William Shakespeare

We know relatively little of the life of Britain's greatest playwright. Although renowned during his own lifetime for his genius, he was still of comparatively low birth, and therefore not written about by the scribes who recorded the lives of Shakespeare's higher-born peers such as Donne and Marvell. Shakespeare's birthday is traditionally thought to be April 23rd, 1564. Parish records from the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford Upon Avon show that he was baptized there on April 26th. His father was a civil servant, well respected in the town of Stratford, who married above his station, a woman by the name of Mary Arden. Stratford was a well-run town, and Shakespeare attended a good school whose fees were paid by the progressive local borough. Shakespeare did not attend university. Instead, in 1582, he married Anne Hathaway. The next year, they had their first daughter, Susanna, and then two years later, two twins, Judith and Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son.

Shakespeare began to write, and the next we know of him is when his plays began to be performed upon the London stage. He was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (an acting company which was renamed 'The King's Men' on the accession to the throne of James I). Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, died at the age of eleven and many say this is why Hamlet is so-called. It is certain that this was a time of great anguish for Shakespeare and corresponds with the composition of some of the most sombre tragedies. Shakespeare enjoyed critical and popular success throughout the latter days of his life and died on April 23rd (his birthday), 1616, a wealthy man. Exact dates for the composition and performance of many of Shakespeare's plays is unknown, and in some cases even the authorship is in question. However, the following is a list of the plays in as close to chronological order of composition as is it is possible to estimate:

The Comedy of Errors (1590), Titus Andronicus (1590), The Taming of the Shrew (1591), 2 Henry VI (1591), 3 Henry VI (1591), 1 Henry VI (1592), Richard III (1592), Love's Labour's Lost (1593), Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1594), Romeo and Juliet (1595), Richard II (1595), King John (1596), The Merchant of Venice (1596), Henry IV Part 1(1597), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597), Henry IV Part 2 (1598), As You Like It (1598), Henry V (1599), Much Ado About Nothing (1599), Julius Caesar (1599), Twelfth Night (1600), Hamlet (1601), Troilus and Cressida (1602), All's Well That Ends Well (1603), Measure For Measure (1604), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1605), Antony and Cleopatra (1606), Timon of Athens (1606), Pericles Prince of Tyre (1607), Coriolanus (1608), Cymbeline (1609), A Winter's Tale (1610), The Tempest (1611), Henry VIII (1613).