William Shakespeare Esssssaaayyyyyy :)

William Shakespeare Essay
By Sarah Hanna

William Shakespeare’s birthday is unknown. They have records at a church from when he got baptized. According to The Book of Common Prayer, it was required for children to get baptized on the nearest Sunday or holy day to their birth date. William Shakespeare’s birthday has been set on April 23, St. George’s Day and a house in Stratford, owned by William’s father, has been his accepted birth place. But nobody actually knows when the great writer was born. Shakespeare’s true birthday will remain unknown but if he was in fact born on April 23, he would have died on the same day of the month.

It is said that from 1578-82 and 1585-92 are Shakespeare’s “lost years”. The first period covers the time he left school to when he got married. The second period covers the seven years he was writing and perfecting his plays. We know very little about these two periods in Shakespeare’s life, it’s interesting that he didn’t write anything down about his life and but wrote 39 or more plays. This also is just an estimate because no one really knows how many plays he wrote and he could have wrote plays that were never found or he didn’t have performed.

Recordings in the Episcopal register at Worcester on November 27 and 28, 1582, reveal Shakespeare desired to marry a young girl named Anne. There are two different documents recorded, it’s still a debate on who William was really going to marry. Were there two Anne’s? There are three possibilities; Anne Whateley and Anne Hathwey could be the same women. The Wm Shaxpere and the Annam Whateley who wished to marry in Temple Grafton were two different people from the Wm Shagspere and Anne Hathway who were married in Stratford. The women Shakespeare loved and the women Shakespeare actually married could be two different Anne’s. What ever argument one chooses, William Shakespeare got married to Anne Hathway who was twenty-six and already several months pregnant.

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 in Stratford Parish; it was his fifty-second birthday. His burial was recorded on April 25 and was buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. William Shakespeare’s tomb lies beneath the floor in the church, it’s covered with stone inscribed with a curse:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbearTo dig the dust enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones.

Shakespeare’s cause of death is unknown, like many other things, it’s been suggested that he had been drinking too hard with his fellow play writers and died of a fever. But it’s said that Shakespeare had been ill prior to his death. Shakespeare had retired as a play writer in 1612 or 1613 three or four years before his death. Because of plague, syphilis, typhus, scurvy, tuberculosis, smallpox, malaria, dysentery and toothaches Londoner’s life expectancy was 35 years, so Shakespeare actually lived a relatively long and healthy life.



Resources


http://www.bardblog.com/how-many-plays-did-shakespeare-write/

http://www.shakespeare.online.com/biography/shakespearelostyears.html


http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/how-did-shakespeare-die



*I didn’t write about only one topic. Because I kept reading and wanted to know more about his life and everything so I hope this is ok.