William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. He became a famous as both a playwright and a poet. Stratford-on-Avon is a small town in the rural English Midlands. William's father, John Shakespeare was a glove maker, a highly respected citizen. William was the third of eight children and as a result of his father's influence and wealth received a good education at the local grammar school. He began school when he was 7. His studies would have included Latin, and the works of the major Latin and Greek authors, which would explain his many references to them in his plays and poems. He also had literature, astronomy, and some mathematics.
In November 1582 William married Anne Hathaway, he was just 18 and she was 26 when they got married, but Anne was already pregnant with Williams's first child. So after this William moved to London to try and become an actor.
List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phr...
English: Birth place of William Shakespeare, Strat...
Sir John Gilbert's 1849 painting: The Plays of Wil...It became clear early that Shakespeare's talents were better employed as a writer than as an actor. By 1594 Shakespeare was a member of a company called The Lord Chamberlain's Men who performed before the Queen. During this period Shakespeare wrote an average of two plays a year and was the most popular playwright of his time.
A number of Shakespeare's plays are widely regarded as among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature. He wrote tragedies, histories, comedies and romances, which have been translated into every major living language, in addition to being continually performed around the world. As was normal in the period, Shakespeare based many of his plays on the work of other playwrights and reworked earlier stories and historical material. The earlier plays range from broad comedy to historical nostalgia, while the middle period plays tend to be grander in the...