About William Shakespeare

EARLY LIFE & CHILDHOOD

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England in 1564. The town was given this name because it lies on the banks of the River Avon. ‘Stratford’ literally means ‘street that crosses through the river’. ‘Avon’ is simply an old Celtic word for ‘river’. While we don’t know his exact date of birth, it is widely believed to be 23 April (famously the same day that Shakespeare died in 1616, at the age of 52). This is because there is a record of his baptism occurring on 26 April, and children were usually baptised three days after birth.

Shakespeare’s parents were Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. He was one of eight children, only five of whom survived into adulthood. It is important to understand that in Elizabethan England, disease was rampant and life expectancy was much lower than today. This society didn’t have access to modern medicine, sanitation, or even much fresh water. One of the most common diseases was the bubonic plague or ‘Black Death’ which was incredibly painful and had a high rate of spread and mortality. Children were especially susceptible to disease, and in Shakespeare’s time, around 20% of infants died each year. In his biography of Shakespeare, writer Bill Bryson states:

WRITING CAREER

William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets (a 14-line poem following strict structural rules, traditionally about love). He also wrote two long-form narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, which were his first printed works. Many of his works are based on earlier plays, histories, and poems. It was quite common at the time for writers to do this.

His plays were very popular during his lifetime and were performed for Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. Shakespeare is sometimes called ‘The Bard of Avon’ – bard is another word for poet. Although Shakespeare is usually considered an Elizabethan playwright, much of his greatest work was produced after King James I took the throne, so Shakespeare can also be called Jacobean.

Shakespeare moved to London to kickstart his career as an actor and playwright, just as theatre was flourishing and new performance venues were being built. He was an actor as well as a playwright and was a founding member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors he worked with for twenty years. By 1597, the group leased the first permanent theatre in England which was simply titled ‘The Theatre’, but the owner wouldn’t renew their lease. On December 28 1598, legend has it that the actors and about a dozen workers pulled the theatre apart and later rebuilt it on the other side of the Thames. The new theatre became known as the Globe theatre. It was a round structure with an open, circular roof.

In 1603, Shakespeare's company became the official players for King James I and renamed themselves The King's Men. In 1608, The King's Men moved into the Blackfriar's Theatre, the template on which all later indoor theatres were based.

The last play Shakespeare is believed to have written as sole playwright is The Tempest in around 1610, though he contributed to other plays after that, including the plays King Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.

The Globe theatre burned to the ground in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII. A real cannon was used for special effects, which set fire to the thatch roof.

In addition to being a great artist, Shakespeare was also a shrewd businessman. He made a decent income from his work in theatre, and invested in land and property, and was a grain merchant.

DEATH & LEGACY

In 1616 Shakespeare revised his will. His signatures are shaky, suggesting that he may have been sick. He died on 23 April 1616, aged 52.

In his will Shakespeare left money for his friends, actors John Heminges, Henry Condell and Richard Burbage, to buy ‘mourning rings’. Whether they actually bought the rings is unknown but we do know that they spent a substantial amount of money to honour Shakespeare in a very special way. Heminges and Condell were instumental in publishing Shakespeare’s plays for the first time in one large book after his death. The published book is now known as the First Folio, and it was printed in 1623. At the time, printing was an expensive and laborious process. Not many people could read, let alone afford to buy books. If Heminges and Condell had not published the First Folio, an astonishing 18 of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost, as there was no previous record of them. These include major plays such as Macbeth and The Tempest.

It is believed that 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, and 235 are known to still be in existence. Every few years, a new copy is discovered somewhere in the world. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, USA has the largest collection, with 82 original First Folios. The State Library of NSW holds one First Folio, the only copy in Australia.

Shakespeare’s greatest legacy is largely one of language. Shakespeare's plays contain the first-ever recordings of over 2,000 English words, including bump, bubble, manager, organ, relevant, critical, excellent, assassination, and countless more, including the word countless! Hundreds of phrases, now commonly used by us in our modern speech, are from Shakespeare’s plays. These phrases include ‘one fell swoop’, ‘vanish into thin air’, ‘play fast and loose’, ‘in a pickle’, ‘foul play’, ‘tower of strength’, ‘flesh and blood’, ‘cruel to be kind’, and ‘wild goose chase.’ In fact, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says that Shakespeare wrote about one-tenth of the most quotable quotations ever written or spoken in English.

Some people claim that Shakespeare did not write his plays, commonly known as the ‘Authorship Debate.’ However, there is far more evidence that Shakespeare did write his own work than there is that he did not.

Shakespeare is buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. The stone over his tomb includes the following inscription, believed to have been written by Shakespeare himself: