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Sarah Mughannam
OConnor
Honors English 9
28 May 2016

William Shakespeare Notes

On April 1564, in Stratford, England, William Shakespeare entered into this world. Not
for certain, but researchers think that Shakespeare attended a preschool, learning about
catechism, reading, and writing. Around the ages of seven and thirteen, researchers also believe
that he attended a grammar school, studying history, natural sciences, Roman poetry and drama,
religion, ethics, logic, and public speaking. Shakespeare was a very smart boy, he excelled in all
subjects, and was not only book smart but street smart as well. At the age of 17, William married
a 26 year old women named Anne Hathaway. A year later, the two had a daughter named
Susanna. Then, the year after that, the couple had twins, one boy named Hamnet and one girl
named Judith.
The question if William Shakespeare was a religious man has always been unidentified.
When Shakespeare was a young boy, he was baptized in the Holy Trinity Church which is a
Catholic Church. Which most likely means Shakespeare was a Catholic but his work questions if
he actually believed in that religion. According to his work from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,
Shakespeare shows that he believes in a Supreme Being. Though at the time of his death, his
will did speak about Jesus Christ, and how now he will be with God in heaven. So the final
question is was William Shakespeare a Catholic, or a Protestant.
Shakespeare is known for his difficult, confusing, and enormous vocabulary that he
included in all of his work. What is amazing is in the work completed by Shakespeare, some

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words that he was unfamiliar with but wanted to include in his writing, he would include it
anyway. At this point in history, there were no such things as dictionaries or encyclopedias
because no one had the time to write something of that sort.
With his creativeness, Shakespeare has invented 1700 words in the English language.
What he would do is change nouns into verbs, connecting words, and adding prefixes and
suffixes to the ends of words.
Not only did Shakespeare invent words, but he revealed a new type of genre. He mixed
tragedy with comedy in one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet. He called this the
romance tragedy genre.
William Shakespeare owned his company, called Lord Chamberlains Men, that
performed plays at the theatre. The first location where Shakespeares plays were watched and
used for entertainment was at the Globe Theater in 1599. Fourteen years later that theatre burned
down during one of Shakespeares plays (the roof had caught on fire).
After the death of Shakespeare, his plays did not die with him but became even more
known by the public. His plays quickly spread to all of Europe, North America, and the rest of
the world. Shakespeare festivals, theatres, and plays are always occurring because of the impact
Shakespeare has on anyones life. William Shakespeare even is the main focus in high schoolers
curriculum all around the world. Numerous plays of Shakespeare have even been transformed
into movies that everyone knows and loves.

Works Cited
"Shakespeare Biography." Shakespeare Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2016.
"Shakespeare's Influence." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 May 2016.
"Shakespeare's Theater." Folger Shakespeare Library. N.p., 15 Dec. 2014. Web. 31 May 2016.

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