William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The last half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries are known as the golden age of English literature.

It was the time of the English Renaissance, and sometimes it is even called “the age of Shakespeare”.

By that time England had become a powerful state, and English trade was flourishing. The country was changing, and new branches of science were developing. At the same time, life for ordinary people was not always easy.

William Shakespeare, the greatest and most famous of English writers, and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived, was born in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire.

We know very little about his early life. The first recorded event is his baptism in the church of Stratford on April 26, 1564. He is therefore believed to have been born on April 23. His father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant and owned several houses in Stratford. William’s mother, Mary Arden, was a farmer’s daughter from Wilmcote, near Stratford.

William lived in Stratford until he was about twenty-one, when he went to London. We do not know exactly why he left. There is a story that his first job was holding horses at the theater door, but this cannot be confirmed.

Later, Shakespeare became an actor and a member of one of the main acting companies. Soon he began writing plays for this company and became well-known. He was also a good friend to his colleagues in the theater.

One writer of that time, Robert Greene, wrote an angry pamphlet accusing Shakespeare of stealing other men’s plays. This was not true, and soon the pamphlet’s publisher apologized to Shakespeare, recognizing his honesty.

Theater at that time was very popular. All kinds of Londoners went to see plays, and Shakespeare’s experience as an actor helped him greatly in writing. Even though he usually acted only in small parts, his knowledge of the stage and his poetical talent made his plays extraordinary.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. They include tragedies, such as “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Macbeth”; comedies, such as “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, “All’s Well That Ends Well”, “Twelfth Night”, “Much Ado About Nothing”; and historical dramas, such as “Henry IV” and “Richard III”.

Most of Shakespeare’s plays were not published during his lifetime, so some may have been lost in the fire when the Globe Theatre burned down in 1613.

He spent the last years of his life in Stratford, where he died in 1616. He was buried in the local church, and a monument was later placed in his honor in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Shakespeare was a great humanist. He believed in the high and noble qualities of the human mind and heart. This belief is visible even in his darkest tragedies. In plays such as “Romeo and Juliet”, “Othello”, and “King Lear”, he showed that even when people face sadness and loss, their feelings, ideals, and sense of truth remain important.

Shakespeare wrote many different kinds of plays and excelled in all of them. He could create both humorous and serious scenes. The characters in his plays feel like real people, not just fictional figures. Some, like Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo, are known worldwide, even by people who have never read the plays.