Romeo And Juliet Essays - William Shakespeare, Kings Men

Romeo And Juliet Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, these amazing plays all originated from the single mind of William Shakespeare. The plays in which Shakespeare wrote, he wrote out of a very small educated mind a distinct love for the bible and of course, an imagination. The plays in which Shakespeare wrote were all written as an adult to, leaving his past to be misled into false claims. Shakespeare never wrote and autobiography and much is not known about his childhood sense it was never a real corner stone for people who enjoyed his plays and poems to think about, but as the saying goes, you can't understand your future till you understand your past. This strictly helps us interpret why each and every persons childhood, famous or not, is important. Do you know what kind of childhood Shakespeare had? Do you know where he started from? William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the Province of Warwickshire England in 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary ( Arden ) Shakespeare. Stratford was a relatively prosperous market town ( Loxton 13 ) in middle England, which had a fairly large population. When William was three months old, the plague raged in Stratford ( Lee 10 ) and took the lives of many, and killed one out of every seven that was living in the town at that time. Lucky William and the Shakespeare family escaped the plague, and as from records, no one in the Shakespeare family had contracted the awful illness. The Shakespeare family was a close-knit one, and they had to be in those days. William Shakespeare's family consisted of John, the father, Mary the mother, 3 brothers, Gilbert, Edmund, Richard, 4 sisters, Joan, Ann, another Joan, and Margaret, along with Shakespeare's Grandfather and Grandmother( rarely heard of ). Although they could escape the plague they could not escape the overwhelming commonness of the death of infants in that time ( Lee 10 ). Mary the mother of William Shakespeare was the daughter of Robert Arden and Had, In all, Eight Children with John Shakespeare ( Gray 3 ). The first daughter of Mary and John was Joan, who died at birth in 1558. The second born to the couple was the daughter Margaret, which was born in 1562 and died a year later in 1563. The third child born to John and Mary, in 1564 finally was William Shakespeare and as we all know lived into adulthood ( Fido 11 ). April 1564 is the month in which Shakespeare was baptized but no exact birth date was ever given, but since he died close to his birthday which happened to fall on the 23rd of April, the same date as St. George's birthday, the people recognize this as his official birth date ( Loxton 10 ). The next member of the Shakespeare family was William's brother was Gilbert and he also lived into adulthood. He was born in 1566 and later died in 1612, a fairly short life but this was common back in his time ( Kay 17 ). The next born, the second Joan in the Shakespeare family also lived to be an adult, as she was born in 1566 and later died in 1612. The 6th born child, who was Anne, died at age 8, when William was only 15. The death of his sister probably caused great pain to William and the whole family as most deaths do, and was just another loss to add to the family at that time. She was born in 1571 and later died in 1579. Richard Shakespeare, named after his grandfather, was the 7th born and also lived into adulthood, but by no means was it a long adult life. I lived till 1613 and was born in 1574. The last child, Edmund, like Richard was also named after a relative in the family. He was named after his uncle Edmund on his mothers side. Edmund also like Richard didn't live a very long adult life, living only a mere 28 years. Richard lived from 1580 till 1608. This was the immediate family to William Shakespeare and undoubtedly influenced his life a great deal, as all families do ( Lee 18-19 ).The most important figure in Shakespeare's childhood life was, undoubtedly his father, John Shakespeare. In 1551, John Shakespeare left Snitterfield, which was his birthplace, to seek a career in the neighboring town of Stratford-Upon-Avon ( Lee 4 ). At one point John Shakespeare purchased 500 pounds of wool