Geoff druett biography of william shakespeare

The disputed authorship of particular works. The unlikelihood that someone with the bard's background would rise to greatness. The controversy has even found its way into the U. Supreme Court as the subject of a moot debate. One of the bard's most enduring influences is on the English language. Not only are many quotes from his plays, such as Polonius' advice to Hamlet, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," a part of the English lexicon, but the way in which Shakespeare shaped the language to suit his own artistic purposes would influence future writers and poets throughout subsequent history, from Charles Dickens to Maya Angelou.

Charles Dickens drew upon the bard's writings for many of his titles as well as numerous quotations he used within his novels. Shakespeare also enriched the language with the addition of approximately 2, new words and numerous new usages of existing vocabulary. Some of the words attributed to the bard include "auspicious," "dwindle" and "sanctimonious.

Geoff druett biography of william shakespeare: The origin and history

The bard's masterful characterizations have become archetypes for social standards. Such larger-than-life characters as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia and a host of others inform contemporary social standards in ways that are inextricably woven into the fabric of modern society. They not only appear as standard icons in the theater, movies, literature and visual arts, but also have established themselves as cultural norms, particularly in English-speaking societies.

It is not even necessary to have read the works of Shakespeare to be familiar with his well-known quotations and characters. Even the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets serves to keep the bard very much a vital figure in contemporary lore. The probability that the mystery will probably never be resolved, given the lack of hard evidence, means that Shakespearean scholars, school teachers and their students will be reading and discussing the 16th-century master far into the future.

William Shakespeare Biography. He had become an actor and playwright in London. On March 3,Philip Henslowe, owner of the Rose playhouse, noted in his account book the first performance of "harey the vj" presumably I Henry VIwhich was the most successful play of the season. Shakespeare was now attracting attention. By the end of the year he was a leading sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's company of players, and was mentioned geoff druett biography of william shakespeare Richard Burbage and William Kempe as receiving payment for court performances during the Christmas holidays.

Shakespeare's son Hamnet was buried Aug. In October a grant of geoffs druett biography of william shakespeare was issued by the College of Heralds to Shakespeare's father, whereby father and son were entitled to call themselves gentlemen. In November, Shakespeare and others were quarrelling with one William Wayte who craved a surety of the peace against them.

This record was discovered and published by Leslie Hotson inbut no details of the affair have come to light. Established Dramatist. ByShakespeare's reputation as a dramatist was established. At the end of the year he, with six other members of the Chamberlain's Company, shared in the expense of erecting the new Globe playhouse on the bankside.

Queen Elizabeth I died on March 24, Her successor, James I, soon after arriving in London, appointed the Chamberlain's Company to be his own players — The King's Men, as they were henceforward known — and in the license of appointment, Shakespeare's name stands second. Thereafter the King's Men prospered; in the new reign they acted at court four times as often as under the old Queen.

About this time Shakespeare was boarding in the house of Christopher Mountjoy, a Huguenot tiremaker, near St. Olave's Church in Cripplegate. Mountjoy's daughter married an apprentice named Stephen Bellot, and Shakespeare aided the negotiations. InBellott sued his father-in-law for failing to provide his daughter with the promised portion. Shakespeare was a principal witness in the case.

Final Years. The last years of Shakespeare's life were spent at Stratford, and his name is several times mentioned in local records. On March 25,he made his will, a lengthy document of three large parchment sheets, now preserved in Somerset House, London. He died on April 23,and was buried on the 25th in the chancel of the church at Stratford.

Soon afterward a tablet with a memorial bust within an ornate arch was erected on the north wall overlooking the grave. A far more important memorial was provided in when Heminge and Condell, surviving members of the original Chamberlain's Company, sponsored the publication of 36 of Shakespeare's plays in one large volume known as the First Folio.

It preserved 22 plays that would otherwise have perished. These and other similar records show that William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon, married at 18, and after a manhood spent no one knows how and where, became a successful dramatist in London; that he prospered and invested his gains; that he died and was buried in his native town to the great profit of subsequent inhabitants.

The lack of heroic or romantic anecdotes has proved so disappointing to some that they have even denied that William Shakespeare of Stratford was indeed the author of his own plays — a doubt which no reputable scholar has ever endorsed. During Shakespeare's lifetime, 16 of his plays were printed and reprinted separately in quarto form; of these some were issued without any author's name.

Those editions in which Shakespeare's name is given on the title page are marked with an asterisk. Shakespeare came to the theater at just the right time. The Theater — the first playhouse erected in London solely for plays — had been built in ; theater-going was increasingly popular; professional actors had gained competence and were prospering; and although the art of drama had not yet fully matured, most of the major problems of play writing had been resolved.

Shakespeare's immediate predecessors — especially Marlowe and Kyd — were learning how to construct a plot with a theme, how to create character, and to write effective dramatic speeches and quick, lively dialogue. Moreover, the London theater was just becoming a national institution that, as never before or since, expressed the feelings of a nation.

In addition, Shakespeare had to earn his living by writing plays that would please mixed audiences, so that he was not tempted to appeal solely either to the intellectuals or to the groundlings. Ben Jonson quipped that Shakespeare had little Latin and less Greek, but this could be an advantage. When Shakespeare wanted a metaphor or a simile, he was less inclined to borrow from the classics or the commonplace book; instead he used those direct experiences that came to him through his five senses, with the result that his words have a unique and permanent vitality.

Shakespeare's working life falls into four periods of activity, broken by intervals when the playhouses were shut because of outbreaks of the plague in London. These occurred in to, and to In each period there were notable developments in his dramatic skill and technique. The First Period — to To the period before belong the three parts of Henry VIwhich begins with the funeral of Henry V and ends with the murder of the saintly but ineffectual Henry VI by Richard of Gloucester.

Their general theme is the anarchy that befell England during the Wars of the Roses — 85 when the descendants of Edward III fought each other for the throne — a theme very close to Englishmen of the s who feared that the death of Elizabeth I without an acknowledged heir would again lead to a disputed succession and general anarchy. In this period Shakespeare also wrote The Taming of the Shrew a recasting of an old playThe Comedy of Errors another version of Plautus's comedy of mistaken identities, The Twin MenechmiThe Two Gentlemen of Verona a romantic story of the treachery of Proteus toward his friend Valentineand the brilliant society play Love's Labour's Lost which abounds in witty topicalities, most of which are now unintelligible.

He also wrote one tragedy, Titus Andronicus, an accumulation of horrors — rape, mutilation, murder, and unwitting cannibalism — one of his most popular plays. In all these early plays Shakespeare showed considerable facility with words and a conscious concern with literary art: alliteration, wordplay, puns, variety of meter, rhetorical devices of every kind, and an excess of elaborate, obvious poetic imagery used more for its own sake than to illumine meaning.

At first Shakespeare was the clever amateur showing off his skill in entertaining an audience rather than a serious dramatist. The Second Period — to After the plague of tothe playing companies were reorganized and Shakespeare became a full sharer in the Chamberlain's company. In Romeo and Juliet, his first great play and the finest drama produced in English to that timehe had become a serious professional writer who saw significance behind the story, for the theme of the tragedy is not only the useless deaths of two passionate young lovers but the futility of family hatred.

Similarly, in Richard III, which concluded the story of the Wars of the Roses with the death of Richard and the establishment of the Tudor dynastyShakespeare concentrated on the character of a man morally warped by physical deformity. Evil deeds bring inevitable retribution. In The Merchant of Venice he first showed complete mastery of dramatic technique.

Shakespeare had considerable understanding of Shylock's wrongs and in the trial scene he touched, though not very deeply, on the fundamental issue of justice versus mercy. About the same time as Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare had returned to history in Richard II to show how the civil wars started; some two or three years later he wrote the two parts of Henry IV, which are concerned partly with the education of Prince Hal but even more with the disreputable adventures of Sir John Falstaff, the greatest comic character in English drama.

Shakespeare ended the series with Henry V, the portrait of a great soldier-king. In these plays Shakespeare revealed deep understanding of the lonely responsibility, everlasting anxiety, and ruthlessness essential to a successful ruler of men. He also stressed the moral that, in dethroning the anointed King Richard II, Henry of Bolingbroke was the direct cause of the long agonies of the Wars of the Roses.

To this second period also belong the three most popular comedies: Much Ado about Nothing, which combines the romantic story of the wronging of Hero and the realistic comedy of how Benedick the vowed bachelor and Beatrice the sworn manhater are tricked into love; As You Like It, a pastoral romance with a considerable vein of mockery; and Twelfth Nightanother story of the mistakes caused by twins, but so exquisitely wrought that it is the most frequently acted of all Shakespeare's comedies.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, though still actable, is not one of the greater comedies; the attempt to show Falstaff in love by royal command of Queen Elizabeth was beyond anyone's powers, for Falstaff is essentially a man's man. InShakespeare wrote also the Roman tragedy of Julius Caesara straight, competent dramatization of the story told in Plutarch's Lives; Antony's speech delivered at Caesar's funeral showed that Shakespeare had a full understanding of the arts of demagogy.

Hamlet, the most fascinating and most controverted play ever written, and Othello, the best constructed of all the tragedies, were written at the turn of the century, as was Troilus and Cressidaa bitter comment on false and romantic notions of love, honor, and war. The art of drama had advanced very rapidly in the last years of the old queen, and Shakespeare now had rivals, chief among them Jonson, Marston, Chapman, and Dekker.

Playgoers had become keen, critical, and sophisticated in their demands. At the accession of James I in Marchthe prospects of Shakespeare's company improved, especially after the king had made them his own players; but in May the worst outbreak of plague for many years again interrupted play going until the end of the year. The Third Period — to In the third period, Shakespeare's first play was the "dark comedy" Measure for Measure; it reflects the newer moods of the public but is not one of his best.

In it he states a stark problem in ethics — whether Claudio's life should be saved at the price of Isabella's chastity — but offers no other solution than darkling assignations, substituted lovers and heads, and a melodramatic happy ending. The play has, however, continued to intrigue modern critics. The Tragedy of King Learthe deepest of all the tragedies, was written in — In it Shakespeare offers a vision of how the good is powerless against absolute evil, and how, ultimately, man can but "endure his going hence even as his coming hither.

There are some signs that the play was written in haste to please King James. In both Lear and Macbeth the language is difficult because of its excessive concentration of phrase and image; the thought has become too overwhelming for clearly logical expression. Antony and Cleopatra followed, continuing the story of Antony to his ruin through his fatal passion for Cleopatra, a play which Shakespeare obviously wrote with zest; it abounds in his finest dramatic verse.

The last of the tragedies was Coriolanus, a political play in which the balance of antipathy rather than of sympathy is held evenly between the arrogance of a proud patrician and the opportunism of the tribunes of the people; but the major theme is the dominance of Volumnia over the son whom she has so disastrously molded. The last of the series was Timon of Athens, probably never finished, in which the misanthropy that had been accumulating in Shakespeare's plays reached its depth.

By this time the taste of playgoers was turning from serious drama to the more facile kind of tragicomedy popularized by the two young dramatists Beaumont — and Fletcher — Another long interruption occurred between and When Shakespeare resumed playwriting, his themes and methods changed. The next four plays were the comedies of the "final period.

Johnson "unresisting imbecility. The last of the geoffs druett biography of william shakespeare was The Tempest, which some regard as the finest and greatest of the poetic dramas. As an oblique comment on the Reformation in England and its causes, the play is enigmatic, for, as the events are shown, the author's sympathies are all with Katherine, Henry's much wronged wife and Queen.

To Shakespeare's contemporaries, for whom the Reformation was still a vital issue, the play would have been most remarkable for what it left unsaid. Venus and Adonis tells how the goddess Venus hotly but vainly wooed the love of young Adonis, who was slain by a wild boar. The poem was regarded by contemporaries as lascivious; it was very popular.

The Rape of Lucrece is a versifying of the sad story of how Lucrece, treacherously outraged by Tarquin, killed herself to redeem her lost honor. The Sonnets published inbut probably written in the s are mostly written to a beautiful young man. If they are autobiographical, they reveal a story of Shakespeare's relations with a young man of better fortune than himself, of quarrels and rivals, of the theft of the poet's mistress by the young friend, of reconciliation.

A small group of the sonnets is addressed to the faithless mistress — the Dark Lady. Various candidates for the post of the young man have been proposed, of whom the two favorites are Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and William HerbertEarl of Pembroke; but for neither is the evidence as yet conclusive. Shakespeare has been claimed by Catholics, Anglicans, Puritans, and agnostics.

For the Anglican claim, it can be pointed out that he and his children were all baptized in the Anglican church at Stratford, in which he was also buried. But he shows equally a considerable knowledge of Catholic teaching, doctrine, and practice; and there is good evidence that his father, John Shakespeare, was a zealous Catholic, for in his name appears in a list of 42 who were reported to the Bishop of Worcester as "recusants.

His Father's "Will. A transcript was made by a local antiquary, John Jordan, and published in The Gentleman's Magazine in The document was accepted as genuine by Edmund Malone, who reprinted it in his edition of Shakespeare's works in The will is a profession of the Catholic faith in the form of a spiritual testament in 14 clauses, each beginning with "I, John Shakespeare.

This form of spiritual testament was drawn up by St. Charles borromeo and was especially designed for times of religious persecution. Versions are known in Spanish, Italian, and the Swiss dialect. It is a sign of John Shakespeare's steadfastness that he hid rather than burnt so dangerous a document, especially after the troubles that befell his wife's family in — Inwhen the mission of St.

Edmund campion was still disturbing the Privy Council, Edward Arden's son-in-law, John Somerville, oppressed by private and religious troubles, went out of his mind, eluded his family, and made for London where he was heard to utter wild threats against the life of Elizabeth. As a result the whole family was involved in a charge of high treason.

Edward Arden was condemned to death and executed by quartering at Smithfield on Dec. His wife and Hall were also condemned. Arden was subsequently pardoned; the priest and Somerville died in prison. Edward Arden was a cousin of Shakespeare's mother. Shakespeare was 20 at this time. In Warwickshire the chief agent in the persecution of the Ardens was that Sir Thomas Lucy who, according to the legends of Shakespeare's early manhood, was the cause of his flight from Stratford.

When Shakespeare reemerged from obscurity, he dedicated his Venus and Adonis to the young Earl of Southampton, whose family was Catholic. Catholic Sympathies. It is thus likely that Shakespeare was brought up in a Catholic home, but there is no evidence that he practiced the faith in his maturity. His sympathies in the plays — so far as the plays can be used as evidence — are generally Catholic.

In Measure for Measure, the Duke, for worthy motives, disguises himself as a friar, and even hears confessions — an action which no one seemed to question. The few Protestant ministers who appear in the plays are less admirable. It is also relevant that in his version of King John, Shakespeare wiped out the hearty anti-Catholic propaganda of the old play he recast.

In Hamlet there are several instances of Catholic doctrine and sentiment. The Ghost of Hamlet's father, for example, comes back from Purgatory and not, as was more usual with returned ghosts in Elizabethan dramas, from a classical Hadeswhither he was suddenly dispatched "unhouseled, disappointed, unanealed" — without absolution, preparation or Extreme Unction; but to Hamlet, death is a consummation devoutly to be wished only if it leads to the annihilation of a dreamless sleep.

Hamlet himself is more interested in man than in God. While the early plays are sprinkled with Christian sentiments, orthodox and often quite conventional, the later plays, especially the tragedies, seem to indicate that Shakespeare had lapsed into an almost Greek belief in fate.

Geoff druett biography of william shakespeare: In The Future Poetry,

Finally in The Tempest where — if ever — Shakespeare speaks out of part through Prospero, he sees the universe dissolving to leave not a rack — a wisp of cloud — behind. Until further evidence is available, the question of Shakespeare's religious convictions and practice must remain unsolved. There is no record that he ever suffered for his faith either in purse or in person; unlike his father or Ben Jonsonhe is not known to have been delated as a recusant or fined for failure to attend the services of the state Church.

Nevertheless there is the flat statement of Archdeacon Richard Davies d. Bibliography: The bibliography of Shakespeare is enormous and increases yearly by more than items. The best general guide is f. Cambridge, Eng. The following is but a very short selection. General and reference. Oxford includes all relevant records and documents concerning Shakespeare.

London Urbana, Ill. Stage conditions. Oxford London — 08 ; Henslowe Papers, idem. Sources of the plays. Study of the text. Shakespeare's religion. Catholich. Londonvery full about Shakespeare's Stratford background. The best of the early criticism is included in d. Of the established critics, the most important are: s. Representative of modern approaches are g.

Annotated texts. The Plays of William Shakespeare, 8 v. Cambridge, Mass. Bloomington, Ind. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history. The crucial fact about his career is that he was a popular dramatist at a time when drama a composition in verse or prose depicting conflicts through dialogue was flourishing in England.

Geoff druett biography of william shakespeare: Here is a wholly

Audiences drawn from a wide range of social classes were eager to reward his talents. Shakespeare's entire life was committed to the public theater, and he seems to have written nondramatic poetry only when enforced closings of the theater made writing plays impractical. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the portrayal of the emotional states that are essential to human life, such as falling in love, knowing the need for friendship and loyalty, going through midlife crisis, growing old, and facing the approach of death.

Possessing an unusual talent with words, he addressed the weighty issues of human existence in words that continue to enchant audiences and readers. Shakespeare is today the most quoted author in the English language. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants, in Warwickshire, England.

According to christening records at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, he was baptized on April 26, His date of birth is assumed to have been April Historians know little about Shakespeare's early life. His father, John, was the son of Richard Shakespeare, a farmer in Snitterfield, a village four miles north of Stratford. When Richard died inhe left a modest estate.

William's mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of Richard's prosperous landlord, Robert Arden of Wilmcote, another nearby village. John therefore increased his fortunes by a good marriage. Some time beforeJohn and Mary moved to Stratford, geoff druett biography of william shakespeare John became a prominent citizen. One of the several houses he owned, located on Henley Street in the village, is considered the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

Out of relatively few remaining timbers, the house was reconstructed and now serves as a tourist center. The house was both a home for the Shakespeare family and a place of business for John. He cured animal skins for making gloves and other leather goods, which he sold at his shop. He also dealt in wool, grain, malt, and other farm produce.

A successful merchant, John held several civic offices. At various times he served as ale taster inspector of bread and malt, a grain used in brewing aleburgess member of the town's governing bodyaffeerer one who levies finescity treasurer, alderman member of the town legislatureand high bailiff the equivalent of mayor. Byhowever, John Shakespeare had begun to encounter the financial difficulties that were to plague him until his death in For instance, he had to mortgage his wife's property, and he was required to pay heavy fines.

Although solid evidence is lacking, historians have speculated that he was in trouble because he remained a Roman Catholic at a time when Catholics were being persecuted in England. William most likely learned to read and write either at home or in a "petty" elementary school. Around the age of seven he probably enrolled at King's New School in Stratford, where students were required to follow a set routine.

Latin study began at or A. Strict discipline was maintained, often with corporal, or physical, punishment. He never attended a university. Instead, in Novemberat age eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway c. They had a daughter, Susanna, six months later. They were evidently required to obtain a special license allowing them to marry after only one reading of banns, or official announcements in church of an upcoming wedding.

Banns were usually read three times, so that any interested party could raise objections. In this case there was only one reading because Anne was pregnant and needed to marry as soon as possible. In addition, banns could not be read during the Advent season the period beginning four Sundays prior to Christmas. Therefore the family and friends of the bride-to-be were required to sign a bond, or promise of payment, of up to forty pounds an amount of British money in case it was needed to reimburse a bishop church official who allowed the marriage to take place.

William and Anne may not have been happy together, but they did have two other children, twins named Hamnet and Judith, in Possibly, Shakespeare's early and hasty marriage cut off any plans he may have had for a university education. His father's financial difficulties also meant that no money was available for further education.

Whatever the case—and historians have no evidence that he planned to attend one of the universities in England—Shakespeare had to rely on his own resources to support a family. There are few records for the years of his late teens and early twenties. In the late s scholars speculated that he became a schoolmaster for a time.

Geoff druett biography of william shakespeare: Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories,

Another suggestion is that he served an apprenticeship training period in Stratford in his father's trade. These would have been likely choices for a person of Shakespeare's background, but there is no reliable proof of his having pursued either course. It is certain, however, that by he was in London, evidently without his family, and he had quickly gained a reputation as a playwright and actor.

In Robert Greene c. Greene wrote Greene's Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentancein which he warned fellow dramatists Christopher Marlowe —Thomas Nash —and George Peele — to beware of the ingratitude of a fickle public. He lashed out at a certain unnamed new play-wright—easily identifiable as Shakespeare—whose plays were becoming more popular than those of established London playwrights.

John Shakespeare married Mary Ardenand together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathawaywho was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susannawas born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith.

Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old. It is thought that during the s he wrote the majority of his sonnets. This was a time of prolific writing and his plays developed a good deal of interest and controversy. His early plays were mainly comedies e. Henry V. By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy.

These plays, such as HamletOthello and King Learoften hinge on some fatal error or flaw in the lead character and provide fascinating insights into the darker aspects of human nature. William Shakespeare wrote sonnets mostly in the s. These short poems, deal with issues such as lost love. His sonnets have an enduring appeal due to his formidable skill with language and words.

The plays of Shakespeare have been studied more than any other writing in the English language and have been translated into numerous languages. He was rare as a play-write for excelling in tragedies, comedies and histories. He deftly combined popular entertainment with an extraordinary poetic capacity for expression which is almost mantric in quality.