William Shakespeare Research Paper

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William Shakespeare is an English poet, playwright and actor who is widely regarded as the best writer in the English language.William Shakespeare is usually referred to as the English national poet. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon in April 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. although his actual birthdate is unknown, his birthday is traditionally celebrated on the 23rd of April.

William Shakespeare's parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. William was the fourth of the Shakespeare's' eight children, only 5 of whom survived to adulthood. William was the oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, didn't live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had 3 younger brothers, …show more content…

Waves of the plague swept across the countryside, and pestilence ravaged Stratford during the hot summer months.

At age 18, he marries the considerably older Anne Hathaway (26 years old) from Shottery.They were married for 32 years.William and Anne had three children. Their first child was Susanna, born a mere six months after the wedding of her parents and the twins arrived in January 1585. They were named Hamnet and Judith, after two very close friends of William. Tragically, Hamnet Shakespeare died of unknown causes in August 1596, at the age of eleven.

A few months after his only son's death, William moved to London and became an actor and playwright. He left his family in Stratford, where he thought they would have a better life. William wrote an average of 2 plays per year for his acting company and performed often. Between the years 1594 and 1600, Shakespeare wrote 11 plays, including The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, and the 3 parts of Henry the 6th. Shakespeare lived during the Elizabethan age. Queen Elizabeth I loved plays, she even commanded to build many theatres like the Globe Theater and granted Shakespeare and his actors permission to perform. In 1603, after Elizabeth's death, Shakespeare's company became known as the King's Men, because they performed for many …show more content…

He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never used together, adding prefixes and suffixes. Some of his many words include gust, gloomy, lower and countless.

William Shakespeare actually had several patrons over his career. The obvious patrons are the rulers during his career-Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. Generally, the ruling bodies of a society will be the major patrons of the art. His most famous patron was the Henry Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton).Others include Edward Manners (Third Earl of Rutland), Henry Carey (1st Baron Hunsdon), William Herbert (Third Earl of Pembroke) and Sir Francis Walsingham(Spymaster).

The Elizabethan Playwrights, including William Shakespeare, were not held in high esteem, But the new plays brought in massive audiences to the Globe Theatre. There were no 'royalties' during the Elizabethan era and there were no copyright laws. Plays were blatantly copied and stolen and this plagiarism led to different versions of some plays, including those of William Shakespeare. The majority of the plays of William Shakespeare were published in 1623 in a document called The First Folio.William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets credited to

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