By: Bobbi Benson, Alexa Graham, Matt Parry, and Matt McDonald

Shakespeare’s Life

Born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River

Married Anne HathawayHad three childrenWorked mainly in his theater in LondonEstablished himself professionally by the

early 1590sActor and shareholder in acting companyRetired in 1613Died in 1616

Introduction

I. Schooling A. Attended Kings New School B. Began studying at age 4 or 5 a. “petty school” C. Learned to read and write in English D. Students entered lower form of grammar school a. Latin grammar/Latin texts b. Latin comedies introduced E. Upper form a. Boys entered at age 10 or 11 b. students wrote their own Latin orations and declamations, studied Latin

historians and rhetoricians and began the study of Greek using the Greek New Testament

II. Family Life A. Married Anne Hathaway at 18 years old B. Daughters a. Susanna (1583) b. Twins Judith and Hamnet (1585)

Stratford Beginnings

A. Narrative Poems

a. 1593 Shakespeare became a published poet

b. Long narrative poems

i. Venus

ii. Adonis

iii. The Rape of Lucrece

c. Poems were dedicated to the young earl of Southampton(Henry Wriothesley)

i. Shakespeare’s patron

d. Wrote poems during plague

B. Theatrical Career

a. Leader of Lord Chamberlain’s Men

i. Later became principal actor, dramatist, and shareholder

b. Career spanned about 20 years

C. The Globe Years

a. 1599- Built a theater for Shakespeare’s company across the river from London

b. Famous plays written at the Globe

c. Performance of Henry VIII in 1613 caught the Globe on fire and it burned to the ground

Success in London

A. 1610-1613 Shakespeare seemed to return to Stratford a. Very wealthy B. Income a. Acting company’s profits b. Career as an actor c. The sale of his play manuscripts to the acting

company d. Shares as an owner of the Globe C. Assumed that William Shakespeare's growing wealth and reputation played some part in inclining the crown, in 1596, to grant John Shakespeare, William's father, the coat of arms D. Seven years after his death, his collected plays were published as Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, the work now known as the First Folio.

The Final Years

A. Exploration and Discovery

a. North and South America explored

b. Found human beings who lived and worshiped in ways radically different from those of Renaissance Europeans and Englishmen

c. Copernicus theorized earth was not center of cosmos; it revolved as a planet around sun

d. Galileo's telescope

-created in 1609

-allowed scientists to learn that Copernicus was correct

e. Impacted on people's beliefs—religious, scientific, and philosophical

An Expansive Age

B. London and Stratford

a. London

-Expanded and changed during the years Shakespeare lived

- Became exciting metropolis

-Troubled by overcrowding, poverty, recurring epidemics of plague

- A mecca for the wealthy and the aristocratic

b. Stratford

- Nearby Forest of Arden

- Sheep herding

- Small-town gossip

- Village fairs and markets

- Shakespeare’s work influenced the various worlds in which he lived

An Expansive Age Continued

A. Early Traditions a. Creation of legend and tradition b. Caught poaching deer at Charlecote, the estate of Sir Thomas

Lucy close by Stratford c. Fled from Sir Thomas's punishment and made his way in London

by taking care of horses outside a playhouse d. Reportedly could barely read but whose natural gifts were

extraordinary e. Father was a butcher who allowed his gifted son sometimes to

help in the butcher shop, where William supposedly killed calves "in a high style," making a speech for the occasion

f. Falstaff pleased Queen Elizabeth that she demanded a play about Falstaff in love

g. Reached the top of his acting career in the roles of the Ghost in Hamlet and old Adam in As You Like It

h. Died of a fever contracted by drinking too hard at "a merry meeting" with the poets Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson

Shakespeare’s Story

Some people say that Shakespeare is a fraud and that he may not have written the plays and works of literature that he put his name on.

People say more likely authors would be: Queen Elizabeth ,Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere (earl of Oxford) and Christopher Marlowe

Questioning Shakespeare’s Authorship

Shakespeare’s Works

"Shakespeare's Life-Folger Shakespeare Library." -Folger Shakespeare Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.

Works Cited