Scribd
Upload
19 views1 page

London and Theatrical Career 2

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an influential English playwright, poet, and actor, known as the greatest writer in the English language. He produced around 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and other works, with notable tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth, and his plays have been translated into every major language. His works continue to be studied and performed, and the First Folio published in 1623 collected many of his plays, solidifying his legacy.

Uploaded by

jhu7995
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
19 views1 page

London and Theatrical Career 2

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an influential English playwright, poet, and actor, known as the greatest writer in the English language. He produced around 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and other works, with notable tragedies like Hamlet and Macbeth, and his plays have been translated into every major language. His works continue to be studied and performed, and the First Folio published in 1623 collected many of his plays, solidifying his legacy.

Uploaded by

jhu7995
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

William Shakespeare[a] (c.

23[b] April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[c] was an English playwright,


poet and actor. He is 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" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist
of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some
of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living
language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and
his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of


18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and
twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful
career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing
company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the
ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613),
he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of
Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about
such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and even
certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early
plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best
works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among
them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest
works in English. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known
as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other
playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy
during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow
actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First
Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes
36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of
Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but
for all time".

You might also like