One of my most interesting and respected masters of the pen ,whose works forever influenced the literary world is William Shakespeare...
Just felt like sharing some facts about him..
1. Shakespeare’s father held a lot of different
jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.
The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare
was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in
Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling
in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt
and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the
borough’s official “ale taster,” meaning he was
responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors.
The next year he took another big step up the
social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the
daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened
to be his father’s former boss. John later became
a moneylender and held a series of municipal
positions, serving for some time as the mayor of
Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran
into legal problems for reasons that remain
unclear.
2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was
three months pregnant at the time.
In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne
Hathaway, a farmer’s daughter eight years his
senior. Instead of the customary three times, the
couple’s intention to marry was only announced
at church once—evidence that the union was
hastily arranged because of Anne’s eyebrow-
raising condition. Six months after the wedding,
the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna,
and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February
1585. Little is known about the relationship
between William and Anne, besides that they
often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his
“second-best bed” in his will.
3. Shakespeare’s parents were probably illiterate,
and his children almost certainly were.
Nobody knows for sure, but it’s quite likely that
John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read
or write, as was often the case for people of their
standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have
argued that John’s civic duties would have
required basic literacy, but in any event he always
signed his name with a mark. William, on the
other hand, attended Stratford’s local grammar
school, where he mastered reading, writing and
Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to
adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to
have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl
her signature.
4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between
1585 and 1592.
To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare
disappears from the historical record between
1585, when his twins’ baptism was recorded, and
1592, when the playwright Robert Greene
denounced him in a pamphlet as an “upstart
crow.” The insult suggests he’d already made a
name for himself on the London stage by then.
What did the newly married father and future
literary icon do during those seven “lost” years?
Historians have speculated that he worked as a
schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across
continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that
was passing through Stratford. According to one
17th-century account, he fled his hometown after
poaching deer from a local politician’s estate.
5. Shakespeare’s plays feature the first written
instances of hundreds of familiar terms.
William Shakespeare is believed to have
influenced the English language more than any
other writer in history, coining—or, at the very
least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still
regularly crop up in everyday conversation.
Examples include the words
“fashionable” (“Troilus and Cressida”),
“sanctimonious” (“Measure for Measure”),
“eyeball” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and
“lackluster” (“As You Like It”); and the expressions
“foregone conclusion” (“Othello”), “in a
pickle” (“The Tempest”), “wild goose
chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and “one fell
swoop” (“Macbeth”). He is also credited with
inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica
and Cordelia, which have become common over
the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and
Titania, which have not).
6. We probably don’t spell Shakespeare’s name
correctly—but, then again, neither did he.
Sources from William Shakespeare’s lifetime spell
his last name in more than 80 different ways,
ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the
handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard
never spelled his own name “William
Shakespeare,” using variations or abbreviations
such as “Willm Shakp,” “Willm Shakspere” and
“William Shakspeare” instead. However it’s
spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from
the Old English words “schakken” (“to brandish”)
and “speer” (“spear”), and probably referred to a
confrontational or argumentative person.
7. Shakespeare’s epitaph wards off would-be
grave robbers with a curse.
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the
age of 52—not bad for an era when the average
life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years.
We may never know what killed him, although an
acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a
night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben
Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare
supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the
epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a
Stratford church. Intended to thwart the
numerous grave robbers who plundered England’s
cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: “Good
friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare, / To dig the dust
enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares
these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my
bones.” It must have done the trick, since
Shakespeare’s remains have yet to be disturbed.
8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring—or so
we think.
Our notion of William Shakespeare’s appearance
comes from several 17th-century portraits that
may or may not have been painted while the Bard
himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most
famous depictions, known as the Chandos
portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a
full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties
and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear.
Even back in Shakespeare’s time, earrings on men
were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as
evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists.
The fashion may have been inspired by sailors,
who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral
costs in case they died at sea.
9. North America’s 200 million starlings have
Shakespeare to thank for their existence.
William Shakespeare’s works contain more than
600 references to various types of birds, from
swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The
starling—a lustrous songbird with a gift for
mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia—
makes just one appearance, in “Henry IV, Part 1.”
In 1890 an American “bardolator” named Eugene
Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird
mentioned in Shakespeare’s oeuvre but absent
from the United States. As part of this project, he
released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York’s
Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the
highly adaptable species has taken over the skies,
becoming invasive and driving some native birds
to the brink of extinction.
10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.
How did a provincial commoner who had never
gone to college or ventured outside Stratford
become one of the most prolific, worldly and
eloquent writers in history? Even early in his
career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that
displayed in-depth knowledge of international
affairs, European capitals and history, as well as
familiarity with the royal court and high society.
For this reason, some theorists have suggested
that one or several authors wishing to conceal
their true identity used the person of William
Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates
include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon,
Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert.
Most scholars and literary historians remain
skeptical about this hypothesis, although many
suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with
other playwrights.
Just felt like sharing some facts about him..
1. Shakespeare’s father held a lot of different
jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.
The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare
was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in
Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling
in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt
and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the
borough’s official “ale taster,” meaning he was
responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors.
The next year he took another big step up the
social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the
daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened
to be his father’s former boss. John later became
a moneylender and held a series of municipal
positions, serving for some time as the mayor of
Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran
into legal problems for reasons that remain
unclear.
2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was
three months pregnant at the time.
In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne
Hathaway, a farmer’s daughter eight years his
senior. Instead of the customary three times, the
couple’s intention to marry was only announced
at church once—evidence that the union was
hastily arranged because of Anne’s eyebrow-
raising condition. Six months after the wedding,
the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna,
and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February
1585. Little is known about the relationship
between William and Anne, besides that they
often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his
“second-best bed” in his will.
3. Shakespeare’s parents were probably illiterate,
and his children almost certainly were.
Nobody knows for sure, but it’s quite likely that
John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read
or write, as was often the case for people of their
standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have
argued that John’s civic duties would have
required basic literacy, but in any event he always
signed his name with a mark. William, on the
other hand, attended Stratford’s local grammar
school, where he mastered reading, writing and
Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to
adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to
have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl
her signature.
4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between
1585 and 1592.
To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare
disappears from the historical record between
1585, when his twins’ baptism was recorded, and
1592, when the playwright Robert Greene
denounced him in a pamphlet as an “upstart
crow.” The insult suggests he’d already made a
name for himself on the London stage by then.
What did the newly married father and future
literary icon do during those seven “lost” years?
Historians have speculated that he worked as a
schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across
continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that
was passing through Stratford. According to one
17th-century account, he fled his hometown after
poaching deer from a local politician’s estate.
5. Shakespeare’s plays feature the first written
instances of hundreds of familiar terms.
William Shakespeare is believed to have
influenced the English language more than any
other writer in history, coining—or, at the very
least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still
regularly crop up in everyday conversation.
Examples include the words
“fashionable” (“Troilus and Cressida”),
“sanctimonious” (“Measure for Measure”),
“eyeball” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and
“lackluster” (“As You Like It”); and the expressions
“foregone conclusion” (“Othello”), “in a
pickle” (“The Tempest”), “wild goose
chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and “one fell
swoop” (“Macbeth”). He is also credited with
inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica
and Cordelia, which have become common over
the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and
Titania, which have not).
6. We probably don’t spell Shakespeare’s name
correctly—but, then again, neither did he.
Sources from William Shakespeare’s lifetime spell
his last name in more than 80 different ways,
ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the
handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard
never spelled his own name “William
Shakespeare,” using variations or abbreviations
such as “Willm Shakp,” “Willm Shakspere” and
“William Shakspeare” instead. However it’s
spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from
the Old English words “schakken” (“to brandish”)
and “speer” (“spear”), and probably referred to a
confrontational or argumentative person.
7. Shakespeare’s epitaph wards off would-be
grave robbers with a curse.
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the
age of 52—not bad for an era when the average
life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years.
We may never know what killed him, although an
acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a
night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben
Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare
supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the
epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a
Stratford church. Intended to thwart the
numerous grave robbers who plundered England’s
cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: “Good
friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare, / To dig the dust
enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares
these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my
bones.” It must have done the trick, since
Shakespeare’s remains have yet to be disturbed.
8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring—or so
we think.
Our notion of William Shakespeare’s appearance
comes from several 17th-century portraits that
may or may not have been painted while the Bard
himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most
famous depictions, known as the Chandos
portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a
full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties
and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear.
Even back in Shakespeare’s time, earrings on men
were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as
evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists.
The fashion may have been inspired by sailors,
who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral
costs in case they died at sea.
9. North America’s 200 million starlings have
Shakespeare to thank for their existence.
William Shakespeare’s works contain more than
600 references to various types of birds, from
swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The
starling—a lustrous songbird with a gift for
mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia—
makes just one appearance, in “Henry IV, Part 1.”
In 1890 an American “bardolator” named Eugene
Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird
mentioned in Shakespeare’s oeuvre but absent
from the United States. As part of this project, he
released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York’s
Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the
highly adaptable species has taken over the skies,
becoming invasive and driving some native birds
to the brink of extinction.
10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.
How did a provincial commoner who had never
gone to college or ventured outside Stratford
become one of the most prolific, worldly and
eloquent writers in history? Even early in his
career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that
displayed in-depth knowledge of international
affairs, European capitals and history, as well as
familiarity with the royal court and high society.
For this reason, some theorists have suggested
that one or several authors wishing to conceal
their true identity used the person of William
Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates
include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon,
Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert.
Most scholars and literary historians remain
skeptical about this hypothesis, although many
suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with
other playwrights.
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