All about William Shakespeare...

1. William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Dhanesh Sebastian

2. William Shakespeare
Early years
❖ English poet, playwright, and actor.
❖ widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's
greatest dramatist
❖ Born: April 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon
❖ Died: 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon
❖ England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon“/ “Swan of Avon”
❖ Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
❖ Son of prominent town official
❖ 3rd child of 8 children
❖ Ben Jonson regarded Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time.”

3. William Shakespeare
Marriage and Family
❖ Married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway (she was 26)
❖ 1st child was daughter, Susanna-born in 1583
❖ Twins, Hamnet and Judith born in 1585
❖ Hamnet dies at age 11

4. William Shakespeare
“Lost Years”
The period between 1585 and 1592 is known as the “Lost Years”
Because there are no documentary records of Shakespeare’s activities

5. William Shakespeare
Later Years
❖ Moved to London around 1591 and became an actor
❖ Worked with the Lord Chamberlin’s company of players, later known as the
King’s Men

6. William Shakespeare
Works of Literature
❖ Along with acting, he also wrote some of the most renowned and studied
literature written in the English language
❖ Poems-he is known for his sonnets
❖ Plays-Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories

7. William Shakespeare
Comedies
• All’s Well that Ends Well
• As You Like It
• Comedy of Errors
• Measure for Measure
• Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Taming of the Shrew
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Twelfth Night
• Merchant of Venice

8. William Shakespeare
Tragedies
• Julius Caesar
• Hamlet
• Macbeth
• Othello
• Romeo and
Juliet
• King Lear

9. William Shakespeare
Histories
• King Henry V
• King John
• Richard II
• Richard III

10. Sonnets
● Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed between 1593 and 1601, though not
published until 1609.
● The Sonnets of Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all written in the form of
three quatrains and a couplet that is now recognized as Shakespearean.
● The sonnets fall into two groups: sonnets 1-126, addressed to a
beloved friend, a handsome and noble young man, presumably the author’s
patron, and sonnets 127-152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady,"
who the poet loves in spite of himself.
● 153 and 154- cupid
● Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine the inevitable decay of time,
and the immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.

11. The identity of enigmatic ‘Mr WH’ to whom the poems are dedicated?
● The Sonnets’ dedication reads: “To the only begetter of these ensuing
sonnets Mr WH. All happiness and that eternity promised by our ever-living
poet wisheth the well-wishing adventurer in setting forth. TT [Thorpe].”
-his publisher, Thomas Thorpe
• William Holme, who had both personal and professional connections to
Thorpe
● Shakespeare's Patron: William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke, 1580 – 1630
● Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, a noted patron

12. Dark Lady
● The Dark Lady is a woman described
in Shakespeare's sonnets (sonnets 127–154)
and so called because the poems make it
clear that she has black wiry hair and dark,
brown, "dun" coloured skin. The description
of the Dark Lady distinguishes itself from the
Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual.
Among these, Sonnet 151 has been
characterised as "bawdy" and is used to
illustrate the difference between the spiritual
love for the Fair Youth and the sexual love for
the Dark Lady

13. ● The sonnet was introduced to England, along with other
Italian verse forms, by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey, in the 16th century.

14. Globe Theater
❖ The Globe Theatre was a theatre in
London associated with William
Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by
Shakespeare's playing company,
the Lord Chamberlain's Men and was
destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613
❖ Shakespeare referred to the Globe as
“this wooden O,” a term that led
scholars to believe it was a circular
building

15. Epitaph
● Shakespeare wrote the following epitaph as a deterrent:
“Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.”

16. References:
● https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare
● https://guides.canadacollege.edu/Shakespeare/TheCurse#:~:text=In%20ord
er%20to%20scare%20off,dig%20the%20dust%20enclosed%20here.
● https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jan/31/shakespeare-sonnets-
mr-wh-dedication-
mystery#:~:text=The%20Sonnets'%20dedication%20reads%3A%20%E2%80%
9C,TT%20%5BThorpe%5D.%E2%80%9D