William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564, in Stratford-upon –Avon. His father was a rich citizen whose business was making and selling leather gloves. His mother was the daughter of an important farmer. He attended Stratford’s grammar school, which still stands. The grammar school’s curriculum at that time was limited to teaching pupils Latin, both spoken and written. The classical writers studied in the classroom influenced Shakespeare’s plays and poetry; some of his ideas for plots and characters came from Ovid’s tales, the plays of Terence and Plautus, and Roman history.

When he was nineteen, William married Ann. She was a farmer’s daughter and she was some years older than himself. During that years he may have helped his father in the family business or he may have been a country schoolmaster for a time, we don’t know exactly.

Shakespeare had three children: Susannah, the eldest, then twins – a son, Hamnet, and another girl, Judith. In 1587 Shakespeare went to work in London, leaving Ann and the children at home. Some years later Shakespeare began to write plays. The parents did not even guess that their son would be such an important figure in English poetry and drama and that his plays would still be acted four hundred years later in England and all over the world.

By 1592 Shakespeare was an important member of well-known company.

In 1594 Shakespeare joined other actors in forming a new theatre company, with Richard Burbage as its leading actor. For almost twenty years Shakespeare was a regular dramatist of this company and wrote on the average two plays a year. Burbage played the main roles, such as Richard III, Hamlet, Othello and Lear.

In 1599 the company of actors with which Shakespeare worked built a new theatre, the Globe. It was built on the south bank of the Thames. In that theatre most of his plays were performed. It was a round building with the stage in the centre, open to the sky. If it was raining, the actors got wet, if the weather was too bad, there was no performance at all.

By 1603 Shakespeare was the leading poet and dramatist of his time. He continued to write for the next ten years.

Around 1611 Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford. He died in Stratford at the age of fifty-two on April 23, 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.