Give a general introduction of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Ans.

LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE

At Stratford

The date of Shakespeare’s birth is shrouded in mystery. However, the entry in the register of baptism is considered as the most reliable source of fixing the great dramatist’s date of birth. The entry runs thus: “1564, April 26, Gulielmus Filius Johannes Shakespeare” (William son of John Shakespeare). This entry indicates that probably his date of birth was 23 April. Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire was undoubtedly the place of his birth. This place had picturesque natural surroundings.

William Shakespeare’s father John Shakespeare was a glover; corn dealer and a trader in all kinds of agriculture produce. William Shakespeare was the first son and third child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, daughter of a husbandman and land-owner. John Shakespeare throve in wordly life till he rose to be the Mayor of Stratford, and then its chief alderman, and thus he claimed a coat of arms as a gentleman.

There are several references to Shakespeare’s schooling at the free Stratford Grammar School at the age of seven. The description of the whining schoolboy in As You Like It may be taken as a description of Shakespeare himself. There are frequent references to school day’s pranks in his plays. “The blessed sun of heaven prove a micher (truant), and eat blackberries? (I Henry IV, II, iv). It is pleasing to the fancy to imagine that Shakespeare had his full quota of a schoolboy’s experience and pranks. He must have gone bird’s-nesting and joined in Mayday, Christmas, and New Year’s games; helped made hay, gone to harvest-homes and sheep-shearing (The Winter’s Tale, IV. ii), fished. (Much Ado. III. i), ran out with the harriers (Venus and Adonis, St. 113-118.), and loved a dog and horse (Venus and Adonis, st. 44-52); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, IV. i; (Richard II, v.v.; I Henry IV, IV. i etc) as dearly as everybody in England did. Now, whether Shakespeare had any schooling or not, he seems to have had a keen and alert mind which amassed a rich store of learning, quaint and miscellaneous.

Shakespeare was withdrawn from school perhaps because his father fell on evil days. What he did after leaving the school is uncertain. It is, however, stated he was for some time a schoolmaster in the country, that he was apprenticed o a butcher, that he was apprenticed to his father. All that we can certain of is that he stayed for some time longer at Stratford, that he noticed the many rural scenes around him, took stock of the wild flowers and the birds, and learnt much of the lore of dogs and horses which he displays in his works. His frequent references to sports, hawking, coursing, and hunting, make us believe that he must have seen all of these frequently and probably have indulged in them personally.

At the age of eighteen, Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway, his senior by eight years. From the: marriage were born Susanna, baptized on May 26, 1583 and twins – Hamnet and Judith, baptized on February 2, 1585. It is also disputed that Shakespeare’s marriage was an unhappy one. However, he dwells on the evils of a woman wedding one younger than herself in Twelfth Night, II. iv, of the disdain and discord which grow through such in the compatible union in The Tempest, IV, i of a wife’s jealously in the Comedy of Errors, V. i. J.D. Wilson asserts, “In any case – to nail one more slander to the counter-there is no ground whatever for imaging that his married life was an unhappy one, which is not the same thing as saying that he himself was a model husband.”

In London

Probably the domestic burden made Shakespeare abruptly leave Stratford to seek his fortune elsewhere. Tradition gives a different cause, that Shakespeare Joined some wild young fellows in breaking into Sir Thomas Lucy’s Park at Charlecote, about three miles from Stratford, and stealing his deer, for which, and for writing an impossibly bad ballad against Sir Thomas, the latter so persecuted the poet that he had to leave Stratford. But it is all uncertain. It is, however, generally supposed though without any sure ground, that Shakespeare left Stratford in or about 1586. “The Queen’s Player’s,” paid a visit to Stratford in 1587. It is said by some that this was probably the turning point in Shakespeare’s life. At any rate, sooner or later, he left his birth-town for London.

In London, it is reported that Shakespeare employed himself in holding horses, is now discredited. The earliest notice of Shakespeare in London occurs in 1592 in the death-bed effusion of Robert Greene A Groatsworth of Wit Bought With Million of Repentance, in which tradition connects Shakespeare was called “The Theatre,” and was built by a player and joiner, James Burbage in 1577, in the fields outside the City Walls, on the West of Bishopsgate Street, in Shoreditch. In 1598, it was pulled down and in 1599 rebuilt as “The Globe”, on Bankside Southwark.

In 1596, Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet died. His son’s death must have been a great blow to Shakespeare, wishing as he did to found a family. Now he seems to have been growing rich. In 1597, he bought for £ 60 the largest house in his native town, New Place, and later he made further investment in land in the neighbourhood, when “The Theater” was rebuilt as the “Globe”. Shakespeare was taken in as a partner “a Fellowship in a cry of players”. (Hamlet, III, ii.) The admission as a partner into the profits of the New Globe marks definitely his success in London better than his purchase of New Place of Stratford.

In the beginning of the year 1601, Essex’s rebellion broke out, and. for his share in it, Lord Southampton was imprisoned in the Tower whence he was not released until James I’s accession in 1603. Shakespeare’s fortunes thus suffered a temporary — eclipse. On March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, and as Chettle complains, “the silver-tongued Millicent” (Shakespeare) did not “drop from his honied Muse one sable tear.” On James’ accession, Shakespeare’s company, entitled “The Lord Chamberlain’s Company” originality entitled, “The Lord Chamberlain’s Servant;” assumed the title of “The King’s Players”.

Back to Stratford

After scaling the heights of success and prosperity in London. Shakespeare made up his mind to return back to Stratford. In or about 1609, after the period of his great tragedies, he is supposed to have left London for Stratford. Since his retirement to Stratford he seems to have been once, suing for the recovery of his share in the tithes which he had bought in 1605, and to have purchased a house and a piece of ground near the Blackfriar’s Theatre. The Blackfriar’s House was part of a large property belonging to the Bacon family, and when this was cut up and sold, Bacon’s widow Anne (mother of the great Francis Bacon) retained the title-deeds. On April 26 1615, Shakespeare associated himself with his fellow-buyers in a Bill of Complaint to recover the title-deeds, and the widow’s heir, Matthew Bacon, was ordered by the Lord Chancellor to bring the deeds to court.

Having executed his will on March 25, Shakespeare died at New Place, on April 23, 1616, and was burried in the chancel of Stratford Church on the 25th. The only report as to the cause of his death is in the Diary (printed in 1839) of the Rev. John Ward who was appointed Vicar of Stratford in 1662, that “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a mere meeting, and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fervour there contracted.”

CHRONOLOGY OF CHIEF EVENTS IN SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

1564 April 26, Shakespeare baptized

1571 At the age of seven, according to the custom of the time, Shakespeare’s school-life probably began.

1575 Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth, Shakespeare’s Father might have taken him to witness the Kenilworth festivities (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, II, iii).

1578 Shakespeare left school. His father’s fortunes at a low ebb.

1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.

1583 May 26, Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna baptized.

1585 February 2, Shakespeare’s twin children, Hamnet and Judith, baptized.

1586 Shakespeare left Stratford.

1592 Shakespeare referred to in Green’s Groatsworth of Wit.

1593 Venus and Adonis published and dedicated to Southampton.

1594 Titus Andronicus acted by the Earl of Sussex’s men.

1596 August 11, Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet buried.

1597 May 4, Shakespeare bought New Place.

1598 Francis Mere’s Palladis Tamia published, which contained a list of Shakespeare’s plays up-to-date in a chronological order, Shakespeare acted in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour.

1599 Shakespeare purchased shares in the Globe.

1601 Essex executed, and Southampton imprisoned.

1602 May 1, Shakespeare purchased one hundred and seven acres of arable land which he added to New Place.

1603 February 2, Shakespeare’s company performed before the Queen at Richmond.

1604 March 15, Shakespeare took part in the procession on the occasion of James’ entry.

1608 September 9. Susanna’s mother buried. Shakespeare established himself at New Place.

1609 Sonnets published.

1613 The Tempest performed at the festivities in celebration of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with the Elector Frederick. The Globe burnt down.

1616 January 25, Shakespeare made his will, not signed till March 25, April 23, Died.

April 25, Buried in the chancel of Stratford Church.