FOREWORD

The following paper depicts the life and work of the greatest dramatist and finest poet that
England has ever had, William Shakespeare. His entire work can be considered as a masterpiece
which lasts for a lifetime.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon and lived in England during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was considered by the historians that those times were the peak of
English culture and they called it the Elizabethan Age.
The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare was a popular dramatist.
He was born six years after Queen Elizabeth I (15331603) ascended the throne, in the height of
the English Renaissance. He found in the theater of London a medium just coming into its own
and an audience eager to reward talents of the sort he possessed. He is generally acknowledged
to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.
I, personally, chose to write about Shakespeare because I am attracted to English culture
and history. Throughout my journey of reading books, I discovered Sonnet 18 and then Romeo
and Juliet. That was the moment when I decided I had to read more Shakespeare.
The first chapter brings into light the life of William Shakespeare, the place where he was
born, his childhood, details about his family, his career, his marriage and his death.
The second chapter is the most important one because it is about Shakespeare s writing
activity. We can find out details about his poems, sonnets, dramas and plays.
In the last chapter, I tried to write some interesting facts that I discovered about William
Shakespeare. I hope you will enjoy them and maybe there are some new pieces of information
about him and about his work.
William Shakespeare is an icon of the English literature and culture. All in all,
Shakespeare is not only the greatest but also the most powerful and influential of the English
writers and poets, he is the master of early modern English, with his profound understanding of
human nature and his ability to create such vivid and interesting characters, Shakespeare
definitely has had a direct significant influence in the shaping of English literature and the
development of the English language.

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 CHAPTER I:
A SHORT OUTLINE OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARES LIFE

William Shakespeare, the great English dramatist and poet, was born in Stratford-on-Avon
around the date of 23rd April, 1564. We cannot be certain about the exact day on which he was
born, but there are some church records which show that he was baptized on 26th April, and three
days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn.
Although we are not sure about the date of Shakespeares date of birth, we can sustain the
idea that he died on 23rd April, 1616, at the age of 52 in his native town where he had retired
three years before.
It is said that Shakespeare has attended the grammar school in Stratford but he did not go
to university until the age of 18 when he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older
than him and she was pregnant at the time of their marriage.
The young couple had a daughter, Susanna, as their first child, and later, in 1585, they
had twins, Hamnet and Judith. Unfortunately, Hamnet died when he was only 11 years old.
Shakespeares wife died in 1623.

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 The first evidence to Shakespeare as a London playwright came in 1592, when a fellow
dramatist, Robert Greene, wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed. It is believed that
Shakespeare had written the three parts of Henry VI by that point.
Although the precise date of many of Shakespeares plays is in doubt, his dramatic career
is generally divided into four periods: the first one is the period up to 1594, then the years from
1594 to 1600, the third period lasted from 1600 to 1608, and the last one was after 1608. Because
of the difficulty of dating Shakespeares plays and the lack of conclusive facts about his writings,
these dates are approximate and can be used only as a convenient framework in which to discuss
his development. In all periods, the plots of his plays were frequently drawn from chronicles,
histories, or earlier fiction, as were the plays of other contemporary dramatists.
The stage where he performed most of his plays was the Globe Theatre.

The beginning of the 17th century saw the performance of the first of his great tragedies,
Hamlet. During the next decade, Shakespeare produced such masterpieces as Othello, King Lear,
Macbeth, and The Tempest. In 1609, his sonnets, probably written during the 1590s, were
published. The 154 sonnets are marked by the recurring themes of the mutability of beauty and
the transcendent power of love and art.
Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon on 23rd April, 1616. Today, nearly 400 years
later, his plays are performed and read more often and in more nations than ever before.

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 CHAPTER II:
SHAKESPEARES LITERARY ACTIVITY
Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays and over 150 short and long poems, many of which are
considered to be the finest ever written in English. His works have been translated into every
major living language, and some others besides and nearly 400 years after his death, they
continue to be performed around the world.
Shakespeare's literary work may be divided into several periods. The plays are dated
according to the theatrical season in which they were first staged. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays,
and they fall into 4 periods.

2.1. The first period of William Shakespeares literary activity

Shakespeares first period was one of experimentation. His early plays, unlike his more mature
work, are characterized to a degree by formal and rather obvious construction and by stylized
verse.
Chronicle history plays were a popular genre of the time, and four plays dramatizing the
English civil strife of the 15th century are possibly Shakespeares earliest dramatic works. These
plays, Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III and Richard III, deal with evil resulting from weak leadership
and from national disunity fostered for selfish ends. The four-play cycle closes with the death of
Richard III and the ascent to the throne of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, to which
Elizabeth belonged. In style and structure, these plays are related partly to medieval drama and
partly to the works of earlier Elizabethan dramatists, especially Christopher Marlowe.

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Either indirectly or directly, the influence of the classical Roman dramatist Seneca is also
reflected in the organization of these four plays, especially in the bloodiness of many of their
scenes and in their highly colored, bombastic language. The influence of Seneca, exerted by way
of the earlier English dramatist Thomas Kyd, is particularly obvious in Titus Andronicus a
tragedy of righteous revenge for heinous and bloody acts, which are staged in sensational detail.

2.2. The second period

Shakespeares second period includes his most important plays concerned with English history,
his so-called joyous comedies, and two of his major tragedies. In this period, his style and
approach became highly individualized. The second-period historical plays include Richard II,
Henry IV, Parts I and II, and Henry V. They encompass the years immediately before those
portrayed in the Henry VI plays. Richard II is a study of a weak, sensitive, self-dramatizing but
sympathetic monarch who loses his kingdom to his forceful successor, Henry IV. In the two
parts of Henry IV, Henry recognizes his own guilt. His fears for his own son, later Henry V,
prove unfounded, as the young prince displays a responsible attitude toward the duties of
kingship. In an alternation of masterful comic and serious scenes, the fat knight Falstaff and the
rebel Hotspur reveal contrasting excesses between which the prince finds his proper position.
The mingling of the tragic and the comic to suggest a broad range of humanity subsequently
became one of Shakespeares favorite devices.

2.3. The third period

The 3rd period is marked by Shakespeare's great tragedies that were the peak of his achievement
and made him truly immortal. Shakespeares third period includes his greatest tragedies and his
so-called dark or bitter comedies. The tragedies of this period are considered the most profound
of his works. In them he used his poetic idiom as an extremely supple dramatic instrument,
capable of recording human thought and the many dimensions of given dramatic situations.
Hamlet, perhaps his most famous play, exceeds by far most other tragedies of revenge in
picturing the mingled sordidness and glory of the human condition. Hamlet feels that he is living
in a world of horror. Confirmed in this feeling by the murder of his father and the sensuality of
his mother, he exhibits tendencies toward both crippling indecision and precipitous action.

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Interpretation of his motivation and ambivalence continues to be a subject of considerable
controversy.

2.4. The fourth period

The fourth period of Shakespeares work includes his principal romantic tragicomedies. Toward
the end of his career, Shakespeare created several plays that, through the intervention of magic,
art, compassion, or grace, often suggest redemptive hope for the human condition. These plays
are written with a grave quality differing considerably from Shakespeares earlier comedies, but
they end happily with reunions or final reconciliations. The tragicomedies depend for part of
their appeal upon the lure of a distant time or place, and all seem more obviously symbolic than
most of Shakespeares earlier works. Too many critics, the tragicomedies signify a final ripeness
in Shakespeares own outlook, but other authorities believe that the change reflects only a
change in fashion in the drama of the period.
The romantic tragicomedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre concerns the painful loss of the title
characters wife and the persecution of his daughter. After many exotic adventures, Pericles is
reunited with his loved ones. In Cymbeline and The Winters Tale, characters suffer great loss
and pain but are reunited. Perhaps the most successful product of this particular vein of
creativity, however, is what may be Shakespeares last complete play, The Tempest, in which the
resolution suggests the beneficial effects of the union of wisdom and power. In this play a duke,
deprived of his dukedom and banished to an island, confounds his usurping brother by
employing magical powers and furthering a love match between his daughter and the usurpers
son. Shakespeares poetic power reached great heights in this beautiful, lyrical play.
Two final plays, sometimes ascribed to Shakespeare, presumably are the products of
collaboration. A historical drama, Henry VIII was probably written with English dramatist John
Fletcher, as was The Two Noble Kinsmen, a story of the love of two friends for one woman.

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 CHAPTER III
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare was born 26 April 1564, Stratford. (only later changed to Stratford Upon Avon)
Shakespeare is widely considered the worlds greatest dramatist.
He wrote 38 play and 154 sonnets
Shakespeare is most likely to have received a classical Latin education at Kings New School
in Stratford.
He married Anne Hathaway when he was only 18;
Anne (26) was 3 months pregnant when they married.
Their first child, Susanna was born six months after their marriage.
They later had two twins Hamnet and Judith.
Shakespeare had seven brothers and sisters
Shakespeare worked as an actor, writer and co-owner of a drama company called the Lord
Chamberlains Men- Later known as the Kings Men.
His greatest plays include Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
The first publishing of Shakespeares works is the First Folio published in 1623.
Shakespeare acted in many of his plays.
Shakespeare was acquainted with Queen Elizabeth I.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeares company was awarded a royal patent by
the new King James I and changed its name to the Kings Men.
Shakespeare is often referred to as Elizabethan playwright, but most of his players were
written in the Jacobean period.
In 1599, the company built their own theatre, The Globe on the south banks of the River
Thames.
Shakespeare lived through an outbreak of the bubonic plague in London (1524-94) and 1609.
The plague also came to Stratford, when Shakespeare was just 3 months old
Many of Shakespeares plays were based on historical accounts, dramatised by Shakespeare.
He also dramatised stories from classical writers such as Plutarch and Holinshed.

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 Hamlet was based on a well- known Scandinavian legend called -Amleth,
Shakespeares plays contain 200 references to dogs and 600 references to birds.
Shakespeares plays are usually separated into three main divisions
Comedies Alls well that Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing
Histories Henry V
Tragedies Romeo and Juliet , Hamlet, and Othello.
There are those who question whether William Shakespeare was actually the author of the
plays, attributed to him. Other contenders include the Oxford school suggesting Edward
de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was a better contender.
Shakespeare was the most quoted author in Samuel Johnsons early Dictionary of the
English Language
Before Shakespeare, the English language was much less codified with no official dictionary
and many variations on spelling.
Shakespeare has given many words (estimate of 1,700 3,000) to the English language.
Estimations of Shakespeares vocabulary range from 17,000 to 29,000 words.
Shakespeare has given many memorable phrases to the English language, such as wild
goose chase, foregone conclusion in a pickle
In his will, he appeared to only give his wife (Anne) a bed.
Shakespeares grave includes a curse against moving his bones.

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 CONCLUSION
Shakespeare wrote at a time when the feudal, aristocratic world was being replaced by a new one
based on commercial expansionism and individualism. Although he often wrote about kings and
queens, these were not the God-appointed, mystically guided monarchs of ethereal thoughts and
lofty morals found in medieval literature. Rather they were flesh-and-blood individuals with very
human greeds and ambitions. The best of them are portrayed as ruling on behalf of the nation
(the unified nation state being a recent development, replacing the fiefdoms of the Middle Ages
and the city states of the ancients), rather than by divine pleasure or inherited right as previously.
Many of the questions raised in Shakespeare's works deal with the changes of mores
that resulted from the historical transformation taking place.
He was dealing with conflicts that arose in a mind shaped, as the minds of most people
of his time, by the stories and glories of the past, as well as excited by the forward-looking
society that was forming around new economic relations and new ideas. In the exhilarating
tumult, he was trying to sort out how people should act. He was seeking the constants that go
beyond the immediate, changing fashions. Not always successfully, though always engagingly.
Shakespeare isn't great because he dealt with these issues when no one else did. Others
certainly did. I imagine most artists of the time did to some degree. Shakespeare is great because
he just wrote better than anyone else on these mattersdelving more deeply, exploring more
nuance, writing more eloquently and movingly than any other playwright then or since.
Today the young, new humanity he heralded is mature, if not outright old. But there
resides in memory enough of youth to excite. There remains enough of our early character that
we can still gain insight and comfort from Shakespeare, the sage of the old new human's youth. It
is especially comforting now to think that those words and ideas from our adolescence, which
once were challenging, are relevant stillappear still as universals for all time. At a time when
we are casting about for new "universals" for all time.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ackroyd, Peter (2006), Shakespeare: The Biography, London: Vintage,ISBN

9780749386559.
Adams, Joseph Quincy (1923), A Life of William Shakespeare, Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
OCLC 1935264.
Baldwin, T. W. (1944), William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greek, 1, Urbana, Ill:
University of Illinois Press, OCLC 359037.
College English 25.7.
Bate, Jonathan (2008), The Soul of the Age, London: Penguin,ISBN 978-0-670-91482-1.
Berry, Ralph (2005), Changing Styles in Shakespeare, London: Routledge, ISBN
0415353165.
Clemen, Wolfgang (1987), Shakespeare's Soliloquies, London: Routledge, ISBN
0415352770.
Wells, Stanley (1997), Shakespeare: A Life in Drama, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN
0393315622.
Werner, Sarah (2001), Shakespeare and Feminist Performance, London: Routledge, ISBN
0415227291.
Wilson, Richard (2004), Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance,
Manchester: Manchester University Press,ISBN 0719070244.
Wright, George T. (2004), "The Play of Phrase and Line", in McDonald, Russ, Shakespeare:
An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 19452000, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0631234888.

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