StudyBoss » Biography » Shakespeares Biography Essay

Shakespeares Biography Essay

Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor. William was born in 1564. We know this from the earliest record we have of his life; his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564.

We don’t actually know his birthday but from this record we assume he was born in 1564. Similarly by knowing the famous Bard’s baptism date, we can guess that he was born three days earlier on St. George’s day, though we have no conclusive proof of this. William was the third child of John and Mary Shakespeare. The first two were daughters and William was himself followed by Gilbert who died in 1612 and Richard who died in 1613. Edmund (1580-1607), sixth in the line was baptized on May the third, 1580 and William’s oldest living sister was Joan who outlived her famous playwright brother.

Of William’s seven siblings, only Judith and four of his brothers survived to adulthood. From baptism records, we know William’s father was a John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a local businessman who dabbled in tanning, leatherwork and whittawering which is working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade. John was also a prominent man in Stratford. By 1560, he was one of fourteen burgesses which formed the town council.

Interestingly, William himself is often described as a keen businessman so we can assume he got his business acumen from his father. In the Bard’s case, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree at all… William’s mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and farming estate when he died. Since we know Stratford’s famous Bard lived with his father, John Shakespeare, we can presume that he grew up in Henley Street, some one hundred miles northwest of London. Very little is known about literature’s most famous playwright.

We know that the King’s New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. We assume William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford but we have no definite proof. Likewise a lack of evidence suggests that William, whose works are studied universally at Universities, never attended one himself! A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen year old William married the twenty-six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire life.

Baptism records show that William’s first child, Susanna was baptized in Stratford sometime in May, 1583. Baptism records again reveal that twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1592. Hamnet, William’s only son died in 1596, just eleven years old. Hamnet and Judith were named after William’s close friends, Judith and Hamnet Sadler. William’s family was unusually small in a time when families had many children to ensure parents were cared for in later years despite the very high mortality rates of children and also their life expectancy in the 1500s.

Evidence that the great Bard was also a poet comes from his entering his first poem Venus and Adonis in the Stationers’ Registrar on the 18th of April, 1593. The playwright registered his second poem The Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of May, 1594. In 1609, the Bard’s sonnets were published without the Bard’s permission. It is considered unlikely that William wanted many of his deeply personal poems to be revealed to the outside world. It was not however the first time; in 1599, in a collection entitled “The Passionate Pilgrim” , two of his poems had been printed without William’s permission.

Looking for work in London, just four days ride way from Stratford, William is believed to have left his family back home for some twenty years whilst he pursued his craft. He only returned back to his family in 1609, having visited only during the forty day period of Lent when theatres though open well into the start of Lent would later close in accordance with the traditional banning of all forms of diversionary entertainment around this important Easter event. Records with the College of Heralds, reveal William applied for a coat of arms.

Despite a lack of proof, he was granted his request. Later in 1599 he applied for his mother’s coat of arms to be added to his own. At age 15, William purchased the New Place. This was one of the most prominent and desired properties in all of Stratford being the second largest house in town. Given his father’s known financial hardship from 1576, William must either have used his own money to buy this expensive property or his father had placed money in his son’s name. It is possible William might have bought this prominent property with money from his plays.

It is estimated that roughly fifteen of his 37 plays would have been written and performed by 1597! Court records of a dispute between William’s landlord Christopher Mountjoy and his son-in-law Stephen Belott confirm that William was living in London around 1601. The playwright’s name is recorded in the court records when he gave testimony in 1612 concerning Mountjoy and Belott’s dispute. Interestingly, in 1601, he bought roughly 107 acres of arable land with twenty acres of pasturage for 20 pounds in Old Stratford. William made his greatest financial gain in 1605 when he purchased leases of real estate near Stratford.

This investment of some four hundred and forty pounds doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds income each year. Some academics speculate that this investment gave the Bard the time he needed to write plays uninterrupted and we know that he was indeed thought of as a businessman in the Stratford area… Yet another record confirming the Bard’s existence was John Comb’s will which bequeathed to the Bard the princely sum of just five pounds. Records reveal that the great Bard revised his will on March the 25th, 1616. Less than a month later, he died on April the 23rd, 1616.

Literature’s famous Bard is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He infamously left his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway and little else, giving most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna who has married a prominent and distinguished physician named John Hall in June 1607. This was not as callous as it seems; the Bard’s best bed was for guests; his second-best bed was his marriage bed… His will also named actors Richard Burbage, Henry Condell and John Hemminges, providing proof to academics today that William was involved in theatre.

The Bard’s direct line of descendants ended some 54 years later until Susanna’s daughter Elizabeth died in 1670. Written upon William Shakespeare’s tombstone is an appeal that he be left to rest in peace with a curse on those who would move his bones… Good friend, for Jesus sake forbeare Blest be ye man that spares thes stones And curst be he that moues my bones. Good friend, for Jesus’ sake, forbear Blest be the man that spares these stones Did Shakespeare write the 37 plays and 154 sonnets credited to him? The evidence above proves William existed but not that he was a playwright nor an actor nor a poet.

In fact recently some academics who call themselves the Oxfords argue that Stratford’s celebrated playwright did not write any of the plays attributed to him. They suggest that he was merely a businessman and propose several contenders for authorship, namely an Edward de Vere. The earliest proof that William did indeed write 37 plays was Robert Greene’s criticism of the Bard in his Groatsworth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance which attacked Shakespeare for having the nerve to compete with him and other playwrights in 1592 .

Robert Greene made this quite clear by calling him “an upstart crow”. This criticism was placed with the Stationers’ Registrar on the 20th of September, 1592. Proof that William was an actor comes from his own performances before Queen Elizabeth herself in 1594 and evidence of William’s interest in theatre comes from the Bard’s name being listed in 1594 and 1595 as a shareholder (part owner) of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, a theatre company.

The Bard’s reputation as a poet is again confirmed in 1598, when Francis Meres attacked him as being “mellifluous” and described his work as honey-tongued, “sugared sonnets among his private friends” in his own Palladis Tamia of 1598. William’s theatre presence is again confirmed by his name being recorded as one of the owners of the Globe theatre in 1599 and on May the 19th, 1603, he received a patent, titling him as one of the King’s Men (previously called the Chamberlain’s men) and a Groom of the Chamber by James I, the then King of England.

This honour made William a favorite for all court performances, earned each King’s man extra money (30 pounds each for a performance in 1603 alone) and made the Bard’s name one rather above reproach. Macbeth which celebrates King James I ancestor Malcolm, is considered to have been written in part as appreciation for the King’s patronage. And as a potent form of royalist propaganda (it warned of the dangers of killing a King appointed like James, by God).

The proof most often cited that Shakespeare authored his plays however, was the First Folio (1623) where Henry Condell and John Hemminges who were actors in the Bard’s theatre company, claim in a dedicatory verse within the Folio that they recorded and collected his plays as a memorial to the late actor and playwright. In terms of value, the First Folio originally was sold for just 1 Pound in 1623. Today as one of just 250 still in existence, it would fetch nearly 3 million dollars (US).

Further proof of authorship comes in the form of a poem by Ben Jonson, one of the Bard’s more friendly rivals, which criticizes the playwrights dramatic plays. It is contained within a work entitled Discoveries (also known as Timber) dated 1641. Despite criticizing Shakespeare, Ben Johnson paradoxically also said that Stratford’s famous Bard’s works were timeless, describing them as “not of an age, but for all time”. So to conclude, we can safely agree with most academics that William Shakespeare did exist and that he did indeed write the 37 plays and 154 sonnets credited to him.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Leave a Comment

StudyBoss » Biography » Shakespeares Biography Essay

Shakespeares Biography Essay

William Shakespeare was a great writer who lead a very interesting life. In fact, he is often though of as the greatest write of his time. As a child, William Shakespeare started his education at around the age of six or seven at Stratford grammar school, also known as the Kings New School of Stratford-upon-Avon. (Brooke pg23) It would be most likely that Shakespeares lessons would focus around Latin composition and the study of Latin authors like Seneca, Cicero, Ovid, Vigil, and Horace.

Brooke pg23) Shakespeares schooling did not last long however, when he was removed from school at the age of thirteen due to his fathers financial and social difficulties. This did not stop young Shakespeare from furthering his education however, and he began to write several plays, such as Menaechmi. It is impossible to trace what happened to Shakespeare from the time he left school till the time he re-emerged as an actor, so these years are rightfully referred to as his lost years.

There is, however, a vital piece of information that emerges from this time, it is when Shakespeare betroths a pregnant orphan by the name of Anne Hathaway. Being at the age of eighteen, Shakespeare was fully aware of what love was. In his abuse of it with his slightly older mistress (by eight years), he managed to impregnate her. He immediately wed her though in the year 1582 and on May 26, 1583 their first child was born. Only two years after her, twins followed, Judith and Hamnet.

Not much s known about Anne and her children around this date, except for the death of her son, Hamnet, at the age of eleven on August 11, 1596. William Shakespeare was left without an aire, but by this time he had already left for England to start his career. As mentioned before, Shakespeare had an early period of his life which led from his withdrawal from grammar school, to his marriage to Anne Hathaway, which is commonly referred to as his lost years. Now comes the second section of his life where not much is heard of him and is also likewise known as his lost years.

This period lasted seven years, from the time he left his family in Stratford to the time he had become an established actor by the end of 1592. It is thought that during this time he practiced his skills and may have even been recruited by the Leicesters or Queens Men. (Bentley pg 14) Many of his plays had already become well known, such as Henry VI, The Comedy of Errors, and Titus Andronicus. When the theatres were closed from 1592 to 1593, during this time, Shakespeare wrote many non-dramatic poems. When the Earl of Southampton saw his work, he immediately gave Shakespeare the support he needed.

With the Earls help, Shakespeare returned back to the theatre in 1594. He then became so immersed with his work that he was more involved in the theatre than anyone else. He now shared ownership of the Globe. (Mabillard http://www. shakespeare-online. com) In 1596, he applied and got a coat of arms for his family, alas, with no son to inherit it along with his wealth it would prove useless. Many theorize that after his sons death, Shakespeare began to regain his interest in Stratford and made frequent yet unrecorded visits. Towards the end of his life,

Shakespeare had grown quite sickly and ill. In his will, he left very little to his wife my second best bed(Child http://bartleby. com), thus revealing how little respect he had for her. He left his entire property to his eldest daughter, Sussana, and a fairly large sum of money to his second daughter. Shakespeares last word were: Good friend, for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust enclosed here! Blest be ye man that spares thes stones And curst be he that moues my bones. – (Burgess pg 49) This was his epitaph, which would be put upon his grave.

So Shakespeare was a great writer, who led a very interesting life. He achieved the goals he had wanted to when he first set out to become an actor and he managed to do this all with his poor amount of schooling. And being a gret writer, he managed to accumulate a certain group of fans, admirers. A Shakespearian is one who follows the art of Shakespeare. (Burgess pg1) From him, many of these Shakespearians have immerged. He is one of the authors with the greatest amount of followers. Thus proving that to his fans, he really is the greatest writer ever to immerge from his time.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Leave a Comment