WORLD HISTORY 1 S PROJECT- Teacher: Ms. Ross -

William Shakespeare By: Tamara S. Antoine

(April 23rd, 1564-1616)

Who Was He?

*An English playwright and poet.*He was Born at Holy Trinity Church on April 26, 1564,

in Stratford-upon-Avon, England *He was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather

merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress.*He was considered the greatest dramatist of all time*He wrote plays that captured the complete range of

human emotion and conflict*He was nicknamed “Bard of Avon” and “Swan of

Avon”

John S.

Mary A.

Early Life*William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and

three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. *Before birth, his father became a successful merchant

and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor.

*His fathers fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

*Scholars “think” that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing

and the classics. *

Married Life*He married Anne Hatheway on November 28th, 1582,

in Worcester, in Canterbury Province.*Anne was from Shottery, a small village a mile west

of Stratford*William was 18 and Anne was 26, when they got

married*Their first child was born on May 26, 1583, the

daughter they named Susanna.*Two years later, they had twins on February 2, 1585,

twins named Hamnet and Judith.*Sadly Hamnet died at the age of 11 of an unknown

disease

Williams Work*After 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth*Shakespeare's characters showed vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and wordly *tThe best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure.