William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a person.

• Context:
  • They can have produced Shakespeare Plays, such as The Tragedy of Hamlet.
  • They can have produced Shakespeare Sonnets.
  • They can have a Shakespeare's Will.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • Shakespeare, 1564, when he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
  • Shakespeare, 1582 (age 18), when he married Anne Hathaway, beginning his family life.
  • Shakespeare, 1593 (age 29), when his first published work, the poem Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare), was released.
  • Shakespeare, 1595 (age 31), when he likely wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare), one of his most popular comedies.
  • Shakespeare, 1596 (age 32), when he wrote Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), his famous tragedy of young love and conflict.
  • Shakespeare, 1599 (age 35), when the Globe Theatre was built, and he produced Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) and As You Like It (Shakespeare).
  • Shakespeare, 1600 (age 36), when he wrote Hamlet (Shakespeare), including the famous "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy.
  • Shakespeare, 1603 (age 39), when Lord Chamberlain's Men became the King's Men under King James I's patronage, and he wrote Othello (Shakespeare).
  • Shakespeare, 1606 (age 42), when he wrote Macbeth (Shakespeare), one of his most powerful tragedies about ambition and fate.
  • Shakespeare, 1608 (age 44), when he wrote King Lear (Shakespeare), a tragedy exploring themes of family, power, and madness.
  • Shakespeare, 1609 (age 45), when he published his Shakespeare's Sonnets, including famous works like "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
  • Shakespeare, 1610 (age 46), when he likely wrote The Tempest (Shakespeare), his final solo play, often interpreted as his farewell to the stage.
  • Shakespeare, 1613 (age 49), when the Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire during a performance of Henry VIII (Shakespeare).
  • Shakespeare, 1616 (age 52), when he passed away and was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a contemporary playwright known for works like Doctor Faustus.
  • Ben Jonson (1572-1637), a contemporary playwright and poet best known for Volpone and The Alchemist.
  • John Fletcher (1579-1625), a fellow playwright who collaborated with Shakespeare on some late plays, but is best known for The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Faithful Shepherdess.
  • Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), a poet best known for The Faerie Queene.
  • Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), a Spanish writer who lived during Shakespeare's lifetime, best known for his novel Don Quixote.
• See: Poet, Playwright, English Language, Narrative Poem, Elizabethan Era, Iambic Pentameter, Shakespearan Tragedy.

---

---

References

2014

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare Retrieved:2014-9-10.
  • William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. 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, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some the best work produced in these genres even today. 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. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time". Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called “bardolatry”. In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

1600

• (Shakespeare, ~1600) ⇒ William Shakespeare. (~1600). “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark".

...

• • Shakespeare's Macbeth.
  • Shakespeare's Othello.
  • Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

---