Chancel Of Holy Trinity Church In Stratford example essay topic

Surviving documents give us a glimpse into the life of William Shakespeare show us a playwright, poet, and actor who grew up in the market town of Stratford, spent his professional life in London, and returned to Stratford a wealthy landowner. He was born April 1564, died in April 1616, and is buried inside the Chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. England's greatest poet and playwright was born in Stratford, the son of a tradesman and alderman of Stratford, John Shakespeare, in 1564. William, the eldest son, and third child (of eight) was baptized on the 26th of April in 1564 and probably educated at Stratford Grammar School, but little is known of his life up to his eighteenth year. Although, in 1575 when he was eleven, there was a great plague in the country and Queen Elizabeth journeyed out of London to avoid its consequences and stayed for several days at Kenilworth Castle near Stratford enjoying "festivities" arranged by her host Lord Leicester. Many feel these events may have had a strong impact on the mind of young William.

At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior. Five years later he left for London. William worked at the Globe Theatre and appeared in many small parts. He first appeared in public as a poet in 1593 with his Venus and Adonis and the following year with The Rape of Lucre ce. He became joint proprietor of The Globe and also had an interest in the Black friars Theatre. He began writing his plays in 1595 and of the 38 plays that comprise the Shakespeare Cannon, 36 were published in the 1st Folio of 1623, of which 18 had been published in his lifetime.

Love's Labor's Lost and The Comedy of Errors appear to be among the earliest, being followed by The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo and Juliet. Then followed Henry VI, Richard, Richard II, Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, King John, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's Well that Ends Well, Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing, As you like it, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, King Lear, Timon of Athens, Pericles, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, A Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Henry V and The Two Noble Kinsmen. When he retired from writing in 1611, he returned to Stratford to live in a house which he had built for his family. His children Susanna, born on May 26th 1583 and twins, Hamnet and Judith, born on February 2nd 1585 his only son, Hamnet and twin sister Judith both died in their childhood but his third child Susanna grew old and married a Stratford Doctor, John Hall, and their home "Hall's Croft" is today preserved as one of the Shakespeare Properties and administered by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

In 1616 Shakespeare was buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity the same Church where he was baptized in 1564. Tradition has it that he died after an evening's drinking with some of his theatre friends. His gravestone bears the words: - -Good friend for Jesus sake forebear e, (Good Friend for Jesus sake forebear, to digg the dust enclosed heare, To dig the dust enclosed here, Blest e be ye man yt spares thes stones, Blest be ye man that spares these stones, And curs t be he yt moves my bones. - And cursed be ye who move my bones. ).