WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(1564 - 1616)


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was one of the world’s greatest writers. He was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford – on – Avon, a small English town. His father was a dealer in corn, meat and wool.
Being 18 years old, William married Anne Hathaway, who was 9 years older than him. They had a daughter Susanna and twins – son Hamlet and daughter Judith.
The Stratford school was a difficult place at that time. The pupils had to be at school at six in the morning in the warm seasons and an hour later in winter. School days were long, and only in the holidays could William Shakespeare have a real rest. He went to the woods and to the river Avon.
But the best things of all in Will’s life were groups of actors who visited Stratford from time to time. He watched them and knew that he wanted to be an actor.
When William was twenty-one, he went to London to find a job, where he began writing plays staged at the Globe Theatre. 1592, he had an important member of a well-known acting company.
At the same time, Shakespeare was an actor, a poet and a writer of drama. He wrote 154 sonnets, 2 long poems and 37 plays, where he showed his creative genius. Shakespeare watched the new life and he showed how differently people understood it. Life itself was shown in his plays.
The first period (1590 -1600) of his creative work consists of comedies and histories. In this period Shakespeare wrote such histories as: “King Henry V”, “King Richard I”, “King Richard III” and others.
“Romeo and Juliet” is one of Shakespeare’s famous tragedies appeared between 1600 and 1680. This was the second period of his literary work. He presents great human problems. This period began with the tragedy “Hamlet”, which was a great success.
The following plays, belonging to the second period: “King Lear”, “Othello”, “Macbeth”. Shakespeare’s plays of the third period (1606 - 1611) are called romantic dramas: “The Tempest”, “The Winter Tale”, “Henry VIII”.
It is known that only in 1611, at the height of his fame, Shakespeare returned to Stratford, where in April 23, 1616 he died. He was buried in a fine old church in Stratford.