William Shakespeare Works & Literature

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, also known as "Bard of Avon" or the "Swan of Avon," was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, on what was probably April 23,1564. Although records have not survived, it is presumed that Shakespeare attended the King Edward VI Grammar School where he would have been educated in Latin grammar and literature. On November 28 ,1582 , Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and welcomed daughter Susanna on May 26, 1583. Twins Hamnet and Judith were baptized on February 2, 1585, but son Hamnet, died in 1596. By 1592, Shakespeare had developed a good reputation as a playwright in London. By 1594, he was an actor, writer, and part-owner of the Lord Chamberlains Men which became the King’s Men after James I adopted it. Shakespeare’s plays are divided into comedies, history plays, tragedies, and romances. Shakespeare also wrote 154 sonnets which deal which the themes of loves, beauty, politics, and mortality. Numbers 138 and 144 were published in 1599 in The Passionate Pilgrim while the rest were published in Shakespeare’s Sonnets in 1609. He also wrote the longer narrative poems, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and A Lover's Complaint. In addition, Shakespeare wrote the short poem The Phoenix and the Turtle. In 1613, Shakespeare retired to Stratford where he died on April 23, 1616. He is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. On his birthday each year, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the monument built by his family near his grave.