WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

What we know about him is based on a few public records of his early years.
He was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th April 1564, so he was probably born three days
before, on 23th April 1564.
His father was a tradesman or glove maker. William was the eldest son of eight children. He
attended the local grammar school, where he studied classical authors and rethoric.
He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26. They had three children: a daughter,
Susanna, and twins, Judith and Hamnet (the last one died at the age of 11 and she was buried).
In 1584 he went to London and he was received into one of the acting companies, but he
distinguished himself not as an actor but as an excellent writer.
In 1593 London theatres were closed because of the plague and Shakespeare need the support of
a private patron, the Earl of Southampton, a nobleman to whom he dedicated most of his poems.
Shakespeare became the main play-writer of the most successful company of actors in London,
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
In 1599 his company built the Globe Theatre. When James I became king, the company changed
its name to the King’s Men.
He wrote around 37 plays for the theatre and over 150 sonnets. He wrote different kinds:
histories, comedies and tragedies.
Then he spent his life in retirement in Stratford. He died at the age of 52 on 23th April and he was
buried at the local church.

FIRST FOLIO
In 1623, 36 of his plays were published in one volume, called First Folio. The plays were organised
in comedies, tragedies and histories.
LANGUAGE
He used language to create his dramatic world. He invented over 1.700 words.

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
They were written in the 1590s but published for the first time in 1609. They were dedicated to
‘W.H.’, whose identity remains a mystery (William Herbert is frequently suggested).
We don’t know if the poems are expressing his personal feelings. The two figures the sonnets are
addressed to are the Fair Youth and the Dark Lady.
tFY: sonnets 1 to 126 focus on a young man. There are a variety of themes: beauty and its decay,
competition between poets…
tDL: sonnets 127 to 154 focus on a woman who is irresistibly attractive.
The 154 sonnets are both traditional and experimental. He plays with the conventions of
Elizabethan love poetry. He modified the structure of the sonnet and created new metaphors.
One of the lovers is a male, that provides an exploration of gender and sexuality.
William changed both the rhyme scheme and the layout of the sonnet.
SHALL I COMPARE THEE
It’s a dramatic sonnet. It is addressed to a young man, the ‘Fair Youth’. It discusses the nature of
physical beauty and its relationship to poetry.
The addressee (destinatario) is better than summer because is more lovely and temperate.
The problem of the summer is that its winds ruin May flowers and that its duration is temporary.
The sun doesn’t always shine because sometimes it hides behind the clouds.
The poet is referring to the beauty of a person. Death is an enemy of beauty. The beauty of the
addressee will last forever through the sonnet.

MY MISTRESS’ EYES
It’s a sonnet. It is addressed to the ‘Dark Lady’. The poet spoke about an idealised and idolised
mistress (a lover). True love and beauty are not necessarily related. The mistress is very ugly but
he loves her anyway.