Week 2 Shakespeare's Life & Biography

Who was Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, actor, dramatist, and playwright. He is frequently called England's national poet. 

His Birth & Childhood:

Shakespeare was probably born about April 23, 1564 which was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the third of eight children, though his two elder siblings did not survive childhood. It is assumed that he attended a grammar school in Stratford named King’s New School where he would have been educated on Latin and its classical authors intensively. Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, when practising Catholicism in England was against the law.

His Marriage and Children:

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and 6 months later she gave birth to their first child, Susanna. In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet (Hamnet died young at the age of 11 of unknown causes). After this, they lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London. Some people believe that this was because someone pursuing a theatre career had no choice but to work in London although some like to argue he moved away because of a strained marriage.

His Work: 


In 1598, Love's Labor’s Lost was Shakespeare's first work published with his name on the title page.His work consists of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two narrative poems and some verses. His plays have been translated into many languages include British Sign Languages and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.

His Style of Writing:

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, are said to often hold up the action. The poetry in his plays often depends on the extended and sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical. Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter.

His Death:

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52 and was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.