Will’s World

What’s to Come

• Shakespeare’s Bio

• Shakespeare’s World

• The Authorship Debate

• The Sonnets

Shakespeare’s Bio

• Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford upon-Avon

• Parents were John and Mary

• Middle class family of which little is known

• Attended Stratford Grammar School?

Marriage/Family

• Married Ann Hathaway on 11/28/1582

• She was 27, he was 18

• Ann gave birth to Susanna on 5/26/1583 (Do the math!)

Lost Years 1586-1592

• Many theories about this period

• Catholic underground and teaching?

• Deer poaching?

• Acting?

London 1592

• Early success as a writer

• Turbulent times, Plague, Civil Unrest

• University wits and the “upstart crow”

The Sonnets

• Alternate income (plague)

• Dedicated to W.H.• Addressees are a

young man, a dark lady, and a rival poet

• 154 poems• Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesly

Authorship Debate

• Did Shakespeare really write those plays?

• Why is there a doubt?

• If not Shakespeare then who?

Reasons to Doubt?

• Will was middle class• No university

education• Limited traveling• Name spelled

differently on some documents

Then Who Wrote Them?

• Oxfordians contend that it is none other than…

Edward de Vere

• 17th Earl of Oxford• Member of the Royal

Court• 2 Masters Degrees

from Oxford University by 17

• Traveled extensively• Not allowed to write

plays

Another Contender

• Christopher Marlowe

• Cambridge and Canterbury

• London’s most successful playwrite until his murder in a pub in 1593

• Ghostwriter?

Most Scholars Agree

• Debate is only conjecture and conspiracy theory

• Moot (mock) trial held in 1987 with three Supreme Court Justices

• Stratfordians 3 Oxfordians 0

Shakespeare’s England

• Elizabeth reverted the country back to the Church of England

• Catholic to Protestant to Catholic to Protestant in 12 years.

• James I in 1603

Will The Businessman

• Co-founder of The Globe 1599

• Open-air• Groundlings• Burned in 1613

during a play• Rebuilt and closed

permanently in 1642

The Globe

• Women not allowed on stage

• As You Like It has a boy playing a girl playing a boy playing a girl!

Retirement 1611?

• Left London with fame, money, and a family crest

• Moved back to Stratford (New Place)

• Wealthy landowner

Death April 23, 1616

• Died of a “fever” contracted after “a merry meeting”

• Death leads to some questions…

Death 1616

• Interesting last will• “Second best bed”• Nothing literary• Tombstone

“unshakespearean”

He was not of an age but, for all time.

-Ben Jonson

The End