William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the eldest son of Mary Arden and his husband John Shakespeare (c. 1530-1601), glover and wood dealer. In 1568 John Shakespeare was made a mayor of Stratford and a justice of peace. His wool business failed in the 1570s, but the family's position was restored in the 1590s by earnings of William Shakespeare, and in 1596 he was awarded a coat of arms.

Shakespeare is assumed to have been educated at Stratford Grammar School, and he may have spent the years 1580-82 as a teacher for the Roman Catholic Houghton family in Lancashire. At the age of 18 he married a local girl, Anne Hathaway (died 1623), who was eight years older. The first child, Susannah, was born within six months, and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Hamnet, Shakespeares only son, died in 1896, at the age of 11.

After 1582 Shakespeare probably joined as an actor one or several companies of players. By 1584 he emerged as a rising playwright in London, and became soon a central figure in London´s leading theater company, the Lord Chamberlain´s Company, renamed later as the King´s Men.

About 1610 Shakespeare returned to his birthplace , where he had a house, called New Place, and lived as a country gentleman. A number of his plays were published during his lifetime, but none of the original dramatic manuscripts have survived. In 1623 appeared a folio edition of Shakespeare's collected works - known as the First Folio.

On Shakespeare's gravestone are four lines of verse:

• Good friend, for Jesus´ sake forbear
• To dig the dust enclosed here!
• Blest be the man that spares these stones
• And curst be he that moves my bones.

SEE ALSO: Geoffrey Chaucer's drama Troilus and Criseyde, Alexander Pope, Isaiah Berlin, Eugenio Montale

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: William Shakespeare biographies ; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

DON´T BELIEVE

There is not much records of Shakespeare´s personal life. Rumors arise from time to time that he didn´t write his plays, but the real author was Christopher Marlowe, Queen Elizabeth or whoever.

Selected plays: (the dates of Shakespeare's earlier plays are uncertain)

• HENRY VI, PART 1, 1589-92
• THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, 1592-93
• RICHARD III, 1592-93
• THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, c. 1593
• LOVE'S LABOUR LOST, 1594-95
• ROMEO AND JULIET, 1594-95
• A MIDSUMMER NIGHT´S DREAM, 1595-96
• RICHARD II, 1595-96
• THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, 1596-97
• KING JOHN, 1596-97
• HENRY IV, PART 1, 1597-98
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, 1598-99
• AS YOU LIKE IT, 1598-1600
• JULIUS CAESAR, 1599-1600
• HAMLET, 1600-01
• THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 1600-01
• TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL, 1601-02
• ALL IS WELL THAT END WELL, 1602-03
• OTHELLO, 1604-05
• KING LEAR, 1605-06
• MACBETH, 1605-06
• ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA, 1606-07
• CORIOLANUS, 1607-08
• TIMON OF ATHENS, 1607-08
• PERICLES, 1608-09 (probably only partly written by Shakespeare)
• CYMBELINE, 1609-10
• THE WINTER´S TALE, 1610-11
• THE TEMPEST, c. 1611

Shakesperare wrote also two heroic narrative poems, VENUS AND ADONIS, 1593 and LUCRECE, 1594. His sonnets were written earliest by 1598 and published in 1609. The sonnets refer cryptically to several persons, among them a handsome young man, a woman called the 'Dark Lady', and a rival poet.

FILM ADAPTATIONS:

Shakespeare's plays have been adapted into screen some 300 times. Here's some films:

*The Taming of the Shrew, 1929, starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
*A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935, dir. by Max Reinhardt-William Dieterle
*Romea and Juliet, 1935, dir. by George Cukor
*As You Like It, 1936, dir. by Paul Czinner (script adaptation: J.M.Barrie and Robert Cullen)
*Henry V, 1945, dir. by Lawrence Olivier
*Hamlet, 1948, dir. by Lawrence Olivier
*Macbeth, 1948, dir. by Orson Welles
*Othello, 1952, dir. by Orson Welles
*Julius Caesar, 1953, dir. by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
*Romeo and Juliet, 1954, dir. by Renato Castellani
*Richard III, 1955, dir. by Lawrence Olivier
*Othello, 1956, dir. by Sergei Jutkevitsh
*Forbidden Planet (based on The Tempest), 1956, dir. by Fred M. Wilcox
*Throne of Blood/The Castle of the Spider's Web/Cobweb Castle (based on Macbeth), 1957, dir. by Akira Kurosawa
*Hamlet, 1964, dir. by Grigori Kozintsev (translation of the play: Boris Pasternak)
*Falstraff, 1965, dir. by Orson Welles
*The Taming of the Shrew, 1967, dir. by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Elisabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
*Romeo and Juliet, 1968, dir. by Franco Zeffirelli
*King Lear, 1970, dir. by Peter Brook
*King Lear, 1970, dir. by Grigori Kozintsev
*Macbeth, 1972, dir. by Roman Polanski
*The Tempest, 1982, dir. by Paul Mazursky
*Ran (based on King Lear), 1985, dir. by Akira Kurosawa
*King Lear, 1987, dir. by Jean-Luc Godard
*Hamlet liikemaailmassa/Hamlet Goes Business, 1987, dir. by Aki Kaurismäki
*Henry V, 1989, dir. by Kenneth Branagh
*Hamlet, 1991, dir. by Franco Zeffirelli
*As You Like It, 1992, dir. by Christine Edzard
*Much Ado about Nothing, 1993, dir. by Kenneth Branagh
*Othello, 1995, dir. by Oliver Parker
*Hamlet, 1996, dir. by Kenneth Branagh
*William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1996, dir. by Baz Luhrman
*Twelfth Night, 1966, dir. by Trevor Nunn