At the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway, a woman eight years older than he. It is possible that the marriage was a forced one, as their first child, Skusanna, was born six months later. However, it was accepted at the time that engaged couples could enjoy all the privileges of married life, and perhaps Shakespeare had intended to marry Ann anyway. It seems that domestic life did not go smoothly. Two or three years after the marriage, and following the birth of the twins Hammet and Judith, the young Shakespeare appears to have left Stratford and gone to London to seek his fortune. The year was 1585 or 1586.

The twenty-two year old man must have lived gaily in London, frequenting the taverns he was later to present vividly in his plays. The theater of London was growing, and Shakespeare apparently apprenticed himself to the thriving art, becoming a stage-hand and actor, and trying out his hand at composing plays. By 1594 he had written The Comedy of Errors, had collaborated with another writer on some plays about Henry VI, and had become known as an actor in the company called the Lord Chamberlain's Players. He had tried his hand at poetry, publishing two long poems entitled Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and writing the famous sonnets which were not to be published until some years to come. Both the long poems and one of the sonnets were dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, and it is possible that Southampton's patronage contributed to Shakespeare bought a coat of arms for his father. In the following year, the playwright, then thirty-three years of age, was able to buy New Place, one of the finest houses in Stratford-on-Avon, for his family. By 1599, Shakespeare was able to buy a share in the newly built Globe Theater. At this time, Julius Caesar was first appearing on the stage.

In 1603, Elizabeth the Queen died, and James I of Scotland acceded to the throne of England. Shakespeare's company became known as the King's Men, and apparently gave private performances for the court. Surely the success of this acting company was largely due to the plays Shakespeare contributed to its repertory, as well as to the virtuosity of Richard Burbage, the actor who must have performed Shakespeare's leading tragic roles. But while Shakespeare's worldly fortune continued to improve, his personal life seems to have darkened. In 1601 his father died, and with the appearance of Hamlet in that year, Shakespeare showed an involvement with chaos and tragedy that lasted until 1607. During this time he wrote the great tragedies. Financial success allowed him to end his career as an actor, and gradually Shakespeare, now over forty, began his retirement with his family in Stratford, where he settled finally in 1611. It was in 1611 that The Tempest, which is generally thought to be the last play Shakespeare wrote by himself, appeared. This is certainly an appropriate conclusion to the career of this playwright, for The Tempest resolves the tendencies of both tragedy and comedy in a peaceful, magical acceptance of life.  In 1616, he died.

Shakespeare lived a full life. He was past fifty at his death, both his daughters were married, and he had written thirty-seven plays, some of which had been published. The merchant's son who had left his home for London under unclear and perhaps unhappy circumstances had returned as one of Stratford's most prosperous citizens. He was buried at the same church at which he had been christened , and within a few years a monument bearing his likeness was raised in his memory. In his will Shakespeare left the major part of his property to his wife, but he did not neglect the fellow actors with whom he had shared so much. His wife lived to see the publication of Shakespeare's complete works in 1623. The edition is known as the First Folio, and was collected by John Hemminges and Henry Condell,  two of the actors of the King's Men whom Shakespeare had remembered in his will.

Shakespeare's Time

Shakespeare lived at a crucial and provocative time. Such famous writers as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and John Donne were all born within a dozen years of Shakespeare's birth, and were publishing during his lifetime. The drama was just being recognized as a legitimate art form, and the first public theater was erected when Shakespeare was twelve. Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland & Ireland, the source for many of Shakespeare's plots, was published only shortly after that. During Shakespeare's lifetime many events of historical importance occurred. France gave sanction to Protestantism; England made peace with Spain; the colony of Jamestown in Virginia was formed; Puritanism, with its moralistic disapproval of the theater, grew in strength; and the Kind James Bible appeared. Much was happening in the world of the arts as well. Queen Elizabeth pleasured herself with masques—great costumed festivals held at the country homes of nobles—at which guests were entertained with costume balls, and with much gaiety in the form of singing, impromptu sketches, and spectaculars. The growingly recognized art of the theater provided fertile ground for the efforts and innovations of a young playwright, and the dramatic art was taken up by many and developed at an explosive rate. All this was made secure by King James's sanction of the art.

TOP