William Shakespeare

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Chapter 1 - The man

William Shakespeare was born the 16 April 1564 in a small village in England called Stratford-upon-Avon. His father, John Shakespeare was a glove maker and an alderman. His mother, Mary Arden was a daughter of a farmer. He was their first child and he had 5 brothers and sisters.
William went to the local grammar school in the little village that was free for the boys. There he learned some greek and latin.
When he was 18 he married Anne Hathaway who was about 8 years older than him. The exact date of the wedding is unknown but it’s supposed to been in December 1582. A year after the wedding, the 26 of May Anne gave birth to a little girl, Susanna. Two years later the twins Hamnet and Judith were born At the age of 11 Hamnet died a mysterious death and the cause of death is still unknown.
After that there is no information what Shakespeare did until he came to London in 1592. The scholars have many theories, but none of them is really working.
Shakespeare went to London to become an actor. He became a good actor, he played both comic and tragic parts. After a while he started to rewrit old plays nad soon he started to write his own plays. He and his theatre company toured all over the country, they played before the nobility and the court. Everyone liked their performances. At that time theatre companies did not have decorations when they were performing. They had glorious costumed instead in the plays. In real life they were not alloud to dress beneath their stations.
Shakespeares career had began. He was lucky and many noblemen were interested in his work. He travelled around England and many cultivated people that were interested in theatre, art and litterature.
In 1595 and 1596 Shakespeare became really famous as a writer of plays. He wrote comedies, chronicels and tragedies like ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. When James I became a king in England Shakespeare played ‘Macbeth’ for him and he liked it a lot and wanted to see it several times.
Shakespeare made a lot of money, he loved his work. Actually, everyone loved his work. They came back to see their favorite plays like ‘Richard III’ and ‘Macbeth’. He became a man of standing. He wrote more than 35 plays and they were performed regulary.
Shakespeare left London in 1610 and moved back to Startford. He wrote no more plays after 1613, but lived an enjoyed his life anyway, with his daughter Susanna and her husband who was a doctor.
In 1616 Shakespeare had a merry dinner with his friends with eating and drinking and he got a fever from that shortly afterwards. He died from it a couple of days later.


Chapter 2 – The time

Shakespears time was the renaissance. The word ‘renaissance’ means rebirth.
The art became more realistic. The people began to separate belief and knowledge, the theatre began to work again after a long break since middle age. The people went on discover journeys, got themselves different concepts than the churches.
The church and the religion
During the renaissance the catholic church splintered and many new protestantic churches were formed. England was one of the countries that changed their doctrine from catholic to protestantic. Their church was called the Anglican church. Even if it was a protestantic country now did the services not change, they were like the catholic ones.
Science
Big progresses were done in astronomic and anatomic science. They discovered that the earth was not the centre of the universe and that there were more planets than the Earth itself.
Leonardo Da Vinci was a big scientist and artist during the renaissance. He drew the human body from the inside and took detailed notes. Without him we do not know if the medical science would be as progressed as it is today. He painted very famous paintings like ‘Mona Lisa’ too.
When Columbus went on a discovery trip he discovered America, and that changed people’s picture of the world.
The most famous writers during the renaissance were William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Rabelias and Corvantes.
A very important thing that was discovered was the art of printing by Gutenberg. Now they did not have to write the books, they could print them, and in that way you could spread the literature faster and more flexible. 18 years later the first bible was printed.
During the renaissance the human body was seen like something beautiful and many artists painted nude people, something that would have been shocking in the middle age.
All the artists had a personal style of painting, that they united with the antique art. The most famous artists of the renaissance were Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Rafael and Tizian.
The government
England was a monarchy.
Elisabeth I ruled England during a rather long period of the renaissance. Her father was Henrik III. She was interested in theatre, art and music, so she protected the theatre companies and the actors. Before, they lived a hard life with so little money that they had to go and oam the streets begging for money. Now t...