609 but likely written over the course of several years. Evidence for their existence long preceding publication comes from a reference in Francis Mere's 1598 Palladis...

Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnet 138, which concerns a difficult relationship in which both the speaker and the lover lie to each other, was initially published in 1599 in a collection called The Passionate Pilgrim . The book was attributed to William...

Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought William Shakespeare

Sonnet 30, in which the speaker reflects wistfully on his own life but is comforted by the thought of his friend, was first published in Shakespeare’s 1609 Quarto. Like the other sonnets in the collection, Sonnet 30 is made up of 14 lines: three...

The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare

Like many of Shakespeare's plays, the origins of The Taming of the Shrew are difficult to ascertain. The play as we have it today comes from the First Folio of 1623. However, an earlier version of the play, entitled The Taming of a Shrew , was...

The Tempest William Shakespeare

The Tempest first appeared in print as the first play in Shakespeare's 1623 Folio. It has been variously regarded as a highlight of Shakespeare's dramatic output, as a representation of the essence of human life, and as containing Shakespeare's...

Titus Andronicus William Shakespeare

For centuries, Titus Andronicus has carried the reputation of being the worst play by the best playwright. Though it was a great success when first staged in the late sixteenth century, in 1687 an English producer, Edward Ravenscroft, declared ...

Troilus and Cressida William Shakespeare

Sardonic, farcical, dark and tragicomic, Troilus and Cressida is a play that seems more comfortable on today's stage than it ever was in Shakespeare's day. Indeed, Troilus went unstaged for three hundred years; following its first performance in...

Twelfth Night William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night is one of the most commonly performed Shakesperean comedies, and was also successful during Shakespeare's lifetime. The first surviving account of the play's performance comes from a diary entry written early in 1602, talking about...

The Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare

The Two Gentlemen of Verona was written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1590 and 1594, thus placing it among the earliest of the Bard’s plays. Some scholars suggest that the play was likely the very first play Shakespeare wrote for the...

The Two Noble Kinsmen William Shakespeare

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy involving two cousins who battle for their city and fall in love with one woman. The play is based on "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales , a long poem written in Middle...

Venus and Adonis William Shakespeare

Venus and Adonis is a long narrative poem by William Shakespeare. It is historically important because it is believed to be Shakespeare's first ever published poem. When it was published in 1593, few had heard of the young man who would become one...

The Winter's Tale William Shakespeare

Shakespeare lived in a time of great transformation for Western Europe. New advances is science were overturning ancient ideas about astronomy and physics. The discovery of the Americas had transformed the European conception of the world....

William Shakespeare’s Short Biography

Reading Comprehension: William Shakespeare’s Short Biography

Develop your reading skills. Read this text about William Shakespeare’s short biography and do the comprehesnion task.

William Shakespeare: A Literary Legacy

William Shakespeare, born on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, remains an iconic figure in the realm of literature. His parents, John Shakespeare, a prosperous local businessman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a landowner, provided the backdrop for his upbringing. Widely acclaimed as the greatest writer in the English language, Shakespeare’s contributions to literature and drama are unparalleled.

Often referred to as England’s national poet and affectionately nicknamed the Bard of Avon, Shakespeare’s literary repertoire is extensive. He penned approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other verses, though the authorship of some works remains uncertain. His writings have transcended linguistic barriers, with translations into every major living language, and his plays continue to be performed more frequently than those of any other playwright.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior. Together, they had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Following his marriage, Shakespeare’s life became enigmatic, but it is widely believed that he spent the majority of his time in London, honing his craft as a playwright, actor, and part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.

Around 1613, at the age of 49, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, where he spent his remaining years. He passed away on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52. Despite the scarcity of records concerning his private life, Shakespeare’s literary legacy endures.

Shakespeare’s literary career spanned from 1589 to 1613, during which he produced an array of masterpieces. His early works encompassed comedies and historical dramas, which are revered for their wit and insight into human nature. Transitioning to tragedies, such as “Hamlet,” “Othello,” “King Lear,” and “Macbeth,” Shakespeare delved into the depths of human emotion, crafting enduring classics that continue to captivate audiences.

In his later years, Shakespeare explored tragicomedies, also known as romances, collaborating with other playwrights to create innovative works that defied genre conventions. Today, Shakespeare’s plays remain integral to the literary canon, celebrated for their universal themes, complex characters, and enduring relevance. They are studied, performed, and interpreted across diverse cultural and political landscapes, attesting to Shakespeare’s enduring influence on the world stage.

Adapted from Wikipedia

Comprehension:

• Shakespeare's parents were poor. a. True b. False
• His wife was 18 when they got married. a. True b. False
• Shakespeare died in Stratford. a. True b. False
• In the last years of his life, he wrote mainly tragicomedies. a. True b. False

Related Pages:

• Romeo and Juliet
• Watch Romeo and Juliet (Full Play)
• Summary of Romeo and Juliet
• Themes of Romeo and Juliet
• Macbeth by Shakespeare
• Poems by Shakespeare

William Shakespeare: Biography and Writing Style

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

What We Review

About the Author of Hamlet

Even though William Shakespeare is regarded around the world as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, there is little information on his personal life outside of court and church records and Shakespeare’s writings themselves. 

William Shakespeare’s Childhood and Adulthood

A local church recorded William’s baptism as an infant, so historians have adopted April 23, 1564, as his birthdate (“William Shakespeare”). William was one of six children born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, and he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon (a busy town along the Avon River, about 100 miles from London) (“William Shakespeare”). 

In 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and had three children. In 1590, Shakespeare and his family had moved to London where he worked for an acting company known first as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and later the King’s Men (in 1603 when King James 1 was crowned) (“William Shakespeare”). His career within this company was highly successful as he had the support to write, produce, and publish several of his own works as well as perform on stage. 

Following his success, Shakespeare was able to afford to not only purchase a massive home for his family outside of London, but he also built his own theater, called the Globe Theater, a version of which still sits on the edge of the Thames River right in the heart of London. While the original theater burned down when the thatched roof caught fire during a performance in 1613, a new theater was built and opened by the following year (Carafano). Shakespeare did not build his own theater out of pride; rather, out of necessity. Blackfriars’, the only other theater in town, was prevented from hosting plays by the rich and judgemental residents of the same town (“Globe Theater”).

Many of Shakespeare’s greatest works were performed for large audiences within the Globe Theater. Even though Puritans tore the theater down in 1644, in 1970, the actor Sam Wanamaker had a replica theater built near the original location (“Globe Theater”). To this day, people come from around the world to visit Shakespeare’s theater in London to see these lasting works performed over 400 years later. 

William Shakespeare’s Greatest Influences

A major literary influence in Shakespeare’s life was Christopher Marlowe. Both Marlowe and Shakespeare used blank verse as their primary form of writing, and both authors portrayed tragic heroes in their plays (“Hamlet: Influences”). Another key influence was a French essayist, Michel de Montaigne. Both Shakespeare and Montaigne show sympathy for those normally ostracized by others. Shakespeare pays tribute to Montaigne’s ideas about the relationship between a father and his children in  King Lear  (“Hamlet: Influences”). Shakespeare was also influenced by many poets but primarily Petrarch, an Italian poet who mastered the sonnet form (“Hamlet: Influences”). 

William Shakespeare’s Writing Style in Hamlet

Shakespeare is a literary genius for many reasons. One such reason is how every decision he makes is intentional. Whether through his choice of metaphors for a particular situation, infusing layers of meaning into individual words to reveal hidden truth or to take a stab at someone, or by choosing which writing style to use based on the topic and situation, his writing is unparalleled. 

Figurative Language and Imagery

Shakespeare loves to play with language; after all, in a drama to be performed on stage with limited props and action, the words spoken by the actors hold significant responsibility for conveying the play’s message. Everything is intentional in a Shakespearean drama; nothing is filler. Several examples of Hamlet’s biting wit carry heavier meaning than a simple response to another character. One example is Hamlet’s response to Claudius when he dares to call Hamlet his son. Hamlet quickly retorts with “a little more than kin, and less than kind!” (Shakespeare 12).

By saying that Claudius is only a little more than kin, he recognizes him as his uncle,  not  his father. Additionally, the word “kind” has a dual meaning; one, Hamlet wants to express that he is nothing like his uncle. Secondly, he emphasizes the cruelty of his uncle in asking Hamlet to get over his father’s death already and stop mourning.

Another example immediately follows this exchange: Claudius asks Hamlet, “How is it that the clouds still hang on you?” and Hamlet replies, “Not so, my lord. I am too much i’ the sun” (Shakespeare 13). Here, Claudius speaks metaphorically about Hamlet’s sorrow, probably in an attempt to be gentle and appear as if he cares about Hamlet’s well-being. Hamlet quickly turns the metaphor on its head, saying he is not in the clouds but rather in the sun, but he also takes a jab at Claudius by reminding him that he will not so quickly forget his father. 

Sentence Structure

While most of Hamlet is written in verse, there are still large sections of the play written in prose (“Hamlet: Style”). Shakespeare intentionally reserved verse style for Hamlet’s long, philosophical soliloquies about more serious matters, especially his “To Be or Not to Be” monologue. However, when the situation is intended to be comedic, Shakespeare changes the language to prose (“Hamlet: Style”). The gravediggers’ scene is one such example. 

Verse and prose are also indicators of the class-level of different characters; common people in the play would always speak in prose, while royalty would only speak in verse. Hamlet intentionally talks down to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two friends ranking closely to him, as a means of insulting them for betraying him and conspiring behind his back (“Hamlet: Style”). 

Conclusion 

William Shakespeare was an ingenious playwright and poet, and it is no surprise that students across the globe study Shakespeare at some point during their high school or college career. There is much to be learned from Shakespeare’s multilayered, multidimensional use of language. So much so that many readers return to Shakespeare’s works, such as  Hamlet , to read them multiple times over, often noticing things that had never caught their eyes before. 

Works Cited

Carafano, Meghan. “Shakespeare’s Theater.” Folger Shakespeare Library , 25 Feb. 2020, www.folger.edu/shakespeares-theater. “Hamlet: Influences.” SparkNotes,   www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/life-and-times/historical-context/literary/influences/ . “Hamlet: Style.” SparkNotes,   www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/life-and-times/historical-context/literary/influences/ . “Globe Theatre.” Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Globe-Theatre . “William Shakespeare.” Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 10 Dec. 2020, www.biography.com/writer/william-shakespeare.

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William Shakespeare | A Short Biographical Sketch

Name : William Shakespeare Known as : “Bard of Avon” Date of Birth : April 23, 1564 (On assumption, as he was baptized in Holy Trinity Church on April 26) Birth Place : Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Father : Richard Shakespeare , a dealer of agricultural product by profession Mother : Mary Shakespeare, daughter of Robert Arden of Wilmcote Early Education : No definiteness, may be in Stratford Grammar School Spouse : Anne Hathway ( Eight years older than her husband, William ) Children : Susana Hall & Judith Quiney (daughters), Hamnet Shakespeare (only son) Occupation : Playwright, Poet & Actor Literary Period : Elizabethan Age As a Poet

From 1592 to 1594 the theatrical companies in London were somewhat disorganized because of the plague. Shakespeare utilized the time beautifully by showing us his talent in verse writing. His first long narrative poem is “Venus and Adonis” (1593). He composed 154 sonnets which were published in the volume, Shakespeare ‘s Sonnet in 1609. His Sonnets, 1-126 are dedicated to his bosom friend, Mr. W. H. and 127-154 to the Dark Lady. But the identity of Mr. W.H. and the Dark Lady is still in mystery.

  Popular Sonnets

1) Sonnet 18 : Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day ? 2) Sonnet 60 : Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore 3) Sonnet 65 : Since  brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea 4) Sonnet 116 :  Let me not to the marriage of true minds 5) Sonnet 130 :  My  mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Sonnet Style, Structure and Form                         

Shakespeare ‘s sonnets are written predominantly in iambic pentameter.                          

There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet . The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. The couplet has the rhyme scheme gg. As a Popular Playwright  

As a phenomenal playwright his creative career is divided into four periods:                          First Period (1590-1594)- experiment and external influence ( The Comedy of Errors , Love’s Labour’s Lost , Romeo and Juliet etc.)                          Second Period (1595-1599)- mature power in comedy and historical plays ( Henry IV, Julius Ceaser , As You Like It , Twelfth Night etc.)                          Third Period (1600-1609)- satire and tragedy ( Troilus & Cressida , Macbeth , Hamlet , King Lear , Othelo etc.)                          Fourth Period (1608-1611)- romance ( The Tempest , etc) The Winter’s Tale

Shakespeare’s Frequently Quoted Lines   “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.  Romeo and Juliet ( Quote Act II, Sc. II)   .   “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. – Macbeth ( Quote Act I, Scene I)  “To be, or not to be: that is the question”. Hamlet   (Act III, Sc. I).   “The course of true love never did run smooth.”  “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Related posts:

• Significance of the Title of The Winter’s Tale
• Know All Nobel Prize Winners in English Literature
• Imageries and Symbols in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Irony in My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun (Sonnet no. 130)
• All’s Well That Ends Well | Summary, Characters, Analysis

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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous English playwright, poets, and actors. He is viewed as the supreme writer in English literature and the greatest dramatist of the world. He is also called as the national poet of England and the “Bard of Avon.” He has written 154 sonnets, few other verses, two long narrative poems, and 39 plays. Shakespeare’s plays are translated into almost every major language of the world and are performed on stage to date.

A Short Biography of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on 23rd April 1564 and baptized on 26th April 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary Shakespeare. He was the oldest living child, whereas the first two children died in infancy. William Shakespeare grew up as an elder brother with five siblings that include three brothers. 

Shakespeare’s father had a profession of leatherworker who had his own business. When William was five, his father became a town Bailiff, a man with the same status as the mayor. However, after some time, John Shakespeare, with some unknown reasons, did not appear to have any public life.

Shakespeare, being the privileged citizen of Stratford, attended grammar school of Stratford. Like all schools, the course curriculum of this school included the Latin classics and memorization, writing, and acting of plays. Till the age of 15, Shakespeare attended the school.

William wedded Anne Hathaway in 1582, a few years after leaving school. Anne was already pregnant with their first child Susan. At the time of the marriage, Shakespeare was 18 years old while Anne was 28. They both spent their life in Stratford after marriage.

In 1585, Shakespeare and Anne completed their family by giving birth to twins: Hamnet and Judith. In the following years, Shakespeare moved to London, leaving his family in Stratford. This period of his life is known as “lost years” as nobody knew what he was up to these days until he was seen in the London theatre in 1592. He pursued a career in the theatre as an actor. 

London Theater

As mentioned before, Shakespeare appeared in 1592 as an actor in the London theatre after seven “lost years.” He appeared as a well-known London playwright and actor and was mocked by his fellow writer as “Shake-scene.” In 1593, Shakespeare published Venus and Adonis , a long poem. In 1594, the first edition of his plays was published. As an actor and playwright, Shakespeare performed multiple roles in the London theatre for the next two decades.

During that time, he also became a business partner in a leading acting company named Lord Chamberlain’s men. In 1603, the company was renamed as King’s Men. In the course of years, in the world of London theatre, Shakespeare became increasingly famous; his name turned into a brand that was sold on the title pages, though his name was not even mentioned in his first quarto plays.

Shakespeare flourished financially with acting and writing as well as with his partnership with Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He invested his finances in buying the real-estate in Stratford. In 1597, he bought New Place, the second-largest house in Stratford.

Shakespeare died on 23 rd April 1616. The date of his death is the same as the traditional date of his birth. The cause of death is unknown; however, it is assumed that his brother-in-law died a week prior to him with an infectious disease that could be transmitted to him as well. However, the health of Shakespeare had been declining for a long time. 

William Shakespeare’s Writing Style

Shakespeare used the conventional style of his age to write his early plays. The plays were written in the stylized language , though it was not always the demand of the drama/play or character. The verses of his play have extended and elaborated conceits and metaphor s.

The language he used is, most of the time, rhetorical as it was written to be acted by an actor rather than to speak. However, in the play Titus Andronicus , the critics say that the grand speeches delay the action. Similarly, in the play Two Gentlemen of Verona , the verses have been described as artificial.

Nonetheless, Shakespeare soon started to write in t raditional styles . In the historical play, Richard III , the opening soliloquy has its origin in the self-assertion of wickedness in the medieval drama. Simultaneously, the obvious self-realization of Richard anticipates the soliloquies of the mature plays of Shakespeare. There is no single play that marks the transition from transitional style to the freer style . All his plays have a combination of both styles.

The play Romeo and Juliet is the best example that contains the blend of traditional as well as freer style . During the mid-1590s, in the plays Richard II , A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Rome Juliet, Shakespeare had started writing more natural poetry than before. The extended metaphors and conceits that he would use in his plays had turned increasingly to the need for drama.

The standard poetic form employed by Shakespeare in his plays was blank verse . It was composed of iambic pentameter with vivid use of imagery and pun . His poetry is unrhymed and has ten syllables in a line. Each second syllable was supposed to be spoken with stress. The blank verse he used in his early plays is different from the blank verse he used in his later plays.

Though the employment of blank verse is beautiful, the sentences likely to start, pause and finish by the end of the line to avoid dullness. However, when Shakespeare got hold of the blank verse, he started interrupting and varying its flow due to the unique flexibility and power of the poetry released in his famous plays, Hamlet and Julius Caesar .  For example, to create turmoil in the mind of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses this technique.

Shakespeare’s poetic style changed further after writing Hamlet . This changed style is noticed in the emotional passages of his later tragedies. According to the critic A.C. Bradley, this style of Shakespeare is “more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical.”

To accomplish this effect, Shakespeare implemented many techniques. These techniques included irregular stops and pauses, run-on lines, and high alteration in length and structure of sentences. For example, in his play, Macbeth , the language of Lady Macbeth’s speeches shifts from one dissimilar simile or metaphor to another.

                     Was the hope drunk,

Wherein you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely?

(Lady Macbeth, Macbeth , Act I, Scene VII)

In the late romances, Shakespeare created the effect of spontaneity with the shifts in time and unexpected turns in plots. This inspired his last poetic style as he set short and long sentences against one another, piled up the clauses, reversed the subject and object, and omitted the words, thus exciting the audience to complete the sense of sentence by themselves.

The poetic genius of Shakespeare was associated with the concrete sense of London theatre. Shakespeare, like every other contemporary playwright, used the stories from sources like Holinshed and Petrarch to dramatize. He redesigned the plots to create interest and also showed many perspectives of narratives. It was due to this strength of design that ensured the fact that the plays of Shakespeare can be translated with both wide and cutting interpretation without loss of the main plot.

With growing mastery, Shakespeare designed his characters with more diverse motivations and characteristic speech patterns. He sustained the features of his style on earlier plays in his later plays as well. He intentionally moved to artificial style in his late romances to highlight the theatrical illusions.

The punctuation that Shakespeare used at the end of the lines in his early works strengthened the rhyme. This form of blank verse was used by him, along with other contemporary dramatists and playwrights, in dialogues between the characters to uplift the poetry. He used rhyme couplet to end his scenes in the play, therefore created suspense. A well-known example of this form occurs in the play Macbeth when Macbeth leaves the stage to kill Duncan.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to Heaven, or to Hell.   

(Macbeth, Macbeth ; Act II, Scene I)

The literary device soliloquy is used effectively by William Shakespeare in his plays. In his plays, a solitary speech is made by the character that gives the audience an insight into the inner feeling, conflict, and motivation of the character. In a soliloquy, the character either addresses the audience and speaks to them directly or speaks an imaginary realm.

The writing of Shakespeare is full of far-reaching puns that indent two things and subtle rhetorical additions. The key element in all his plays is humor. The bawdy puns he used in his plays made his works controversial to the degree that almost every play has sexual puns. The best example of Bawdy punning is his comedy Twelfth Night.

Certainly, the censored versions of Shakespeare’s plays were produced by Henrietta Bowdler as The family Shakespeare. His comic scenes are not restricted to his comedies only, his tragedies and historical plays have a comic interlude. For example, in Hamlet and Henry IV , there are comic scenes that relax the audience.

Similarities to Contemporary Playwrights

Though Shakespeare has a traditional style that was commonly used in his time, his general style is also compared to his contemporary writers. Shakespeare plays have lots of resemblances to the pays of Christopher Marlowe. It seems that Marlowe’s Queen’s Men have a strong influence on Shakespeare in writing his historical plays. His writing style is also compared to the other playwrights like John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont.

Shakespeare borrowed the plots of his plays from stories and plays of other writers. For example, the plot of Hamlet is taken from Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus. Similarly, the plot of Romeo Juliet is taken from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke. It was common in Shakespeare’s time to borrow the plot of plays from old plays. Even this tradition continued after the death of Shakespeare, as playwrights started borrowing plots from Shakespeare’s works.

Differences from Contemporary Playwrights

We see the expression of a complete variety of human experiences in the works of Shakespeare. He designed his characters “round” that developed over the course of plays as a human being in the course of life, therefore commanded the sympathies of the audiences. Whereas, the characters designed by his contemporary writers used to be archetypes and flat. For example, Macbeth, in the play, Macbeth killed six people on stage and also responsible for many murders offstage.

However, he still gains the sympathies of the audience due to his flawed nature like humans. Similarly, Hamlet is well aware that he has to avenge the death of his father; however, he procrastinates until he has no choice. He experiences a downfall due to his feelings and emotions, just like humans. Characters designed by Shakespeare were complex and humanistic. He would develop the character of his protagonists with the development of the plots.

Works Of William Shakespeare

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Merchant of Venice
• Twelfth Night
• The Taming of the Shrew
• As You Like It
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Comedy of Errors

author: William Shakespeare

How did people really speak in Shakespearean England?

BBC Teach > Secondary Resources > Shakespeare's life, work and legacy

Dramatic language

The first thing to remember about Shakespeare’s work is that he wrote plays to entertain. They are dramatic works, and the dialogue was manipulated to suit the stage. Therefore his characters' language did not always reflect how real people would have spoken.

For instance, in As You Like It when Corin, the shepherd, talks of love his lines are beautiful and poetic – but ultimately unrealistic.The lines Shakespeare gave Corin probably wouldn't have been used by an Elizabethan shepherd – instead they function to heighten the drama.

Another example of how the theatrical style informed Shakespeare’s text can be seen in the structure of his lines. According to the practice of the time, Shakespeare wrote his verse in iambic pentameter so it was easier for his actors to learn. When Shakespeare was writing, new plays were performed every day so this 10-beat structure was a great help for anyone having to learn a lot of lines for the next day's play.

Sticking to this structure meant that, on occasion, Shakespeare made up or adapted words to fit. For example, on several occasions Shakespeare changed the word "vast" to "vasty" when "vast" did not fit the rhythm of the line.

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The eloquent lines spoken by Corin to Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It probably weren't typical of an Elizabethan shepherd (BBC One, 1963).

Language of Shakespeare's London

But if we look beyond the dialogue to the words themselves we can find out a little of how people really spoke.

Click or tap below to find out how language has changed.

Original Pronunciation

Even more could be revealed from Shakespeare’s plays if we could hear them as the Elizabethans did.

And we can come close to this thanks to “original pronunciation” which is a system of speech that replicates how the Elizabethans are believed to have spoken. Today it sounds like a West Country accent, with echoes of other parts of the country. When we apply this to Shakespeare’s dialogue, rhymes and puns that are not heard in modern English are suddenly revealed.

Further evidence of "original pronunciation" comes from contemporary writers such as Ben Jonson, who recorded pronunciations at the time. This is how we know that the Elizabethans pronounced "r" after vowels.

So through Shakespeare's plays we can find out a great deal about how people really spoke. His dialogue was on the whole representative of the language of the time and area and now provides us with invaluable insight into a lost language.

David Crystal and his son Ben recite RP and OP versions of Muse of Fire from Shakespeare's Henry V (BBC Radio 4, 2014).

Learn more about this topic:

A day in the life of William Shakespeare. document A day in the life of William Shakespeare

A timeline showing an imagined day in the life of William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon circa 1604. Made in association with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Was Shakespeare a feminist? document Was Shakespeare a feminist?

Discussing how Shakespeare's plays and poems dealt with women's equality in the Elizabethan age.

Why was Shakespeare so special? document Why was Shakespeare so special?

Michael Rosen explores the work of William Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights, and looks at why his plays in particular have stood the test of time.