William shakespeare what was he famous for

Shakespeare also wrote plenty of poetry and in published a book of sonnets. We know his work was popular at the time because he earned enough money to live in a smart area of London, where he wrote some of his most famous plays. He had an incredible influence on the English language and invented hundreds of words we still use today.

Here are some of the more than 1, words first used in Shakespeare's writing:. As well as writing plays, Shakespeare performed on stage with a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Company.

When James I became king in the group was renamed the King's Company. The group performed in two theatres near the banks of the River Thames in London - the Globe and Blackfriars. Shakespeare went own a share of these theatres. In Shakespeare's time, women were not allowed to act on stage so all the female parts had to be played by boys. Shakespeare Week: What was life like years ago? William Shakespeare's th birthday.

Should the number of dislikes on YouTube videos be hidden? These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those he loves. In Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, , but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, The exact cause of Shakespeare's death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness. In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed.

However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistress — the marital bed — and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests. About years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon — men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration — as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright. Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare's works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.

Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society founded in put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare. The Oxfordians cite de Vere's extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare.

They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters. However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays.

They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds. They contend that Stratford's New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare's authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare's life doesn't mean his life didn't exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Royal records from show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King's Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays. There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th century. Beginning with the Romantic period of the early s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height.

In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works. Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts.

The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. It has been suggested that he intended them for his intimate circle only, not the general public.

Shakespeare died at age 52 of unknown causes on April 23, , leaving the bulk of his estate to his daughter Susanna. Furthermore, Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, As a longtime member of a Puritan group that separated from the Church of England in , William Bradford lived in the Netherlands for more than a decade before sailing to North America aboard the Mayflower in He served as governor of Plymouth Colony for more than William Seward was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U.

Seward spent his early career as a lawyer before winning a seat in the New York State Senate in An ardent William McKinley served in the U. Congress and as governor of Ohio before running for the presidency in As a longtime champion of protective tariffs, the Republican McKinley ran on a platform of promoting American prosperity and won a landslide victory over Democrat Most scholars accept that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, and spent time acting in London before returning to Stratford, where he lived until his death in But actual documentation of his life is pitifully scarce: little more than several signatures, The political and religious leader Roger Williams c.