William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English play wright and poet who was baptised on the 26th April 1564. His birth date is unknown, but it is assumed that he was born, since he was baptised in April in the year of 1564 and it is observed on April 23rd.He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon which is in Warwickshire, England. William was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. According to wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it is believed  ' Shakespeare probably was educated at the King's New School in Stratford.' There were no records that survived during the Elizabethan Era in which he was born to show the attendance of anyone during that era at the school.  The Elizabethan Era was an era named after Queen Elizabeth I during her riegn and during this time alot of creative ideas for Literature and Science were formulated.' At the age of 18 Shakespeare married 26 year old Anne Hathaway,' ( Wikipedia the free encyclopedia). They got married in December 1582, after they got a marriage license on November 27,1582. Six months after they had thier first child a baby girl by the name of Susanna; she was baptised on May 6th 1583,and two years later they had twins Hamnet and Judith who were baptised on February 22,1585. His son Hamnet died at the age of 11 for an unknown cause and was buried on the 11th of August 1596. It is not quite clear when Shakespeare started to write but he wrote many plays such as Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour Lost, Richard III and comedy of  Errors which were written in 1593 but because during that year a severe outbreak of plague broke out theatres were closed. During the years 1594-1597 alot of his famous plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Mercnaht of Venice, and A Midsummer Night's Dream were written.William Shakespeare was apart of a theatre group formed  after the plague ceased and had shares in Lord Chamberlain's company who played in a theatre in Shoreditch which is the Elizabethan theatre. This theatre was erected in 1576 by James Burbage. Moreover, the Elizabethan players were all men and boys, no women were allowed to act. Further, the stage was jutted out towards the audience which gave the audience a better appreciation of the actors' gestures and facial expressions. Over the stage a roof was set up and doors were placed on either side of the set where characters entered and disappeared; a gallery or upper stage was at the back of it and were used for scences that needed a upper setting. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet where he climbs to Juliet's room. Under this upper stage there was a space called the tiring house which was hidden from the audience but was revealed as an inner stage for scences like in Macbeth the witches' cave. There was no particular scenery and if a location was to be specified, then Shakespeare used his actors by simply dressing them in clothes suited for the location or used props for example a stool would indiacte that it was an indoor scene.the simplicity of the setting caused no distraction to the spectator and thus the spectator concentrated more on the play and thus enabled Shakespeare to have as many sceneces as he wished. In 1597 the company left the Elizabethan Theatre and acted at another theatre by the name of The Curtain. In 1598 the company players after a dispute demolished and re-erected a new theatre by the name of Globe. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I  on March 24, 1603 and since the company often performed for her, her successor King James took over the company and the name was changed to King's Men. William Shakespeare also wrote many poems suh as Venus and Adonis in 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece to name a few. William Shakespeare was seen as the greatest writer of all time because he wrote 38 plays,154 sonnets and two extensive poems along with other poems. He retired in 1613 and died three years after on April 23rd 1616. In his life time his work was seen as one of the finest in English Language.