A bit Fancy - A bit Dancy - Same Dilbar - Same Site with a New Look!

William Shakespeare

BORN: 23 APRIL 1564

DIED: 23 APRIL 1616

On April 26, 1564, in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, William, son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, was baptized. His actual birth date isn’t known for sure, but it is usually assumed that he was born on the 23 of April, and that is the date that is traditionally celebrated. It is also possible he was born on the 21 or 22. In 1616, this time definitely on the 22 of April, Shakespeare died and was buried two days later in the same church where he had been baptized 52 years before.

Young William grew up in Stratford, attended the town’s grammar school and in 1582 married Anne Hathaway, who was already several months pregnant and 8 years Shakespeare’s senior. The  child, Susanna, was born the following May. In February 1585, Anne gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died in August 1596, but both Susanna and Judith lived to adulthood, married and had children of their own.

At some point in the late 1580s William left Stratford for London. By the early 1590s, after some time as an actor, we know that Shakespeare had also begun to author plays because he was attacked by playwright Robert Greene for having the temerity to be an actor who also wrote blank verse drama.

In 1593 Shakespeare became a published poet, with the publication of Venus and Adonis, followed by The Rape of Lucrece the next year. These were both written during a time when the playhouses in London had been closed during an outbreak of the plague. When the theaters re-opened in 1594, Shakespeare continued his work as actor and playwright, but also became a shareholder in his acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (who were later renamed the King’s Men). In 1599, the Globe Theatre was built in Southwark, along the south bank of the Thames opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral. This was to be the playhouse for the company for the next 14 years, until the theatre burned down during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. Sir Henry Wotton described the disaster like this:

Certain cannons being shot off, some of the paper or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where being thought at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming within less than an hour the whole house to the very ground… wherein yet nothing did perish but wood and straw, and  a few forsaken cloaks, only one man had his breeches set on fire, that would perhaps have broiled him, if he had not, by the benefit of a provident wit, put it out with bottle ale.

Within a year, the Globe was rebuilt, this time with a tiled roof. It was closed in 1642 by the Puritans and demolished a few years later. The current replica of the Globe, completed in 1997, is just a few yards from the original location and has the first thatched roof built in London after they were outlawed following the Great Fire of 1666.

At some point between 1610 and 1613, Shakespeare retired to Stratford-upon-Avon to New Place, the house where he died in 1616. As mentioned above, William Shakespeare was buried in Holy Trinity Church, where his grave can be visited. The memorable inscription on the gave reads:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forebeare
To digg the dust enclosed heare;
Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones

William Shakespeare is referred to as a Literary Genius and much of this praise is due to the wonderful words of his short sonnet poems and his extended poems as detailed on this page. He is the most widely read author in the whole of the Western World - his poems and quotes from poems are familiar to everyone. And yet when we think about Shakespear we immediately we think of his famous plays and not his less famous poems. During the Bard's lifetime dramatists were not considered 'serious' authors with 'serious' talent - but it was highly fashionable to write poems. Plays were for entertainment poems were for the elite! There was not even such a thing as a custom built theatre until 1576! Actors were common folk. Poets of the era such as Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Raleigh were of the nobility and there poems are still enjoyed today. These poets had credibility and so did their poetry. William Shakespeare came from Yeoman stock - he lacked credibility - his poems would have helped with this poblem !. The Bard did not give permission for one of his plays or his sonnets to be published. He was, however, happy to have his poems published. William Shake-speare has been attributed with the following poems:

• William Shakespeare Poem - A Lover's Complaint
• William Shakespeare Poem - Phoenix and the Turtle
• William Shakespeare Poem - Rape of Lucrece
• William Shakespeare poem - Venus and Adonis

A Lover's Complaint
A Lover's Complaint is the most neglected of the Poems of William Shakespear, assuming that it is his. It was first published in 1609, by Thomas Thorpe, under the same cover as the Sonnets; but has seldom been reprinted. The Lover's Complaint seems to be a very early poem (perhaps 1591), but no date of composition of the poem can be assigned.

Venus and Adonis Poem
April 18, 1593 Registration of Venus and Adonis Poem
Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare's narrative poem in six-line stanzas, was published by Richard Field (1561 - 1624). The poem was dedicated to Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). This dedication refers to the author's "unpolisht lines" and contains the typically fawning language of a commoner addressing a nobleman in the hope of obtaining, or retaining, their patronage in exchange for poems dedicated to the recipient.

The Rape of Lucrece Poem
May 9, 1594 Registration of The Rape of Lucrece
On May 9, 1594, the poem was entered in the Hall Book of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, the English government's pre-publication registry. The poem was listed in the Hall Book under the title of The Ravyshement [Ravishment] of Lucrece but was published with the title Lucrece. The Rape of Lucrece was substituted as a title at a later date. The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem resembling a revenge tragedy with 1,855 lines.

The Phoenix and the Turtle Poem
In 1601 a very fine poem subsequently titled The Phoenix and the Turtle appeared untitled as one of the Poetical Essays appended to Robert Chester's Love's Martyr: or Rosalind's Complaint. It was attributed to William, and many scholars have accepted the poem as genuine. The date of composition of the poem is unknown, but this poem must be a more mature work.

The Passionate Pilgrim Poems
The Passionate Pilgrime (1599) was a poetry collection containing twenty poems by various poets. The title page to the second edition contains the ascription "By W. Shakespeare" but only five of the poems appear to be his. The poems, or Sonnets 138 and 144, despite the "never before imprinted" claim of "a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes", were included, albeit in a slightly different format, in The Passionate Pilgrim poem.

Print │ Back│ Top

Coming Soon!