William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was a writer. He wrote Romeo & Juliet, one of the most famous plays of all time. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564. He was Christened on April 26 of that year. The day of his birth is unknown. It has long been celebrated on April 23, the Feast of St. George.
William was the third child and oldest son of John and Marry Arden Shakespeare. Two Sisters, Joan and Margaret, died before he was born. The other children were Gilbert, a second Joan, Anne, Richard, and Edmund. Only the second, Joan, outlived William. Shakespeare's father was a tanner and Glove Maker. He was an alderman of Stratford for years. He also served a term as high bailiff, or mayor. Toward the end of his life John Shakespeare lost most of his money. When he died in 1601, he left William only a little real estate. Not much is known about Mary Shakespeare, except that she came from a wealthier family than her husband. Stratford-upon-Avon is in Warwickshire, called the heart of England.
In 1582, when he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway. She was in Shottery, a village a mile from Stratford. Anne was seven or eight years older than Shakespeare. From this difference in their ages, a story arose that they were unhappy together. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583. In 1585 a twin boy and girl, Hamnet and Judith, were born. What Shakespeare did between 1583 and 1592 is not known. Various stories are told. He may have taught school, worked in lawyer's office, served on a rich man's estate, or traveled with a company of actors. One famous story says that about at 1584
he and some friends were caught poaching on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy of Carlecote, neat Warwick, and were forced to leave town. A less likely story is that he was in London in 1588. There he was supposed to have held horses for theater patrons and late to have worked in the theaters as a page.
William Shakespeare wrote a lot of famous plays. Some of the most popular tragedies he wrote were: Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanns, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, and Titus Andronicus. After he died, they made some of his plays into movies and they are very famous. They have been vary successful.
Shakespeare retired from his theater work in 1610 and returned to Stratford. His friends from London visited him. In 1613 the Globe Theatre burned. He lost much money in it, but he was still wealthy. He shared in the building of the new Globe. A few months before the fire, he bought as an investment a house in the fashionable Blackfriars district of London.
On April 23, 1616, Shakespeare died at the age of 52. This date is, according to the Old Style (Julian) calendar of his time. He was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford.
Page By: Brie and Sara
Mr. Sams' Bell 2
Harrison Jr. School
May 4th, 2004
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