William Shakespeare is one of the most known playwright not only during his time but until today.
His father was John Shakespeare and his mother was Mary Arden.
She was the youngest daughter of Robert Arden, a wealthy land owner from whom John Shakespeare's father, Richard Shakespeare, had leased land.
William was their oldest son.
On November 28, 1582, William married Anne Hathaway. He was eighteen and she was twenty-six. They had three children: Susanna, and twins: Hamnet (a boy) and Judith.
Throughout the years that followed, Shakespeare achieved the status as the most renowned playwright of Elizabethan theater. In 1597, he bought a rather expensive home in Stratford, called New Place. His family would remain there, while he traveled to London to work. He was associated with a theater named the Globe. His name appeared as one of the owners in 1599. His acting company was known as the King's Men. In 1608 or early 1609, the King's Men purchased and refurbished the Blackfriars Theater, in London. In 1612, some type of financial situation caused Shakespeare to move back to Stratford and withdraw from the daily duties of his professional career. He moved back one year later and continued to work in the theater.
He spent the last few years of his life in Stratford, where it is noted that he finally died on April 23, 1616. He is buried in Holy Trinity Church, inStratford-upon-Avon.
Throughout his life, William Shakespeare wrote 37 (or more) plays, more than 150 sonnets, two lengthy narrative poems and some shorter poems. His work is still recognized today as a great literary achievement. However, over the last one hundred years, the question of authorship has become an issue of interest to many literary scholars. The earliest noted claim that Shakespeare's plays could have been written by someone else appeared in 1856. It was an article in the American journalPutnam's Monthly, written by Delia Bacon. Her article and later book entitled Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespere Unfolded did not achieve great success. But once she proposed this idea of a hidden author, others started to wonder themselves. Still today, the controversy continues over whether or not Shakespeare wrote his own plays. Some people claim that he would not have had the education or training to write such brilliant plays. Still, others rely on a great deal of testimony from Shakespeare's time that says he was a widely respected playwright.