Widely regarded as the best writer in English literature, William Shakespeare has left a legacy that can be felt until today. His works have been admired by so many that they have been translated into every language in the world, are performed by many, adapted into different plays, and continuously studied and reinterpreted.
Despite the massive degree of familiarity with his genius creations and the life of the world’s greatest dramatist himself, no one still knows who the real Shakespeare is.
His being remains to be shrouded in mystery amid several studies about him, so get to know the life and success of England’s national poet and the Bard of Avon.
Early Life of Shakespeare
Shakespeare was born in 1564 into a family with modest means in England. His father had a lot of occupations, ranging from being a farmer to a money lender. When the patriarch started to fall into deep debt, he raised his social status by marrying an aristocratic landowner’s daughter, Mary Arden.
Shakespeare was their eighth child. Though no one knew his educational background or college degree, there were beliefs he went to a local grammar school, where he could have studied Latin grammar and classics.
Shakespeare got married at the early age of 18 to a woman named Anne Hathaway and had three kids, Susana and the twins Hamnet and Judith. From here, he pursued his love for writing and acting in London, starting a career in theatre.
The Lost and Emergence
Biographers were surprised to see Shakespeare’s historical records from 1585 to 1592 gone. They called it the “lost year,” when nobody knew what happened to the Bard.
Some believed he ran away after poaching deer from a local politician’s land, while others claimed he worked as a schoolteacher, studied to be a lawyer, traveled around Europe, or joined an acting troupe.
When 1592 came, however, Shakespeare started to make a big name for himself. He became an actor, wrote a number of plays, and penned geography, culture, and things about the most influential people in London.
With his vast knowledge of European and other countries’ affairs, royal court, and general erudition, theorists asserted there’s a different personality using Shakespeare’s name to write these things. Though literary historians already dismissed the claims, others believed the poet worked with other playwrights to get this information.
The Greatest Works of the Century
It has been widely believed that Shakespeare’s first few plays had been made earlier than 1952. He had covered the three main dramatic genres: tragedy, comedy, and history, which was the themes of Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Henry VI trilogy, among others.
Shakespeare might have worked with different theatre companies in London back then, as his works started debuting on stage. He then started working for a troupe called the Lord Chamberlain’s Man, which was later renamed the King’s Men. He became its house playwright, collaborating with other members and making an investment to establish the Globe theatre in 1599.
From here, he started to pen the most famous plays that he had ever made, like Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest.
Shakespeare is famous for his use of “iambic pentameter, meditative soliloquies, and ingenious wordplay.”
For his writing credits, he wrote a total of 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, a few verses, and some whose authorships remain uncertain.
A Legacy that Continuously Lives
The loss of an important figure in literature was evident when Shakespeare met his demise at an early age of 52 in 1616, leaving a legacy that no one could outmatch.
His plays continuously resonate until today. His works have not only made a huge degree of impact in the literary world but also in the English language. He coined the terms fashionable, eyeball, lackluster, and others that are still used in everyday conversation.