todayinhistory:April 23rd 1616: William Shakespeare diesOn this day in 1616, 400 years ago, English
todayinhistory:April 23rd 1616: William Shakespeare diesOn this day in 1616, 400 years ago, English playwright William Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon. Born in Stratford on April 23rd 1564, Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant and glove maker, and local heiress Mary Arden. Little is known about Shakespeare’s early life, and he had little formal education, which leads some to question the authenticity of his plays. Shakespeare met a woman called Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old. After a quick courtship, the couple married in November 1582, going on to have three children. Scholars generally believe that Shakespeare moved to London in the late 1580s and began working at local theatres. By the 1590s, it appears Shakespeare was working as an actor and playwright for the acting company Lord Chamberlain’s Men. By 1600, Shakespeare was an established playwright, having bought a large family home in Stratford and building the Globe Theatre in London with his business partners. Throughout his career, Shakespeare wrote around 38 plays, includingRomeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear, and 154 sonnets. It is believed that he died on April 23rd 1616 - his 52nd birthday. Shakespeare bequeathed most of his belongings to his eldest daughter, leaving his widow his ‘second-best bed’, which is assumed to have been their marital bed. His extraordinary stories, and unique rhetorical style - inventing several words and phrases which have since entered the lexicon - make William Shakespeare the most famous writer in history. 400 years ago today -- source link
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