FOREWORD FOREWORD You are holding in your hands a biography of the greatest poet in English and per haps in any language Homer Dante Tolstoy Dickens and other writers are justly famous but their literary reputations do not compare with William Shakespeare’s 1564 1616 He is best known as a poetic dramatist for his tragedies comedies and historical plays Even nearly 400 years after his death his tragedies in partic ular among them Hamlet King Lear Romeo and Juliet Othello and Macbeth are the touchstones of world literature Shakespeare did not enjoy a royal upbringing Although by English law stu dents were taught Latin and the classics his early life in the rural town of Stratford upon-Avon did not foretell literary success He married at 18 and fathered 3 children with Anne Hathaway but soon he was off to seek his fortune in London After a decade-long gap in Shakespeare’s exact whereabouts the lost years he reappeared in 1592 on the London theater scene He went on to write at least 37 plays 154 sonnets and 2 long narrative poems works that have been translated into every major language Shakespeare’s renowned plays demonstrate a sea of troubles the fatal flaws to which humans are heirs deceit intrigue jealousy self-doubt and hasty errors in judgment Which of Shakespeare’s personal experiences went into his writing History cannot tell us What is clear is that his poetry was superior to the verse of any of his contemporaries a reflection of his mastery of language and the inten sity of his vision Shakespeare’s first 126 sonnets are written to a fair youth or rival poet the following 28 to a dark lady The characters identities remain unknown A few of the sonnets are outright declarations of devotion but the overarching theme of these 14-line poems is the permanence of change youth and beauty pass love grows and fades death is inevitable Yet nothing in literature seems more certain than the permanence of William Shakespeare’s genius J Patrick Lewis United States Children’s Poet Laureate 2011-13 5
INTRODUCTION He was not of an age but for all time British poet Ben Jonson on Shakespeare Nearly 400 years after his death William Shakespeare is a name recognized in every language carrying with it connotations of tragedy romance and love While Shakespeare is most widely celebrated through theatrical performances of his plays people all over the world have quietly continued to read his most famous poems the sonnets savoring each word and the emotions that rage sing and linger on the page Shakespeare left behind little evidence of his life besides the immense amount of work he produced In total he authored 37 surviving plays 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets all within a time span of approximately 30 years Deemed the English National Poet and The Bard of Avon Shakespeare continues to be honored for his creative genius and his ingenuity with language But it is for a much grander accomplishment that Shakespeare has been placed on a pedestal in the world of literature for no one since has so passionately and so earnestly con nected to the human experience 6 William Shakespeare at work
SONNET 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day Thou art more lovely and more temperate Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May And summer’s lease hath all too short a date Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines And often is his gold complexion dimm’d And every fair from fair sometime declines By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st So long as men can breathe or eyes can see So long lives this and this gives life to thee 7
