Who was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English writer, poet and playwright. Four centuries after his birth he remains one of the most significant names in universal literature and the most important writer in the English language.

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-uponAvon, in England. His father, John, was a glove-maker. His mother, Mary, was a farmer's daughter. He had two older sisters, two younger sisters and three younger brothers.

He was the third of eight siblings, the first male child of John, an uneducated glove merchant, and Mary Arden, daughter of a Catholic landowner. John arrived in Stratford before 1532 as an apprentice and leather tanner. He prospered and began trading in agricultural products and wool; He traded gloves, leather, wood and wheat.

One of Shakespeare's relatives on his mother's side, William Arden, was arrested for conspiring against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed.

He studied at his local school and, as the first-born son, was destined to succeed his father in business.

He would have attended Grammar school or primary school for about six years, whose basic subject was Latin, although he had to go to work as a butcher's apprentice due to the difficult economic situation that his father was going through.

Despite being one of the greatest figures in world literature, he never attended university.

"We know what we are, but we do not know what we can be."

William probably studied Latin, Greek and history, and left school when he was 14 or 15. Three years later he married Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter called Susanna and twins named Judith and Hamnet. Sometime before 1590 he left Stratford and went to London, the capital city of England.

London's first theatre opened in 1576. Shakespeare worked in London as an actor and then started writing plays too. In 1593 the plague, a terrible disease, killed thousands of people and theatres were closed. During this time William started to write poems instead of plays. His short poems are called sonnets.

Shakespeare wrote comedies with happy endings, like A Midsummer Night's Dream. He wrote tragedies which had sad endings, like Romeo and Juliet. His history plays are about kings and queens, like Henry V. Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, maybe more. He loved language and invented new words and expressions that we still use today.

Shakespeare's success in the London theaters made him considerably wealthy and in 1597 he was able to purchase New Place, the largest house in the district of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although he developed his professional career in London, he maintained close ties with his hometown.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered at the site of Shakespeare's New House shows that Shakespeare only stayed sporadically in London, suggesting that he divided his time between Stratford and London (a journey of two or three days). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than researchers previously believed.

Shakespeare helped build a new theatre called The Globe. It opened in 1599. It wasround and had space for 3,000 people. At The Globe some people stood in front of thestage and others had seats. The audience shouted, clapped, booed and laughed whilethey watched plays. Musicians created special noises to make the plays more excitingand they had a cannon to make big bangs! No women acted in Shakespeare's time:men and boys played all the parts.

William became rich and famous. He had houses in London and in Stratford. He died when he was 52 on 23 April 1616. His plays and poetry were very popular 400 years ago and they are still popular today. People all over the world love his work because he wrote wonderful stories about very interesting people. 

Shakespeare and Stratford: https://youtu.be/heL171vkL8w

Podcats: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1mPIwANgwwckdv4HNIgBee?si=y37IWpu5Qw2KiWfqggE0Fw