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Apr 23, 1564
He was born
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, on 23rd as the feast of St George, England’s patron saint.
He was christened on 26th April.
Father John, a glover and a wool dealer.
Mother Mary Arden, form an important family.
It was a plague year -> will always follow him and interfere with his work.
Attended Stratford’s grammar school: rhetoric, poetry, Latin and Greek. -
1582
He married Anna Hathaway
He was 18 when he got married.
She, 8 years older, was already pregnant with a girl, Susanna.
Then they had 2 twins, Judith and Hamnet. -
Period: to
The “lost-years”
We have no record of Shakespeare’s whereabouts -
Free-lance playwright
His son die.
Go to work to London in the theatre, as an actor and playwright.
Experimented with 2 genres then popular:
- light love comedy, The two gentlemen of Verona
- Roman tragedy full of blood and atrocities, Titus Andronicus
— and a comedy of classical origin, The Comedy of Errors, of the Latin playwright Plautus. -
Period: to
Plague
A new outbreak of the plague closed down the theatres for 2 years. He quickly won himself a reputation as a poet.
When the plague died down it was time for him to go back to the theatre -
The Lord Chamberlain’s man (1594-1603)
Lord Hunsdon, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain, assembled a new company of players: the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He was one of them.
- They played at the Theatre in Shoreditch.
- He was a great asset to the company.
- They gave him a permanent home and financial independence (became a ‘sharer’).
- He bought “New Place”, the second-best house in Stanford. At the close of the century they moved into a new playhouse: the Globe. -
The King’s man (1603-1616)
James I succeeded Elizabeth when she died, he loved the theatre -> Shakespeare’s company under his protection -> King’s Men.
He paid homage to James with a Scottish play: Macbeth. -
Period: to
The great tragedies
most tragic stories, the so called “great tragedies”:
- Othello
- Macbeth
- King Lear
- Antony and Cleopatra -
Collection of sonnets
He finally published his collection of sonnets. THEN
He abandoned tragic subjects and only wrote comedies, the most famous is The Tempest: in a magic island ruled by Prospero, a magician. -
He retired
He was able to retire to Stratford at fifty. -
He died
He died in Stratford on the 23rd of April, the same day on which he was born.