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Birth: April 23 (or 26) 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon
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Influences: i) Father's position allowed
Shakespeare to have an education; exposure to authors such as Ovid and Roman
history; ii) early theatre and travelling players.
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Marriage: Anne Hathaway at age 18 (she was 26!)
Children: Susanna, Hamnet & Judith (twins)
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Jobs in London: actor and writer
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Poetry: sonnets
Plays: comedies, histories, tragedies
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Monarch: Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabethan era)
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Patron: Earl of South Hampton
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Performance times: daytime/middle of the afternoon
(remember there is no electricity!)
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Theatre closure: outbreak/alert of the plague
(Bubonic Plague, the Black Death)
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Objections to Theatre: drama considered ungodly and
immoral — all things evil derived from theatre
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Tragic event in 1596: death of only son Hamnet
Effect on Shakespeare: he wrote darker, more powerful dramas
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Actors' roles: young men, pre-pubescent males
played women and girls (Significant or powerful women played by important
male actors)
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Sources: history or existing fictions
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Profound works: Hamlet, Macbeth, King
Lear, Othello
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Players' name after 1604: King's Men – actors of
the court and the King
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Career ending event: Globe theatre burned to the
ground
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Shakespeare's retirement: retired to
Stratford-upon-Avon – became business man, gentleman, landowner (wealthy)
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Death: April 23, 1616, age 52 (died on his
birthday); buried April 25
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Folios: published 1623 – compiled by fellow
actors and friends; famous dedication written by Ben Jonson in which
Shakespeare is described: " He was not of an age, but for all time!"
