William Shakespeare Research Paper

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. His works of comedy, tragedy, romance, and history have inspired generations of authors and readers. Shakespeare is one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time. His life, while not the most interesting, truly is a story of working through personal struggles to achieve greatness. William Shakespeare was born in 1564, the exact date of his birth is unknown, and he was baptized on April 26 of the same year. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. This is the city where he grew up and lived for most of his life. As a child, he went to grammar school, studying Latin and classical historians, moralists, and poets. He was one of eight children, three of whom died in childhood or infancy. He had one sister and was the eldest of four boys.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married his wife, Anne Hathaway, who was 26 at the time. The two went on to have three children together, their daughter Susanna and

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. He and his play troop, the King’s Men, were patronized by King James I. Shakespeare is often considered to be the greatest dramatist in all of history, and is on of the best-selling fiction authors of all time, having sold between two and four billion copies of his works to this day. Some of his most famous works include, but are not limited to, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet. In his later years, Shakespeare moved back to Stratford-upon-Avon for retirement, sometime after 1611. Shakespeare died of causes that are currently unknown on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. He famously left his wife his ”second-best bed” in his will. Engraved on his tombstone is the epitaph, “Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear, to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my