William Shakespeare Research Paper

Introduction In the day and age of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or any significant wealth. He did not pursue completing his formal education at university, and he didn’t come under the mentorship of a greater writer, neither did he marry into wealth or freedom. His talent as an actor seems to have been no greater than average, since he was never known for starring roles. His success as a playwright depended on him continuing to push himself to write all day every day until he was the best. Yet in spite of his given limitations and circumstances he was born into, Shakespeare is now the most world renowned and read writer to ever live. Birth and Childhood

Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614. In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are connected to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations most probably with John Fletcher, who helped bring him to be the house playwright of the King's Men. In 1616, Shakespeare revised his will as his health greatly declining. Since his only son Hamnet had died in 1596, Shakespeare left most of his estate to his two daughters with many gifts set aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. Written in his will he offered the family's “second best bed” to his wife Anne. He died one month later on April 23, 1616. Yet he left us with the greatest gift of all in the form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems. When William Shakespeare died in his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon he was considered one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. No records accurately show the actual cause of his final demise so the world was left unknowing of what brought Shakespeare to his final breath. Until half a century later John Ward, the vicar of Stratford wrote in a notebook "Shakespeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted" and this was not an impossible thought since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton well. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon/From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room.” This theory is well supported and is so far the most plausible cause of the end of the