KAUNAS JUOZAS GRUŠAS SECONDARY SCHOOL
PROJECT
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
1564 – 1616
Who was William Shakespeare? More has been written about him than about any other writer. Yet we know very little about his life, and there are some things in his biography that historians cannot state with any degree of certainty.
William Shakespeare was born at Stratford – upon – Avon, a small town in the middle of England. His grandfather was a farmer, his father was a wool and leather merchant who, unable to write, used a simple cross instead of a signature, while Shakespeare himself became a playwright. A note made in the church register at Stratford reads that on the 26th af April, 1564, was christened William, son of John Shakespeare. This shows that he was born on the 23rd of April, because at that time children were usually christened the third day after birth. According to popular belief, on the very same date, the 23rd af April, 52 years later, William Shakespeare died.
At the age of seven Shakespeare went to the local grammar school which he attended for six years. Besides reading and writing, he was taught Latin and Greek. In 1577 William was taken from the school by his father whose affairs took a turn for the worse. William now had to help his father. John Shakespeare had often business to do with butchers, and when the time came to kill an animal, his son used to recite a sad monologue. Such is the legent. According to another legent Shakespeare for some time taught at a school; yet others say he poached in the forests of rich landowners.
When Shakespeare was young , a girl, Anne Hathaway, was growing up in the village of Shottery, just a mile away. William married her at the end of 1582. Like Romeo in his famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet , Shakespeare was eighteen then. The church register confirms the birth of their first child Susanna in 1583. Twins, Judith and Hamnet, were born two years later. Soon afterwards the young Shakespeare left Stratford for London, probably to seek his fortune. And here breaks off the chain of documentary facts in his biography. What did the young man do during the first seven years of his lefe in London? Nobody can say. The only thing we know for certain is that Shakespeare, in one way or another, became acquainted with the theatre and several theatrical companies. By the end of the 1580s he is known to have been an actor and playwright in one of the leading companies of players – The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Very many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed in a London theatre called The Globe.
The theatres in those times were quite different from our modern theatres. The Globe was a round wooden building. Its floor where the spectators were consisted of ordinary beaten earth. In the middle there was a kind of house where the actors dressed and kept the things which were used in the performance. In front of it there was a platform. This platform, together with the balcony over it, was the stage on which the actors played. They came out of the house onto the stage through two large doors. In front of the stage was a large yard. Round the yard there were three balconies, one over the other. By the main entrance there was a picture of the globe with these words on it: “All the world is a stage”.