Beginning life

Shakespeare's life was from 1564-1616 his birthday is not totally exact but there guess is about April 23 1564. "His life was from 1564-1616 therefore he was 50 years old when he died Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays, two major narrative poems, a sequence of sonnets, and several short poems." He has many different pieces of art and all meant a lot to him and other people.

From a young age Shakespeare was a well known amazing writer. "Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), was an English playwright, poet, and actor. Many people regard him as the world’s greatest dramatist and the finest poet England has ever produced." He was famous for many different works of art.

Again people were not totally certain of the date of Shakespeare's birthday but around April 23."William Shakespeare was born in the small market town of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, the third of eight children. The register of Holy Trinity, the parish church in Stratford, records his baptism on April 26. According to the custom at that time, infants were baptized about three days after their birth. Therefore, the generally accepted date for Shakespeare’s birth is April 23." He was the third of 8 children and was born in a small town called stratford.

Shakespeare's father was a glove maker for a shop a little northwest of London."Shakespeare’s parents belonged to what today would be called the middle class. John Shakespeare, William’s father, was a glove maker who owned a shop in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of London in the county of Warwickshire. John Shakespeare was a respected man in the town and held several important positions in the local government." Many people looked up to him and has many jobs in the government.

William's parents were today's middle class family and his mother was a daughter of a farmer."William Shakespeare’s mother was born Mary Arden. She was the daughter of a farmer but related to a family of considerable social standing in the county. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden about 1557. The Ardens were Roman Catholics. Mary may also have been a Catholic, but the Shakespeare's publicly belonged to the Church of England, the state church."

Performances

Some of Shakespeare's plays were based off of other plays to give more interest."That The Comedy of Errors is, in substance, a mere adaptation of the Menaechmi of Plautus would, in itself, have very little to do with probable earliness or lateness; for it is a point so well known as to require no discussion, explanation, apology or even frequent statement, that Shakespeare never gave himself the slightest trouble to be "original."

Most of the language in Shakespeare's writing is quite hard to understand,"Shakespeare has so saturated modern culture that many people who have never read a line of his work or seen one of his plays performed can identify lines and passages as his. Examples include “To be, or not to be,” “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”, given the fact it was written so long ago.

Sonnets

Shakespeare was also significantly known for his sonnets."Shakespeare's sonnets were printed in 1609, when the poet was already a well-established playwright. The dates of the poems are unknown. Shakespeare probably wrote the sonnets over a period of years. There are 154 sonnets in the sequence, though some scholars believe that a different author may have written Sonnets 153 and 154, those focused on Cupid, the Roman god of love. Only two of the sonnets appeared before 1609, in a book of poetry called The Passionate Pilgrim (1599)."

Sonnet 55 is one of Shakespeare's best known sonnets that uses his poetry as well."Sonnet 55 is one of the best known of Shakespeare's sonnets. It is one of a small but distinctive number of sonnets that uses Shakespeare's own poetry as the subject. Like the other sonnets in the first 126, Sonnet 55 is addressed to an unidentified nobleman. This friend is the object of the poet's love and admiration and is the chief inspiration for the sonnets in the group. In Sonnet 55, Shakespeare proclaims the value of his own "powerful rhyme" to protect his friend's qualities from the ravages of time."