Welcome to Sydney K's English Blog 2012-2013

William Shakespeare’s Life and Works

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died April 23, 1616. During his lifetime and after his death, he was nicknamed the “The Bard” When Shakespeare was eighteen years old, he married Anne Hathaway of the town London. She was 8 years older than he was. They had 3 children and their son named Hamnet later died in childhood. Shakespeare’s father was quite a prosperous merchant as a glove maker, which allowed William to attend school as a boy and study grammar Latin classes. In 1580, Shakespeare left Stratford and moved to London to write and act in plays.

Throughout his writing career, William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets and poems.

Shakespeare’s London

William Shakespeare was living during an exciting time in the history of Great Britain. Elizabeth 1 was the ruler of Great Britain and she reigned for 60 years. The time period (1500’s – 1600’s) was known in Great Britain as the renaissance, which means “rebirth.” Three areas in which Great Britain was thriving in during this period of its history were technology, science, and the arts. After the above monarch (ruler) dies, King James I rose to the throne.

One popular form of entertainment during Shakespeare’s life was the theatre. William Shakespeare worked with a company of actors called Lord Chamberlain’s Men and they performed their plays at the famous Globe Theatre, located on the bank of the Thames River. For the first time in English history, people of all classes were allowed to attend play performances at the Globe Theatre. Three interesting facts about this theatre were that it did not having heating so performances only occurred during the summer, the Globe was burned down and rebuilt, and many of the actors died for lead poisoning in their makeup. During Shakespeare’s drama writing career, he wrote four of the most accomplished tragedies in literary history. These four tragedies that he wrote between of 1604-1607 were Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear. Eventually, Shakespeare’s Globe and other theatres were shut down by the religious groups and Nazis (which wiped out the population of half of Europe). In 1613, the Globe Theatre was demolished by fire due to malfunction of special effects.

After William Shakespeare’s death at the age of 52, his critic and friend Ben Johnson helped to gather all of Shakespeare’s works in order to get it published in one central bound book. This collection was titled The First Portfolio.

Today, audiences all over the world are still captivated by such plays as the one we are about to read entitled A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, one of William Shakespeare’s most popular love comedy.