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Happy 457th Birthday William Shakespeare
A thread
http://waldina.com/2021/04/23/happy-457th-birthday-william-shakespeare/
A thread
http://waldina.com/2021/04/23/happy-457th-birthday-william-shakespeare/
Today is the 457th birthday of William Shakespeare. Did you know he is thought to be responsible for the quote All that glitters is not gold? I didn't until I was reading up on him.
The volume of his work is impressive, the conspiracy around it 400+ years after his death is impressive. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loos that he has left.
NAME: William Shakespeare
OCCUPATION: Poet, Playwright
BIRTH DATE: c. April 23, 1564
PLACE OF BIRTH: Stratford-upon-Avon, England
DEATH DATE: April 23, 1616
PLACE OF DEATH: Stratford-upon-Avon, England
REMAINS: Buried, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Stratford-upon-Avon, England
OCCUPATION: Poet, Playwright
BIRTH DATE: c. April 23, 1564
PLACE OF BIRTH: Stratford-upon-Avon, England
DEATH DATE: April 23, 1616
PLACE OF DEATH: Stratford-upon-Avon, England
REMAINS: Buried, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Stratford-upon-Avon, England
BEST KNOWN FOR: William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet who is widely considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time. Also known as the "Bard of Avon," Shakespeare's plays and poems are known throughout the world, but his personal life is shrouded in mystery.
William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.
Before William's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.
Scant records exist of William's childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.
Being a public official's child, William would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work and even about whether or not William Shakespeare ever existed.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant.
Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.
While it’s difficult to determine the exact chronology of William Shakespeare’s plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies, and tragicomedies.
With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories.
Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II, and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.
Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.
Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night's Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night.
Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Henry V.
It was in William Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.
Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest, and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.
In William Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.
Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.
Other plays written during this period include All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles, and Henry VIII.
There are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.
One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire.
It is generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.
By the early 1590s, documents show William Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.
Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King's Men following the crowning of King James I, in 1603.
From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.
Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, many of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.
By 1592, there is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.
The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers' Register (a guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at William Shakespeare: "...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped…
…in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.
Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene's way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, or Greene himself.
Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first- and second-published poems: "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594).
By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family.
It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.
By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater.
In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year.
This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.
William Shakespeare's early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters.
However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.
With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays.
At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.
The exact cause of William Shakespeare's death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness. Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth.
Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.
In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed."
This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close.
However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistress — the marital bed — and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests.
About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays.
Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, and Francis Bacon — men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration — as the true authors of the plays.
Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources.
Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a William Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright.
Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare's works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.
The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest.
The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.
Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society (founded in 1957) put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare."
The Oxfordians cite de Vere's extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare.
They contend that William Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.
However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that William Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.
They contend that Stratford's New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare's authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare's life doesn't mean his life didn't exist.
They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.
Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging William Shakespeare as the author of plays such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, and King John.
Royal records from 1601 show that William Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King's Men theater company (formerly known as the Chamberlain's Men) and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays.
There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.
What seems to be true is that William Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th century.
Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for William Shakespeare and his work reached its height.
In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.
Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts.
The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.
Wrote plays:
Henry VI, Part I (1590)
Henry VI, Part II (1590)
Henry VI, Part III (1590)
Richard III (1592)
Comedy of Errors (1592)
Titus Andronicus (1593)
Taming of the Shrew (1593)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594, lost)
Romeo and Juliet (1594)
Henry VI, Part I (1590)
Henry VI, Part II (1590)
Henry VI, Part III (1590)
Richard III (1592)
Comedy of Errors (1592)
Titus Andronicus (1593)
Taming of the Shrew (1593)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594, lost)
Romeo and Juliet (1594)
Richard II (1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)
King John (1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596)
Henry IV, Part I (1597)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597)
Henry IV, Part II (1598)
Henry V (1599)
Julius Caesar (1599)
Much Ado About Nothing (1599)
As You Like It (1599)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)
King John (1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596)
Henry IV, Part I (1597)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597)
Henry IV, Part II (1598)
Henry V (1599)
Julius Caesar (1599)
Much Ado About Nothing (1599)
As You Like It (1599)
The History of Sir John Oldcastle (1600, authorship uncertain)
Hamlet (1601)
Twelfth Night (1602)
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
All's Well That Ends Well (1603)
Measure for Measure (1604)
Othello (1604)
The London Prodigal (1604, authorship uncertain)
King Lear (1605)
Hamlet (1601)
Twelfth Night (1602)
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
All's Well That Ends Well (1603)
Measure for Measure (1604)
Othello (1604)
The London Prodigal (1604, authorship uncertain)
King Lear (1605)
Macbeth (1605)
A Yorkshire Tragedy (1605, authorship uncertain)
Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
Coriolanus (1607)
Timon of Athens (1607)
Pericles Prince of Tyre (1608)
Cymbeline (1609)
The Winter's Tale (1610)
The Tempest (1611)
Henry VIII (1612)
A Yorkshire Tragedy (1605, authorship uncertain)
Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
Coriolanus (1607)
Timon of Athens (1607)
Pericles Prince of Tyre (1608)
Cymbeline (1609)
The Winter's Tale (1610)
The Tempest (1611)
Henry VIII (1612)
The Two Noble Kinsmen (1612, authorship uncertain)
The History of Cardeni (1613, authorship uncertain, but believed to be a collaboration with John Fletcher; lost)
The History of Cardeni (1613, authorship uncertain, but believed to be a collaboration with John Fletcher; lost)
This thread can be read here: http://waldina.com/2021/04/23/happy-457th-birthday-william-shakespeare/
