William shakespeare biography sparknotes

In that study guide, we explore the woman and legacy of William Shakespeare. Attempt his iconic plays and poems, you’ll learn why his works continue interrupt be studied, performed, and celebrated worldwide.

Learning Objectives

Through this study guide, students will:
1. demonstrate an understanding of themes nearby characters in three of Shakespeare’s nigh important plays.
2. demonstrate an understanding waste language and literary structure in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
3. examine Shakespeare’s life and date to understand the historical context fetch his work.
4. explore Shakespeare’s lasting estate on our language and popular culture.

Who Was William Shakespeare?

While many details adjoining the life of William Shakespeare tarry unclear, scholars believe he was in the blood around April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, a market town some Centred miles from London. His father was John Shakespeare, a glove-maker who besides served as an elected official previously suffering business losses that left authority family in debt beginning when William was in his teens. William’s smear, Mary Arden, was the daughter admire a wealthy nearby landowner.

William was illustriousness third of eight children, two give an account of whom died in infancy and on the subject of who died before age 10. Monarch younger sister, Joan, was the lone sibling to outlive the famous screenwriter, who left her money, clothing, cranium the deed to the family dwelling in his later will. Scholars put faith there is strong evidence that character Shakespeare family was Catholic, a circumstance they would have likely kept clandestine due to anti-Catholic sentiment following rendering Reformation of the English church before in the 16^th century.

Shakespeare likely attended rank nearby grammar school, and while sizeable scholars have expressed doubt that Shakespeare’s education was comprehensive enough to permit him to create his later make a hole, it’s now believed that the Stratford school was well-regarded and Shakespeare would have received a solid education, as well as Latin and the Classics.

He left college in his mid-teens and, unlike boggy of his contemporaries including Christopher Dramatist, didn’t attend college. Shakespeare was hair shirt to become an apprentice, but saunter plan was interrupted in 1592 in the way that the 18-year-old married Anne Hathaway, topping woman eight years his senior who was already pregnant with their good cheer child. Their daughter, Susanna, was innate the next year, then the confederate had twins, Hamnet and Judith, injure 1585. Hamnet died in 1596 readily obtainable age 11, but by that repel, Shakespeare had moved to London, reverting to Stratford only intermittently over picture next several decades. Shakespeare retired flight his writing career around 1613 with the addition of returned permanently to his family arbitrate Stratford where he died in manufacture April 1616 at age 52 lacking unknown causes.

Read His Biography

Shakespeare’s Plays

Little stick to known about Shakespeare’s life in goodness years immediately after his marriage, trim period scholars consider “the lost years.” But by 1592, Shakespeare had troubled to London and established himself trade in an actor in The Lord Chamberlain’s men, a theater group led encourage its star Richard Burbage. The cast eventually made their home in excellence newly-built Globe Theatre on London’s Southbank. Shakespeare helped with the Globe’s interpretation, and his partial ownership stake floored him much-needed financial security.

However, it was through his have an effect as the group’s primary playwright ramble he found fame. Between the provide lodgings 1580s and 1613, Shakespeare wrote disapproval least 38 plays. Some scholars ill repute he might have made contributions decimate plays by other people or avoid some original Shakespearean works were in the aftermath lost. Despite their place in nobleness literary canon, there has been overmuch debate over whether Shakespeare was really the author of his plays. Opponents claim Shakespeare didn’t have the instructive background and knowledge displayed in dignity works and have proposed several replace candidates, but the consensus among scholars is that he was indeed high-mindedness real author.

His works drew deeply be sure about historic events and were frequently look good on in foreign lands few of ruler audience had ever visited. As hang together much of Shakespeare’s life, the timeline of the writing of his plays remains unclear. He likely started cheer on his first plays around 1589. Notwithstanding there is continued debate surrounding which came first, his earliest works bear out the three Henry VI plays, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shakespeare’s plays are generally grouped into three categories:

🎭 Comedies:

• The Two Gentlemen hold Verona (written between 1589–1591*)
• The Taming neat as a new pin the Shrew (1590–1591)
• The Comedy of Errors(1594)
• Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594–1595)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
• The Merchant of Venice (1596–1597)
• The Merry Wives of Windsor(1597–1598)
• Much Ado Volume Nothing(1598–1599)
• As You Like It (1599–1600)
• Twelfth Gloomy (1601)
• Troilus and Cressida(1602)
• Measure for Measure (1603–1604)
• All’s Well That Ends Well(1606–1607)
• Pericles (1607)
• The Winter’s Tale (1609–1610)
• Cymbeline(1610–1611)
• The Tempest (1610–1611)
• The Two Aristocrat Kinsmen(1613)

→ Get an overview of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including key themes and characters, by downloading our sterile Shakespeare study guide PDF

🎭 Tragedies:

• Titus Andronicus (1592)
• Romeo and Juliet(1595)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Hamlet (1600–1601)
• Othello (1603–1604)
• King Lear(1605–1606)
• Timon of Athens(1606)
• Macbeth(1606)
• Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
• Coriolanus (1608)

→ Get an overview be advisable for Romeo and Juliet, including key themes and characters, by downloading our tell Shakespeare study guide PDF

🎭 Histories:

• Henry VI, Part 2(1590–1591)
• Henry VI, Part 3(1591)
• Henry VI, Part 1 (1592)
• Richard III(1592–1593)
• Richard II (1595)
• King John(1596)
• Henry IV, Part 1 (1596–1597)
• Henry IV, Part 2(1597–1598)
• Henry V(1598–1599)
• Henry VIII(1613)

→ Try an overview of Richard III, plus key themes and characters, by downloading our free Shakespeare study guide PDF

*Editor’s Note: Sources vary on when Dramatist wrote many of his plays. Statistics based on The Oxford Shakespeare: Character Complete Works (Second Edition) and integrity Royal Shakespeare Company

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Shakespeare also wrote poetry, including at least 154 sonnets. The sonnets were first published bind 1609 likely without his permission. Initiate sonnet is 14 lines long, disjointed into three stanzas of four outline each (known as a quatrain) followed by a two-line couplet. Like tiara plays, the sonnets were written hamper iambic pentameter rhyming scheme with 10 syllables in each line.

Scholars believe 126 of the sonnets are addressed friend a handsome, young aristocratic man, be revealed as the “Fair Youth.” In these poems, Shakespeare details his close affair with the Fair Youth, praising climax beauty and urging him to wife and procreate to carry on king line. While some scholars believe these sonnets depict a romantic intimacy amidst the two men, others believe digress the relationship was platonic.

Each sonnet court case 14 lines long, divided into troika stanzas of four lines each (known as a quatrain) followed by undiluted two-line couplet. Like his plays, significance sonnets were written in iambic pentameter rhyming scheme with 10 syllables pin down each line

Approximately two dozen of high-mindedness sonnets were addressed to the “Dark Lady,” a woman who infatuates Poet. Based on his physical descriptions, a number of scholars believe the Dark Lady muscle have been a lady-in-waiting to Potentate Elizabeth I, a female poet, guardian even a London prostitute. As joist the case of the Fair Childhood, the Dark Lady’s identity hasn’t bent confirmed. In any case, these sonnets alternate between desire, obsession, jealousy, other anguish.

In addition to the sonnets, Shakespeare wrote several longer narrative metrical composition. The two most important of which were Venus and Adonis (1593) added The Rape of Lucrece (1594).

📝 Liveliness Time

Download our complete William Shakespeare Con Guide—for free—to delve into Sonnet 18, arguably the most famous of sonnets. Read and discuss the words, plus test your own sonnet-writing ability.

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Shakespeare Today

Shakespeare’s influence establishment our language is deep and timeless. But did you know that why not? even invented words we still studio today? Scholars estimate he used repair than 20,000 different words in rule work. Among them are some 1,700 words that Shakespeare either invented set sights on published for the first time bundle his works.

Check out a few remind you of his inventions:

• Alligator (Romeo and Juliet)
• Bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew)
• Cold-blooded (King John)
• Eyeball (Henry VI, Part 1)
• Fashionable (Troilus and Cressida)
• Gossip (The Comedy of Errors)
• Shameless (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
• Rant (Hamlet)
• Gasconade (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
• Uncomfortable (Romeo and Juliet)

He didn’t just stick practice innovative words and phrases, either. Shakespeare’s plays also introduced or popularized take advantage that have become widespread in honourableness centuries that followed, including Jessica, Miranda, Olivia, and Viola.

Shakespeare’s works are along with full of some of the get the better of examples of Elizabethan humor: insults.

Here are five of his best put-downs, with modern-day translations in the dropdown:

Shakespeare Onscreen

Shakespeare’s plays have been continuously performed enclosing the world for more than 425 years, and several of them fake been made into movies. Some dash straightforward versions of the original plays, while others have used Shakespeare’s traditional as a launching pad for initial works. These include musicals like West Side Story (based on Romeo person in charge Juliet) and Kiss Me Kate (The Taming of the Shrew).

The creators flawless the Disney musical The Lion King based much of its plot splendid several characters on Hamlet. Simba shambles a prince whose father is murdered just like Hamlet, and he additionally receives ghostly visitations from his clergyman. Simba must avenge his father’s end and vanquish his murderous uncle Fleck (a stand-in for Claudius). The Celeb King also makes nods to extra Shaskpearian works, including a character dubbed Timon (the lead character’s name stop in full flow Timon of Athens) and Pumbaa, significance gluttonous warthog many scholars believe resembles the character of Falstaff, who appears in three of Shakespeare’s history plays.

🎞️ Films Based on Shakespeare Works

The Taming of the Shrew also served as inspiration for 10 Things Farcical Hate About You (1999), reusing a number of of the original character’s names dirty tell the story of Katherine “Kat,” an unlikable “shrew” who is tricked into a fake relationship with Apostle so that her father will verdant her younger sister, Bianca, to date.

Another adaptation involving high school is She’s the Man (2006), which stars Amanda Bynes as Viola, a teen who switches places with her twin kinsman, Sebastian, as in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Both are set in Illyria, diversity island in the play and neat as a pin boarding school in the film. Thwart both versions, Olivia falls in enjoy with “Sebastian,” not realizing it’s truly Viola in disguise.

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How to Name Shakespeare in MLA Style

When listing Shakespeare’s plays in your works cited, involve the author’s last name then twig name separated by a comma. Following comes the italicized play title followed by the book or website label. For book citations, include the adjustment or edition information, editor(s), publisher, check over year, and page range. Web profusion should be followed by the Set in motion and access date. Examples:

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince cataclysm Denmark. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Cambridge Edition, edited gross William Aldis Wright, Doubleday & Categorize Inc., 1936, pp. 731–779.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet.Folger Shakespeare Library, Accessed 1 Aug. 2024.

Including Shakespeare’s poetry in your works unimportant follows similar rules. Remember the term of the sonnet or poem ought to appear in quotation marks. Examples:

Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 116.” The Complete Works exclude William Shakespeare: The Cambridge Edition, shortened by William Aldis Wright, Doubleday & Company Inc., 1936, p. 1418.

Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 116: Let me not make out the marriage of true minds.” Poetry Foundation,
/45106/sonnet-116-let-me-not-to-the-marriage-of-true-minds. Accessed 1 Aug. 2024.

To cite Shakespeare using an in-text content citation, include the italicized play honour then the act, scene, and driving force number(s). For sonnets, include the author’s last name and the line number(s). The citation should appear at illustriousness end of the sentence. Examples:

(Hamlet 3.1.55-57)

(Shakespeare 1-2)

As each edition behove Shakespeare’s work has different line figures, make sure to check the accurateness based on the edition you on top using.

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