Who is William Shakespeare?

A Term Paper Presented the Faculty of the English Department Philippine Integrated School Foundation Inc. Bangon, Marawi City

In Partial Fulfilment Of the Requirement for Fourth Year High School

By Ayza Zuhranie Usman Serad

March 2012

INTRODUCTION

This study aims to enable student in Philippine Integrated School to have a deeper understanding about the life of one of the famous poet and novelist in the 1500s namely William Shakespeare. We might know some about him, but still dont you think its better to have more information about him. We never know it might be able to help us in the future. Over the centuries there has been much speculation surrounding various aspects of Shakespeare's life including his religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sources for collaborations, authorship of and chronology of the plays and sonnets. Many of the dates of play performances, when they were written, adapted or revised and printed are imprecise. In this Term Paper youll learn additional knowledge about William Shakespeare.

Who is William Shakespeare?

Thesis Statement:
Shakespeare is one of the most famous poet and novelist in his generation and with the greatest contribution in the English literature.

Introduction
I. Body A. Early Life B. Biography C. Death II. Works
A. Comedies

B. Sonnets C. Histories
D. Tragedies

E. Apocrypha III. His Influence

Conclusion Work Cite

I.

Body
William Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but

his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped

Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was

an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about

such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeares death. In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeares direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes acurse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008.

II. Works
Comedies "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. Patterns in the comedies include movement to a "green world", both internal and external conflicts, and a tension between Apollonian and Dionysian values. His Comidy works: All's Well That Ends Well , As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure , The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, Prince of Tyre *, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest *, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen * and The Winter's Tale * (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_comedy) Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before

imprinted. (although sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the

1599 miscellanyThe Passionate Pilgrim). The quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal. The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalise his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker's love for a young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet's name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the "little lovegod" Cupid. The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, entered the book in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609: Tho. Thorpe. Entred for his copie under the handes of master Wilson and master Lownes Wardenes a booke called Shakespeares sonnettes vjd. Whether Thorpe used an authorised manuscript from Shakespeare or an unauthorised copy is unknown. George Eld printed the quarto, and the run was divided between the booksellers William Aspley and John Wright.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare's_sonnets) The histories were those plays based on the lives of English kings. Therefore they can be more accurately called the "English history plays," a less common designation. Macbeth, set in the mid-11th century during the reigns of Duncan I of Scotland and Edward the Confessor, was classed as a tragedy,

not a history, as were the plays that depict older historical figures such as Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and the legendary King Lear. These latter plays, however, are often included in modern studies of Shakespeare's treatment of history. His historical works: King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Part 1 , Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, Richard III and Henry VIII (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_history) Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608. These include his four major tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, along with Antony & Cleopatra,Coriolanus and the lesser-known Timon of Athens and Troilus and Cressida (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_tragedy) The Shakespeare Apocrypha is a group of plays and poems that have sometimes been attributed to William Shakespeare, but whose attribution is questionable for various reasons. The issue is separate from the debate on Shakespearean authorship, which addresses the authorship of the works traditionally attributed to Shakespeare. His Apocrypha works: Arden of Faversham, The Birth of Merlin, Edward III, Locrine, The London Prodigal, The Puritan, The Second Maiden's Tragedy, Sir

John Oldcastle, Thomas Lord Cromwell, A Yorkshire Tragedy and Sir Thomas More (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Apocrypha)

III. His Influence

William Shakespeare's influence extends from theatre and literature to present-day movies and the English language itself. Widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist, Shakespeare transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization, plot, language and genre. Shakespeare's writings have also influenced a large number of notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville, and Charles Dickens. Shakespeare is the second-most-quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world after the various writers of the Bible, and many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages.

CONCLUSION
William Shakespeare is one of the most known writers. His work Romeo and Juliet was a book seller because of every line used on the story has a great sense. Many of his works is known. He has contributed many thing in English literature. Shakespeare was inspired by the high person in his time but now he inspires millions of writers in this globe.

REFERENCE
A. Books Serrano, Josephine and Milagros G. Lapid. English Communication Arts and Skills Through British, American, and Philippine Literature. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, Inc. 2001 Chin, Beverly Ann, Denny Wolfe, Jeffrey Copeland, Mary Ann Dudzinski, William Ray, Jacqueline Jones Royster, and Jeffrey Wilhelm. Glencoe Literature. United States: The McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2002

B. On Line Resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/ http://kirjasto.sci.fi/shakespe.htm http://www.gradesaver.com/author/shakespeare/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare's_influence http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rfletcher/bl-rfletcher-history-6shakespeare.htm