As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting … Shakespeare was the third of the eight children born to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23rd 1564. He held local public positions and was a bailiff (like a mayor) in the town council. Thank you for your support to help care for the world's greatest Shakespeare heritage and keep his story alive. William Shakespeare Biography describes the life of William Shakespeare. Some of his most popular plays include: “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…”. William Shakespeare. Famous  Writer and poet John Weever lauded “honey-tongued Shakespeare.” His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. The most crucial fact about William Shakespeare's career is that he was a popular dramatist. The theory of other writers to Shakespeare only emerged centuries after the publishing of the First Folio. William Shakespeare - William Shakespeare - The early histories: In Shakespeare’s explorations of English history, as in romantic comedy, he put his distinctive mark on a genre and made it his. William Shakespeare Biography. William Shakespeare was a celebrated playwright, poet and actor. 1600: 'Hamlet' "Hamlet" is often described as “the greatest play ever written” -- remarkable when you … Together they had three children. Their first child, Susanna, was born the following May; twins, Hamnet and Judith, followed in 1585. To die: to sleep;”, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”, “We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. He was born in the village of Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564 and died there in April 1616. His surviving body of work includes 38 plays, 154 sonnets and two narrative poems, the majority of which he penned between 1589 and 1613. Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare Blessed by y man y spares hes stones And curst be he y moves my bones, “Shakespeare, no mere child of nature; no automaton of genius; no passive vehicle of inspiration possessed by the spirit, not possessing it; first studied patiently, meditated deeply, understood minutely, till knowledge became habitual and intuitive, wedded itself to his habitual feelings, and at length gave birth to that stupendous power by which he stands alone, with no equal or second in his own class; to that power which seated him on one of the two glorysmitten summits of the poetic mountain, with Milton’s his compeer, not rival.”, – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (1817). William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright who is considered one of the greatest writers to ever use the English language. On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. When writing an introduction to Shakespeare’s First Folio of published plays in 1623, Johnson wrote of Shakespeare: William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets mostly in the 1590s. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). “This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great