Scant records exist of Shakespeare's childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.
Being a public official's child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work and even about whether or not Shakespeare really existed. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, Two years later, on February 2, , twins Hamnet and Judith were born.
Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age There are seven years of Shakespeare's life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in Scholars call this period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.
One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. It's generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway. By the early s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.
Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King's Men following the crowning of King James I in From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular.
Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature. Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.
By , there is evidence Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, edition of the Stationers' Register a guild publication includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare: " There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.
Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene's way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe , Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.
Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece" By , Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family.
It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it's believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed. By , Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater.
In , Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.
Shakespeare's early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.
With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.
With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet , Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories. For a number of years he played a prominent role in the municipal life of the town. He served on the town council and was elected bailiff mayor. However, around John Shakespeare was beset by severe financial difficulties and he was forced to mortgage his wife's inheritance. William's mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a prosperous farmer, Robert Arden, who had left her some land in Wilmcote, near Stratford.
John and Mary Shakespeare had eight children: four daughters, of whom only one Joan survived childhood. William was the eldest of the four boys. William almost certainly went to one of Stratford's 'petty' or junior schools where he would have learnt his letters with the help of a hornbook.
From the age of seven or thereabouts, he would have progressed to the King's New School where the emphasis would have been on Latin, it still being the international language of Europe in the s.
Shakespeare probably left school at the age of 14 or The classical writers studied in the classroom influenced Shakespeare's plays and poetry; for example, some of his ideas for plots and characters came from Ovid's tales, the plays of Terence and Plautus, and Roman history. It is not known what Shakespeare did when he left school, probably at the age of 14, as was usual.
In , when he was 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was Their first child, Susanna, was born in May Twins, Hamnet and Judith, were christened in February From until , very little is known about Shakespeare. These are generally referred to as 'The Lost Years'. But by we know that he was in London where he was singled out by a rival dramatist, Robert Greene in his bitter deathbed pamphlet, A Groats-worth of Witte.
Plague broke out in London in , forcing the theatres to close. Shakespeare turned to writing poetry. The sonnets were also written about this time, though they were not published until In , Shakespeare became a founding member, actor, playwright and shareholder of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Richard Burbage was the company's leading actor. Shakespeare's life also overlapped with the Jacobean Era Queen Elizabeth was a fan of theater and did see Shakespeare's plays performed.
Her Successor, King James I, was also a fan of the arts and theater. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older.
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