* William Shakespeare His life + Work

Born 23 April 1564.in Stratford upon-Avon. Into a well to do family but they were illiterate.
He died in 1616.

His father John Shakespeare was a prosperous merchant – Mayor of Stratford.
His Mother : Mary Arden she owned land.
William is the eldest of a family of 5 children.
At the age of 13 William was apprenticed to a butcher. He married at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway. He have three children between 1583-1585 they have twice and an another boy Hamnet + Judith. Hamnet died at the age of 11.
After he lives, his family and he go to London for become an actor, a playwright. He became very successful; he has the experience of the stages.
Playwright: auteur de tragédie
To stage: écrire une pièce.
He became the shareholder in the company the theatre “The Globe”. The Globe open in 1599. He bought land in Stratford and he has his proper theatre company “The King’s men”.
He had rival Christopher Marlowe; he was stabbed to death outside a pub.
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays comedies, tragedies and tragi-comedies. And famous sonnets between 1592-1594. He was very popular in his lifetime.
He dealt with universal themes. His stages appealed to the rich + the poor alike.
The language can be very different, very formal, colloquial, coarse, rhymed or unrhymed.

* The Elizabethan Theatre
Elizabeth I (Virgin Queen) who was born in 1533 and die in 1603.
She is the daughter of Henry VIII. She ruled without Parliament, divine right of kings.
She believed in cosmic order. Elizabethans feared chaos.
The first permanent theatre was built in 1576 for aristocracy and the rabble. No woman in stage. In 1660 the first women in