okaforpeacee

@ladyprowess · 02 Dec 2021

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When was William Shakespeare born

William Shakespeare was an English play writer, poet, and actor. He is often called England's national poet because of his innovative, and traditional style of creative writing which holds so much human emotions. History regarded him as the greatest writer in English language and the world's greatest dramatics.

There is no birth record of Shakespeare, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born around April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare's birthday.

At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.

There was no record of Shakespeare's life for seven years which was after the birth of his twin in 1585. This was called his lost years. There was various speculations of what he was up to during those period, but no one knows exactly what he did.

Shakespeare's Works

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.

In 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that included all but two of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

The last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Shakespeare's death

It was believed that Shakespeare diied on the 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616. The exact cause of his death is unknown, but may believe he died from an illness while some scholar believed this is myth. It was recorded that he died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". Shakespeare was survived by his wife Anne and by two daughters, Susanna and Judith. His son Hamnet had died in 1596. His last surviving descendant was his granddaughter Elizabeth Hall, daughter of Susanna and John Hall.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on account of his fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440 (a considerable sum of money at the time).

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