William Shakespeare, Short Note

Personal Life and Education

1. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
2. He was baptized on April 26, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church.
3. His father was John Shakespeare, a glove maker and trader.
4. His mother was Mary Arden.
5. Shakespeare attended the local Grammar School (also known as King’s New School) in Stratford.
6. Ben Jonson famously remarked that Shakespeare had "small Latin and less Greek".
7. At the age of 18, in 1582, he married Anne Hathaway, who was 26 years old (eight years his senior).
8. At the time of their marriage, Anne Hathaway was three months pregnant.
9. His first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the marriage.
10. He had twins named Hamnet (son) and Judith (daughter).
11. His son Hamnet died at the age of 11.
12. The years between 1585 and 1592 are known as the "Lost Years" of Shakespeare’s life.
13. Legend suggests he fled Stratford to London to avoid prosecution for deer poaching in Sir Thomas Lucy's park.
14. Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23, 1616, at the age of 52.
15. He is buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.
16. His epitaph contains a curse for anyone who moves his bones.
17. He is often referred to as the "Bard of Avon".

Theatrical Career and Companies

18. Shakespeare was an actor, playwright, and shareholder in theatre companies.
19. He was a charter member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (formed in 1594).
20. In 1603, the company was renamed the King’s Men under the patronage of King James I.
21. The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by the Burbage brothers and other shareholders, including Shakespeare.
22. The Globe was an open-air theatre with a thatched roof.
23. On June 29, 1613, the Globe Theatre caught fire and was destroyed during a performance of Henry VIII (originally titled All is True).
24. A cannon shot during the play ignited the thatched roof, causing the fire.
25. The Globe was rebuilt in 1614.
26. Shakespeare also owned a share in the Blackfriars Theatre, which was an indoor theatre.
27. He retired from active writing and public life around 1610-1613.
28. His house in Stratford, which he purchased in 1597, was called New Place.

Sonnets and Narrative Poems

29. Shakespeare wrote a total of 154 sonnets.
30. The sonnets were published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe.
31. The Shakespearean Sonnet consists of three quatrains and a final couplet.
32. The rhyme scheme of his sonnets is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
33. Most sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.
34. Sonnets 1 to 126 are dedicated to a young man, often identified as Mr. W.H. (Henry Wriothesley or William Herbert).
35. Sonnets 127 to 152 are addressed to the "Dark Lady" (often identified as Mary Fitton).
36. The final two sonnets (153 and 154) are addressed to Cupid, the god of love.
37. Sonnet 145 is unique as it is written in iambic tetrameter rather than pentameter.
38. Sonnet 126 is an exception containing only 12 lines and six rhymed couplets.
39. Sonnet 99 is an exception containing 15 lines.
40. His first long narrative poem, Venus and Adonis (1593), was dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.
41. Venus and Adonis is written in Sesta Rima (six-line stanzas).
42. The Rape of Lucrece (1594) is another long narrative poem dedicated to the Earl of Southampton.
43. The Rape of Lucrece is written in Rhyme Royal (seven-line stanzas).
44. A Lover’s Complaint (1609) was published along with the sonnets.
45. The Phoenix and the Turtle is an allegorical poem attributed to him.

The Plays and Folios

46. Shakespeare is credited with writing 37 plays.
47. The First Folio was published in 1623, seven years after his death, by his colleagues John Heminge and Henry Condell.
48. The First Folio contained 36 plays; the play Pericles was omitted.
49. Ben Jonson wrote a prefatory poem for the First Folio titled "To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare".
50. The Second Folio was published in 1632.
51. The Third Folio appeared in 1663-1664, and the Fourth Folio in 1685.
52. Edward Dowden and other scholars divide Shakespeare’s career into four periods: Early Experiment, Rapid Growth, Deepening Passion (Tragedies), and Serenity (Romances).
53. His "Four Great Tragedies" are often remembered by the acronym HOKM: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.
54. Hamlet is his longest play.
55. The Comedy of Errors is his shortest play.
56. The Tempest is often considered his "Swan Song" or final solo masterpiece.
57. He collaborated with John Fletcher on plays like The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII.

Critical Comments and Titles

58. Robert Greene attacked Shakespeare in his pamphlet A Groatsworth of Wit (1592), calling him an "upstart crow" beautified with the feathers of the University Wits.
59. Greene also described him as a "Johannes Factotum" (Jack of all trades).
60. Ben Jonson called him the "Sweet Swan of Avon".
61. S.T. Coleridge described Shakespeare as "myriad-minded".
62. Matthew Arnold wrote a sonnet on Shakespeare, starting with the line: "Others abide our question, thou art free".
63. Milton called him "Dear son of memory, great heir of fame" in his poem On Shakespeare.
64. John Dryden praised him as the man who of all modern and ancient poets had the "largest and most comprehensive soul".
65. Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia (1598) praised Shakespeare for both comedy and tragedy.

Play Sources and Settings

66. Shakespeare's primary source for his English History plays was Holinshed's Chronicles.
67. Plutarch’s Lives (translated by Sir Thomas North) served as the primary source for his Roman Plays (Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus).
68. Hamlet is set in Elsinore, Denmark.
69. Macbeth is set in Scotland.
70. Othello begins in Venice and moves to Cyprus.
71. As You Like It is set in the Forest of Arden.
72. The Merchant of Venice is set in Venice and Belmont.
73. Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy.
74. The Tempest is set on a fictional island.
75. Twelfth Night is set in Illyria.

Famous Fools and Characters

76. Touchstone is the fool in As You Like It.
77. Feste is the clown/fool in Twelfth Night.
78. Puck (Robin Goodfellow) is the mischievous sprite in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
79. Bottom is a weaver who is transformed into an ass in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
80. Dogberry is the bumbling constable in Much Ado About Nothing.
81. Falstaff is a famous comic character appearing in Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2) and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
82. Yorick is the deceased court jester whose skull is famously held by Hamlet.
83. W.C. Hazlitt and other critics have written extensively on Shakespeare's characters, such as the "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays" (1817).

Additional Facts for TGT Preparation

84. Shakespeare’s imaginary sister, Judith Shakespeare, was a creation of Virginia Woolf in her essay A Room of One's Own.
85. The term "Bardolatry" refers to the excessive worship of Shakespeare.
86. Julian Calendar vs. Georgian Calendar: Shakespeare's birth on April 23 is based on the Julian calendar used in England at the time.
87. April 23 is also the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England.
88. Shakespeare’s will famously left his wife his "second-best bed".
89. He left the bulk of his property to his eldest daughter, Susanna.
90. The University Wits (such as Marlowe, Greene, and Nashe) were contemporaries who influenced or criticized his early work.
91. Christopher Marlowe is often cited as a major influence on Shakespeare's blank verse.
92. Shakespeare often used Blank Verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) in his plays.
93. Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest are classified as his late Romances or Tragicomedies.
94. Julius Caesar was the first play likely performed at the newly built Globe Theatre in 1599.
95. Thomas Bowdler produced a "clean" version of Shakespeare's plays (removing "offensive" parts), leading to the term "bowdlerize".
96. A.C. Bradley is a famous 20th-century critic known for his book Shakespearean Tragedy (1904).
97. Wilson Knight is another major critic known for The Wheel of Fire.
98. L.C. Knights famously questioned character-based criticism in his essay "How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth?".
99. T.S. Eliot called Hamlet an "artistic failure" because of its lack of an objective correlative.
100. Despite these criticisms, Shakespeare remains the most influential figure in English literature, often called the "Father of English Drama".