informations Shakespeare William Shakespeare was a poet and a playwright and is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in central England, in 1564 and he died in 1616. His surviving work consists of 38 plays, 154 sonnets and some other poems. He is best known for his plays, which have been translated into every major language and are performed more than those of any other playwright in the world. When William Shakespeare was 18 years old he married Anne Hathaway, and they had three children. Shakespeare’s work is still very popular today. Here is a selection of Shakespeare’s plays. The Merchant of Venice This play is about the idea that people usually get what they deserve in the end, good or bad. Hamlet This play is about revenge and also about how difficult it is to take action sometimes, even when it is important. As You Like It This play is a comedy about romantic love. Henry V Which play would you like to see?
Who was William Shakespeare? William Shakespeare is known across the world as the writer of plays such as Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, and as one of the most famous British people ever. Sometimes known simply as ‘the Bard’, he lived over four hundred years ago – not bad for the son of a man who made a living from making gloves. Part of the fascination is that despite being so well-known we don’t actually have much information about him; even his name is spelt differently each time it appears, ranging from ‘Shak-peare’ to ‘Shaksper’. Baptised on 26th April, 1564, his actual birthday isn’t known but conveniently England’s national day, St George’s Day, is the 23rd of April so over the years this is when his birth has been celebrated. In the UK Shakespeare is taught throughout school, making it easy to forget that lots of the plays are actually very funny; some parts are also incredibly rude which means they’re sometimes not covered in lessons.
Shakespeare's influence on modern literature I have just finished reading a really good book called Juliet written by the American author Anne Fortier. I finished this book in under a week as the story was so compelling, each page had me gripped. The main character in the book is called Julie Jacobs or Guilietta Tolomei as we later discover. There have been many rumours that Shakespeare was not responsible for all of his great works and this book is fiction, but it suggests that Romeo and Juliet is set in Siena rather than the famous Verona. One element that I really liked about this book is that it switches between the present day and 1640 AD. I loved reading this book as it gave a new perspective to Shakespeare's famous Romeo and Juliet.