Shakespeares World

Shakespeare's World

Almost every nation on earth reads, studies and performs the works of

William Shakespeare. No writer of any country, nor any age, has ever enjoyed such universal popularity. Neither has any writer been so praised. As William

Hazlitt observed, "The most striking peculiarity of Shakespeare's mind was it's generic quality, its power of communication with all other minds." It is perhaps this quality that has earned Shakespeare the supreme accolade, that of lending his name to an era. Other than a monarch or an emperor, few can boast that a time or place is so exclusively theirs. As we talk about Napoleonic Europe or

Victorian England, so we speak of Shakespearean London or the Age of Shakespeare.

No other artist, let alone writer, has had their name inscribed on such a towering edifice. "Thou in our wonder and astonishment, hast built thyself a long-live monument," wrote Milton, in praise of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is by far and without doubt the most popular and successful writer of all time. But what of the man himself? Who was William Shakespeare?

The life of William Shakespeare is shrouded in mystery. There is no record of him receiving an education, buying a book or writing a single letter, and no original manuscript of a Shakespeare play survives. There is no direct record of his conversations, and no one in his home town seems to have known that he was a successful playwright while he was alive. There is not even a contemporary portrait to reveal his true appearance. Although a number of mentions of William Shakespeare the poet-dramatist appear on record during the

1590's and early 1600's, they comment only briefly on his writings, telling us nothing about the man. Less is known about Shakespeare than almost any other playwright of his time.

The orthodox version of William Shakespeare's life is probably the most widely accepted Shakespeare legend of them all. According to it, he was born on

23 April 1564, in an upstairs room of a Stratford house in Warwickshire. He was born to John and Mary Shakespeare, and was baptized Gulielmus filius Johannes

Shakspere (William, son of John Shakespeare) three days later. His father ran a successful glove making business on Henley Street. In 1565, his father ...

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...ow position could hope to rise to a high position while someone in a high position could expect to fall to a low position. All these would be brought about by a change in fate or fortune. Some people believed that the people rose to a higher position during the spring and the summer, while they sank to a lower position during the autumn and the winter. However, it was later noticed that such beliefs were very unpredictable. Like the belief in the zodiac, the Wheel of Fortune opposed the theory that fate was controlled by man.

Instead, fate was believed to be controlled by the stars. This is why in the opening chorus of Romeo and Juliet, both of them are described as "… star crossed lovers…" This suggests that the stars had already destined them to love and then to die.

Shakespeare is arguably the best writer of all time, yet it is interesting to know that so little is known about him. Perhaps no-one will ever know who the real William Shakespeare was. Only one thing is certain:

Shakespeare may be dead, but his great works never cease to astound us and it makes us wonder if any person will ever come to rival the maestro of English

Literature.