Miss ko biography of william shakespeare

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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 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. Hamnet died of unknown causes at 11 years old, but William’s daughters and wife outlived him. Children would be expected to learn long passages of prose and poetry.

He also continued to make the occasional long journey to London. These included The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Cymbeline. Rowe notes that young Shakespeare was quite fond of poaching, and may have had to flee Stratford after an incident with Sir Thomas Lucy, whose deer and rabbits he allegedly poached. His hard work quickly paid off, with signs that he was beginning to prosper emerging soon after the publication of his first plays.

We acknowledge here our reference to the following established secondary sources:

Bill Bryson. London. In 1623, two working companions of Shakespeare from the Lord Chamberlain's Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, printed the First Folio edition of his collected plays, of which half were previously unpublished.

William Shakespeare's legacy is a body of work that will never again be equaled in Western civilization.

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.
  • 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.

It is likely Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford. Judith went on to marry Thomas Quinney in 1616 and had three sons: Shakespeare, Richard, and Thomas. She was eight years older than him and their first child, Susanna, was born six months after their wedding. Evidently Shakespeare garnered some envy early on, as related by the critical attack of Robert Greene, a London playwright, in 1592: "...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 fac totum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country."

Greene's bombast notwithstanding, Shakespeare must have shown considerable promise.

What is certain is that William Shakespeare never proceeded to university schooling, which has contributed to the debate about the authorship of his works.

The next documented event in Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582.

miss ko biography of william shakespeare

Shakespeare’s playwriting would have been a necessity to provide material to fill his company’s new theatre every day. Young William was born of John Shakespeare, a glover and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed local heiress. Shakespeare was definitely in Westminster on 11th May 1612 where he appeared as a witness in the case of Bellot v. In addition, children were drilled in grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic and astronomy.

In fact, the audience influenced Shakespeare throughout his career, as his shows married his artistic genius with the gratuitous violence, crude humor, and spectacle that they demanded, which Hugh Richmond explores within the essay: “The Effect of Audiences on Renaissance Scripts.”

Consider

How might adaptations or contemporary stagings attempt to recapture the violence, humor, and spectacle of the first performances of Shakespeare?

Works Consulted

“Audiences.” Shakespeare’s Globe.

“Shakespeare’s Staging.” The Effect of Audiences on Renaissance Scripts | Shakespeare’s Staging.

Shakespeare's Biography

Biographical Links | Home

Shakespeare's Last Will and Testament

For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history.