William Shakespeare

Shakespeare, William (1564–1616), English playwright and poet, considered the greatest dramatist ever as well as the finest English language poet. Shakespeare was born of middle class parents in Stratford-upon-Avon where he spent his school years. At 18 years of age he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had 3 children. In the years 1594 to 1608, Shakespeare was heavily involved in the world of London theater as a stockholder and an actor in the Lord Chamberlain's Company—renamed the King's Men in 1603—which performed at the Globe Theater. He also wrote an average of 2 plays a year in this period, including several comedies and virtually all of his famous tragedies.

All of Shakespeare's plays have been grouped into 4 periods reflecting general phases of his artistic development. In the first period (1590–94) he wrote comedies, histories, and tragedies. The Comedy of Errors, Henry VI (parts I, II, and III) Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and King John were all written in the first period.

The second period (1595–1600) consists primarily of historical drama and romantic comedies. Included in this period are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV (parts I and II), As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Shakespeare's great tragedies were written in the third period (1601–08). At the height of his artistry his writing now moved back and forth easily between verse and prose in portraying his characters. Hamlet, All's Well That End's Well, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Pericles, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus all were written in this period.

In the fourth and final period (1609–13) Shakespeare wrote 3 comedies and a history. They are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII.

Shakespeare began to write poems between 1592 and 1594 partly because poetry was considered to be of greater importance than drama by the Elizabethans. His 2 long narrative poems were Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594).

The sonnets were probably written over a period of several years. The first 126 are addressed to a young nobleman and the next 26 to a young woman with whom Shakespeare may have been having a love affair. The common theme of the sonnets concerns the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they do so with a keen sense of death.

Shakespeare shaped and used language with great power. He invented, changed, and borrowed words from other languages and employed rhetorical devices such as alliteration and repetition to produce dramatic effect.

Shakespeare's plays and poems have been the subject of critics and scholars who have examined every aspect of the man himself, his works, and his influence. His works have long been a required component of liberal education. His brilliant portrayal of historical figures and events has caused many people to visualize the likes of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra not as they have been described in history books but as Shakespeare envisioned them.

Shakespeare was knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects, including music, the law, the Bible, military science, the stage, art, politics, history, hunting, woodcraft, and sports. He displayed a keen sense of human nature with vivid characters, including kings, pickpockets, drunkards, generals, hired killers, and philosophers. His genius seems all the more amazing considering that as far as scholars have been able to determine, Shakespeare had no experience in any field other than theater.