William Shakespeare2




 * See also Baconian theory, Marlovian theory, Oxfordian theory

William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564 (O.S.) - April 23, 1616 (O.S.)) is considered by many to have been the greatest writer the English language has ever known. As a playwright, he wrote not only some of the most powerful tragedies, but also many of the funniest comedies ever to appear on an English stage. He also wrote 154 sonnets and other major poems, some of which are considered to be the most brilliant pieces of English literature ever written, because of Shakespeare's ability to rise beyond the narrative and describe the innermost and the most profound aspects of the human nature. Some of the most famous examples of his ability can be found in quotations from Shakespearean plays. He is believed to have written most of his works between 1585-1610, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are not accurately known. (See Chronology of Shakespeare plays.)

Biography
Historians agree that actor and playwright were the same William Shakespeare for whom we have considerable historical records. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in April 1564, the son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker, and Mary Arden. The baptism of Shakespeare is recorded on April 26 of that year and the 23rd has traditionally been considered his birthday. His father, prosperous at the time of William's birth, was prosecuted for participating in the black market in wool, and later lost his position as an alderman. There is some evidence that both sides of the family had Roman Catholic sympathies.

After his marriage to Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582 at Stratford-upon-Avon (being witnessed by Fulk Sandalls and John Richardson), which seems to have been rushed by the bride's pregnancy, little is known of William Shakespeare until he appears on the London literary scene.

On May 26, 1583 Shakespeare first child, Susanna was baptised at Stradford. This was soon followed on February 2, 1585 with the baptisims of a son Hamnet and a daughter Judith.

By 1592, he was sufficiently known to be denounced by Robert Greene as "an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey." (The italicized line is a parody of the phrase, "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" which Shakespeare used in Henry VI, part 3)

In 1596 Hamnet died; he was buried on August 11, 1596. Because of the similarities of their names, some suspect that his death was the impetus for Shakespeare's The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

In 1597 William sold "one messuage, two barns, two gardens, two orchards, with appurtenances, in Stradford-upon-Avon" to William Underhill for sixty pounds. The house on this property was that built by Sir Hugh Clopton.

By 1598 Shakespeare had moved to the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopgate and appeared top of a list of actors (Every man in his Humor) produced by Ben Jonson.



Shakespeare became an actor, writer and ultimately part-owner of an acting company known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men - the company was named, like others of the period, for their aristocratic sponsor. It was sufficiently popular that after the death of Elizabeth I and the coronation of James I (1603), the new monarch adopted the company and it became known as The King's Men. Various documents recording legal affairs, and business transactions show that Shakespeare grew increasingly affluent in his London years. He did well enough to buy a property in Blackfriars, London, as well as the largest house in Stratford. He retired approximately 1611 and died in 1616, on April 23rd, perhaps the reason behind the tradition of his birthday being this same day. He remained married to Anne until his death. Of their three children, Hamnet, the only boy, died at the age of 11. There were two daughters, Susannah and Judith. Susannah married Dr John Hall, and was later the subject of a court case.

Plays
Shakespeare's plays continue to be widely studied and performed and are a firm part of the Western canon of literature. (See Folios and Quartos) Other indicators of his comtemporary influence are his inclusion in the top 10 of the "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public, and the fictional account of the writing of Romeo and Juliet in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

The first collected edition (1623) consists of 36 plays. Most scholars regard all of these plays as at least primarily by Shakespeare, though some are thought to have involved some sort of collaboration.

Comedies:


 * The Tempest
 * The Two Gentlemen of Verona
 * The Merry Wives of Windsor
 * Measure for Measure
 * The Comedy of Errors
 * Much Ado About Nothing
 * Love's Labour's Lost
 * A Midsummer Night's Dream
 * The Merchant of Venice
 * As You Like It
 * The Taming of the Shrew
 * All's Well That Ends Well
 * Twelfth Night
 * The Winter's Tale

Histories:


 * King John
 * Richard II
 * Henry IV, Part 1
 * Henry IV, Part 2
 * Henry V
 * Henry VI, Part 1
 * Henry VI, Part 2
 * Henry VI, Part 3
 * Richard III
 * Henry VIII

Tragedies:


 * Troilus and Cressida
 * Coriolanus
 * Titus Andronicus
 * Romeo and Juliet
 * Timon of Athens
 * Julius Caesar
 * Macbeth
 * Hamlet
 * King Lear
 * Othello
 * Anthony and Cleopatra
 * Cymbeline

Among these, most scholars regard the following as including some contributions not by Shakespeare:


 * Henry VI, Part 1
 * Henry VIII
 * Titus Andronicus
 * Timon of Athens

In addition, most scholars believe that the following plays, in the form we have them, were somewhat rewritten by Thomas Middleton after Shakespeatre's retirement:


 * Measure for Measure
 * Macbeth

In addition to the 36 plays of the First Folio, 2 others are regarded by most scholars as some sort of collaboration between Shakespeare and another author:


 * Pericles Prince of Tyre, probably with Geoge Wilkins
 * The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher

Most scholars believe the following two plays include small amounts of material (a scene or two) by Shakespeare:


 * The Book of Sir Thomas More
 * Edward III

As can be seen from the above, the First Folio, produced by Shakespeare's colleagues in 1623, included some collaborations but omitted others. The basis for this distinction is not known. One theory is that the editors formed a judgment as to which author made the more important contribution to each play.

Two plays are thought to have been written wholly or partly by Shakespeare but now apparently lost. The Oxford edition includes them in its table of contents, with short notes on them in the text.


 * Cardenio by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher; a revision of this by Lewis Theobald, titled Double Falsehood, survives, but the main scholarly editions omit it; RSC states it is too remote from the original to merit inclusion; however, an edition has recently appeared in the Arden series, which may be expected to be included in the next one-volume edition
 * Love's Labour's Won: it is possible, but not probable, that this is an alternative title of a surviving play

Genres
The Riverside and Bevington editions reclassify the plays in four genres instead of three, with The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen classified as "romances", a category used by many earlier critics. Troilus and Cressida is reclassified as a comedy. Romances are also known as "tragicomedies", being a hybrid of comedy and tragedy. Such hybrid categories were known to Shakespeare's colleagues who edited the First Folio (they are mentioned in Hamlet), but they chose to include each play in one simple category.

Poems
The following are undisputed:


 * Sonnets (See also sonnet): a sequence of 154
 * Venus and Adonis
 * The Rape of Lucrece
 * The Phoenix and the Turtle: the poem was not referred to by this title until the 19th century

The following are disputed:


 * parts of The Passionate Pilgrim: the only parts definitely his are duplicated elsewhere in his works; parts are definitely not his; other parts are disputed
 * A Lover's Complaint
 * Funeral Elegy by W.S.
 * "To the Queen"
 * A song opening "Shall I die?"
 * Verses upon the Stanley tomb at Tong
 * On Ben Johnson
 * An epitaph on Elias James
 * An extemporary epitaph on John Combe, a noted usurer
 * Another epitaph on John Combe
 * Upon the King
 * Epitaph on Himself

Shakespeare was not entirely original
Shakespeare was undoubtedly one of the greatest Poets and Playwrights in the English language. It must not be forgotten that he lived before it was considered necessary to acknowledge the sources of work copied or built on the work of previous authors. Shakespeare's plays adapted plays and stories by previous authors. Those who evaluate Shakespeare compare his works with original works by later creative writers. Shakespeare's plays come out as outstandingly better than completely original works by later writers. See Plagiarism and Intellectual property.

Source material of plays
As was normal in the period, Shakespeare based many of his plays on the work of other playwrights and recycled older stories and historical material: Love's Labour's Lost is Shakespeare's only play that was not derived from an earlier source. For example, Hamlet (c.1601) is probably a reworking of an older, lost play (the so-called Ur-Hamlet), and King Lear is an adaptation of an older play, King Leir. For plays on historical subjects, Shakespeare relied heavily on two principal texts. Most of the Roman and Greek plays are based on Plutarch's Parallel Lives (from the 1579 English translation by Sir Thomas North,) and the English history plays are indebted to Raphael Holinshed's 1587 Chronicles.

External links and further reading

 * Wikiquote - Quotes by William Shakespeare
 * online texts of William Shakespeare's plays
 * Project Gutenberg e-texts of the works of William Shakespeare
 * Shakespeare Literature, Chapter-indexed, searchable versions of Shakespeare's works.
 * The Works of Shakespeare, completely searchable.
 * Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
 * The Internet Shakespeare Editions
 * Open Source Shakespeare (complete works, with search engine and concordance)
 * The Royal Shakespeare Company website
 * Shakespeare's Will from the U.K. National Archives, in Latin
 * "Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled, 399 Years Late" blog by Robert Mackey The New York Times

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