WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: His Life And Work

                    

William Shakespeare, the great English dramatist and poet, was born on 26 April, 1564, and baptized in the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon. His father was a prominent citizen, affluent enough to send him to an excellent grammar school for education. In 1582 he married Ann Hathaway, eight years old than he. It is difficult to say how and when he went to London or how he came to be connected with the theatre, but in 1592 we find first public mention of Shakespeare who had won some success as a playwright that provoked malicious comments from another dramatist of the tome, Robert Greene. During the years that followed, we find many records of his activities as a dramatist, actor and even businessman. Besides writing plays, he was recognized also as a distinguished narrative poet for his Venus and Adonis that was published in 1593. Another narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, was published in 1594. But Shakespeare’s poetic genius appeared to be in full bloom only in his sonnets, written between 1593 and 1598 and published in 1609.

             In 1594, Shakespeare took active interest in organizing Lord Chamberlain’s company in which he played a triple role as actor, shareholder and playwright. In 1599 this company built its own theatre, the Globe, and when James I became the king it flourished under royal patronage, while the company became the king’s company. These developments only showed that Shakespeare was a very prosperous man. In 1596 he received an official Coat-of-Arms in his father’s name and it entitled him to use arms and assume the title of ‘Gentleman’. In 1597 he bought one of the finest houses in Stratford, new place, and later bought many more in both London and Stratford. He grew very rich with success after success. In 1612, at last, he retired to live a quiet life in Stratford where he died on 23 April, 1616.

            Shakespeare’s plays are usually divided onto three distinct types: Comedies, tragedies and histories or chronicle-history plays. Many of Shakespeare’s history plays include tragedies like Julius Caesar. Shakespeare began with histories and light comedies. To this first period belong Henry VI, Richard III, Love’s Labours Lost, The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew. To the middle period belong Romeo and Juliet, A Last years produced Henry IV, as you like it, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. These are but the better-known plays of Shakespeare in chronological order. Of these the early plays show an exuberance of word-play and rhyme. Then his comedies grow more thoughtful and his tragedies are shown as more the result of human actions and less dependent on arbitrary fate. In the end, as it is evident in The Tempest, Shakespeare seems to be quite content with his philosophical view that “tempers justice with money”.