William Shakespeare

1. The publication, in 1593, of his poem Venus and Adonis, very well received in London literary settings, was one of his first successes. Of his later poetic production it is possible to emphasize the violation of Lucrecia (1594) and the Sonnets (1609), of loving subject matter and that by themselves would place him among the greats of Anglo-Saxon poetry. All in all, it was his activity as a playwright that made Shakespeare famous at the time. His work, in total fourteen comedies, ten tragedies and ten historical dramas, is an exquisite compendium of the feelings, pain and ambitions of the human soul. After a few initial attempts, in which the influence of Christopher Marlowe is revealed, before 1600 most of his "gay comedies" and some of his dramas based on the history of England appeared. The fantasy and poetic sense of the comedies of this period stand out above all, such as in A Midsummer Night's Dream; The author's prodigious mastery of versification allowed him to distinguish characters by the way they spoke, in addition to giving their language an almost colloquial naturalness.

2. In his latest works, starting in 1608, he changed register and entered the genre of tragicomedy, often with a happy ending in which the possibility of reconciliation was glimpsed, as in Pericles; This new orientation culminates in his last piece, The Tempest, whose premiere in 1611 ended his career. Perhaps tired and sick, two years later he retired to his home in Stratford, where he died on April 23, 1616 of the old Julian calendar, used at that time in England. Another great genius in the history of world literature, Miguel de Cervantes, died on the same date of the current Gregorian calendar, already adopted at the time in Spain. Shakespeare published in life only sixteen of the works attributed to him; for this reason, some of them might have been lost if the Folio, a compilation volume that would serve as the basis for all subsequent editions, had not been published (a few years after the poet's death).

3. his life

4. Shakespeare's career as a playwright began after his move to London, where he quickly gained fame and popularity in his work for the company Chaberlain's Men, later known as King's Men, owner of two theaters, The Globe and Blackfriars. He also represented successfully in court. His beginnings were, however, humble, and according to sources he worked in the most varied trades, although it seems reasonable to suppose that he was related to the theater from the beginning, since before establishing himself as an author he was already known as an actor.

5. Third of the eight children of John Shakespeare, a wealthy local merchant and politician, and Mary Arden, whose family had suffered religious persecution stemming from his Catholic confession, little or nothing is known of William Shakespeare's childhood and adolescence. It seems likely that he studied at the Grammar School in his hometown, although how many years and under what circumstances is unknown. According to his playwright Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare learned "little Latin and less Greek", and in any case it also seems likely that he dropped out of school at an early age due to the difficulties his father was going through, be they economic or derived from his political career.

6. Be that as it may, Shakespeare has always been considered as a cultured person, but not excessively, and this has allowed the birth of theories according to which he would have been just the straw man of someone willing to remain in literary anonymity. This has also been contributed by the fact that the author's personal writings or letters are not available at all, who seems to have only written works for the stage, apart from his poetic production.

7. His achievements