William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, (1564-1616). English dramatist and poet. He spent his early life in Stratford-on-Avon, and at 18 married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children. By 1584 he was involved in the theatre in London and in 1594 he became a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (later the King’s Men). Until 1603 he probably acted as well as writing for the company, which performed at the Globe Theatre and on tour. His plays were first published posthumously in a folio collection in 1623; consequently it is not possible to assign definite dates to each play. Among the earliest were the three parts of Henry VI (1589-92), Richard III (1592-93), and Romeo and Juliet (1594-95). The comedies date mostly from the middle period and include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-96), As You Like It (1599-1600), and Twelfth Night (1601-02). Hamlet (1600-01) was the first great tragedy. The other major tragedies, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all date from 1604-06. The Tempest (1611-12) is the last major play. Shakespeare died in Stratford on 23 April 1616. In his will he left his wife only his second-best bed.
“Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault.
Samuel Johnson in James Boswell, The Life of Johnson (1792)
Was there ever such stuff as the greater part of Shakespeare? Only one must not say so. George III in Fanny Burney, Diary (1842-46)
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. Charles Darwin; Autobiography
With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his. George Bernard Shaw, review of Irving’s Cymbeline”
