Life and Career Of William Shakespeare

LIFE AND CAREER OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare is a national institution next only to the Bible, 

Shakespeare has become a household word with the students of English language and literature. The little known life-story of the greatest dramatist is replete with speculations. Despite concerted research endeavours spread over almost four centuries the complete life-history of Shakespeare is still uncertain and insufficient. Shakespeare is a special majestic eminence has induced people to attempt the writing of his life without material of the expected kind. We do not know anything about many of his contemporaries, for example Kyd the author of the most popular tragedy of that age, we know almost nothing, till recently, about the death of a celebrated person like Marlowe. So comments the 'Cambridge History of English Literature'. Many legends have been woven around his personality. There are some glaring black spots on his character which are not accepted to be true. Some have even questioned his very name..

 "We know nothing about Shakespeare's actual life and upbringing", writes Dr. E. Knox, therefore he must have been an plays which show 'multiscience, if not omniscience', must have been written by a number of Peerage who passed his first few plays under the name Shakespeare and then when the name of Shakespeare became extremely popular the Peer could not but continue doing the same. In the beginning he must have feared lest his first one or two plays might be mocked at and ridiculed so he did not unfold his own identity and used an imaginary name a the name of Shakespeare became indispensably important and popular, the same practice had to be continued. Some other researchers in the states reveal that it was Marlowe who wrote the plays and passed them under the name of Shakespeare, as Marlowe, being involved in a murder case had to remain underground for a number of years and did not like to reveal his identity for fear of being arrested. There are still others who declare that four or five persons wrote the plays under an imaginary name-Shakespeare. 

We need not waste our time and energy over these speculative propositions as many of them refute themselves. We agree while complaining with Stevens. All that we know of Shakespeare is that he was born at Stratford-on-Avon, married and had children, went to London where he commenced as actor and wrote plays and poems; returned to Stratford, made his will and died" 

There are three phases of Shakespeare's life: 

 1. Life at Stratford-on-Avon 1564-1586

 2. Life in London 1586-1604  

3. Life again at Stratford-on-Avon 1604-1616

The life of Shakespeare that we give here is based on the description of one of the greatest authorities on Shakespeare, Prof. Dowden.

 BIRTH 

M. Drayton, contemporary of Shakespeare calls Warwickshire as "the heart of England". The country around Stratford-on-Avon was remarkable for its wealth of wild lovely flowers, deep meadows on each side of Avon and sweet woodlands. In Shakespeare's days the town numbered about 1400 inhabitants. Flood and fire were the main dangers. The quiet and serene river, Avon, often became angry in autumn and left disease behind it. It was here that our Shakespeare was born on or about 23rd April, 1564. Prof. Dowden is also not certain upon what day Shakespeare was born. But he was baptized on April 26, 1564 is certain. The entry in the Register of Baptism at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, runs thus: 

"1564, April 26, Gulietmus Filiress Johannes Shakespeare."

 [William Son (of) John Shakespeare]

 The usual practice in those days was to present children for baptism on the third day after their birth hence the poet's birthday is taken to be April 22 or 23, 1564. 

PARENTAGE 

Our dramatist, William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare was a prosperous tradesman of the town who became its high Bailiff or Mayor. He made and sold gloves, farmed land and though he knew not how to write his name, became an important public person of the town...keeping the Queen's peace, imposing fines upon offenders, rising in course of time to the honourable posts of Chamberlain, alderman and high bailiff. He was married to Mary Ardens, daughter of his landlord. The Ardens were Warwickshire gentry since before the conquest and had been holding places of distinction in the household of Henry VII. First two children, girls of John and Mary Shakespeare died in their infancy. The third, William, their first son, braved the plague and survived. Then they had a daughter, another daughter who died early and three sons- Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. 

EDUCATION 

"Though there is no actual record of the fact" writes Prof. Hudson. "It is practically certain that like other Stratford boys of his class, he went to the local Grammar School, an excellent institution of its kind where he was taught Latin and Arithmetic and perhaps a little Greek."-(Dowden) The amount of Shakespeare's classical learning has been described by Ben Jonson as "Small Latin and less Greek". Prof. Dowden conjectures, he seems to have learned something of French and possibly also of Italian. If his picture of "the whinning school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwilling to school" be not impersonal we may suppose that Shakespeare himself was at some school and has written these lines from his own experience.
In many of his plays he makes frequent references to school boys, pranks. Lately in the The Essential Shakespeare' Prof. J. D. Wilson questions the Grammar School education of Shakespeare and says that Shakespeare's father was an ardent Catholic, the boy might have received his education as a singing boy in the service of some great Catholic gentleman.

It is certain that Shakespeare might have been taken to see the entertainments in the Guildhall coventry, not far away from Stratford. might have observed Herod with his painted masque and violent burning and the black souls, might have been the entertainment accorded to Queen Elizabeth when she paid her famous visit to Kenilworth in 1575, Prof. Dowden is of the opinion that what Shakespeare wrote in A Midsummer Night's Dream (III) is nothing but recalling the Kenilworth shows actually seen by him.

Consequent upon the declining fortunes of his prosperous father when the latter had to mortgage his property acquired from his wife, William Shakespeare, the son had to be withdrawn from the school at the early age of twelve to assist his father. He may also have worked for sometime as a school master in the village-school. The family passed through withdrew himself from the affairs of the town, lost his position citizen and became an insolvent debtor. a crisis. Shakespeare!s father withdrew himself from the affairs of the town, lost his position as the leading citizen and became an insolvent debtor.


 At the immature age of nineteen Shakespeare contracted an imprudent and indiscreet marriage with Anne Hathway, some eight years older than Shakespeare. On the basis of some passages in his plays critics have tried to show that the marriage was an unhappy one but nothing can be concluded for certain. Only six months later was born his eldest daughter, Susanna, and in 1585 the marriage was blessed with twins. Hamnet and Judith. Thus, when Shakespeare was older, and three children. The situation must have worried him but nowhere in his writings he exhibits any bitterness against the women.

According to Rowe. the earliest biographer of Shakespeare "by misfortune common enough to young fellows" he was involved in deer-stealing from a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy. For this he was presented by that gentleman, "as he thought, some what too severely and in order to revenge the ill usage William Shakespeare made a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the hardly twenty one he was burdened with wife, eight years first assay of poetry be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for sometime and shelter himself in London."