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 The greatest of modern dramatists and first of English poets, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, where his baptism was registered 26th April 1564. He died there, 23rd April 1616, aged exactly 52. The few facts of his outward life which have come down to us are mere fragments. Something, perhaps, there was of idyllic in his early years, something of license in his youth and first manhood, something of worldly wisdom in his maturity; how much, relatively to other circumstances, we do not know. But it is certain that he was beloved for his genial and gentle disposition.
His birthplace was also the home of his youth. His father, an alderman of the town (therefore a professed member of the new State Church), was by occupation a farmer, but in rank a gentleman, having received in 1569 a grant of arms from the Herald's College. His mother, Mary Arden, came of an ancient and honourable family in the country. In 1582 Shakespeare, then a youth of eighteen, married (under questionable circumstances) Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a neighboring yeoman. Five years afterwards he sought his fortune on the stage in London; and in 1592 he is spoken of as a successful actor and author. In the next year he prints his poem Venus and Adonis, and dedicates it to the Earl of Southampton. At this period some at least of his great Sonnets were composed: they may be autobiographical; possibly they disclose a painful story of lawless love. From this point, domestic sorrows excepted, the fragmentary record tells us only of prosperity and poetic energy.
The twenty years between 1590 and 1610 were his harvest-time; in the first decade came chiefly the histories and comedies, in the second the tragedies: they, or some of them, were performed before the Court, as well as elsewhere, Shakespeare being one of the King's players. Hamlet (in its final form) was printed in 1604. Having long been a partner in the Blackfriar's Theatre and in the Globe, Shakespeare made money; and in 1597 he bought a good house and land in his native Stratford. There he established his home, and lived his last years as a liberal gentleman. There also he died at the age of 52, and was buried in the parish church. His will, dated shortly before his death, marks his desire to found a family in Stratford; it makes no reference to his works. In 1623 his stage companions, Heminge and Condell, having affectionately collected all his plays (mostly in manuscript), gave them to the world in the First Folio. Prefixed was a falf-length portrait engraved by Droeshout. This engraving, and the bust in the church, which was already in its place, are the most authentic likenesses of the poet. The full appreciation of his extraordinary genius was not reached until the nineteenth century.
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| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
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