William Shakespeare

1. William Shakespeare Biography

2. Baptized 26 April 1564. Died 23 April 1616

3. Was an English poet and playwright , was knownas the greatest English writer and the world’s “pre-eminent dramatist”.

4. His surviving work consist of about 37 plays 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.

5. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often any other playwright.

6. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway. With her, he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.

7. 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, after was knownas the King's Men. He retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, and he died three years later.

8. There are hardly anyrecords of Shakespeare's private life , and there has been assumptions about as physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and if he wrote his own material.

9. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.

10. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories.

11. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language.

12. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise until the 19th century.

13. In the 20th century, his work was re-made and rediscovered. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studiedand performed.

14. Nobody knows Shakespeare’s true birthday. The closest record they have is the date of his baptism on April the 26th, 1564. By tradition and assumptions, William is assumed to have been born three days earlier on April the 23rd, a date now commonly used to celebrate the Bard's birthday.

15. Shakespeare invented the word "assassination". The earliest quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Shakespeare Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7: 'If it is done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly: if th'assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease, success ...'

16. Shakespeare, one of literature’s greatest figures, never attended university, although there are schools named after him.

17. Bibliography http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/facts/facts.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare