William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was born into a reasonably well-off family. His father, John, was a Glover and Wittawer – an honourable craft with a good trade – and also held office in his town. Shakespeare’s mother, Mary, was the daughter of Robert Arden, a substantial gentleman-farmer, and after his death inherited much of his wealth.

Shakespeare studied at Stratford’s Grammar School and received an education of the highest quality. Taught by well-paid Oxford men it is arguable that he received a better education than his peers at Eton. It was whilst at school that Shakespeare developed his deep love of the written word. References to Virgil, Horace and most notably Ovid, can be found in much of Shakespeare’s own work.

At the age of eighteen Shakespeare married his pregnant bride, Anne Hathaway. Half a year later in 1583, his first daughter, Susanna, was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. Twins would soon follow eighteen months later in 1585.

From this point on, until Shakespeare’s emergence in London seven years later, virtually nothing is known of the playwright’s life. Why Shakespeare moved to London, when he arrived, and what he did when he first got there is a mystery. Furthermore, it is unclear what plays he wrote first, in what order and how they were received. We can be reasonably sure that by 1592 Shakespeare was well-known in literary circles, and according to conjectural datings by scholars had written about eight plays (including the King Henry VI trilogy, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and possibly Titus Andronicus and King Richard III).

Having established his reputation, Shakespeare entered what can be viewed as the next phase of his dramatic career. His next few plays – Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, The Merchant of Venice and possibly King John – show an increasing development in Shakespeare’s use of dramatic language. By the end of the century, plays such as As You Like It and Twelfth Night show a unique collaboration of stage action and literary eloquence, coupled with an understanding of the demands made on actors and the stage.

By this time, Shakespeare’s plays were being performed regularly at the Globe theatre. Shakespeare was not just the leading playwright for the country’s most favoured playing troupe – the Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men) – but was also a chief business sharer in their company. It was probably Shakespeare’s shrewdness as a businessman, rather than his success as a playwright that allowed him to return to Stratford-upon-Avon as a financially successful leading citizen in around 1613.

Before that return to his hometown, in the period of 1601-1607 Shakespeare produced some of his most celebrated work. The great tragedies of Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra were written, interspersed with some of Shakespeare’s problem plays (neither wholly comic nor tragic) such as Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well that Ends Well, and Measure for Measure.

The final stage of Shakespeare’s literary career shows his growing interest in offering spectacular stage action. After 1608 the indoor Blackfriars Theatre became the King’s Men’s principle performance space. Shakespeare exploited the improved stage technology this theatre offered particularly in plays such as The Tempest and Cymbeline.

Shakespeare’s last contributions to the London stage were joint efforts, collaborating with John Fletcher (soon to be established as Shakespeare’s successor with the King’s Men) on King Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen in 1613.

On moving back to Stratford, Shakespeare was able to witness the marriage of his younger daughter, Judith, in February 1616. The following month, with failing health, Shakespeare signed his will, before dying on 23 April 1616, aged 52. He was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church as a distinguished Stratford gentleman two days later.

Today, Shakespeare is recognised as one of the world’s most influential literary figures. His immense contribution to theatrical history is almost unparalleled. Yet the greatest testament to this greatest of writers can be found in a dedication written by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and rivals. Ben Jonson most accurately summed up Shakespeare’s genius when he described him as "not of an age, but for all time".