Shakespeare - England's greatest poet and playwright was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, on 23rd April 1564. He died on the same date in 1616.

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Ellie Birch        January 03

Shakespeare Coursework

England's greatest poet and playwright was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, on 23rd April 1564. He died on the same date in 1616.  

William, the eldest son, and third child (of eight) was baptised on 26th April 1564 and probably educated at Stratford Grammar School, but little is known of his life up to his eighteenth year.

At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway eight years his senior.

Five years later he left for London. William worked at the Globe Theatre and appeared in many small parts. He first appeared in public as a poet in 1593 with his Venus and Adonis and the following year with The Rape of Lucrece. He became joint proprietor of The Globe and also had an interest in the Blackfriars Theatre.

When he retired from writing in 1611, he returned to Stratford to live in a house which he had built for his family. His only son, Hamlet died when still a child. He also lost a daughter Judith (twin to Hamlet), but his third child Susanna married a Stratford Doctor, John Hall and their home "Hall's Croft" is today preserved as one of the Shakespeare Properties and administered by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

In 1616 Shakespeare was buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity the same Church where he was baptised in 1564. Tradition has it that he died after an evening's drinking with some of his theatre friends. His gravestone bears the words:-

Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare,
to digg the dust encloased heare,
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones.
 

 

Some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are:

  • Romeo and Juliet.  
  • The Taming of the Shrew
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • All's Well that Ends Well
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • Henry V
  • Much Ado about Nothing
  • As you like it
  • Twelth Night

  • Julius Caesar
  • Hamlet
  • Othello
  • Measure for Measure
  • Macbeth
  • King Lear
  • A Winter's Tale
  • The Tempest

ACT 1 SCENE 2

Paris asks Lord Capulet (Juliet’s father) if he could have his daughters’ hand in marriage. Back in Shakespeare’s time, it was the father that decided who could marry his daughter. So if he decided that you had to marry the wealthy, upper class 43 year old man from across the road, and you were a 14 year old girl, then you would have to obey your father, and you’d probably have to have a few kids too.

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Marriage wasn’t about love in those days; it was about money, power and class. It was about bringing families wealth together, and marrying someone of your own class. If you married someone who was ‘lower down’ than you (ie, poorer than you), then it would look like you could only attract poor people off the street. People got married at a very early age, like 13 or so, and would have kids a few years later.

Even though Paris is from a very rich family, Lord Capulet decides that Juliet (who is 13) is too young, and is very ...

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