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Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright considered the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems between 1589-1613. His plays include comedies, histories, and tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's friends published the First Folio, which included most of his plays and helped establish his literary works. Shakespeare's plays are still widely performed and studied around the world.

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85 views1 page

Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright considered the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems between 1589-1613. His plays include comedies, histories, and tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. In 1623, two of Shakespeare's friends published the First Folio, which included most of his plays and helped establish his literary works. Shakespeare's plays are still widely performed and studied around the world.

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Maria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (/ˈʃeɪkspiər/;[1] 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)[nb


1]
 was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in
the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. [2] He is often called
England'snational poet and the "Bard of Avon".[3][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, 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.[4]
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.[5]
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. [6][nb
4]
 His early plays were mainly comedies and historiesand 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 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".[7] In the 20th and 21st century, 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.

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