Early Life
Shakespeare was born
in1564 in the considerable village of Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire,
adjacent to the middle of England. His father, John Shakespeare was a general
merchant in agricultural products but soon his prosperity declined. As his
father's troubles thickened he was very likely removed from the school
but at the age of
eighteen under the unfavorable circumstances, she married Anne Hathaway, a
woman eight years his senior. There are many rumors that his marriage was
unhappy but no real evidence, two girls and a boy were born from it.
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From1586 to 1588,
Shakespeare left Stratford to seek his fortune in London. He
joined Lord Leicester's company in 1575. His energy soon won him over to show his skills.
Literary Works
He became one of the
leading members, later one chief shareholder of the
company and a good
reputation as a playwright and a good actor. Shakespeare wrote
about 37 plays which are classified into comedies, tragedies, tragi-comedies, and romance. Shakespearean plays provide an insight into human nature.
Dramatic Careers
Robert Huntington
Fletcher divided Shakespeare's dramatic career into four divisions of
increasing maturity.
The first period is
that of experiment and preparations which
starts from 1588 and
extends up to 1593. Richard III is the most important work of this period.
The second period extending
from about 1594-1601is occupied chiefly with chronicle history plays and happy
comedies. Those include 'Richard II', 'Henry IV','Henry V'
,'Twelfth
Night','Midsummer Night's Dream' and two tragedies The Merchant
of Venice' and 'Romeo and Juliet'
The third period extending
from about 1601-1609, includes Shakespeare's great tragedies and cynical lays.
He grapples with the deepest and the darkest problems of human character and
life. 'Julius Caser' ,'Othello', 'King Lear', 'Hamlet','Macbeth 'and
'Antony and Cleopatra'
are the great tragedies of this phase.
The last period of
this division is of only two or three years and deals with the expression of
the serene philosophy of life. The noble and beautiful romance
comedies,'Cymbeline', 'The Winter's Tale' and'The Tempest'.
Shakespeare is one of
the conical figures in the history of England because of his wisdom, his power
and his mastery of poetic beauty. Ralph Waldo Emerson says about
Shakespeare. “He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.
Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sun of the Shakespeare’s wit”
