William Shakespeare: biography, works, features and poems

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William Shakespeare was a great English writer and playwright. He is considered the national poet of England and the greatest dramatist in world literature.

Biography

Shakespeare portrait

William Shakespeare was born in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, on April 23, 1564.

The son of John Shakespeare, Deputy Mayor of Stratford, and Mary Arden, William was one of the most influential playwrights and poets in the world.

He was awarded a good education expressing, from an early age, his artistic talent.

He married at the age of 18, in 1582, to Anne Hathaway, and together they had three children: Susanna, Judith and Hamnet.

It was in the city of London that Shakespeare looked for opportunities in the cultural area. After years of work, he acquired the position of writer, playwright and actor, becoming a wealthy and influential man.

In 1594, he joined the "Lord Chamberlain Theater Company" and, years later, he becomes a member of the "Globe Theater” (Shakespeare's Globetheater or New Globe Theater).

This theater, near the River Thames in London, was founded by James Burbage, actor and entrepreneur. He was responsible for building the first London Theater the “

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Thetheater”.

Shakespeare Theater

Globe Theater in London, England

In this space, built in 1899 in an octagonal format, Shakespeare staged some of his most important plays, namely: Hamlet and king lear.

However, in 1613, during the performance of a play, the Globe Theater was destroyed by fire.

After the incident, Shakespeare decides to return to Stratford-upon-Avon and live with his family. He died in his hometown, on his 52nd birthday, in 1616.

Works and Features

Shakespeare has a vast work with about 40 plays, divided between comedies, tragedies and historical pieces, as well as narrative poems and sonnets.

Although his poetic work is well known, the artist has gained greater prominence in dramaturgy.

For 20 years, he addressed themes such as love, feelings, human, social and political issues, and his dramatic production was divided into three phases:

  • First phase (1590-1602): wrote historical plays, Renaissance-style tragedies and some comedies;
  • Second level (1602-1610): engaged in writing tragedies and comedies;
  • third phase (1610-1616): phase characterized by less tragic plays, conciliatory in character.

At tragedy the pieces deserve to be highlighted:

  • Romeo and Juliet
  • The storm
  • Julio Cesar
  • Antonio and Cleopatra
  • Hamlet
  • Othello
  • king lear
  • Macbeth

At comedy the pieces deserve to be highlighted:

  • The Comedy of Errors
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • The merchant of Venice
  • So much noise for nothing
  • cymbeline
  • Twelfth Night
  • as you wish
  • the tame shrew

In the historical pieces stand out:

  • Ricardo II
  • Ricardo III
  • Henry IV - Parts I and II
  • Henry V
  • Henry VI - Parts I, II and III
  • Henry VIII
  • King John
  • Edward III

At poetry the poems stand out:

  • Venus and Adonis (1593)
  • The Abduction of Lucrezia (1594)
  • Sonnets (1609)

Read more about the Renaissance Theater.

Shakespeare Poems

Check out three below sonnets from Shakespeare:

Sonnet 10

Ashamed of denying that you don't love,
You who are so reckless;
Accept, if you want, to be loved by so many,
But it is right that you do not love anyone;

Because you have such deadly hatred,
That only against yourself you do not conspire,
Seeking to ruin this noble ceiling,
What do you want to fix:

Ah, change your thinking I'll change mine!
Should hate have more reservations than love?
Be like your presence, gentle and gracious;

Or to you, at least, prove yourself kind,
Be another for the love you have for me,
So that beauty continues to live in you.

Sonnet 12

When I count the hours on the clock,
And the dreadful night comes to shipwreck the day;
When I see the faded violet,
And waning its luster by time whitened;

When I see the high canopy of naked foliage,
Who protected the herd from the heat with their shade,
And the summer grass tied in bundles
To be carried in bales while traveling;

So, I question your beauty,
Which must fade over the years,
As sweetness and beauty are abandoned,

And they die so fast while others grow up;
Nothing stops the sickle of Time,
Except the children, to perpetuate it after your departure.

Sonnet 53

What substance are you made of,
What millions of strange shadows surround you?
As everyone has their shadow,
And you alone can lend them.

Describes Adonis, whose imitation
It is poorly made in your image;
And on Helena's face, all the art of beauty is defined,
And you, in Greek mosaics, are painted again;

It speaks of spring, and of the freshness of the year;
The one who displays the shadow of your beauty,
And the other, as your heart resembles,

And you, in every blessed and known way.
You take part in all visible grace,
But neither you nor anyone else keep their hearts faithful.

Shakesperare Phrases

  • We are made of the same stuff as our dreams.”
  • Heretic is not the one who burns the bonfire, but the one who lights it.”
  • Fate is what shuffles the cards, but we are the ones who play.”
  • Love is the only folly of a sage and the only wisdom of a fool.”
  • I learned, that no one is perfect, until you fall in love with that person.”
  • I learned that we should be grateful to God for not giving us everything we asked for..”

Curiosities

  • Given their influence to this day, the plays written by Shakespeare are the most staged in the world.
  • The famous philosophical phrase “To be or not to be, that's the question” (in English “To be, or not to be, that is the question”) was written by Shakespeare in the tragedy Hamlet (1599-1601).

To enrich your knowledge of British literature, see also:

  • 10 movies based on Shakespeare's work
  • Sherlock Holmes: biography and trivia
  • Queen Elizabeth I
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