William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

This article is about the poet and playwright. For other persons of the same name, see William Shakespeare (disambiguation). For other uses of "Shakespeare", see Shakespeare (disambiguation).


William Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,England
Died 23 April 1616 (aged 52)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Occupation Playwright, poet, actor
Nationality English
Period English Renaissance
Spouse(s) Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Children

Susanna Hall
Hamnet Shakespeare
Judith Quiney
Relative(s)

John Shakespeare (father)
Mary Shakespeare (mother)

Signature


William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".[2][nb 2] His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[3]

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 aplaying 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.[4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.[5][nb 4] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet,King Lear, Othello, 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 and Henry 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."[6]

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. TheRomantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".[7] In the 20th century, his work was 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.



Works
Comedies
Main article: Shakespearean comedy
All's Well That Ends Well ‡
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure ‡
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre *†
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest *
Twelfth Night
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Two Noble Kinsmen *†
The Winter's Tale * Histories
Main article: Shakespearean history
King John
Richard II
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, Part 1 †
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Richard III
Henry VIII † Tragedies
Main article: Shakespearean tragedy
Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus †
Timon of Athens †
Julius Caesar
Macbeth †
Hamlet
Troilus and Cressida ‡
King Lear
Othello
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline *

Poems
Shakespeare's sonnets
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
The Passionate Pilgrim[nb 5]
The Phoenix and the Turtle
A Lover's Complaint Lost plays
Love's Labour's Won
The History of Cardenio † Apocrypha
Main article: Shakespeare Apocrypha
Arden of Faversham
The Birth of Merlin
Edward III
Edmund Ironside
Locrine
The London Prodigal
The Puritan
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
Sir John Oldcastle
Thomas Lord Cromwell
A Yorkshire Tragedy
Sir Thomas More