He appears to have retired to Stratford around at age 49, where he died three years later. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between and His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about , including Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth , considered some of the finest works in the English language.
In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime.
John's principal business was that of a glover, but he also traded as a wool and corn merchant, and he is recorded in as being involved in money-lending. William's father, John Shakespeare, was an affluent glove maker, tanner and wool dealer who owned property in Stratford.
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 It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays.
These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio 'Folio' refers to the size of the paper used. It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.
His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.
This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London a two or three-day commute. In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought. On his father's death in , William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of acres of land in
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