About William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon
River. When he was eighteen, he
married Anne Hathaway.
By 1592, Shakespeare had achieved some prominence in London as an actor and a playwright. In 1593 he became a published poet, with his long narrative poem Venus and Adonis; in 1594, he followed it with Lucrece. Both were written when the theaters were closed due to plague. |
In late 1594, when the theaters reopened, he was a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later named the King's Men, the acting company for which he would be a principal actor, dramatist, and shareholder for about two decades. In the 1590s, he wrote his English history plays, several comedies, and at least two tragedies, Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet. Many of Shakespeare's sonnets (published in 1609) were also probably written in the 1590s.
Shakespeare's plays were performed at court and other locations, but they are most associated with his acting company's theaters. In 1599, his company built the Globe. He wrote Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth while the company was at the Globe, as well as comedies like Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure. From about 1608, his plays were also performed at the company's new indoor Blackfriars theater. Shakespeare wrote very little after 1612, the year he probably wrote Henry VIII.