Anatine
William Shakespeare Profile

William Shakespeare
Keynotes

  Born:  Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, 22nd or 23rd April 1564.

  Died:  Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, 23rd April 1616.

  English playwright, dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the best writer of all time.

  He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, the son of a wool merchant, and was educated at the grammar school.

  In 1582 William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway (1556 - 1623), and their first daughter, Susanna, was born the following year.

  During the 1590s he became established as an actor and a dramatist in London.

  Shakespeare's success was evident within his own lifetime, and he appears to have become wealthy through his share in the ownership of the Globe Theatre as much as through his numerous productions.

  He retired from his London life about 1610, and returned to live in Stratford where he died in 1616.  He is buried in the Chancel of the Holy Trinity in Stratford.

Works:

Richard III
Love's Labour's Lost
Romeo and Juliet
Richard II
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
Henry V
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
The Tempest
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
The Taming of the Shrew
Henry VI
King John
The Comedy of Errors
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Measure for Measure
Titus Andronicus
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Timon of Athens
Troilus and Cressida
All's Well that Ends Well
Pericles
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale
Henry VIII
The Two Noble Kinsmen
[Sonnets]
[Poems]
 
 

Quotes

From Romeo and Juliet:

Romeo:  He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

[Juliet appears at a window above]

Romeo:  But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady; O! it is my love:
O! that she knew she were.
She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek.

Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

Links

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

Guardian Unlimited - William Shakespeare
http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/
author/0,5917,-126,00.html

Shakespeare's Globe Research Database
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/ln/Globe/

BBCi - William Shakespeare
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/
author/shakespeare/

Royal Shakespeare Company
http://www.rsc.org.uk/

Shakespeare Institute
http://www.shakespeare.bham.ac.uk/

The Millennium Library - William Shakespeare
http://www.millenniumlibrary.co.uk/millib/reference/
notes.php?entry=William+Shakespeare&fromdb=2

A selection of books by William Shakespeare available from W.H. Smith:
 

King Richard III  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "The tragedy of King Richard III"  (hardback)

Love's Labour's Lost  (paperback)

Romeo and Juliet  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Romeo and Juliet"  (hardback)

Richard II  (paperback)

King Richard II  (hardback)

A Midsummer Night's Dream  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"  (hardback)

The Merchant of Venice  (paperback)

The Merchant of Venice  (hardback)

Henry IV, Part 1  (paperback)

Henry IV, Part 2  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Henry IV, Part I"  (hardback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Henry IV, Part 2"  (hardback)

Henry V  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Henry V"  (hardback)

Much Ado About Nothing  (paperback)

Much Ado About Nothing  (hardback)

As You Like It  (paperback)

As You Like It  (hardback)

Twelfth Night  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Twelfth Night, or What You Will"  (hardback)

Julius Caesar  (paperback)

Julius Caesar  (hardback)

Hamlet  (paperback)

Hamlet  (hardback)

Othello  (paperback)

Othello  (hardback)

King Lear  (paperback)

The Tragedy of King Lear  (hardback)

Macbeth  (paperback)

Macbeth  (hardback)

The Tempest  (paperback)

The Tempest  (hardback)

The Taming of the Shrew  (paperback)

The Taming of the Shrew  (hardback)

Henry VI, Part 1  (paperback)

Henry VI, Part 2  (paperback)

Henry VI, Part 3  (paperback)

First Part of King Henry VI  (hardback)

Second Part of King Henry VI  (hardback)

Third Part of King Henry VI  (hardback)

King John  (paperback)

King John  (hardback)

Oxford Shakespeare - "The Comedy of Errors"  (hardback)

Two Gentlemen of Verona  (paperback)

Two Gentlemen of Verona  (hardback)

Measure for Measure  (paperback)

Measure for Measure  (hardback)

Titus Andronicus  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Titus Andronicus"  (hardback)

Antony and Cleopatra  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra  (hardback)

Coriolanus  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Coriolanus"  (hardback)

The Merry Wives of Windsor  (paperback)

The Merry Wives of Windsor  (hardback)

Timon of Athens  (paperback)

Timon of Athens  (hardback)

Troilus and Cressida  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Troilus and Cressida"  (hardback)

All's Well That Ends Well  (paperback)

All's Well That Ends Well  (hardback)

Pericles  (paperback)

Pericles, Prince of Tyre  (hardback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Cymbeline"  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "Cymbeline"  (hardback)

The Winter's Tale  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "The Winter's Tale"  (hardback)

Henry VIII  (paperback)

King Henry VIII  (hardback)

The Two Noble Kinsmen  (paperback)

Oxford Shakespeare: "The Two Noble Kinsmen"  (hardback)

Poems Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim  (paperback)

Poems Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim  (hardback)

Complete Works of William Shakespeare  (paperback)

Complete Works of William Shakespeare  (hardback)

Complete Sonnets and Poems

Sonnets of William Shakespeare Royal Shakespeare Theatre edition

Unabridged William Shakespeare

Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Collector's Leatherbound Edition