The Complete Biography of William Shakespeare: Life, Quotes and Facts

7 min readApr 22, 2020

William Shakespeare was a noted 16th century English poet, playwright and actor. Friends, you must have heard about them in history. He is widely known as the greatest English-language writer and pre-eminent playwright in the world.

He was also called the national poet of England and was nicknamed “Bard of Avon”. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 snatches, 2 long story poems and some other verses, some of which are authored indefinitely.

His plays have been translated into every language, and his plays have been performed more often than any other playwright and are still being performed today. People have appreciated his work a lot. Literature without William Shakespeare is like an aquarium without fish. He produced around 1700 English words. In this article, his life has been told.

The Birth and Early Life of William Shakespeare’s

William Shakespeare was born on 26 April 1564 in the city of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. Although the date of his birth is not known correctly, according to the church records, he was born on 26 April 1564. His father John Shakespeare was a successful local businessman, as well as holding a responsible position in Stratford’s government and in 1569 he also served as mayor.

And Mother Marry Shakespeare was the daughter of a wealthy landowner from a neighboring village. His parents had 8 children, of which William Shakespeare was the third and he was the eldest son of his parents.

No personal document, however, survives from Shakespeare’s school years. He probably attended Stretford Grammar School and studied classics, Latin grammar and literature. It is believed that he left his studies at the age of 13 to help his father financially. In this way, they had an early life.

Personal life of William Shakespeare

According to early tradition, William Shakespeare tied the knot with Anne Hathaway. William was just 18 years old and Anne was 26 years old when they were married. Anne was 8 years older than William. 6 months after their marriage, they had a daughter Susanna, who was married to John Hall.

After this they had 2 twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died at the age of 11 and Judith who was married to Thomas Quinney. In this way William Shakespeare had three children. There was a lot of debate about Shakespeare’s sexuality. It is estimated that he was bisexual. After her marriage, information about her life became scarce, but she spent most of her time in London writing and performing her plays.

William Shakespeare’s theatrical debut

According to some information, William started his theatrical career in 1585, and worked on it for 7 years. According to his performance records, he started his career on the London stage in 1592. At that time he became very famous.

Shakespeare attracted the attention of both critics and fans. Robert Greene was one of the first critics of Shakespeare, who was educated at the University and was unhappy with Shakespeare’s efforts. From 1594 onwards, almost all of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by the men of Lord Chamberlain.

The group reached the top position in no time, playing a leading company in London. Not only this, William Shakespeare bought his own theater in 1599 and named it Globe.

Meanwhile, Shakespeare’s reputation as a playwright and actor grew rapidly, and to such an extent that his name had become a strong selling point. The company’s success reinforced Shakespeare’s financial stability well. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, she was honored by a company with a royal patent.

That group became very popular after Shakespeare published and sold many of his popular literature. Shakespeare acted in several theatricals written by himself and others. Some of which include ‘Every Men in His Humour’, ‘Seasons His Fall’, ‘The First Folio’, ‘You Like It’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Henry 6’.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries there was an increase in the graph of Shakespeare’s career. He wrote about 37 plays out of which 15 were published. He earned a lot of money from his successful outing that enabled him to buy a huge mansion in Stretford, which he named New House. Shakespeare started buying real estate in Les.

Thus he was well converted into an interpreter. This was his investment in it, and he also assured financial benefits from it. Shakespeare wanted to focus more time on his play. This is how William Shakespeare’s theatrical career went.

William Shakespeare’s term in poetry

William Shakespeare was a playwright and actor as well as an English poet. Along with his theatrical arts in 1593 and 1594, he started trying to write poetry. He wrote 2 poems ‘ Venus and Adonis’ and ‘ The rape of Lucres’ at that time.

Both of these poems were dedicated to Henry Riotsley, Earl of Southampton. The poem ‘Venus and Adonis’ depicts Venus’s sexual advancement and Adonis’s avengual rejections. ‘The Rape of Lucres’ as the name suggests shows the emotional turmoil of Lucres in the poem that was argued by Raquine. Both poems were very popular and were also frequently printed.

Shakespeare also wrote the poem ‘A Lovers Complaint’ and ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’. This poem recounts a brief story of a woman who was in a torture due to her seduction attempts by her lover, and also mourns the death of Phoenix and the lover.

In 1609, Shakespeare named his work ‘Snets’. This was his last work in the field of poetry which was printed. There were about 154 of them in them. However, these snatches were questionable at the time of writing. It is believed that all those sonnets were written by Shakespeare through his career but for individual readers.

Sennets was a style of his own that was unique, unusual and to celebrate a feeling of love, passion. It is deep delves and also gives information about childbirth, death and time. In this way, his tenure in poetry went on which people liked very much.

William Shakespeare’s work and style

Talking about Shakespeare’s style of working, Shakespeare adopted his work and he was also very innovative. They had a traditional and conventional style of their own way, combining metaphors and rhetorical fragments. Most of Shakespeare’s plays had the appearance of a stanza pattern consisting of lines of an unwritten iambic pentameter or blank verse.

In the early years of his writing, ie during the 1590s, Shakespeare mostly took the theme of his work from history, such as ‘Richard 2’, ‘Henry 5’, ‘Henry 6’ and more. The only work that was exception at that time was ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Shakespeare was a versatile genius who tried to touch different genres with his extensive work.

Shakespeare’s plays were accompanied by comedy as well as romance. He also presented many plays with comedy, people also liked him very much. In the following years, he also touched on the style of tragedy.

In his characterization, Shakespeare also presented human behavior and actions. Humans have many behaviors, such as betrayal, retaliation, incest and moral failure, etc. Classically its works also include ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Othello’ and ‘Macbeth’.

Most of its works had tragic endings, and thus came under the genre of Dark Tragedies. It was his final work that Shakespeare performed a play with a tragedy, including both tragedy and comedy, with a tragic tale, though it did tell a sad story, but the ending of the play was enjoyable. By 1610, Shakespeare wrote many plays.

It is speculated that his last three plays written were in collaboration with John Fletcher, who became successful as a playwright after Shakespeare for the King’s Men Theater Group. Such was his work and the way to do it.

William Shakespeare’s death

In 1613, Shakespeare retired from Stretford. William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, 3 days before his birthday. Only 3 years before his death few records of his life were alive. According to church records, he entered the chancel of Holy Trinity Church on 5 April 1616.

He was there with his wife and 2 daughters. A memorial article on the rock of his grave was written that ‘Good friend, for Jesus’. These rich people do not need these stones. A funerary monument was erected to honor Shakespeare’s work and had its work on its northern wall. About half of his writing work was written on effigies.

Additionally there are funeral monuments in Southwork Cathedral, and poets’ corners at Westminster Abbey to dedicate them. Apart from this, many statues, monuments were established in memory of Shakespeare, which stood as a testimonial to the glory of the work of this prolific poet and playwright.

Some interesting facts about William Shakespeare are as follows-

William Shakespeare never attended college.
During Shakespeare’s time, women were not allowed to act in his plays, so the women characters in all his plays were played by men only.
Shakespeare was not interested in publishing his plays, he wanted to display his plays on stage.
Shakespeare created around 1700 English words, some of which were very popular.
He was also called the national poet of England and was nicknamed “Bard of Avon”.
There was a lot of debate about Shakespeare’s sexuality. It is estimated that he was bisexual.

Some of William Shakespeare’s precious words are as follows-

Love everyone, trust anything, do not hurt anyone.
The fool thinks that he is intelligent, but a wise man knows that he is a fool.
There is no fear of greatness. Some great ones are born to achieve greatness.
Love is seen not with the eyes but with the mind, and therefore those who covet wings are painted blind.
Mistakes are not in our stars but in ourselves.
I challenge you in the battle of the mind, but I see that you are unarmed.
Nothing good or bad happens, but thinking makes it.
Holding our destiny is not in the stars but in itself.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
We know what we are but do not know what can happen.
The word is easy like wind; Loyal friends are hard to find.
The prick of my thumb, some wicked come this way.
Although she may be but very few, she is awful.
Lord, what fools are these humans?
The path to true love is never easy.
Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t appreciate it.
I die with a kiss like this.
Do not dispute with him, he is crazy.
I love this place, and happiness can waste my time on it.
Old wrinkles also come with happiness and laughter.

Originally published at https://www.theindianhawk.com.