William Shakespeare Lecture Notes

Birth

April 23, 1564

Stratford-on-Avon

Death

April 23, 1616

Stratford-on-Avon

52 years old

Life

Most famous poet / playwright in the world

Lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I (Elizabethan Period)

His genius was his understanding of people

His skill was with words

His ability was pleasing an audience

His Family

Lived in and around London, England

Lived during the Renaissance

Father – John Shakespeare – glove maker, shop keeper, land owner, Bailiff (mayor) of

Stratford-on-Avon. (Well-off)

Mother – Mary Arden

William had 7 brothers and sisters

Married Anne Hathaway

He was 18

She was 26

Their first child was born 6 months after their marriage

They had three children:

Susanna

Twins: Hamnet and Judith.

Hamnet died at age 11.

Schooling

Attended the free grammar school – 7 AM to 5 PM - until age of 15

Studied Latin, Latin Grammar, and Mythology

Career

Gained fame about age 21

Member and part owner of Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later became King’s Men)

Earned most of his money as an actor, not a playwright

Actor for about 20 years

Wrote 37 plays

Paid approx. $40 to write a play

Also wrote poems and sonnets

Other playwrights / friends: Ben Johnson, Christopher (Kit) Marlowe

Fellow actor / good friend: Richard Burbage

Shakespeare was known as a quiet, polite, good-natured man and a loyal friend

Retire to New Place (house he bought)

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He never wrote a play set in Elizabethan England

Characters lived in medieval England, France, Italy

Used more words than any other writer – 21,000 words

Many he made up: critic, assassinate, bump, gloomy, suspicious, hurry, catching a

cold, the mind’s eye, elbow room

His Will

Left his wife his “second-best bed”

As a widow, she was entitled to 1/3 of his income of the estate and to remain in the house

Principal bequests were to his daughter, Judith

Susanna received 2 houses on Henley Street, all other lands, and menial residue

Elizabethan Age

Ideal man (Renaissance Man) was a courtier, skilled in social graces, fencer, poet,

conversationalist with wit, and a gentleman

Women were “lower” or less important than men

Marriages were often arranged

Women were powerless under the law