William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He wrote around 38 plays and 154 sonnets over the course of his career. Some of his most famous plays include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. After achieving success as an actor and playwright in London, Shakespeare retired to Stratford in 1613 where he died three years later. His works are considered the greatest in the English language and are performed frequently worldwide.

1. GABRIELA GUEVARA Q
SIXTH SEMESTER OF LANGUAGES
Who was William
Shakespeare?

2. Be not afraid of greatness: some
are born great, some achieve
greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon them.
William Shakespeare

3.  William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564;
died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and
playwright, 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
surviving works, including some collaborations,
consist of about 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long
narrative poems, and several other poems. His
plays have been translated into every major living
language and are performed more often than
those of any other playwright.

4. Stratford-upon-
Avon

5.  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

6. King's Men playing
company

7.  Shakespeare produced most of his known work
between 1589 and 1613.His early plays were mainly
comedies and histories, genres he raised to the
peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of
the 16th century. 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.

11.  After 1606–1607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays,
and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last
three plays were collaborations, probably with
John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house
playwright for the King’s Men.
 Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived
by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had
married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith
had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two
months before Shakespeare’s death.

12.  In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate
to his elder daughter Susanna. The terms instructed
that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her
body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom
died without marrying. The Halls had one child,
Elizabeth, who married twice but died without
children in 1670, ending Shakespeare’s direct line.
Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne,
who was probably entitled to one third of his estate
automatically.

13.  He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my
second best bed", a bequest that has led to much
speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult
to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best
bed would have been the matrimonial bed and
therefore rich in significance.
 Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy
Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph
carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a
curse against moving his bones, which was carefully
avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

14. 1. Nobody knows Shakespeare's actual birthday. Scholars think he was
born on April 23, 1564, three days before his baptism was recorded at
a church in Stratford, England. Strangely enough, his death in 1616
also occurred on April 23.
2. As far as we know, he never went beyond grammar school, probably
finishing in his early to mid-teens. In those days, grammar school was
way more advanced than now: Students learned Latin, math and
religion; they read classical literature and studied using a hornbook
(paper glued to a piece of wood and covered with clear animal
horn).
3. Shakespeare applied to the College of Heralds for a coat of arms for
his father. A coat of arms was a symbol of higher rank in British society.
The Shakespeare family's coat of arms has a spear in the middle and
a falcon on top. Shakespeare inherited the coat of arms when his
father died and was then permitted to call himself a gentleman.

15. 4. Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, had three
children: Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. The
twins were named after neighbors who named their son
William. Although Hamnet died at age 11, his name lives
on: It was sometimes written as Hamlet, the title of one
of his father's greatest characters and plays.
Shakespeare's last descendant, a granddaughter, died
in 1670.
5. "Shakespeare" was spelled 80 different ways, including
"Shaxpere" and "Shaxberd.”
6. Shakespeare is the most translated author ever. His work
is read in at least 80 languages, including Chinese,
Italian, Armenian, Bengali, Tagalog, Uzbek and Krio
(spoken by freed slaves in Sierra Leone).

16. 7. Shakespeare is thought to have written 39 plays. About half
were printed in small booklets before his death. But some of
his most famous works, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar,
were not printed in his lifetime. They would not have been
handed down to us had not two men in Shakespeare's
acting company—John Heminge and Henry Condell—
printed 36 of his plays in a book called the First Folio. When
the book was published in 1623, seven years after
Shakespeare's death, it sold for 1 British pound (several
hundred dollars in today's money). One sold in 2006 for nearly
$5 million
8. While most people regularly use about 2,000 words,
Shakespeare used more than 25,000 in his writing.
9. Did Shakespeare really write Shakespeare? Some people
think that other authors wrote the works credited to him. This
is a debate that likely will continue.