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link in the description below all the
world's a stage and all the men and
women merely players they have their
exits and their entrances and one man in
his time plays many parts
William Shakespeare was the greatest
writer of all time he has had the
biggest impact on literature for all of
human history
some historians even believe that he may
have written the first English
translation of the King James Bible
during his lifetime he published 38
plays a hundred and fifty-four sonnets
and several poems his writing has been
translated into every single language in
the world making him one of the only
writers who is universally popular with
everyone so who was this man and how did
his life experience shape him into
someone so profound that his words have
lasted for hundreds of years
[Music]
most historians believe that Shakespeare
was born approximately April the 23rd
1564 in stratford-upon-avon in
Warwickshire England his father John
Shakespeare was the son of successful
farmers and glove maker John was very
popular in town and made a lot of
friends one year he was given the
hilarious position of Stratford's
official al taster and in 1568 he was
appointed as the high bailiff which is
like a modern-day mayor aside from this
glove business John also had a side
hustle trading wool which was actually
illegal to do without a proper license
during this time John bought several
properties in Stratford and was moving
up in both financial and social status
however this upward mobility would come
to a halt when John was finally cause
for illegally trading wool he was forced
to go to court and pay substantial fines
william shakespeare only attended
primary school to the age of 13 because
his father could no longer pay for the
tuition after his legal scandal no one
is sure what young william did between
the ages of 13 to 18 but he most likely
worked with his father to help keep the
family business afloat according to the
records kept by the Shakespeare
Birthplace trust William was just 18
years old when he got a 26 year old
woman named Anne Hathaway pregnant in
nose of Ethan England's the age of
consent was 21 so William had to get
Anne's father's permission for the two
of them to get married this would have
been very shameful in the eyes of
Elizabethan society normally parents
help to arrange marriages with their
young daughters and eligible suitors
women never had a choice in who they
marries in this courtship process it
often started in their teenage years
girls get married as young as 12 if
their parents gave consent but the
majority began searching for their
daughters husbands at the age of 14 or
15 with young men however most parents
allowed their sons to choose their own
wife after the age of consent at 21 by
age 26 women were considered to be an
old maid because they would have gone
through over 10 years of courtship and
had no proposals of marriage if a woman
went too long without fighting a husband
she was considered to have something
seriously wrong with her and would be
labeled a witch Anne Hathaway was
already 26 and she'd failed to find a
husband many historians speculates that
and must have seduced the young and
naive William Shakespeare knowing that
it would force them to get married this
held young Shakespeare back from
pursuing his dream the
back then if a young man was already a
father he was no longer eligible to
become an apprentice in a skilled trade
so getting a woman pregnant as a
teenager would essentially sentence a
man to a life of poverty and he would be
doomed to work in the lowest paying jobs
for the rest of his life
they were marries in November of 1580 -
six months later dan gave birth to their
daughter Susanna
there's a teenage parent Shakespeare did
not have the money to care for a child
and so here nan had to live with
William's parents he had five younger
siblings who were just 2 to 13 years old
when their daughter Susanna was born
there are no records that give us an
insight into how William felt about and
but the lack of evidence it speaks
volumes most writers can't help but gush
with words of admiration about the
people they love considering that he
would create some of the most romantic
stories of all time we know that he must
have fallen in love at some point in his
life but most historians believe that
his inspiration came from Affairs that
he had in later life William and Anne
went on to have twins a boy and a girl
named Hamlet's and Judith between the
years that his twins were born in 1585
and the points where he moved to London
to become a writer in 1592 they have
been called The Lost years back then it
was totally normal for people not to
keep records of their own lives
especially when you were just your
average laborer but this period of time
has become legendary among Shakespeare
nerds who like to imagine what sort of
life would have led him to ultimately
decide to move to London to become an
actor
since there are no records everything
that has been written about the lost
years is basically fanfiction the only
real clue is a poem from his play as you
like it which has been called the seven
ages of man this is people speculating
that he may have become a soldier or a
legal clerk however this was written in
a work of fiction so it really may have
nothing to do with his personal life for
now much of his young life will simply
remain a mystery
[Applause]
during the Elizabethan era there was an
economic expansion in England with more
money comes more time for leisure so
citizens were indulging in the arts more
than ever before records of William
Shakespeare living in London as an actor
began when he was 28 years old his wife
Anne and his children they remains
living in his father Sam and
stratford-upon-avon and he would send
money to support them before he wrote
plays he had been publishing poetry and
sonnets with the help of wealthy patrons
at the time becoming an actor was not
the dream career that it is today
in fact actors were considered to be
untrustworthy vagabonds who came from
the lowest class of society in this way
his struggles in earlier life may have
actually been a blessing in disguise
because if he had had a better job he
may have never stooped so low as to run
away and join the theatre he began
working as an acting company called Lord
Chamberlain's Men for years
Shakespeare mainly worked as an actor
and would only occasionally submit a
script of a play or a sonnet for the
company to perform after performing
service plays co-workers realized that
Shakespeare scripts were by far the most
popular and they drew the biggest crowds
it made the most financial sense for the
troupe to continue performing
Shakespeare's work above anyone elses
the trip would rent the stage from the
owner of the Globe Theatre at the time
there were several popular theaters in
London called The Rose the Hope and the
Swan this meant they were far from being
the only company who was trying to
capture an audience's attention the
performers at the globe became so
popular that the entire city would come
to see Shakespeare's work the theatre
was set up to incorporate special
effects into their performances like
trapdoors and overhead rigging at one
point performances at the Globe was so
popular even members of the royal family
would come to see them on a regular
basis when King James the first came to
power he decided to sponsor Lord
Chamberlain's Men so they changed the
company name to the King's Men in the
beginning of his play writing career
Shakespeare wrote biographies about the
lives of King Henry the sixth and
Richard the third Shakespeare's plays
were considered to be historically
accurate for a long time however after
discovering the remains of Richard the
third scientists realized that
Shakespeare had exaggerated his physical
appearance so it's likely that he also
exaggerated his personality now by the
time he was 32 years old Shakespeare
that came out with his first play there
was a complete work of fiction called
the comedy of errors that same year in
fifty
96 Williams father John Shakespeare was
able to secure a family coat of arms
which was a sign that the family was now
accepted into the upper echelon of
society in 1597 William Shakespeare was
33 years old and his writing career it
was finally successful enough so that he
could afford to buy his own house for
his wife and children in
stratford-upon-avon he called the house
new place at the time it would have
taken 2 to 3 days of travel on horseback
to get to London so he always kept an
apartment in the city the stereotype
that actors we're vagabonds wasn't too
far from the truth actually at the very
least you could say that they were
incredibly crafty in 1597 the owner of
The Globe Theatre Charles Allen wanted
to tear it down so they could sell the
land he abruptly ended the lease with
the Lord Chamberlain's Men this would
have ruined their careers since most
other theaters in London were full with
their competitors but someone came up
with a genius solution they offered to
give jaws out and free labor to
dismantle the theater themselves in
exchange for them putting the materials
to better use Allan plan to just burn
the wood anyway so he didn't see any
problem with that the theater troupe got
together in the middle of the night
carefully tear down the theater and they
went to a property across the Thames
River then they used all of these free
materials to rebuild the Globe Theatre
exactly as it had been only now it was
across the river they had the exact same
performance space without having to pay
their rent this stunt became the talk of
the town and only made their company
even more popular but the landlord he
was furious Charles Allen tried to take
them to court to sue them for the value
of the theatre after reading the
contract he signs the judge found the
Lord Chamberlain's Men not guilty of any
crime and they had every right to do
whatever they wanted with the materials
for the rest of his life William
Shakespeare's reputation would continue
to grow and he was nothing short of a
celebrity now just before we get into
the rest of that life let me tell you a
bit about today's sponsor brilliance
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[Music]
now that William Shakespeare was living
on his own and succeeded in his career
he was able to enjoy the freedoms of
being a bachelor there is some
speculation that he may have actually
been bisexual after all plays during the
Elizabethan era were always performed
with an all-male cast and with fair
features would crossdress to play the
female roles and they would often kiss
on stage this was one of the many
reasons why actors were considered to be
so low class as well for a man's who
choose to leave his wife and kids and
run away to the theatre it's not so hard
to imagine that his sexuality may have
had something to do with it one of the
biggest pieces of evidence is his sonnet
fair youth which holds the famous line
shall I compare thee to a summers day it
is very romantic but few people realize
that it was actually a love them written
about a young man he kept that poem
hidden for years until it was recovered
after his death it was later edited to
remove all of the male pronouns but
there is one line where he describes the
fair youth as having a woman's face one
of the leading theories as the identity
of the fair youth is one of his first
patrons Henry riders Lee the 3rd Earl of
Southampton he began to financially
support Shakespeare's work at the
beginning of his writing career and they
remained loyal friends long after he
became a famous playwright looking at a
portrait of young Henry he truly does
look androgynous and he seems to be the
most likely candidate for the historians
who feel threatened by the idea that
Shakespeare was not straight they tried
to claim that they were really just good
friends because you know it's totally
normal for dudes to write love poems
about each other right yes another may
have revealed details of one of
Shakespeare's lovers this time in a
sonnet called the Dark Lady where he
describes a woman with black hair and
eyes with brown skin historians have
tried to figure out who this woman was
there are several theories including
that he was writing about a famous
London sex worker nicknamed black noose
we do not know how much time he spent in
stratford-upon-avon with his family but
considering how busy he was working in
London most speculates that he only saw
them on holidays when William
Shakespeare was in his 40s his son
Hamlet died just 11 years old at the
time the bubonic plague was killing
people across England and one-third of
the children died by the age of 10 how
Mnet's had been his only son so his
death affected him deeply
many people speculate that the death of
his son has one inspired him to write
his play Hamlet
for years some historians have
speculated the William Shakespeare may
not have worked alone because they have
a hard time believing that someone who
stopped his education by the age of 13
could grow up to be the greatest writer
of all time we do know that a fellow
play writer named Thomas Middleton
either collaborated or edited
Shakespeare's work it's perfectly normal
for writers to collaborate on projects
together and he probably got plenty of
feedback from his co-workers in the
acting troupe
however most modern-day readers will
never even see just how impressive his
writing truly was and a trained eye can
see the progression in his style the way
we pronounce words in the English
language has dramatically changed in his
original scripts there is even more
rhyming and clever puns hidden in a
dialogue that a modern-day reader would
ever pick up on and yet it's still
incredible even if we miss half of the
jokes at the very beginning of this
video we mentioned that he may have had
her hands in collaborating with the King
James Bible in 1610 King James set out
to translate the Bible from that into
English but for those who have studied
theology you already know that the
translation is not exact William
Shakespeare was one of the most
respected writers in England at the time
and King James would have surely gone to
see his plays so it would only make
sense that he may have been at least one
of the collaborators on writing the
Bible William Shakespeare was 46 years
old at the time and the projects began
soon after his birthday historians with
way too much time on their hands figured
out that Tom 46 if you count out 46
words from the beginning of the verse
you'll find the word shake and then if
you count 46 words backwards from the
ends you'll find the word spear most
believed that this is enough evidence to
prove that he really did write the book
and that this was the only way he could
slip his authorship into the text even
though we see us hidden signature we
still do not know if he wrote the
entirety of the King James Bible by
himself or if there were other
collaborators however you can take a
quotation quiz online called Bible or
Shakespeare and you'll quickly realize
that the writing styles between
Shakespeare's plays and the Bible are so
similar that even fans have trouble
knowing the difference now there is a
common saying that Shakespeare was so
profound that every single story risen
since then cannot help but be influenced
by him or the Bible and since he wrote
both it's all really just him
in 1613 the glib theater burns to the
grounds during a performance of Henry
the eighth's
they were shooting off cannons to create
a realistic effect of battle but they
accidentally set fire to the theater
after the fire he stopped writing
because there was no air for his place
to be performed the truth began to
rebuild the theater almost immediately
but for william shakespeare this
situation was so traumatic that he
needed a break from writing he moved
back soon if we don Hathaway and
stratford-upon-avon and died just three
years later in 2018 a movie called all
is true speculated what life must have
been like for him during his short
retirements historians have noted that
in these last three years William
Shakespeare's handwriting was very shaky
from hand tremors this could have
indicated that he had contracted
syphilis from one of his lovers and was
now in the later stages of the disease
some believe that he was also suffering
from mercury poisoning and this may
explain some of his more dark and tragic
work in 1616 William Shakespeare was 52
years old and on the verge of death he
wrote his last will and testament which
is where we find the only time he had
ever written about his wife it said item
I give on to my wife are the second best
bed and the furniture many husbands made
their wives executors of their will and
wrote some romantic words about how they
trusted them with her estates but no
that's all Shakespeare had to say after
he died the men who worked together with
William Shakespeare in the King's Men
gathered together his scripts to
preserve them for future generations
this is known as the First Folio
later the poetry that was attributed to
him was added to the second folio and
whatever they could find was considered
his complete works but of course there's
always a chance that he had written
other pieces that the world never knew
about even though these plays were
capped by a ragtag group the factors his
words resonated with people so much that
it became a worldwide phenomenon so what
makes Shakespeare's writing so good how
is it lasted for hundreds of years and
people are still reading it today and
being inspired by it the answer is that
Shakespeare took the time to study human
beings no matter who we are all people
share common emotions and life
experiences in fiction characters often
get placed in scenarios where it's easy
to find solutions the night stays the
dragon the princess is rescued by a
prince most legendary stories and fairy
tale
black-and-white that shakes this
characters a truly complex just like
real people in real life where sometimes
put in a situation that is so difficult
there is absolutely no right thing to do
we simply have to follow our intuition
and make a choice since then deal with
any negative consequences either way by
tapping into the human condition his
tragedies they were heart-wrenching in
his romances were epic but through it
all he tries to insert comedy to help
people laugh at even the hardest things
in life his characters have helped
people have more empathy for the plight
of others instead of casting judgment
Fantine quickly and every new generation
of aspiring writers since then they've
tried to accomplish the same we do not
have any journals to figure out what
went through William Shakespeare's mind
at the end of his life when he was
struggling with a terminal illness but
we do have some very powerful insights
into his mind from one of his last place
called The Tempest he probably knew that
he would die soon so within the text of
this play he just may have tried to tell
some of the most valuable advice that he
learned throughout his lifetime the main
character is a man named Prospero who
was trapped on an island with his
daughter he becomes a sorcerer R&T
communes with spirits who give him
control over the weather at a certain
point in the story Prospero seems to be
on the brink of madness as he uses his
power to go after his revenge but
throughout the course of the play he
learns how to forgive his enemies not to
judge people based on their appearances
and to embrace love as being one of the
most powerful things in the world in the
ends Prospero asks the audience for
forgiveness for the terrible things that
he has done and this was met with
thunderous applause with this in mind
we'll leave you with some of the last
lines that William Shakespeare wrote in
The Tempest our revels now are ended
these are actors as I foretold you were
all spirits and are melted into air we
are such stuff as dreams are made on and
our little life is rounded with a sleep
so I really hope you found that video
interesting if you did please do hit
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thank you for watching
[Music]