A Brief Description on the Life of Shakespeare

We do not know when Shakespeare was born we do, however know he was baptised on the 26th of April in 1564 in a town know as Stratford-on-Avon. He was the third child of John and Mary Shakespeare, the third child of a family of seven. His family consisted of him, two brothers and two girls along with his mother and father. Unfortunately for the Shakespeare’s his father, previously a man of great prosperity fell into debt and as a result had to mortgage his wives land.

Shakespeare attended the local grammar school where he learnt Latin and Greek, in later life he also learnt French which he used in Henry V. HE left school when he was 13 years old though any records of what he did then are unavailable and thus his actions are unknown.

Shakespeare was married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway who was an amazing 8 years older than Shakespeare himself. Together they had three children, Susannah and twined Hamnet and Judith.

He later left Stratford to work in London where he dedicated work to his patron, the Earl of Southampton. By 1597 Shakespeare was earning an incredibly good income as a playwright and dramatist, he returned to Stratford and bought the largest house that was available. He also became a share holder of the globe theatre when it was constructed in 1599.

Shakespeare spent his final years in Stratford and died on the 23rd of April 1616.

Most of Shakespeare’s known work was written in between 1590 and 1613. Previously all he had written were comedies and histories, genres that he personally raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. However, after the end of the sixteenth century, Shakespeare’s work began to be based much more on tragedies which include Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. These three plays are considered to be some of the finest examples in the English language. Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into every major written language and his plays are the most used in the world. Finally, Shakespeare began to right romances; it was during this time that he began to collaborate with other play wrights. Many of his plays were published over the course of the seventeenth century, and the same can still be said for today’s society. Shakespeare however did not rise to his current peak of popularity until the late nineteenth century. True, he was a well respected playwright in his day but it was only during the nineteenth century when the romantics began to acclaim his genius.