William Shakespeare (1564-1618) was born into a middle-class English family in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, the third of eight children and the oldest son. Shakespeare may have apprenticed as a butcher and taught school before moving to London in 1588 to become an actor and playwright.

Having married Anne Hathaway in 1582 (at age 18), he fathered a daughter in 1583 and twins (girl and boy) in 1585, but the son died.

Shakespeare formed his own acting company after securing financial backing from Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd earl of Southampton.

During his writing career, he wrote 150 sonnets that circulated in manuscript and were finally published together in 1609, as well as 38 plays, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Othello, a series of plays about the Tudor kings, and other tragedies, comedies, and histories.

A. Kent Hieatt, a Shakespeare scholar, characterizes the sonnets as a series of poems that describes a triangle--a "persona," often identified as Shakespeare himself, admires the physical attractiveness and strength of character of a young man, perhaps Shakespeare's patron. The persona in these sonnets also is passionately attracted to a dark lady, and so is the young man. The sonnets, therefore, delve into the psychology of love and passion, truth, beauty, and other romantic verities.

[A. Kent Hieatt, "Shakespeare, William," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Microsoft Corporation and Funk & Wagnall's Corporation, 1994.]

For more information and a different picture of Shakespeare, see 

• Jeremy Hylton's Web page, "Shakespeare Resources on the Internet" or 

• Scott Rettberg's "William Shakespeare on the Web" for resources.

• Prof. Hylton also has a SEARCHABLE copy of Shakespeare's complete works available.

Any suggestions? Send URL's and reasons for recommending them to ehibbison@jsr.cc.va.us (Prof. Eric Hibbison).