English playwright William Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Many of our everyday expressions can be traced back to Shakespeare. For example, “Dead as a doornail” (Henry VI); “Fool’s paradise” (Romeo and Juliet); “Into thin air” (The Tempest); “Parting is such sweet sorrow” (Romeo and Juliet); “Neither a borrower or lender be” (Hamlet) and “To thine own self be true” (Hamlet.) And according to Wikipedia, Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the history of the English speaking world– the Bible is first.
Birth Date: April 1564 – April 1616
Name: William Shakespeare
Job Functions: Playwright, Poet, Actor
Fields: Literature
William Shakespeare, one of the most notable writers of all times was born during the English Renaissance. Unfortunately, he left no notebooks or diaries, so much of what is written up about his intimate early life is speculation based on what was happening at the time.
He is believed to have attended the King’s New School, a grammar school in Stratford because it was free to all boys aged seven. Though no records exist, Shakespeare would have learned grammar, logic rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, read a fair selection of classics such as Virgil, Ovid and Seneca; and undergone elaborate memory training in Latin. At age 13 he had to leave school to help his father financially.
When he was 18 years old, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway – who was eight years his senior, pregnant at the time – and became a father six months later. No one knows exactly what the bard did between 1585 and 1592, but there is speculation that he might have been a traveling actor or a schoolmaster. Shakespeare became an actor and playwright in London in March 1592 and produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.
The London theatre scene was coming into its own, and people were ready to reward people with Shakespeare’s talents. “Shakespeare arrived in London during a bright period in English theatre. A new form of drama was taking shape that mixed the native drama of England with the classical style of ancient Greece and Rome. English playwrights began to borrow characters from classical sources, such as young lovers, old misers, and boastful soldiers. The blend of classical and English traditions gave new life and versatility to English theatre.”
In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting company, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare. The building could house up to 3,000 people. Shakespeare spent at least 19 years writing for the theatre, and produced dozens of plays and wrote many short poems. By 1598, he established his reputation as a dramatist. In September 1598, he acted in a role in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humor. By the end of 1598, Shakespeare along with six other members of the Chamberlain’s Company shared in the expenses to build the new Globe playhouse.
You get the sense that Shakespeare understood human life because of how realistically he portrayed his characters. In his plays, he focused on love, friendship, growing old, facing death, contemporary issues of gender and sexuality. His dramatic form included comedies, tragedies, tragicomedies, and history.
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Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1590)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591)
Love’s Labour’s Lost (1593)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600)
As You Like It
The Taming of the Shrew (1594)
Twelfth Night
Tragedies
Romeo and Juliet (1596)
Hamlet (1601)
Othello (1604)
Macbeth (1605)
King Lear (1605)
Julius Caesar (1599)
Antony and Cleopatra (1607- 1608)
Coriolanus (1607- 1608)
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Tragicomedies
The Merchant of Venice (1596)
Much Ado About Nothing
History
Henry IV (1597)
Henry V (1599)
Henry VI (1589 -1592)
Henry VII
Richard II (1595)
Richard III (1593)
King John (1596)
Problem Plays
Measure for Measure (1604)
All’s Well That Ends Well (1602)
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
Pericles (1607)
Cymbeline (1609)
The Winter’s Tale (1610)
The Tempest (1611)
Other Works
The Sonnets (Shakespeare wrote 150 sonnets)
A Lover’s Complaint
The Rape of Lucrece (1594)
Venus and Adonis (1593)
Despite little formal education, Shakespeare left behind a substantial body of work, most of which has stood the test of time. He invented, borrowed or adopted words and phrases from other languages. Also by studying the characters in Shakespeare’s work, business leaders can learn conflict resolution, change management, the art of rhetoric, how to reason, resilience and much more. Shakespeare understood human nature, which hasn’t changed over four centuries later.
Related Post
What Shakespeare Brings to Business
Sources Cited/Referenced
Encyclopedia of World Biography
UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender
The Renaissance
New catholic Encyclopedia
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