William Shakespeare facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare
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| Born | 1564 (baptized) Stratford-upon-Avon, England
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| Died | 23 April 1616 Stratford-upon-Avon, England
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| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Playwright, actor |
| Known for | Plays and poetry |
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English author who wrote 37 plays and also two long poems in his lifetime. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard")
Shakespeare wrote his works between about 1590 and 1613. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. His plays are still performed today. He is often quoted in modern writing.
By 1594 he was an actor in The Chamberlain's Men acting company.
His plays are of different genres: histories, tragedies and comedies. They are among the best known in English literature and have been translated into every major living language. Shakespeare's plays are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare has been credited for adding new words and phrases to the English language and for making some words more popular. He created over 1,700 English words.
Contents
Life
Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.
Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.
At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children, Susanna (married John Hall), Hamnet Shakespeare (died at the age of 11 due to unknown reasons) and Judith (married Thomas Quiney).
It is not known when Shakespeare began writing, but several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright.
Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there.
Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death. He died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:
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Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, |
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, |
Legacy
Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature.
In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.
Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language.
According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.
Who wrote "Shakespeare"?
About 150 years after Shakespeare died, some writers began to say that Shakespeare's works were not really written by William Shakespeare. They had various reasons for saying this. For example, the person who signed his works as "Shakespeare" knew a lot about other countries (especially Italy and France), but William Shakespeare never left England. Several other writers have been suggested as "Shakespeare" , Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, among others. Most scholars believe that William Shakespeare did write the works that bear his name.
Portraiture
No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance.
William Shakespeare Quotes
- "Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast."
- "All that glitters is not gold."
- "True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings."
List of Shakespeare's plays
Shakespearean tragedies
- Romeo and Juliet
- Macbeth
- King Lear
- Hamlet
- Othello
- Titus Andronicus
- Julius Caesar
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Timon of Athens
Shakespearean comedies
- The Comedy of Errors
- All's Well That Ends Well
- As You Like It
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Measure for Measure
- The Tempest
- Taming of the Shrew
- Twelfth Night or What You Will
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Love's Labour's Lost
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Pericles Prince of Tyre
- Cymbeline
- The Winter's Tale
Shakespearean histories
- King John (play)
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Henry IV, part 1
- Henry IV, part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, part 1
- Henry VI, part 2
- Henry VI, part 3
- Henry VIII
Lost plays
- Love's Labour's Won
- Cardenio
Images for kids
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John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon
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Shakespeare's coat of arms, as it appears on the rough draft of the application to grant a coat-of-arms to John Shakespeare. It features a spear as a pun on the family name.
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Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptised and is buried
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Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Shakespeare's grave, next to those of Anne Shakespeare, his wife, and Thomas Nash, the husband of his granddaughter.
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Procession of Characters from Shakespeare's Plays by an unknown 19th-century artist
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Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. By William Blake, c. 1786. Tate Britain.
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The reconstructed Globe Theatre, London.
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Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets.
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A recently garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago, typical of many created in the 19th and early 20th century.
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The Plays of William Shakespeare. By Sir John Gilbert, 1849.
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See also
In Spanish: William Shakespeare para niños
