Who Was Shakespeare

Unless you've lived your entire life under rock, you probably know who William Shakespeare was. I'm just going to assume however that you don't to make this whole explaining thing a little easier. Well for starters, William Shakespeare was a poet/ play writer, but not just any play writer, this guy supposedly wrote a whopping 37 plays! Consisting of art such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and so on (Full list here). And plus he came up with the famous "To be or not to be, that is the question". But let's go deeper than just what he did.

William Shakespeare was born on April 26th, 1564 and was brought up in Stratford-apon-Avon. Interestingly enough, the man considered to be the best poet of all time did not even attend college as his dad could not afford it. When Shakespeare was young he attended the Stratford Grammar School, which, is still standing today. Like Many other poets, Shakespeare learned his basic reading and writing skills from an ABC or horn book. Robert Speaight in his book, Shakespeare: The Man and His Achievement, describes this book as

a primer framed in wood and covered with a thin plate of transparent horn. It included the alphabet in small letters and in capitals, with combinations of the five vowels with b, c, and d, and the Lord's Prayer in English. The first of these alphabets, which ended with the abbreviation for 'and', began with the mark of the cross. Hence the alphabet was known as 'Christ cross row' -- the cross-row ofRichard III, I, i, 55. A short catechism was often included in the ABC book (the 'absey book' of King John, I, i, 196).

After Shakespeare left his school what he did afterwards in the mid 1580s is impossible to trace. Still there are few who have suggested that he worked as a Schoolmaster, lawyer or even a glover with his father and brother, Gilbert. Another theory floating around is the Shakespeare spent this time mastering his literary skills and honing in on his acting. This period has been suitably named the "lost years" One thing that we can however conclude from this specific section of Shakespeare's life is that he married a pregnant orphan who went by the name of Anne Hathaway.

At the time of the marriage (November 28th, 1582) Shakespeare was 18 years of age and Anne Hathaway was 26 years old. Over the nest two year's Anne gave birth to their eldest, Susana and later, two twins, one boy (Hamnet) and one girl (Judith). From the information I've gathered online it appears that Shakespeare's private life, to this day, remains a mystery. This has attributed to many of the myths associated with Shakespeare regarding such things as his appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs and perhaps the grandest myth of them all, whether or not Shakespeare's works attributed to him were actually written by him.

Over the following years William had achieved great success in London for his play writing and poems. Though he was famous in his time, his popularity did not raise to it's current level up until the 19th century. His Romantic works were in a class of their own and the Victorians worshipped him highly at the time even though his works were published a time that seems to be worlds apart from us today, his poems and plays have  been admired and studied across the globe, it seems as though his work is eternal and shall not fade, in contrast to a Summer's day.

Now what do I think...
Personally I think the story of Shakespeare is one of, if not the, most interesting stories I've read, which fuels my admiration even more. I guess to all college drop outs Shakespeare is an idol, I mean the man didn't even have a college education and look how highly his work is regarded now! But that is besides the point, what I'm trying to get at is how story-like his life seems. A boy from humble beginnings marries an orphan, and is unable to attend college turns into one of England's best poets/ play writers, it almost seems to good to be true. I can certainly see the argument against Shakespeare being the author of his work but at the same time I love how mysterious his history is, there's no REAL evidence for whether or not Shakespeare did write his plays but that's the best thing about it, I mean we can only assume and I can't help but wonder what took place in the "lost years" he seems a very interesting man and whether or not you believe he of all people wrote his plays you have to at least admire that he got away with it!

Anyway that's it for now (This is more fun than I thought)

Omar