William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in April

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in the centre of England. We don’t know exact Shakespeare’s birthday but his baptism was on Wednesday 26 th April 1564.

Education He went to King New Grammar School in Stratford, but he never studied at universities.

Marriage In 1582, when he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway and they had eight children. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died around the same time as he was writing Romeo & Juliet in 1596.

Plays In the late 1580 s, he decided to leave Stratford and try to find work in London. By this time, there were several theatres in the city. He became a well known actor and playwright.

Shakespeare wrote comedies, tragedies, histories and poetry. The two most famous plays are Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet.

The Plays and Sonnets of Shakespeare

Comedy: n All's Well That Ends Well • Pericles, Prince of Tyre n As You Like It • Taming of the Shrew n The Comedy of Errors n Cymbeline n Love's Labours Lost n Measure for Measure n The Merry Wives of Windsor n The Merchant of Venice n Midsummer Night's Dream n Much Ado About Nothing • The Tempest • Troilus and Cressida • Twelfth Night • Two Gentlemen of Verona • Winter's Tale

Tragedy: n Antony and Cleopatra n Macbeth n Coriolanus n Othello n Hamlet n Romeo and Juliet n Julius Caesar n Timon of Athens n King Lear n Titus Andronicus

History: part 1 Henry VI n Henry IV, part 1 n n Henry IV, part 2 n n Henry VI n part 3 Henry VIII n II Richard III n King John Richard part 2 Henry VI

Poetry: n The Sonnets n A Lover's Complaint n The Rape of Lucrece n Venus and Adonis n Funeral Elegy by W. S.

Elizabethan theatre His plays were extremely popular and there were even special performances for Queen Elizabeth I.

The Globe Theatre His plays were performed at the Globe Theatre which was built in London in 1599 on the Southbank of the river Thames. Shakespeare was part-owner of the Globe Theatre.

In all Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, and he also wrote many beautiful poems. Finally he returned to Stratford in 1611, and he lived there until he died, aged exactly 52.

Shakespeare today Today, 400 years later, he is one of the most famous writers in the world, and there are many films of his plays.

©opyright by Kacper Duc and Konrad Jacniacki.