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William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet, is recognized as the world’s greatest dramatist. His plays, created more than 400 years ago, continue to impact millions of people. During his time however, these plays did not make him rich. He did not receive any commissions or royalties for creating the plays that are now regarded as among the best ever created. Despite this, Shakespeare soon became a wealthy man because he was a sharer of his theatrical company called Lord Chamberlain’s Men. As a sharer, he received a percentage of the company’s profits aside from his salary as an actor and as a playwright.In London, Shakespeare successfully established his reputation as an actor and playwright. During his time, many poets and critics expressed admiration for his works. However, he was not as revered when he was alive as he is now. Critics during his time found his skills inferior to that of John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. In fact, many mocked and condemned his plays. Thomas Rymer, in fact, heavily criticized Shakespeare for combining the comic and the tragic in his plays. Another playwright, Robert Greene, distributed pamphlets in London lambasting Shakespeare for trying to outrank other playwrights who were university-educated such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself.

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There has been much speculation about many aspects of the life of William Shakespeare, the “Bard of Avon.” His mysterious persona could be attributed to the fact that there are only two primary sources of information about his personal history. These are the legal and church documents that have survived through the centuries and some facets of his life which he incorporated in the plays he created.

The lines in the play, “King John,” that talked about the grief that the character felt for losing his son was seen as a reflection of the sorrow that Shakespeare must have felt after his son, Hamnet, died at such a young. Moreover, in the play, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the comical scene between a Welsh headmaster and a pupil named William was speculated to be based on the experience of Shakespeare as a young student. The mysterious circumstances behind the death of Ophelia, one of the characters in the play “Hamlet,” were also based on an experience of Shakespeare when he was 15. A woman from a nearby village drowned and though it was deemed an accident, many suspect that the she may have committed suicide. These facets in Shakespeare’s life as revealed through his plays somehow gave us a glimpse of how he was as a person.

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Very little is known about the personal history of William Shakespeare. To date, there are only two major sources of information about his life and these are his works as well as various legal and church documents from the Elizabethan era.

Scholars had hugely debated the childhood years of the Bard. It was speculated that he might have been educated in a free grammar school in Stratford due to his knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek. Though there had been no records found to substantiate this theory, scholars are convinced that Shakespeare must have had a solid education due to the literary quality of his works.

What happened to Shakespeare from childhood until his marriage when he was 18 years of age was a mystery to many. His marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1852 and the baptism of his children, Susanna and twins, Hamnet and Judith were documented. However, after the birth of his twins in 1585, no trace or record of Shakespeare had been found until seven years later. This period was labeled by scholars as Shakespeare’s “lost years.” His name resurfaced only in 1592 when he came to London to start his career as an actor and playwright.

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We always think of William Shakespeare as the creator of such immortal plays as “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” that we often forget that he was also a family man when he was alive. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than he was. They were issued a marriage license on November 27, 1582 by the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester. They appeared to have wed in haste due to the impending birth of their first child who was born about six months after they were married.

Their eldest child, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583. Two years after, they bore twins, a son whom they named Hamnet and a daughter, Judith. Hamnet was reported to have died for unknown reasons on August 11, 1596 when he was 11 years of age. Apart from this, not much is known about the family of Shakespeare except that when he died on April 23, 1616, he was survived by his wife and two daughters. When he died, he bequeathed his “second best bed” and one-third of his estate to his wife. He also stated through his will that the bulk of his estate will be given to Susanna, his elder daughter.

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