Cm ward biography of william shakespeare

In his last plays, "Cymbeline," "A Winter's Tale," and "The Tempest," the bard test-drove a hybrid genre, the tragicomedy, also known as the romance. While they take a more somber, serious tone than such comedies as "Twelfth Night," these tragicomedies end on a positive note, unlike such tragedies as "King Lear. By the time they reopened in , Shakespeare had already retired to his family home in Stratford where he died in at the age of While no verified version of the manner of his death exists today, one account, written by the vicar of Stratford 50 years later, attributes his untimely demise to drinking too hard with his friends John Drayton and Ben Johnson, and catching a fatal fever as a result.

Due in part to the great gaps in knowledge regarding Shakespeare's early education and the lost years, the bard has always been shrouded in mystery. In addition, not a single manuscript he wrote in his own hand survived the centuries. One scholarly explanation for this lack of historical verification is that "William Shakespeare" was the pen name of some more illustrious, well-educated figure of the Elizabethan era.

The controversy did not see the light of day until more than two centuries after the bard's death. Among the first to question the authorship of such all-time great works as "Macbeth" was a Pennsylvanian Lutheran named Samuel Schmucker, and he was merely drawing an analogy. He likened the scholarly trend of his time in using historic data to raise doubts about the existence of Christ was akin to speculating that Shakespeare never existed.

An offhand remark, but that is all it took to sow the seed of controversy. Some of the fuel for the fire included: 1. The lack of documentation for Shakespeare's existence. The disputed authorship of particular works. The unlikelihood that someone with the bard's background would rise to greatness. The controversy has even found its way into the U.

Download our complete William Shakespeare Study Guide for free to explore the key themes and characters from three of his most important plays. Download Free Study Guide. Character in Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet , which explores betrayal, retribution, incest, and moral failure.

Shakespeare wrote comedies throughout his career, including his first play The Taming of the Shrew. Some of his comedies might be better described as tragicomedies. Although graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness. Additional Shakespeare comedies include:.

Shakespeare is known to have created plays with other writers, such as John Fletcher. They also collaborated on Cardenio , a play which was not preserved. When including these works, Shakespeare has 41 plays to his name. Around the turn of the 17 th century, Shakespeare became a more extensive property owner in Stratford. When his father, John, died in , he inherited the family home.

Then, in , he purchased about acres for pounds. In , Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him uninterrupted time to write his plays. He likely spent the last three years of his life in Stratford.

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52 nd birthday, April 23, , but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Holy Trinity Church on April 25, In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna, who by then was married. However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage.

He is credited with inventing or introducing more than 1, words to the English language, often as a result of combining words, changing usages, or blending in foreign root words. It was published with the title Mr. In addition to its literary importance, the First Folio contains an original portrait of Shakespeare on the title page. The other is a memorial bust at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Shakespeare's Biography Biographical Links Home Shakespeare's Last Will and Testament For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history. Even in death, he leaves a final piece of verse as his epitaph: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare To dig the dust enclosed here. Biographical Links Mrs.

Or several, judging from the published speculation focused on her life and marriage. Shakespeare's "Lost Years" William Shakespeare may be the most famous writer in Western literature, but his whereabouts from to are a mystery. The ensuing speculation has spawned many interesting theories without producing much hard evidence. Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare Leigh T.

Denault presents a great succinct biography sketch of Shakespeare. Searching for Shakespeare Searching for Shakespeare is an online mseum exhibition curated by the Centre of Archaeology at Staffordshire University in collaboration with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Shakespeare Biography From Absolute Shakespeare; describes all that is known about Shakespeare's life from available documentation including court and church records, marriage certificates and criticisms by Shakespeare's rivals.

Shakespeare Documented This is the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare , bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter. Shakespeare's Life Folger Shakespeare Library From the website of the world-renowned Folger Shakespeare Library, the largest collection of Shakespeare materials and other Renaissance works.

What was life like in Stratford-upon-Avon and London when he was alive? Get the answers to these and other questions about Shakespeare's life from the venerable Royal Shakespeare Company. London: Vintage. ISBN OCLC Adams, Joseph Quincy A Life of William Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Baldwin, T. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Archived from the original on 5 May Retrieved 5 May Barroll, Leeds Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Bate, Jonathan The Soul of the Age. London: Penguin. Bednarz, James P. In Cheney, Patrick Gerard ed. The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bentley, G. Shakespeare: A Biographical Handbook.

New Haven: Yale University Press. Berry, Ralph Changing Styles in Shakespeare. London: Routledge. Bevington, David Oxford: Blackwell. Bloom, Harold New York: Riverhead Books. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Heims, Neil ed. King Lear. Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages. Bloom's Literary Criticism. Boas, Frederick S. Shakspere and His Predecessors.

The University series. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OL M. Bowers, Fredson On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Boyce, Charles Dictionary of Shakespeare. Ware: Wordsworth. Bradbrook, M. Bradley, A. Brooke, Nicholas Bryant, John In Levine, Robert Steven ed. The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville.

Carlyle, Thomas London: James Fraser. Cercignani, Fausto Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Chambers, E. The Elizabethan Stage. Shakespearean Gleanings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clemen, Wolfgang Shakespeare's Soliloquies. Translated by Scott-Stokes, Charity. Clemen, Wolfgang a. Shakespeare's Dramatic Art: Collected Essays.

New York: Routledge. Clemen, Wolfgang b. Shakespeare's Imagery 2nd ed. Cooper, Tarnya Searching for Shakespeare. Craig, Leon Harold Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Cressy, David Education in Tudor and Stuart England. New York: St Martin's Press. Crystal, David The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Dobson, Michael Dominik, Mark Shakespeare—Middleton Collaborations.

Beaverton: Alioth Press. Dowden, Edward New York: D. Drakakis, John In Drakakis, John ed. Alternative Shakespeares. New York: Methuen. Dryden, John Arnold, Thomas ed. Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Dutton, Richard; Howard, Jean E. Edwards, Phillip Shakespeare's Romances: — Shakespeare Survey. Eliot, T. Elizabethan Essays. Evans, G.

Blakemore , ed. The Sonnets. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Foakes, R. In Braunmuller, A. Friedman, Michael D. In Nelsen, Paul; Schlueter, June eds. Frye, Roland Mushat The Art of the Dramatist. London; New York: Routledge. Gibbons, Brian Shakespeare and Multiplicity. Gibson, H. Grady, Hugh a. Grady, Hugh b. In de Grazia, Margreta; Wells, Stanley eds.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Greenblatt, Stephen London: Pimlico. Greenblatt, Stephen ; Abrams, Meyer Howard , eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Greer, Germaine Holland, Peter, ed. Archived from the original on 29 August Retrieved 14 June Honan, Park Shakespeare: A Life. Honigmann, E. Shakespeare: The 'Lost Years' Revised ed.

Cm ward biography of william shakespeare

Manchester: Manchester University Press. Johnson, Samuel []. Lynch, Jack ed. Delray Beach: Levenger Press. Jonson, Ben []. In Hinman, Charlton ed. The First Folio of Shakespeare 2nd ed. New York: W. Shakespeare After Theory. Kermode, Frank The Age of Shakespeare. Kinney, Arthur F. The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare. Knutson, Roslyn Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time.

Lee, Sidney Levenson, Jill L. Romeo and Juliet. Levin, Harry In Wells, Stanley ed. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies. Love, Harold Attributing Authorship: An Introduction. Maguire, Laurie E. McDonald, Russ Shakespeare's Late Style. McIntyre, Ian Harmondsworth: Allen Lane. New York: Odyssey Press. Meagher, John C. Muir, Kenneth Shakespeare's Tragic Sequence.