William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born on April 23rd, 1564 in Stratfordupon- Avon to John Shakespeare, a glove maker and a local justice of the peace, and Mary Arden. He was the third of eight children and the eldest boy in the family. He probably left school at 14, and later may have worked as a school teacher. He was only 18 when he met his wife-to-be, Anne Hathaway. She was 26 at the time. They were married shortly afterwards in November 1582 and their
first child, Susanna, was born eight months later. Two years later, they had twins, Hamnet and Judith.
From this point in his life, all records are lost for seven years until 1592, when he is to be found living apart from his wife in London. He had become a writer and leading actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting company at the Globe Theatre.
Shakespeare was a successful man: his plays were popular with all levels of society. Eventually he made enough money to buy the Globe and, later, the Blackfriars Theatre. Some claim that he did not, in fact, write the plays he is so famous for, attributing them to John Webster, a contemporary of Shakespeare who wrote The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. However, there is little evidence for this.
William Shakespeare died in 1616 on his birthday. He was 52 years old. He is now considered to be the greatest writer in the English language. The names of his most famous plays – Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth – are known all around the world and hundreds of the phrases which he invented have become part of everyday English: to have seen better days, to be true to yourself, the world’s your oyster, to smell a rat, brevity is the soul of wit, …
1. When was Shakespeare born?
2. How many brothers and sisters did he have?
3. As a young man, what was his job?
4. When did he get married?
5. What was the name of his wife?
6. How many children did he have?
7. What was the name of his acting company?
8. What was the name of the first theatre he bought?
9. Which of these didn’t he write?
a) Coriolanus
b) The Comedy of Errors
c) The White Devil
d) As You Like It
10. When did Shakespeare die?
