 Hello and welcome to a video summarizing everything you need to know about the playwright, William Shakespeare. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine William Shakespeare's life. Now this video is really useful if you're studying any of his plays and you need some contextual information about him as we go in depth when it comes to his birth, his lifetime, a lot of the work that he did as well as his death. So let's get started. Now when it comes to his birth and family, Shakespeare was the third of eight children born to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon and he was born on April 23rd 1564. John Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's own father, ran his own business as a glovemaker and wool dealer and he held local public positions and was a bailiff which is equivalent to a mayor in the town council. After 1567 it's alleged that he fell into financial difficulties. In 1557 John married Mary Arden who had no formal education at all and that was Shakespeare's mother. Now John and Mary had lost two daughters prior to Shakespeare's birth around 1556 living William as her oldest surviving son. William's younger siblings were Gilbert who was born in 1566, Joan who was born in 1569, Anne who was born in 1571, Richard who was born in 1574 and Edmund who was born in 1580. However Anne died at the age of eight but the others lived into their adulthoods. Shakespeare's family lived in a townhouse on Henley Street in the centre of Stratford upon Avon and John used one of his downstairs rooms as a workshop for his glove business displaying his gloves in his house windowsill for passersby to brew rues and purchase. Now when it comes to William Shakespeare's childhood and education during his time it was typical for boys to start their education at a grammar school at seven years old and be taught a curriculum with Latin at its centre. Children would be expected to learn long passages of prose and poetry and in addition they were drilled in grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic and astronomy. Now children of public officials received free tuition however girls did not receive a school education. So it's likely that William Shakespeare lived with his family and was taught according to those principles at his local grammar school. This grammar school was called The King's New School and it was just a five minute walk from home. When William Shakespeare was 14 his father lost his public position and it's highly probable that William left school and joined his father in business probably making gloves. There's definitely no record of Shakespeare going to university and his contemporary Christopher Marlowe did go to Cambridge University but most playwrights at the time including Ben Johnson did not. Now when it comes to Shakespeare's marriage and children parish records show that when Shakespeare was 18 years old he married Anne Hathaway who was 26 or 27 years old and she was a wealthy farmer's daughter from Canterbury province of Rochester. Anne was three months pregnant when they married so of course they'd had sex before marriage which necessitated their marriage and she was pregnant with their first daughter Susanna who was born on 26 May 1563. William and Anne went on to have two twins so Hamnet who's a boy and Judith a girl who was born on 2 February 1585 however Hamnet died of unknown causes at 11 years old but William's daughters and wife outlived him. Now there was a seven year period after the birth of Hamnet and Judith at twins which is known as Shakespeare's lost years as there's no recordings about him other than one mention of him visiting London in 1616 to see son-in-law John Hall. Speculation about this time is really rife and there's one prominent speculative theory that Shakespeare fled from Stratford to avoid prosecution as a poacher. This theory could explain why he left his wife and children in Stratford and reappeared 90 miles away in London. Other theories are that Shakespeare toured with an acting troupe possibly in Italy and this latter theory is given weight as 14 plus of his plays include Italian settings and a 16th century guest book in Rome was assigned by pilgrims includes three cryptic signings that add some attribute to Shakespeare. This however isn't a watertight argument because Italian literature would have been widely read at the time in addition the speculation that Shakespeare met John Flurio an apostle of Italian culture in England and tutored to Shakespeare's patron Henry Riotsley the Earl of Southampton. The possibility that Shakespeare was a soldier has also been debated during this period however there's no proof to support this claim. The truth though is that no one actually knows where Shakespeare lived or worked for this period and what historians are certain of is that during this time Shakespeare left behind the image of a country youth and re-emerged as a playwright and businessman so at some point during this time he learned his trade as a writer in London. Now of course when it comes to Shakespeare and his role in London the late 16th and early 17th century is referred to as the golden age of English drama due to the popularity of theatre and the volume of plays produced at the time. There was a fierce competition among 20 or so theatres in London keeping scores of writers busy churning out new plays and Shakespeare became one of these writers so we're not exactly sure how this occurred. It seems that Shakespeare didn't maintain a London household but lived in several lodgings with landlords and other lodgers during this time. He was always within walking distance of the theatre zone so we can imagine him walking to work every day. By the early 1590s court records show Shakespeare was living somewhere in Bishop's Gate London. By then he had written Two Gentlemen of Arona which we've done a video on Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer's Night Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard the Third Second rather and The Merchant of Venice and do make sure you check out all of these videos because we've actually done video summaries looking at each of these plays. However Shakespeare seems to have been interested in writing poems in addition to his day job of writing plays. He also wrote his two long poems Venus and Adonis and The Lape of a Grace. Again we have done video summaries on both. Not only that but this is the period when he started his work on his sonnets. In 1595 documents show that Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men along with William Kemp and Richard Burbage. Shakespeare was involved with his company of actors in London for most of his career as an actor, producer, theatre owner and of course a very popular playwright and it's evident that Shakespeare was earning a good income from his theatre businesses. Several records show that in 1597 he bought a new place, one of Stratford's biggest houses and moved his family into it. In this same year his son Hamnett died of unknown causes aged 11. By 1599 Shakespeare was living in Bankside on the south side of the Thames near the infamous Clink prison. It was in this area that Shakespeare and his business partners Kemp and Burbage built their own theatre on the south bank of the Thames River which they called the Globe Theatre and it's likely that Shakespeare moved to Bankside to be near the building site. Shakespeare's playwriting would have been a necessity to provide material to fill his company's new theatre every day and between 1599 and 1604 he was a prolific writer and he wrote at least seven plays including Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 The Merry Wives of Windsor As You Like It, Not to Do About Nothing Henry V and Julius Caesar and it goes without saying that we have also done video summaries on this so do make sure you check them out on our channel. Now records show that in 1604 Shakespeare moved back to the city of London and rented a room in the house in Cripple Gate near St Paul's Cathedral. In 1605 Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for £440 which doubled in value and earned him an income of £60 a year which was quite a lot of money at the time. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted as he didn't have to worry too much about his survival. Shakespeare lived in Cripple Gate for about eight years writing many plays including Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Troilus and Crusader, All's Well that Ends Well Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lea, Macbeth, Antonin, Kirpacho, Correlanius, Timon of Athens, Pericles, Cymbalyn, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. In 1607 his older daughter Susanna married and his mother died the following years and his sonnets were published in 1609. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford upon Avon to London so it's believed that Shakespeare spent all of his time in London writing and acting except for the 40-day Lenten period when theatres were closed when he travelled back to stay in Stratford upon Avon. Now when it comes to Shakespeare's retirement years after an amazing career as an actor, playwright and theatre proprietor in London Shakespeare retired to Stratford upon Avon some time after 1611 whilst in his late 40s he rejoined his wife into surviving children and by this time he also had a granddaughter Elizabeth who was a daughter of Judith. Retirement for Shakespeare was not a matter of sitting around in slippers and letting the world pass him by. In fact he had a portfolio of properties and many business interests including some in the corn and mort trades. He also continued to make occasional long journeys to London. Before leaving London, Shakespeare had built up a selection of plays that hadn't been yet performed. These included The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, The Tempest and Symboline. It's likely that he visited London for some of these first performances most probably for those of The Tempest and The Winter's Tale which were performed to King James. On June 29th, 1613 Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was burnt down and it's likely that this meant even more time spent in London for Shakespeare. He was definitely in Westminster on the 11th of May 1612 when he appeared as a witness in the case of Bellot and Montjoy. At one time Shakespeare had been a lodger in Christopher Mountjoy's House and Cripple Gate and now Montjoy was being sued by his son-in-law Stephen Bellot for defaulting on a promised marriage settlement and Shakespeare had been involved in the dowry negotiations and so was called to give evidence in the case. Shakespeare enjoyed visits from his many friends from around the world of theatre arts and letters to his home in Stratford-upon-Avon and he continued to collaborate with younger playwrights participating in the writing of Henry VIII, two noble kinsmen and the lost play Cardinio with his friend John Webster. Now after his glittering career as an actor, playwright and proprietor, he retired after 1611 whilst in his late 40s and he rejoined his wife and two surviving children in Stratford-upon-Avon. By this time he also had a granddaughter Elizabeth who was the daughter of Judith. Now on June 12th, 1613, as I mentioned his Globe Theatre burnt down and of course this is when a lot of his plays were written. However when it comes to his death we're not entirely sure of the exact date of his death but it's assumed from a record of his burial two days later at Holy Trinity Church Stratford-upon-Avon where he died on his 52nd birthday on the 23rd April 1616 and his gravestone remains there and bears the following engraving. Good friend for Jesus' sake for bear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be your man that spares these stones and cursed be he that moves my bones. It's believed that Shakespeare's death occurred in Newhouse where he would have been attended by his son-in-law Dr. John Hall, the local physician and most historians agree that in the 17th century Stratford-upon-Avon had a reputation for scandalous stories and rumours with no basis for fact. This therefore means that we have to be cautious in believing for certain the common health theory about Shakespeare's cause of death. Now in 1661 many years after his death John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church noted in his diary Shakespeare Drayton and Ben Johnson had a mirroring meeting for it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted. It's therefore often stated that Shakespeare's died from a fever after a drinking binge with fellow playwrights Ben Johnson and Michael Drayton. There are other reports that Michael Drayton and Ben Johnson visited Shakespeare a week before he died and spent the evening eating and drinking together with him. Despite all of these theories the cause of Shakespeare's death at the age of just 52 will likely remain a mystery. He died a grandfather after living a relatively long and healthy life where the average life expectancy was just 35 and he was buried on 25th April 1616 in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. So that's all if you found this video useful do give us a thumbs up and consider subscribing to our YouTube channel but also make sure you visit our website www.firstratetutors.com there you will find lots of model answers related to different Shakespeare plays but also you will find our ultimate GCSE English cause which goes not only into depth on Shakespeare's plays Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet but also a range of other topics including the Lord of the Flies Animal Farm as well as English Language, Paper 1 and Paper 2 this is particularly useful for GCSE exams. Thank you so much for listening.