Done by Soh Han Qiang

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William Shakespeare was baptised on 26 April 1564. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-uponAvon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway 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 died on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52.

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William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. Shakespeare's family was of the wealthy merchant class or petty gentry. His mother's family was gentry and Shakespeare worked hard to raise his father's status by getting him a grant of arms.

His actual birthdate remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day.[8] This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616.[ Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home.

Shakespeare's intentions were first to become an actor. He left Stratford-on-Avon to begin a career on stage. He worked his way up the ladder in the acting profession: first as a gopher, then a prompter, and finally an actor. Luckily, in 1593, the Bubonic plague closed the Theatres of London, and so Shakespeare turned to writing long poems and drama full-time.

His early plays were mainly comedies and histories. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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. 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.

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In Elizabethan times, London was a very rich city. During Elizabethan times, there was lots of entertainment. In Shakespeare's time, England had three types of money. There were pence, shillings and pounds. In Elizabethan England, most people believed in ghosts, witches and magicians although their religion was Christian.

Queen Elizabeth I ruled England. She was the monarchy during the Elizabethan period. The Elizabethan era was characterized by a renascent interest in the arts, long forgotten because of the many years of turmoil and political unrest that preceded it. Most notably was the War of the Roses, in which the two Houses of Lancaster and York fought over possession of the English crown until finally the Lancastrians were defeated.

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a flowering of literature, science, art, religion, and politics, and a resurgence of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

"Renaissance", French for "rebirth", utterly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe and also England. When referring to England, the Renaissance made its biggest impact between the years of 1500 and 1600. The Renaissance in England can be categorized in three sections: the growth of the Renaissance under early Tudor monarchs (1500-1558), climax of the Renaissance under Elizabeth I (1558-1603), and weakening of Renaissance by Stuart monarchs (16031649).

During this period known by this name, Europe arised from the economic depression of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial astronomical growth. Also importantly, the Renaissance was a period that became the turning point for artistic, social, scientific, and political thought. Many people share the view that a renaissance like this one seemed radiant, optimistic, and forward-looking. Likewise, others have viewed the Renaissance as a time of uncommonly dire strain that disrupted the English society and affected every one. The awakening of new possibilities and new doubts somehow gave the literature of England its unmatched vigor.

Shakespeare updated the simplistic, two-dimensional writing style of pre-renaissance drama. He focused on creating human characters with psychologically complexity. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of this. The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity of every character regardless of their social position. Even monarchs are given human emotions and are capable of making mistakes. Shakespeare utilized his knowledge of Greek and Roman classics when writing his plays. Before the renaissance, these texts had been suppressed by the Catholic Church.

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