William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 


Biography

1. He is called the Bard of Avon/ Swan of Avon.
2. English National Poet
3. His father name is John Shakespeare and mother name is Mary Arden.
4. Married at the age of 18 with Anne Hathway.
5. He had two daughters, Susanne and Judith, and one son, Hamnet, who died at the age of 11.
6. Henry Wriothesley, 3
rd earl of Southampton, was the person to whom Shakespeare dedicated his first published poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.
7. 1594 to onwards he was an important member of Lord Chamberlin‟s Company of players. This company was called King‟s Men after the accession of James I in 1603.
8. He was buried in the channel of parish church at Stratford-upon-Avon.
9. No name was inscribed on his grave-stone but the following lines, possibly his own, appeared.
Good friend, for Jesus‟ sake forbear,
To dig the dust encoded hear
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones

Work

154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and 37 play in total.

1. Tragedies

a. Antony and Cleopatra
b. Coriolanus
c. Hamlet
d.Julius Caesar
e. King Lear
f. Macbeth
g. Othello
h. Romeo and Juliet
i. Timon of Athens
j. Titus Andronicus

2. History

a. Henry IV, Part 1
b. Henry IV, Part 2
c. Henry V
d. Henry VI, Part 1

e. Henry VI, Part 2
f. Henry VI, Party 3
g. Henry VIII
h. King John
i. Richard II
j. Richard III

3. Comedy

a. All‟s Well that Ends Well
b. As You Like It
c. The Comedy of Errors
d.Cymbeline
(Tragicomedy)
e. Love‟s Labours Lost
f. Measure for Measure
g. The Merry Wives of Windsor
h. The Merchant of Venice
(Tragicomedy)
i. A Midsummer‟s Night‟s Dream
j. Much Ado about Nothing
k.Pericles, Prince of Tyre
l. Taming of the Shrew
m. The Tempest
(Tragicomedy)
n. Troilus and Cressida
o. Twelfth Night
p. Two Gentlemen of Verona
q. The Winter‟s Tale
(Tragicomedy)

4. Poetry

a. The Sonnets
b. The Rape of Lucrece
c. Venus and Adonis
d.A Lover‟s Complaint
e. Funeral Elegy