William Shakespeare and his life.

Question 1: William Shakespeare and his life

Very little it known about William Shakespeare’s early years. There is no record of this live birth, but all that is known is that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April of 1564. But there is record of him being baptized on the 26th of April, and since he died on the 23rd of April, most historians say that he was born on April 23rd, the same day he was born.

William’s parents were John and Mary Shakespeare. His father held very high position in the little town. He was a whittawer and was a member of the city council, then constable, chamberlain, alderman, and the high bailiff (almost town mayor). A record of steep debt pulled John out of the high position and was kicked out of church for not paying his debts. Mary mothered 8 children, including William. William was the 3rd child and the first son. He would have attended Stratford’s grammar school, of course, like all other records of the time, any documents proving his attendance have been lost.

On November 28, 1582, a town bishop issued a wedding bond for William “Shagspeare” and Anne Hathaway. Anne was three months pregnant at the time of the wedding and 8 years his senior. On May 26, 1583, Susanna, their first child, was baptized. Two years later, Anne gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith, Hamnet wouldn’t live past the age of 11.

Their isn’t any record known record from the birth of the twins in 1585 to 1592. But in 1592, William Shakespeare was noted on stage for his extremely brilliant acting skills. Between the time of his acting and his retirement, he wrote 37 plays and over 100 sonnets. He was a master of iambic pentameter and skillfully used his talent to write sonnets.

He died on April 23, 1616. The reason of death is unknown, because the disease he is said to have died from was unknown in the 1600’s. In he will he left everything to his daughter Susanna and a silver plate to Judith. Anne was given his second best bed. Known one knows the reason why she didn’t get the first bed, but it could have possibly gone to Susanna.

Question two: Growing up during Shakespeare’s time

Boys of Stratford-upon-Avon would have attended the Stratford grammar school. After grammar school they would have attended a college or gone right into work. Many wealthy families were the only people who attended grammar schools. If money was scares or worked had to be done at home, young boys wouldn’t attend grammar school at all.

Women wouldn’t have be present at grammar school. They usually stayed home and learned how to be a mother and housewife from their mother. Such menial things today were highly important and men saw it pointless that women should learn like men do, since women were considered lower and unequal to men.

Question three: Marie Antoinette and her life

Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest of Francis I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Marie Antoinette was brought up believing her destiny was to become queen of France. She married the crown prince of France in 1770. Four years later she became queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI.

To say that Marie was dim-witted and useless is fabricated. In fact, rather than ignoring France's growing debts, she reduced the royal household staff, eliminating many unnecessary positions that were based solely on privilege. In the process she offended the nobles, adding their disapproval to the immoral stories spread by royal hopefuls. In truth, Antoinette and Louis were placed in harms' way not only by elements of their character, but by the changing face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Marie was a beautiful women and fully aware of it. She would buy expensive, long blonde wigs covered and entwined in pricey gems. In one of the wigs, she had a little bird cage placed inside of the long trundles of hair. When her people, who were starved and detested the royalty, heard about her vanity, they gave her the name of bird brain. In truth, Marie was a very smart women, and was even called smarter than Louis XVI.

In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. From that point on the King and Queen were virtual prisoners. Antoinette sought aid from other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and her sister, Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791 Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria and Prussia declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine.

Antoinette was cruelly treated during her final days of captivity. Her children were taken from her, and her best friend, the Princess de Lambelle, was killed and her severed head was put on a pole and paraded in front of the Queen. Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. She was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused.

Question four: Growing up as Marie Antoinette

Marie was very privileged. Being a princess entitled her to more than what the typical nobility would have received. She was taught about the ways of the French, because she was said to be the future Queen of France.

Most peasants would have suffered through famine and would have never learned about the small and somewhat meaningless things that were considered important and crucial to the life of a queen. The men might have gone to school, but only if they were wealthy would they continue onto college. Most men would have raised a family and tried to give the best to their family.

Question five: Whom would you prefer?

I think If I was alive in either time, Shakespeare would be superior. I’m a big theatre buff and I love to act. He wrote so many unparalleled plays that have survived throughout the centuries. Movies have been made about most of his works. So many extraordinary awards, theatres, and novels have been dedicated or given in his name. He truly is an outstanding man and has been given all the honor he deserves. I’d like Marie Antoinette, but she’s simply a birdbrain.

Question 6: Interesting Facts

Shakespeare

Only five things about Shakespeare are facts, the rest are all educated guesses
From 1585 to 1592, there is no record of Shakespeare anywhere.
He felt that he was a better actor than writer and basically never used any of his own ideas.

Antoinette

She loved expensive wigs. She even had a bird cage woven inside one so that she could have a song bird sing to her. That’s how she was given the name ‘bird brain’
From birth, she knew that she was to be the Queen of France, even though she was the princess of Austria
She was killed by the guillotine, a method of… well, you get the idea

Question 7: Like or dislike

If I was living in the same time as Shakespeare, I think I would have liked him greatly. Although his plays didn’t follow the other plays of his time, he swam upstream and didn’t become a trout. He did what he preferred and never cared about anyone else’s opinion. He was well educated and created many new words, like Assassination, and we would never know what that was if it was for Hamlet, let me tell you.

If I was living in the same time as Marie Antoinette, I think I’d hate her. She seemed to take the country even further in debt than it already was. I think I might have even attended her beheading, just to watch her die. She was considered a birdbrain, which I feel is true because who would have a song bird in a cage on their head? And besides, she gave blondes a bad name. How can I have any respect for a women who gives blondes a bad name? I ask you that Mr. Johnson!

Question 8: Why are they important to learn about?

I think it was very interesting to learn about the greatest playwright and poet of all time. He distorted the way we look at the theatre and life. He’s my idol and I would love to act and write plays as well as he did. People should learn about him and keep his stories alive and kickin’.

Marie Antoinette is important to learn about so we don’t make the same mistakes again. I must admit, she was a wonderful person and she was smart than the king (side note: but isn’t that usually for wives to be smarter than their husbands?) but she frivolously used money that wasn’t even hers and wasted it one wigs. She probably had a prefect head of hair under that wig, why did she need real human hair wigs?

Question 9: Compare and contrast

Mr. Johnson. I’ve looked through many, many, MANY! different sources and could not find ONE similarity. The differences are so numerous, I’m going to skip this question and get a zero on it. At least I’m honest.

Question 10:

Stratford-upon-Avon today

Question 11: Poetry

Thou art a Playwright of amazing tales

And author of hundreds of sonnets

In a time where the only actors were males

With no such thing as an Orchestra pits

Thou took the everyday tragedy

And mixed it up with post haste

Then turned it into a comedy

And gave each line a steady pace

And in thee times, no one compares

Not in artistic or psychotic state

At least not that I’m awares

To me, buddy, you are first rate

William Shakespeare, you are the man

If you wouldn’t do it, I think no one can.

Sources

1564. William Shakespeare is born in Stratford upon Avon to local tanner John and Mary Shakespeare. His actual birthday is unknown but assumed and celebrated today on April the 23rd, just three days before his baptism was recorded in the Parish register of the Holy Trinity Church on April the 26th.

1571. Shakespeare is likely to have begun his formal education. By local tradition, children in the Stratford area, entered the local grammar school at age seven.

1575. Queen Elizabeth pays a visit to Kenilworth Castle, just a short journey from Stratford. Legend has it that an impressionable eleven year old William saw the Queen’s procession, and recreated it several times later in his historical and dramatic plays.

1582. Shakespeare is in love... At age 18, he marries the considerably older Anne Hathaway (26 years old) from Shottery on November the 27th at Temple Grafton, a village just five short miles (8 km) from Stratford.

1583. Susanna, William and Anne Shakespeare’s first child who lives a full 66 years, is born just five months after Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway’s wedding (May 26th). Illegitimacy was not uncommon in the 1500s.

1585-1592. Shakespeare is believed to have left his family in Stratford to join a company of actors as both playwright and performer, starting his career in theatre.

1585. Shakespeare’s twins, Judith and Hamnet are born, (February 2)Hamnet living only eleven years whilst Judith lived 77.

1589-1590. Shakespeare is believed by most academics to have written his very first play, Henry VI, Part One in this year.

1590-91. Shakespeare is again believed to have written Henry VI, Part Two and Henry VI, Part III.

1592. Shakespeare begins to be noticed as a force within London theatre; Robert Greene’s Groatworth of Wit famously calls Shakespeare an "upstart crow". He attacks Shakespeare as lacking originality since he borrows ideas from other for his own plays. Academics see this criticism as proof that Shakespeare was in London at this time.

Theatres in London close because of the plague.

1592-93. Shakespeare is thought to have written the poem Venus and Adonis and the plays Richard III and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

1592-94. The Comedy of Errors written in this time.

1593. Shakespeare begins to compose the first of what will amount to a 154 sonnet collection. His narrative poem Venus and Adonis is his first ever published.

1593-94. The Rape of Lucrece, Titus Andronicus and The Taming of the Shrew are thought to have been penned by Shakespeare at this time.

1594. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theatre troupe including distinguished actor Richard Burbage and comic Will Kemp performs with Shakespeare in their group.

1594-1595. Shakespeare pen’s Love Labour’s Lost.

1594-1596. King John is assumed to have been written.

1595. A busy year for Shakespeare as he is thought to have composed Richard II performed that very same year, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, thought to be composed for a wedding and the greatest love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet.

1596. The Merry Wives of Windsor is thought to have been written. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men lose their original patron, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon and Lord Chamberlain to be replaced by his brother George Carey, Second Lord Hunsdon, who succeeds his late brother.

1596-1597. The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV, Part One are thought to have been written.

1597. Shakespeare buys the New Place, one of Stratford’s most preeminent homes. This fuels speculation today by some academics that William was really a successful businessman and not literature’s celebrated playwright.

1598. William is thought to have written the play Henry IV, Part Two and Shakespeare’s reputation as an actor is confirmed his performance in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humor which clearly lists his name as a principal actor in the London play.

1598-99. William writes the play Much Ado About Nothing in this year.

1599. The Major shareholders of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men lease land from Nicholas Brend, The Globe theatre opening later that same year. Julius Caesar is performed at the Globe Theatre for the first known time on September the 21st according to German tourist Thomas Platter’s diary. John Weever praises Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, The Rape of Lucrece and Venus Adonis in the poem Ad Guglielmum Shakespeare.

1600-1601. Shakespeare is thought to have composed arguably his greatest play, Hamlet at this time.

1601. The narrative poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle is thought to have been written.

1601-1602. Twelfth Night or What You Will, All Well That Ends Well and Troilus and Cressida are probably composed.

1603. A Midsummer’s Night is performed at Hampton Court before Queen Elizabeth who dies later that year. James I originally James VI of Scotland proves to be an enthusiastic patron of the arts granting The Chamberlain’s Men a patent to perform. In return the Company renames itself The King’s Men to honour James I and they quickly become a favorite with the new king.

As You Like It is performed by the newly named King’s Men before King James at Wilton. Acting-wise, Shakespeare is recorded as performing in Ben Jonson’s Sejanus, Shakespeare’s last recorded acting performance.

1604. Measure for Measure is believed to have been written in this year. It is later performed at King James I Court. Othello is also penned, being performed on November the 1st at Whitehall.

1605. The Merchant of Venice is performed twice at King James’ Court earning a commendation from the King. King Lear is believed to have been composed in this year and as is Macbeth, the play’s Scottish background and kind portrayal of ancestor Malcolm being intended as a celebration and honoring of King James Scottish ancestry.

1606. Antony And Cleopatra is believed to have been composed.

1607. Hamlet and Richard III are performed aboard the British ship Dragon off the west coast of Africa at Sierra Leone.

1607-1608. Timon of Athens, Pericles and Coriolanus are composed .

1608. The King’s Men take on a twenty-one year lease of London’s first permanently enclosed theatre, the Blackfriars Theatre in this year. Notes on stage directions, suggest The Tempest was penned with a performance at this theatre in mind.

The return of the plague forces a closure of all playhouses and theatres from the spring of 1608 through to early 1610.

1609-1610. Cymbeline is thought to have been composed.

1610. Othello is performed at Oxford College by the King’s Men during a summer tour.

1610-1611. The Winter’s Tale is written.

1611. The Tempest was written.

1612-1613. The King’s men perform Othello and Julius Caesar amongst others in this year. Shakespeare is thought to have written Cardenio, his only lost play during this period and with John Fletcher as a likely contributor, composes Henry VIII.

1613. The Globe Theatre burns to the ground. The Two Noble Kinsmen is penned. A 1634 entry within the Stationer’s Registry confirms that both William Shakespeare and John Fletcher composed this play.

1614. The Globe Theatre reopens.

1616. William dies on April 23rd, his burial being recorded in the Stratford Holy Church Register two days later.

1619. Hamlet is performed as part of Christmas celebrations at court.

1623. Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway dies, the same year, and fellow actors John Hemminges and Henry Condell gather together and publish for the first time, 36 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in a collection known as The First Folio.

William Shakespeare and his life.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

Related Essays

"The Life of the Great William Shakespeare"

William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare