Atupele muluzi biography of william shakespeare

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-AvonWarwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathawaywith whom he had three children: Susannaand twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between andhe began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner "sharer" of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Menlater known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne.

At age 49 aroundhe appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearancehis sexualityhis religious beliefs and even certain fringe theories [ 7 ] as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between and He then wrote mainly tragedies untilamong them HamletOthelloKing Lear and Macbethall considered to be among the finest works in English. Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, inJohn Heminges and Henry Condelltwo fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folioa posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays.

Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonsona former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time". Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespearean alderman and a successful glover glove-maker originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshireand Mary Ardenthe daughter of an affluent landowning family.

His date of birth is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, [ 18 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ] a free school chartered in[ 21 ] about a quarter-mile m from his home.

Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, [ 22 ] [ 23 ] and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage.

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term and 9 October Nicholas RoweShakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy.

Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, [ 42 ] [ 43 ] but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher MarloweThomas Nasheand Greene himself the so-called " University Wits ".

As used here, Johannes Factotum "Jack of all trades" refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius". Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mids to just before Greene's remarks.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts Ina partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thameswhich they named the Globe. Inthe partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, [ 52 ] and inhe bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Placeand ininvested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning inand byhis name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. Inthe year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St Helen'sBishopsgatenorth of the River Thames.

There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear. Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnsonthat Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare died on 23 Aprilat the age of No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died.

Half a century later, John Wardthe vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", [ 83 ] [ 84 ] not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in[ 86 ] and Judith had married Thomas Quineya vintnertwo months before Shakespeare's death. Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family. Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna [ 88 ] under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones. Some time beforea funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing.

Its plaque compares him to NestorSocratesand Virgil. Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VIwritten in the early s during a vogue for historical drama.

Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, [ ] [ ] and studies of the texts suggest that Titus AndronicusThe Comedy of ErrorsThe Taming of the Shrewand The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mids to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies.

His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called " problem plays " Measure for MeasureTroilus and Cressidaand All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies.

Hamlet has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins " To be or not to be; that is the atupele muluzi biography of william shakespeare ". According to the critic Frank Kermode"the play His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanuscontain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T.

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: CymbelineThe Winter's Taleand The Tempestas well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio oflisted according to their folio classification as comedieshistoriesand tragedies. In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romancesand though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomediesDowden's term is often used. It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays.

The title page of the edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 Novemberand 31 Octoberincluding two performances of The Merchant of Venice. In Cymbelinefor example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt.

The ghosts fall on their knees. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre versions as " bad quartos " because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers.

In the case of King Learhowever, while most modern editions do conflate them, the folio version is so different from the quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion. In andwhen the theatres were closed because of plagueShakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonisan innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus ; while in The Rape of Lucrecethe virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaintin which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint.

Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. Intwo early drafts of sonnets and appeared in The Passionate Pilgrimpublished atupele muluzi biography of william shakespeare Shakespeare's name but without his permission. Published inthe Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed.

Scholars are not certain when each of the sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

The edition was dedicated to a "Mr. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpewhose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama.

The grand speeches in Titus Andronicusin the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted. However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama.

At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself. Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank versecomposed in iambic pentameter.

In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lineswith the risk of monotony.

This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind: [ ]. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly— And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well After HamletShakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies.

The literary critic A. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". These included run-on linesirregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. The listener is challenged to complete the sense. Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre.

This atupele muluzi biography of william shakespeare of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romanceshe deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisationplot, languageand genre. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes.

His work has inspired several operas, among them Giuseppe Verdi 's MacbethOtello and Falstaffwhose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, [ ] and his use of language helped shape modern English. Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language.

His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era ;" Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European.

He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone. According to Guinness World RecordsShakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. Between the Restoration of the monarchy in and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. But during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and, like Dryden, to acclaim what they termed his natural genius.

A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in and Edmond Malone inadded to his growing reputation. During the Romantic eraShakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridgeand the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde.

The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticismled a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery.

In the s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for post-modern studies of Shakespeare. He encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions. Around years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion, [ k ] but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate.

Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the Church of Englandwhere he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried. Some scholars are of the view that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, John Shakespearefound in in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street.

However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity. Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove. Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known.

At 18, he married year-old Anne Hathawaywho was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, [ ] and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love.

No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. Some scholars suggest that the Droeshout portraitwhich Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, [ ] and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance.

After a three-year study supported by the National Portrait Gallery, Londonthe portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools.

Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. English playwright and poet — Richard III. The Merchant of Venice. As well as writing plays, Shakespeare was also a poet. He wrote three long narrative poems and sonnets. A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines that is typically about love. The tragedy Hamlet is taken from old Scandinavian close Scandinavian The adjective that describes a group of countries in northern Europe that includes Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The plot of Romeo and Juliet is taken from a popular Italian story that had been translated into French and then into English. Although he often borrowed plot ideas, Shakespeare introduced details of his own and used language to breathe new life into the stories. Shakespeare also took inspiration from real life when writing his plays. These plays did not always stick to historical fact.

Shakespeare often changed details to make the story more dramatic or to please the current queen or king. Richard III was inspired by English history. Shakespeare often based plays on real kings of England. Following his retirement, which is believed to be afterShakespeare returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare died in at the age of In his lifetime, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and over poems.

His work is studied in schools and universities across the world. Some historians believe that this may also have been his birthday. However, it is impossible to know for sure as the earliest record there is of him is his christening on 26 April Play Bitesize secondary games. Have fun playing science, maths, history, geography and language games.

President Joyce Banda took over the reins of power and appointed Muluzi as Minister of Economic Planning and Development in her administration. He resigned after some senior members of the ruling party verbally attacked him at a political rally due to his position as the leader of an opposition party. After resigning, he began to focus on his career as the leader of his party.

After a court decision overturned the presidential election in Malawi, Muluzi formed a coalition with President Mutharika to be his running mate in the presidential elections. In Novemberhe married Angela Zachepa and they have two children. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.

In other projects.

Atupele muluzi biography of william shakespeare

However, Shakespeare expert and professor Sir Stanley Wells posits that the playwright might have spent more time at home in Stratford than previously believed, only commuting to London when he needed to for work. Although the theater culture in 16 th century England was not greatly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.

ByShakespeare and several fellow actors built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. Julius Caesar is thought to be the first production at the new open-air theater. Owning the playhouse proved to be a financial boon for Shakespeare and the other investors. The company quickly rebuilt it, and it reopened the next year.

InPuritans outlawed all theaters, including the Globe, which was demolished two years later. Centuries passed until American actor Sam Wanamaker began working to resurrect the theater once more. The third Globe Theater opened inand today, more than 1. Some plays blur these lines, and over time, our interpretation of them has changed, too.

However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

Download our complete William Shakespeare Study Guide for free to explore the key themes and characters from three of his most important plays. Download Free Study Guide. Character in OthelloKing Learand Macbeth present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamletwhich explores betrayal, retribution, incest, and moral failure.

Shakespeare wrote comedies throughout his career, including his first play The Taming of the Shrew. Some of his comedies might be better described as tragicomedies. Although graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness. Additional Shakespeare comedies include:.

Shakespeare is known to have created plays with other writers, such as John Fletcher. They also collaborated on Cardenioa play which was not preserved. When including these works, Shakespeare has 41 plays to his name. Around the turn of the 17 th century, Shakespeare became a more extensive property owner in Stratford.