Shakespeare

**William Shakespeare** [[image:http://www.randomhistory.com/photos/2009/william-shakespeare.gif align="right"]]
William Shakespeare's birthday isn't known for sure but is supposed that it is on April 23, 1564. William was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England to the parents of John and Mary. When William was four, his father, was elected high baliff and two years later was prosecuted for money-lending. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and had three children: Susanna in 1583, and twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585.

Between 1585 and 1592, as there is little information on Shakespeare in this time period, Shakespeare moved to London, where he began his career in writing. Due to little documentation, it's unsure how well his career began or when he started to get noticed. In 1597, Shakespeare and his company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, leased a theater and disassembled it so that it may be rebuilt on the other side of the Thames River as the New Globe. Becoming the king's official player, the Chamberlain's Men became known as The King's Men. The King's Men opened the Blackfriar's Theatre in 1608 which became the standard setup for all later theaters. On June 29, 1613, the Globe Theatre was destroyed in a fire caused by a cannon.

Shakespeare's writings had the first mention of over two thousand words as well as creating many commonly used phrases such as "one fell swoop" or "foul play". Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, exactly 52 years after his supposed birthdate. Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, died in 1596 and his daughter, Susanna, died in 1649. His youngest daughter, Judith, had three children, all of them dying childless before her. Susanna's daughter, Elizabeth, died childless in 1670 and ended the Shakespeare bloodline.



**List of Shakespeare's works:**
All's Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As you Like it The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Julius Caesar King Lear A Lover's Complaint Love's Labour's Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Nights Dream Midsummer Nights Dreame Much ado about Nothing Othello The Passionate Pilgrim Pericles The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Richard II Richard III Romeo and Juliet Sonnets The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winters Tale