2008 January 17 » International Youth Theater Network

Shakespeare Through Life and Death

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Success did not come easily for William Shakespeare, considered the world’s greatest English writer. He was plucked from obscurity when he came to London in 1588 where he established a successful career in acting and playwriting as part of the theater company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men. His experience in the theater made him a rich man. With his wealth, he acquired New Place, a three-story house in Stratford. He was able to purchase other properties when his fortunes increased.

It was in New Place that Shakespeare spent his last years. He died on the 23rd of April in 1616. Incidentally, April 23 was also the month and day that historians assigned as his birth date. The cause of Shakespeare’s death was a mystery but it was speculated that he caught fever after a night of drinking with friends and fellow playwrights, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. His wife, Anne Hathaway and two daughters, Susanna and Judith, survived him. Aside from bequeathing his estate and some belongings to his family, he also left money for the poor people of Stratford and for his friends in his theatrical company, Richard Burbage, John Heminges and Henry Condell. For posterity, Heminges and Condell collected and published the 36 plays written by Shakespeare in a folio edition. Later known as the First Folio, this categorized the plays into comedies, histories and tragedies.

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