WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) Shakespeare and His Works

READING SHAKESPEARE IN CONTEXT

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616)

Shakespeare and His Works

William Shakespeare, the most famous English writer, is also among the most popular. His fame and popularity rest on his plays more than on his nondramatic poetry though his sonnets remain perennially in fashion. What makes Shakespeare such a literary phenomenon? Why are readers so drawn to his work? Here are two simple explanations: 1) his revelation of human character, especially his exploration of complex states of mind and feelings: 2) his explosive and exuberant language, particularly the richness and variety of his metaphors. Both of these literary virtues abound in the sequence of 154 sonnets Shakespeare wrote in the 1590s. Both also consistently appear in his 37 plays, particularly in the soliloquies, those inward meditative speeches of the major characters. The richness of Shakespeare's language is also apparent in the songs he wrote for the plays, especially the songs in the comedies.

Shakespeare's plays and poems provide a repository of familiar sayings and recognizable quotations. From Hamlet alone, we glean the following:

In my mind's eye

To the manner born

There are more things in heaven and earth

Hold the mirror up to nature

I must be cruel only to be kind.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

To be or not to be, that is the question.

Neither a borrower nor a lender is.

Something's rotten in the state of Denmark.

What a piece of work is a man.

Shakespeare, of course, is not a great writer because he is quotable; he is quotable because he is a great writer. It is his manipulation of language and his revelation of character that have made him both widely read and deeply revered. 

Very little is known with certainty about Shakespeare's life. Scholars, however, have determined the following basic facts. He was born in Stratford on Avon in April of 1564. He attended the local grammar school, where he would have studied Latin and perhaps a little Greek. His formal education did not include attendance at the university in his day either Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, at eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, who bore three children in as many years, a daughter in 1583 and twins, a boy and girl, in 1585. Shakespeare wrote and acted in plays, for by 1592 he was known in London as both actor and playwriter. 

Many tributes have been paid to Shakespeare. One, however, stands above the rest: his contemporary Ben Jonson's judgment that "he is not for an age, but for all time."