Profile of a Poet-Shakespeare.

As a poetry blogger, I think it would be silly if I didn't pay homage to some of the founding fathers (and mothers) of poetry! And who better to start with than Shakespeare himself, probably the most famous poet in history!



Name- William Shakespeare
Date of Birth- widely celebrated on 23rd April (1564), though no one really knows
Place of Birth-Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Time Period- Elizabethan
Date of Death- 23rd April (1616)
Occupation- Poet and Playwright
Parents- John Shakespeare (a leather merchant, alderman and bailiff) & Mary Arden (landed heiress)
Siblings-(in order of age) Joan, Judith (William), Gilbert, Richard & Edmund.
Children-Susanna, Hamnet and Judith

Interestingly, even though Shakespeare is generally considered to be the English national poet, we hardly know anything about him! There is no record of his birth, although we do know that he was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th April 1564. Generally, babies at this time were baptized at 3 days old, therefore it has been calculated that Shakespeare was born on the 23rd April 1564.

He probably attended the King's New School in Stratford, where he would have received free tuition for being the son of a public official, though no one really knows much about his childhood as no records exist. Some people have questioned whether or not he actually wrote his plays as there is no record of him attending school, whilst others argue that he never even existed!

After marrying Anne Hathaway (not the one in the 'Princess Diaries' films or Les Miserables!) when he was 18 years old, (she was 26) on the 28th November 1582 in Worcester, William's daughter Susanna was born on the 26th May 1583(that's right, Anne was pregnant before they got married!). On the 2nd February 1585, Anne gave birth to twins Hamnet and Judith. Sadly, Hamnet died when he was 11 years old of unknown causes.

After the twins were born, there are no records of the family for seven years. This period is called 'the lost years' and many scholars have argued about what he could have been doing at this time. Some say that he was poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy, and so went into hiding. Others argue that he was working as an assistant schoolmaster somewhere in Lancashire. Anyway, one thing that can be agreed on is that he arrived in London in the mid/late 1580s, where he may have become a horse attendant at some well-known theatres.

We can see in the records that by 1592, William had earned money as an actor and playwright and had possibly even produced some of his plays. By the early 1590s, we know that he was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's men (an acting company, in 1603 after King James 1st was crowned, it became known as the King's Men). They were very popular, and William grabbed the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare's first and second published poems were dedicated to the Earl, they were 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594).

By 1597, William had written 37 plays, 15 of which had been published. He bought the second-largest house in Stratford (New House), which was a four-day horse ride from London. He was very successful, and it is partly due to his commitment; he lived in the city and only came home to his family in New House once a year. This was over Lent, when theatres were closed for the whole forty-day period.

The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by William and his partners on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. In 1605, he also became a successful entrepreneur in real estate, buying leases in Stratford.

Shakespeare is believed to have died on his birthday, which again is believed to be on 23rd April. All we know is that he was interred at Trinity Church on 5th April, 1616. Most of his possessions he left to his eldest child, Susanna. Anne was entitled to a third of his estate, but not much was left to her after his death. She was left his 'second-best bed', which I think you'll agree is not a great gift for a life-long wife. Had they fallen out? Were they not close any more? There is no evidence for this, but it is a strange story.

In the 19th Century, love for Shakespeare was at its highest, but the world grew skepticle. The only hard evidence we have of William Shakespeare was of a modest man, born in Stratford-upon-Avon who married young and was successful in real estate. Names such as Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon started to be discussed, had these men written 'Shakespeare's famous plays? There are only 3 real pieces of evidence that can show us what he looked like. One is a portrait of a man, found in an attic in Stratford-upon-Avon, one is a bust of a man believed to be Shakespeare which was re-painted and edited anyway, and the other one is an engraving on the cover of the First Folio, 1623 (pictured right).  Shakespeare is lost in history now, but the story of the great playwright will forever live on.

Altogether, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and around 40 plays in his short life (2 of these plays are thought to be 'lost') and they have been performed countless times in theatres and schools the word over.

Helpful websites for Shakespeare info:
http://www.biography.com/#!/people/william-shakespeare-9480323#establishing-himself
http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/shakespeare.htm
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/home.html