William+Shakespeare+by+Miranda

= __** William Shakespeare: **//** A Man Of Literature **//__= 

William Shakespeare. A name that usually comes to our heads when we hear the word //theater.// Let's start with the beginning of his life. He was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. Most of his birthdate is unknown except for the year, which is 1564. He lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. His father was John Shakespeare and his mother was Mary Shakespeare. He had two sisters and three brothers. In 1582, when he was 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. Hathaway gave birth to three children, Susanna and the twins: Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died at age eleven of unknown causes. Susanna and Judith grew up to be Susanna Hall and Judith Quiney. Judith died in 1662. Susanna gave Shakespeare his first grandchild, Elizabeth Hall, which became Barnard after she married. Shakespeare's literature is his claim-to-fame. With his plays, he started off writing historical plays and comedies. Later, he moved into his period of tragedies. This is a list of his surviving plays.
 * __William Shakespeare __**

 **__Comedies__** [| All's Well That Ends Well] [| As You Like It] [| The Comedy of Errors] [|Cymbeline] [|Love's Labours Lost] [|Measure for Measure] [|The Merry Wives of Windsor] [|The Merchant of Venice] [|A Midsummer Night's Dream] [|Much Ado About Nothing] [|Pericles, Prince of Tyre] [|Taming of the Shrew] [|The Tempest] [|Troilus and Cressida] [|Twelfth Night] [|Two Gentlemen of Verona] [|Winter's Tale]

__**Histories**__ [|Henry IV, part 1] [|Henry IV, part 2] [|Henry V] [|Henry VI, part 1] [|Henry VI, part 2] [|Henry VI, part 3] [|Henry VIII] [|King John] [|Richard II] [|Richard III]

[|Antony and Cleopatra] [|Coriolanus] [|Hamlet] [|Julius Caesar] [|King Lear] [|Macbeth] [|Othello] [|Romeo and Juliet] [|Timon of Athens] [|Titus Andronicus]
 * __Tragedies__**

Shakespeare was also a poet, and he wrote more than 150 sonnets. He wrote narrative poems and regular poems. It is rumored that one of Shakespeare's tragedies, Hamlet, was named after his son who died, Hamnet. His two long poems are titled The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. In the time of William Shakespeare all the parts in the plays that went on were played by men. For two tragic years, 1592-1594, the theater was closed due to the plague. In 1599, the Globe theater was founded and the first three plays to be performed in it were As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Henry V. June or July 29, 1613, the Globe theater caught fire during Henry VIII when a cannon announcing Henry's arrival, a spark hit the roof and the Globe burned down. Although they rebuilt the Globe, Shakespeare refused to write another play to perform in it. In 1614, William Shakespeare fell ill with fever. It was two years later when he wrote his will. In the document, he left his land and his house to his daughters, his money and possesions to his friends and the poor people of Startford-upon-Avon. And to his not-so-beloved wife, he left his second best bed. Later that year, the best poet/playwright of his time, sadly died.

__**Rumors and Shakespeare**__

Many rumors say that Shakespeare did not write his plays. Some people say he didn't even exist. Christopher Marlowe is said to have written the famous plays. Just recently, someone said that Shakespeare's sonnets were written by a Jewish woman named Amelia Bassano Lanier. Others say that the plays and sonnets were written by the Earl of Oxford, Sir Frances Bacon, or even Queen Elizabeth I herself. Nobody knows that this is true and no one will ever know.

__**William Shakespeare and Pop/Modern Culture**__

William Shakespeare is still a major influence to us today. Although the Renaissance had many influential people, Shakespeare is a key man, a Renaissance man. Because of this, many items have been made with Shakespeare's face on them. The movie [|West Side Story] was influenced by Shakespeare's [|Romeo & Juliet]. Cole Porter's [|Kiss Me Kate] is about a theater company doing Shakespeare's [|The Taming of the Shrew]. While still entranced with the theater company's problem, two show gangsters sing a song called [|Brush Up Your Shakespeare]. In the song, they quote lines from Shakespeare's plays. They also include the names of each of his plays into the silly song.



If you want to see more of the Renaissance, click on these links! Copernicus The Printing Press Brunelleschi Queen Isabella Christine de Pisan

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