William Shakespeare’s Life

1. William Shakespeare’s Life By: Sam Cadora, Landon York, and Nick Bichler

2. Early Life • Shakespeare was born in April, 1564 in a town called Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon river. He went to a grammar school and learned Latin grammar and literature.

3. Family • He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 in 1582. Susanna, their daughter, was born in 1583. Then they had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were born in 1585. Hamnet died in 1596.

4. London career • In 1592, Shakespeare has achieved some prominence in the city of London as an actor and play writer. Then in 1593 he had become a published poet with his narrative poem. It was called “Venus and Adonis”. A year later he followed those poems with a new poem called “Lucrece”. They were both written when the theater was shut down due to the plague. In late 1594, when the theater re opened, he was the lead member of the Lord Chamberlain's men. Then later to be named the King’s men. The actor company for which he would be a principle actor, a dramatist, and a share holder for about 2 decades.

5. The Expansive Age • In the years which Shakespeare wrote were the most extravagant in English history. Discovery of translation and printing of Greek and Roman classics made ideas available interacted complexly with Christian beliefs. New worlds, North and South America, had explorations occupied by people who lived very differently than the renaissance, Europeans and Englishman.

6. SHAKESPHEARE’S STORY • Until the late 1700s, most biographies depicted a Shakespeare based on legend and tradition. This was the Shakespeare who supposedly killed calves as a youth "in a high style," with a speech and the Shakespeare who was supposedly caught poaching deer, then fled to London. It was this Shakespeare whose Falstaff so pleased Queen Elizabeth that she demanded a play about Falstaff in love . And it was he who died after drinking with Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson. This legendary Shakespeare is as attractively “wild” as his plays were once considered to be. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for these wonderful stories.

7. Poems And Story • Shakespeare wrote many iconic plays and poems in his time. Some of the plays and poems were called “Lucrece” and the king’s men.

8. Work Cited • "Shakespeare's Life-Folger Shakespeare Library." -Folger Shakespeare Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. <http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeares-Life/>.