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All
that is known of Shakespeare's youth is that he presumably attended
the Stratford Grammar School, and did not proceed to Oxford or
Cambridge. The next record we have of him is his marriage to Anne
Hathaway in 1582. The next year she bore a daughter for him,
Susanna, followed by the twins Judith and Hamnet two years later.
Seven years later Shakespeare was recognized as an actor, poet, and
playwright, when a rival playwright, Robert Greene, referred to him
as "an upstart crow" in "A Groatsworth of Wit." A few years later he
joined up with one of the most successful acting troupes in London:
"The Lord Chamberlain's Men." When, in 1599, the troupe lost the
lease of the theatre where they performed (appropriately called "The
Theatre"), they were wealthy enough to build their own theatre
across the Thames, south of London, which they called "The Globe."
The new theatre opened in July of 1599, built from the timbers of "The
Theatre", with the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (A whole
world of players). When James I came to the throne (1603) the troupe
was designated by the new king as the "King's Men" (or "King's
Company"). The Letters Patent of the company specifically charged
Shakespeare and eight others "freely to use and exercise the art and
faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Interludes,
Morals, Pastorals, stage plays ... as well for recreation of our
loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure."
Shakespeare entertained the King and the people for another ten
years until June 19, 1613, when a canon fired from the roof of the
theatre for a gala performance of Henry VIII set fire to the thatch
roof and burned the theatre to the ground. The audience ignored the
smoke from the roof at first, being to absorbed in the play, until
the flames caught the walls and the fabric of the curtains.
Amazingly there were no casualties, and the next spring the company
had the theatre "new builded in a far fairer manner than before."
Although Shakespeare invested in the rebuilding, he retired from the
stage to the Great House of New Place in Statford that he had
purchased in 1597, and some considerable land holdings ,where he
continued to write until his death in 1616 on the day of his 52nd
birthday.
A Fairy Song
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Carpe Diem
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear! your true-love's coming
That can sing both high and low;
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey's end in lovers' meeting--
Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty,--
Then come kiss me, Sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
Full Fathom Five
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them,--ding-dong, bell. |
