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Shakespeare Stuff
General Info
William Shakespeare was born in 1564, supposedly on 22 or 23 April, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His
father, John who was a prosperous glover there, preparing and selling soft leather, became alderman and
later high bailiff.
Shakespeare was educated at Stratford Grammar School. When eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway -
eight years older than he and already pregnant! Six months later their daughter Susanna was born. They had
twins, a boy Hamnet and a girl Judith, two years later.
There are no records of Shakespeare's life during the seven years that followed, 'the lost years'. But by
1592 he was already an established actor and playwright in London.
He joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594, working as a leading actor and dramatist. By 1599 this
all-male company of experienced and talented players - no women appeared on the stage until the
Restoration - had built their own theatre, the Globe. Its owners were seven members of the company,
including Shakespeare, who shared in its profits.
For the next decade the Globe, on the Thames at Bankside, was to be London's chief theatre, and the home of
Shakespeare's work. Many of his greatest plays were written during these ten years, and were acted there.
Both Queen Elizabeth, and after her, James I, showed the company many favors.
In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, the Globe was destroyed by fire. But the Lord Chamberlain's
Men, by now called the King's Men, had four years earlier leased a second, smaller playhouse, the
Blackfriars. This was an indoor theatre, unlike the Globe which was open to the sky, and it had the technical
facilities for scenic effects - a fact which probably accounts for the spectacular element in Shakespeare's
late plays.
In 1612, Shakespeare, it seems, went home. His son Hamnet had died when only eleven, but his two
daughters were in Stratford with his wife Anne. He was now a wealthy man and had, as long before as
1597, bought a handsome house, New Place, the second largest in Stratford. It had two gardens, two
orchards and two barns. Here with his family he spent the last two years of his life.
He remained friends with actors and poets, worked sometimes, and visited London. He bought a house in
Blackfriars in 1613.
He died on 23 April, 1616, after entertaining, Ben Johnson and Michael Drayton at New Place. He is
buried at Trinity Church in Stratford. He wrote thirty-seven plays.
Links to other cool sites
Based in St. Augustine, FL.
It's also the only American city that was actually in existence
when Shakespeare was writing his plays!
My favorite site for Shakespearean texts
The man who's been re-popularizing the Bard's works, AND making them accessible to modern audiences. Thanks, Ken!
Says it all, now doesn't it?
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