| William Shakespeare |
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We only know little about Shakespeare’s life because there is no biography which could have given us details about his life. The first biography by Nicholas Rowe from 1709 was based on information from documents like church registers, records of a case (Prozessakten), testaments… These documents made it possible to reconstruct Shakespeare’s life. William Shakespeare was baptized on 26th April 1564 in Stratford-(up)on-Avon, Warwickshire, so to make it easier, Shakespeare’s date of birth is dated on 23rd April, because he died on this day in 1616 and it wasn’t possible to find out his date of birth. His father – John Shakespeare – was a distinguished (angesehen) farmer and salesman. His mother – Mary Arden of Wilcomte – came from an old nobleness and owned a bit of land. William went to the grammar school in Stratford-on-Avon which was considered to be very good. So he had a very good education but didn’t go to university. In 1582 – with 18 years – Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. On 26th May 1583 his daughter Susanna was born and on 2nd February 1585 the twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet died with 11 years, but it is not known why. After the birth of his twins, Shakespeare vanished from the official documents and maybe from Stratford too. There are no known facts about the so-called “lost years” but many speculations: It is said that he was in jail, worked as a schoolmaster, fought in the Netherlands, worked as a butler, traveled the continent and got to know many famous persons. There is a document which proves that Shakespeare was in 1592 a member of a troupe of actors called “Lord Strange’s Men” which was renamed in 1594 into “Lord Chamberlain’s Men”. Shortly after becoming king, James I. renamed them into “King’s Men”. A proof for his increasing prosperity was the family crest (Familienwappen) he got in 1596. Besides he bought a big house on the border of Stratford where he moved in 1611. From 1599 the “King’s Men” only played in their own famous “Globe Theatre” where Shakespeare was financial partner. Shakespeare’s testament from the 25th March 1616 is conserved till today and it considers his wife and daughters. There are many myths about Shakespeare. There was a pipe found on Shakespeare’s property where scientists found traces of cocaine and marijuana. Combined with some sentences with the word weed in them, some scientists believe that Shakespeare was a drug addict. Another myth is that his opus was written by another man because it is hard to believe that someone with no higher education could write such great plays. von Sonja Lutter |
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