Shakespeare - A great dramatist
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William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. His father, John Shakespeare, was a rich merchant, and his mother, Mary Arden, was a rich farmer's daughter. He was their third child and eldest son. From 1570 to 1578 he went to the Stratford Grammar School where he learnt 'Little Latin and Less Greek'. His education was cut short by his father's misfortune in business, and at 13 he was apprenticed to a butcher and later he worked as a school-master.
At 18 he married Ann Hathaway, who was eight years older than himself. There is vague rumor of unhappy relations between them, but little evidence to support it. However, it is significant that there is a passage in 'Twelfth night' in which Shakespeare gives the advice that the woman should always marry one older than herself. At any rate three children were born to them, Susanna, Hamlet, and Judith. Sometime after his twenty-first year, he left for London in 1586.
In London he found his true vocation. He rose to be an actor and a playwright. As a playwright he first patched up the work of others for the use of his company. Gradually, as he gained experience, he began to produce independent work of his own which at once placed him on the forefront of the dramatists of the day. He then went on writing plays and staging them. He became famous and wealthy.
Shakespeare borrowed the stories of his plays from other writers, but the plays he wrote were his original productions. They show a rare knowledge of human life in all its aspects and colors. Play after play he produced in quick succession, each showing a better art, a greater control of language, and a deeper understanding of human psychology than the previous one.
Having earned a large fortune and roaring success he returned to Stratford where spent the last four years of his life in peace and prosperity. He died peacefully on April 23, 1616, and buried in the local Churchyard. The place has since then become a place of pilgrimage for poets and playwrights of the whole world.