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I. Shakespeare's Biography
For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious
figure with regards to personal history. There are just two primary sources for
information on the Bard: his works, and various legal and church documents that
have survived from Elizabethan times. Naturally, there are many gaps in this
body of information, which tells us little about Shakespeare the man.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, allegedly on April 23,
1564. Church records from Holy Trinity Church indicate that he was baptized
there on April 26, 1564. Young William was born of John Shakespeare, a glover
and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed local heiress. William,
according to the church register, was the third of eight children in the
Shakespeare household—three of whom died in childhood. John Shakespeare had a remarkable run of success
as a merchant, alderman, and high bailiff of Stratford, during William's early childhood. His fortunes declined,
however, in the late 1570s.
There is great conjecture about Shakespeare's childhood years, especially regarding his education. It is surmised
by scholars that Shakespeare attended the free grammar school in Stratford, which at the time had a reputation
to rival that of Eton. While there are no records extant to prove this claim, Shakespeare's knowledge of Latin
and Classical Greek would tend to support this theory. In addition, Shakespeare's first biographer, Nicholas
Rowe, wrote that John Shakespeare had placed William "for some time in a free school." John Shakespeare, as a
Stratford official, would have been granted a waiver of tuition for his son. As the records do not exist, we do not
know how long William attended the school, but certainly the literary quality of his works suggest a solid
education. What is certain is that William Shakespeare never proceeded to university schooling, which has
stirred some of the debate concerning the authorship of his works.
The next documented event in Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582.
William was 18 at the time, and Anne was 26—and pregnant. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born on May
26, 1583. The couple later had twins, Hamnet and Judith, born February 2, 1585 and christened at Holy Trinity.
Hamnet died in childhood at the age of 11, on August 11, 1596.
For the seven years following the birth of his twins, William Shakespeare disappears from all records, finally
turning up again in London some time in 1592. This period, known as the "Lost Years," has sparked as much
controversy about Shakespeare's life as any period. 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. There is also rumor of Shakespeare working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire for a
time, though this is circumstantial at best.
It is estimated that Shakespeare arrived in London around 1588 and began to establish himself as an actor and
playwright. Evidently, Shakespeare garnered envy early on for his talent, 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. By 1594, he was not
only acting and writing for the Lord Chamberlain's Men (called the King's Men after the ascension of James I in
1603), but was a managing partner in the operation as well. With Will Kempe, a master comedian, and Richard
Burbage, a leading tragic actor of the day, the Lord Chamberlain's Men became a favorite London troupe,
patronized by royalty and made popular by the theatre-going public.
Shakespeare's success is apparent when studied against other playwrights of this age. His company was the
most successful in London in his day. He had plays published and sold in octavo editions, or "penny-copies" to
the more literate of his audiences. Never before had a playwright enjoyed sufficient acclaim to see his works
published and sold as popular literature in the midst of his career. In addition, Shakespeare's ownership share in
both the theatrical company and the Globe itself made him as much an entrepeneur as artist. While Shakespeare
might not be accounted wealthy by London standards, his success allowed him to purchase New House and
retire in comfort to Stratford in 1611.
William Shakespeare wrote his will in 1611, bequeathing his properties to his daughter Susanna (married in
1607 to Dr. John Hall). To his surviving daughter Judith, he left £300, and to his wife Anne left "my second
best bed." William Shakespeare allegedly died on his birthday, April 23, 1616. This is probably more of a
romantic myth than reality, but Shakespeare was interred at Holy Trinity in Stratford on April 25. 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. His
words have endured for 400 years, and still reach across the centuries as powerfully as ever. Even in death, he
leaves a final piece of verse as his epitaph:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
II. A Brief Biography---IN CASE YOU ARE ABSENT!
William Shakespeare was born to John Shakespeare and mother Mary Arden
some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record of his
birth, but his baptism was recorded by the church, thus his birthday is assumed
to be the 23 of April. His father was a prominent and prosperous alderman in
the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, and was later granted a coat of arms by the
College of Heralds. All that is known of Shakespeare's youth is that he
presumably attended the Stratford Grammar School, and did not proceed to
Oxford or Cambridge. The next record we have of him is his marriage to Anne
Hathaway in 1582. The next year she bore a daughter for him, Susanna,
followed
by
the
twins
Judith
and
Hamnet
two
years
later.
Seven years later Shakespeare is recognized as an actor, poet and playwright,
when a rival playwright, Robert Greene, refers to him as "an upstart crow" in A
Groatsworth of Wit. A few years later he joined up with one of the most
successful acting troupe's in London: The Lord Chamberlain's Men. When, in 1599, the troupe lost the
lease of the theatre where they performed, (appropriately called The Theatre) they were wealthy enough
to build their own theatre across the Thames, south of London, which they called "The Globe." The new
theatre opened in July of 1599, built from the timbers of The Theatre, with the motto "Totus mundus agit
histrionem" (A whole world of players) When James I came to the throne (1603) the troupe was
designated by the new king as the King's Men (or King's Company). The Letters Patent of the company
specifically charged Shakespeare and eight others "freely to use and exercise the art and faculty of playing
Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Inerludes, Morals, Pastorals, stage plays ... as well for recreation of our
loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure."
Shakespeare entertained the king and the people for another ten years until June 19, 1613, when a canon
fired from the roof of the theatre for a gala performance of Henry VIII set fire to the thatch roof and
burned the theatre to the ground. The audience ignored the smoke from the roof at first, being to
absorbed in the play, until the flames caught the walls and the fabric of the curtains. Amazingly there
were no casualties, and the next spring the company had the theatre "new builded in a far fairer manner
than before." Although Shakespeare invested in the rebuilding, he retired from the stage to the Great
House of New Place in Statford that he had purchased in 1597, and some considerable land holdings
,where he continued to write until his death in 1616 on the day of his 52nd birthday.

1556 - Anne Hathaway is born.

1564 - William Shakespeare is born in April (probably the 23rd) in Stratford-On-Avon (94 miles
from London.)

1582 - Marries Anne Hathaway on November 27.

1583 - Susanna Shakespeare is born.

1585 - The twins Judith and Hamnet Shakespeare are born.

1592 - After leaving Stratford for London, William was recognized as a successful actor, as well as
a leading poet. He was a member of 'The Chamberlain's Men'.

1596 - Hamnet dies at the age of eleven. Shakespeare becomes a "gentleman" when the College of
Heralds grants his father a coat of arms.

1597- He bought a large house called "The Great House of New Place".

1599 - The 'Globe Theater' is built from the pieces of 'The Theater' in July.

1603 - 'The Lord Chamberlain's Men' became 'The King's Men' on May 19.

1613 - The 'Globe Theatre' burns during a performance of Henry VII when a canon fired on the roof
sets fire to the straw thatch. The theatre is rebuilt, but Shakespeare retires.

1616 - April 23, in Stratford, on his 52nd birthday he died.
III. About Shakespearean Theater:
Before Shakespeare¹s time and during his boyhood, troupes of actors performed wherever they could in halls, courts, courtyards, and any other open spaces available. However, in 1574, when Shakespeare was ten
years old, the Common Council passed a law requiring plays and theaters in London to be licensed. In 1576,
actor and future Lord Chamberlain's Man, James Burbage, built the first permanent theater, called "The
Theatre", outside London city walls. After this many more theaters were established, including the Globe
Theatre, which was where most of Shakespeare's plays premiered.
Elizabethan theaters were generally built after the design of the original Theatre. Built of wood, these
theaters comprised three tiers of seats in a circular shape, with a stage area on one side of the circle. The
audience's seats and part of the stage were roofed, but much of the main stage and the area in front of the stage
in the center of the circle were open to the elements. About 1,500 audience members could pay extra money to
sit in the covered seating areas, while about 800 "groundlings" paid less money to stand in this open area before
the stage. The stage itself was divided into three levels: a main stage area with doors at the rear and a curtained
area in the back for "discovery scenes"; an upper, canopied area called "heaven" for balcony scenes; and an area
under the stage called "hell," accessed by a trap door in the stage. There were dressing rooms located behind the
stage, but no curtain in the front of the stage, which meant that scenes had to flow into each other, and "dead
bodies" had to be dragged off.
Performances took place during the day, using natural light from the open center of the theater. Since
there could be no dramatic lighting and there was very little scenery or props, audiences relied on the actors'
lines and stage directions to supply the time of day and year, the weather, location, and mood of the scenes.
Shakespeare's plays masterfully supply this information . For example, in Hamlet the audience learns within the
first twenty lines of dialogue where the scene takes place ("Have you had quiet guard?"), what time of day it is
("'Tis now strook twelf"), what the weather is like ("'Tis bitter cold"), and what mood the characters are in ("and
I am sick at heart").
One important difference between plays written in Shakespeare's time and those written today is that
Elizabethan plays were published after their performances, sometimes even after their authors' deaths, and were
in many ways a record of what happened on stage during these performances rather than directions for what
should happen. Actors were allowed to suggest changes to scenes and dialogue and had much more freedom
with their parts than actors today. Shakespeare's plays are no exception. In Hamlet, for instance, much of the
plot revolves around the fact that Hamlet writes his own scene to be added to a play in order to ensnare his
murderous father.
Shakespeare's plays were published in various forms and with a wide variety of accuracy during his
time. The discrepancies between versions of his plays from one publication to the next make it difficult for
editors to put together authoritative editions of his works. Plays could be published in large anthologies called
Folios (the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays contains 36 plays) or smaller Quartos. Folios were so named
because of the way their paper was folded in half to make chunks of two pages each which were sewn together
to make a large volume. Quartos were smaller, cheaper books containing only one play. Their paper was folded
twice, making four pages. In general, the First Folio is of better quality than the quartos. Therefore, plays that
are printed in the First Folio are much easier for editors to compile.
Although Shakespeare's language and classical references seem archaic to some modern readers, they
were commonplace to his audiences. His viewers came from all classes, and his plays appealed to all kinds of
sensibilities, from "highbrow" accounts of kings and queens of old to the "lowbrow" blunderings of clowns and
servants. Even his most tragic plays include clown characters for comic relief and to comment on the events of
the play. Audiences would have been familiar with his numerous references to classical mythology and
literature, since these stories were staples of the Elizabethan knowledge base. While Shakespeare¹s plays
appealed to all levels of society and included familiar story lines and themes, they also expanded his audiences'
vocabularies. Many phrases and words that we use today, like "amazement," "in my mind's eye," and "the milk
of human kindness" were coined by Shakespeare. His plays contain a greater variety and number of words than
almost any other work in the English language, showing that he was quick to innovate, had a huge vocabulary,
and was interested in using new phrases and words.