The Life of William Shakespeare

Adnaninho الإثنين مارس 22, 2010 4:54 am

The Life of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, moved to the idyllic
town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the mid-sixteenth century, where he
became a successful landowner, moneylender, wool and agricultural
goods dealer, and glover. In 1557 he married Mary Arden . John
Shakespeare lived during a time when the middle class grew and became
wealthier and wealthier, thus allowing its members increasing
freedoms, luxuries, and voice in the local government. He took
advantage of the opportunities afforded him through this social growth
and in 1557 became a member of the Stratford Council, an event which
marked the beginning of an illustrious political career. By 1561 he
was elected one of the town's fourteen burgesses, where he served as
constable, one of two chamberlains, and alderman successively. In
these positions he administered borough property and revenues. In 1567
he was made bailiff, the highest elected office in Stratford, and the
equivalent of a modern day mayor.

The town records indicate that William Shakespeare was John and Mary's
third child. His birth is unregistered, but legend places it on April
23, 1564, partially because April 23 is the day on which he died 52
years later. In any event, his baptism was registered with the town on
April 26, 1564. Not much is known about William's childhood, although
it is safe to assume that he attended the local grammar school, the
King's New School, which was staffed with a faculty who held Oxford
degrees, and whose curriculum included mathematics, natural sciences,
Latin language and rhetoric, logic, Christian ethics, and classical
literature. He did not attend the university, which was not unusual at
this time, since university education was reserved for prospective
clergymen and was not a particularly mind-opening experience. However,
the education he received at grammar school was excellent, as
evidenced by the numerous classical and literary references in his
plays. His early works especially drew on such Greek and Roman greats
as Seneca and Plautus. What is more impressive than his formal
education, however, is the wealth of general knowledge exhibited in
his works, from a working knowledge of many professions to a
vocabulary that is far greater than any other English writer.

In 1582, at the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married the
twenty-six year old Anne Hathaway. Their first daughter, Susanna, was
baptized only six months later, which has given rise to much
speculation concerning the circumstances surrounding the marriage. In
1585, twins were born to the couple, and baptized Hamnet and Judith
Shakespeare. Hamnet died at the young age of eleven by which time
Shakespeare was already a successful playwright. Around 1589
Shakespeare wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part 1. Sometime between
his marriage and writing this play he and his wife moved to London,
where he pursued a career as a playwright and actor.

Although we have many records of his life as a citizen of Stratford,
including marriage and birth certificates, very little information
exists about his life as a young playwright. Legend characterizes
Shakespeare as a roguish young scrapper who was once forced to flee
London under sketchy circumstances. However, the little written
information we have of his early years does not confirm this. Young
Will was not an immediate and universal success; the earliest written
record of Shakespeare's life in London comes from a statement by rival
playwright Robert Greene, who calls Shakespeare an "upstart crow . . .
[who] supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the
best of you:" - hardly high praise.

In 1594 Shakespeare became a charter member of The Lord Chamberlain's
Men, a group of actors who later changed their name to The King's Men
when they gained the sponsorship of King James I. By 1598 he was
"principal comedian" for the troupe, and by 1603 he was "principal
tragedian." Acting and writing plays at this time were not considered
noble professions, but successful and prosperous actors were
relatively well-respected. Shakespeare was very successful and made
quite a bit of money. He invested this money in Stratford real estate
and was able to purchase the second largest house in Stratford, the
New Place, for his parents in 1597. In 1596 Shakespeare applied for a
coat of arms for his family, in effect making himself into a
gentleman, and his daughters married successfully and wealthily.

William Shakespeare lived until 1616 while his wife Anna died in 1623
at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried in the chancel of his church
at Stratford.The lines above his tomb (allegedly written by
Shakespeare himself) read:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.

About
Shakespearean Theater:

Before Shakespeare's time and during his boyhood, troupes of actors
performed wherever they could * in halls, courts, courtyards, and any
other open spaces available. However, in 1574, when Shakespeare was
ten years old, the Common Council passed a law requiring plays and
theaters in London to be licensed. In 1576, actor and future Lord
Chamberlain's Man, James Burbage, built the first permanent theater,
called "The Theatre", outside London city walls. After this many more
theaters were established, including the Globe Theatre, which was
where most of Shakespeare's plays premiered.

Elizabethan theaters were generally built after the design of the
original Theatre. Built of wood, these theaters comprised three tiers
of seats in a circular shape, with a stage area on one side of the
circle. The audience's seats and part of the stage were roofed, but
much of the main stage and the area in front of the stage in the
center of the circle were open to the elements. About 1,500 audience
members could pay extra money to sit in the covered seating areas,
while about 800 "groundlings" paid less money to stand in this open
area before the stage. The stage itself was divided into three levels:
a main stage area with doors at the rear and a curtained area in the
back for "discovery scenes"; an upper, canopied area called "heaven"
for balcony scenes; and an area under the stage called "hell,"
accessed by a trap door in the stage. There were dressing rooms
located behind the stage, but no curtain in the front of the stage,
which meant that scenes had to flow into each other, and "dead bodies"
had to be dragged off.

Performances took place during the day, using natural light from the
open center of the theater. Since there could be no dramatic lighting
and there was very little scenery or props, audiences relied on the
actors' lines and stage directions to supply the time of day and year,
the weather, location, and mood of the scenes. Shakespeare's plays
masterfully supply this information . For example, in Hamlet the
audience learns within the first twenty lines of dialogue where the
scene takes place ("Have you had quiet guard?"), what time of day it
is ("'Tis now strook twelf"), what the weather is like ("'Tis bitter
cold"), and what mood the characters are in ("and I am sick at
heart").

One important difference between plays written in Shakespeare's time
and those written today is that Elizabethan plays were published after
their performances, sometimes even after their authors' deaths, and
were in many ways a record of what happened on stage during these
performances rather than directions for what should happen. Actors
were allowed to suggest changes to scenes and dialogue and had much
more freedom with their parts than actors today. Shakespeare's plays
are no exception. In Hamlet, for instance, much of the plot revolves
around the fact that Hamlet writes his own scene to be added to a play
in order to ensnare his murderous father.

Shakespeare's plays were published in various forms and with a wide
variety of accuracy during his time. The discrepancies between
versions of his plays from one publication to the next make it
difficult for editors to put together authoritative editions of his
works. Plays could be published in large anthologies called Folios
(the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays contains 36 plays) or smaller
Quartos. Folios were so named because of the way their paper was
folded in half to make chunks of two pages each which were sewn
together to make a large volume. Quartos were smaller, cheaper books
containing only one play. Their paper was folded twice, making four
pages. In general, the First Folio is of better quality than the
quartos. Therefore, plays that are printed in the First Folio are much
easier for editors to compile.

Although Shakespeare's language and classical references seem archaic
to some modern readers, they were commonplace to his audiences. His
viewers came from all classes, and his plays appealed to all kinds of
sensibilities, from "highbrow" accounts of kings and queens of old to
the "lowbrow" blunderings of clowns and servants. Even his most tragic
plays include clown characters for comic relief and to comment on the
events of the play. Audiences would have been familiar with his
numerous references to classical mythology and literature, since these
stories were staples of the Elizabethan knowledge base. While
Shakespeare's plays appealed to all levels of society and included
familiar story lines and themes, they also expanded his audiences'
vocabularies. Many phrases and words that we use today, like
"amazement," "in my mind's eye," and "the milk of human kindness" were
coined by Shakespeare. His plays contain a greater variety and number
of words than almost any other work in the English language, showing
that he was quick to innovate, had a huge vocabulary, and was
interested in using new phrases and words.

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Copyright:Adnan Almnene