William Shakespeare

Amongst English majors and literature fanatics William Shakespeares is a well-known author who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon back in 1564, the exact date is unknown. There is a record of his death which was in 1616; living approximately 52 years. In just 23 years of those 52 he contributed with 28 plays, 154 sonnets and several poems. He is the most widely read of all authors.

William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, who was born in 1531, and in 1551 he moved to Stratford to start business trading wool, malt and corn. In 1558 he married Williams mom; Mary Arden, who had inherited some of her dads land and got some money when her father died. Not much is known of William's childhood, and there is no exact reference to him attending school , but because of his dads position in town it is most probable that he took advantage of the free education that was granted by attending Gramar school. In 1852, William married his wife. Anne Hathaway, who was born in 1556 giving them an 8 year age gap. William had three children with his wife; one daughter, Susanna, who was born in 1583, and two years later twins, Hamnet and Judith. It took William Shakespeare 7 more years to finally get recognized not only as a playwright, but also as an experienced actor and a remarkable poet.

In 1594 he decided to join 'The Lord Chamberlain's Men' which were formally Pg. 3 known as 'Lord Stranges Men.' one of the more successful acting troupes in London at the time. They eventually collected enough money to build their own theatre, they called this theatre 'The Globe.' It was open at around 1598, but was eventually burned down in 1613.A year after Shakespeare invested money in rebuilding the theatre, and this time the roof was build of tiles not thatched.

Its strange that very little is known on his life since he is the most popular author, but yet again his works are sufficent to speak for themselves.

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