William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers in the history

England; he has written many plays and sonnets. Even though he was one of the greatest
writers in history, he never attended college. He even surprised a few people by acting.
Shakespeare also introduced over 2,000 words to the English language such as
assassination and fashionable(National). Without him the English language would not be
as advanced as it is today.

Shakespeare was born around April 23,1564 but no one is completely

sure(Enotes). People know little about William's childhood or teenage years. William's
father John was an alderman and a bailiff. William was the fourth of eight Shakespeare
children born but only five survived to adulthood. Some people think that he was poor
and uneducated but he was not at all. By the age of five he was enrolled in the King's
New School in Stratford, a grammar school that was run for the benefit of the sons. If he
did not attend this school his grammar would probably not be good enough to write
books and sonnets. He married Anne Hathaway when she was twenty-six and he was
eighteen. William's

children's names were Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. He died April 23,1616.He lived fiftytwo years, and in just twenty-three of those years, he wrote thirty-eight plays.

The types of plays that William Shakespeare wrote were comedy. tragedy and
history. Some of the plays he has written include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest

and King John. Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet being tragedies. The Tempest being a
comedy. Then King John being historical(William). The first play he ever wrote was The
Last Gentleman of Verona and he wrote this play when he was around the age of twentyeight. The last play he wrote was Henry VIII and he wrote this when he was around the
age of forty-nine years old (Bardweb).

Something that shocks many people though is that he did not only write plays he
was also in them. Nobody really understood the reason but Shakespeare began to act in
plays when he moved to London. Actors did not have a good reputation. Actors were also
known to not be trustworthy.

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in his lifetime. It is believed that he wrote
his first sonnet at the age of twenty-nine in 1593. William Shakespeare's sonnets are
written about a handsome boy and a mysterious "dark women" they are both in love with.

The sonnets are in three groups: sonnets one to one hundred twenty-six are addressed to
the young man, sonnets one hundred twenty-seven to one hundred fifty-two are addressed
to the dark lady, sonnets one hundred fifty-three to one hundred fifty-four are adaptations
to two classical Greek poems(William).

William Shakespeare was a great writer and poet. He introduced so many new
things to the English language. He was still a genius even though he was never fully
educated.

DeBarberie 4

Citations:
1. http://www.bardweb.net/plays/timeline.html
Shakespeare's Works:A Timeline." Shakespeare's Works: A Timeline. Web. 11
Mar.

2012

2. http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/shakespeare-biography
"William Shakespeare." Enotes.com. Enotes.com. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.

3.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0419_040419_shakespeare.ht
ml
"Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common Currency." National Geographic.

4. http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-plays.htm
"William ShakespearePlays." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PLAYS. Web. 11 Mar.
2012.

5. http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-sonnets.htm
"William ShakespeareSonnets ." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONNETS with
Text of Each Sonnet. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.