Sunday, 16 October 2011

SHAKESPEARE ANIMATED TALES (PART 2)

Here are more Shakespeare's animated tales by the BBC

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

AS YOU LIKE IT

JULIUS CAESAR

TWELFTH NIGHT
  
THE WINTER'S TALE


TAMING OF THE SHREW

SHAKESPEARE ANIMATED TALES (PART 1)

Following is many animated Shakespeare tales by the BBC

ROMEO AND JULIET


THE TEMPEST


MACBETH



HAMLET





KING RICHARD III



THE TUDOR DYNASTY - (VIDEO)

This is a Video explaining the Tudor Dynasty further and its a more entertaining way to learn about the Monarchy.



MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - TUDORS (PART 8)

The Tudors

And finally the Tudors - which is the monarchy at the time of Shakespeare.


The five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty are among the most well-known figures in Royal history. Of Welsh origin, Henry VII succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York to found the highly successful Tudor house. Henry VII, his son Henry VIII and his three children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I ruled for 118 eventful years.
During this period, England developed into one of the leading European colonial powers, with men such as Sir Walter Raleigh taking part in the conquest of the New World. Nearer to home, campaigns in Ireland brought the country under strict English control. 

Culturally and socially, the Tudor period saw many changes. The Tudor court played a prominent part in the cultural Renaissance taking place in Europe, nurturing all-round individuals such as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and Cardinal Wolsey. 

The Tudor period also saw the turbulence of two changes of official religion, resulting in the martyrdom of many innocent believers of both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The fear of Roman Catholicism induced by the Reformation was to last for several centuries and to play an influential role in the history of the Succession.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - YORKISTS (PART 7)


The Yorkist conquest of the Lancastrians in 1461 did not put an end to the Wars of the Roses, which rumbled on until the start of the sixteenth century. Family disloyalty in the form of Richard III's betrayal of his nephews, the young King Edward V and his brother, was part of his downfall. Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne of Lancastrian descent, defeated Richard III in battle and Richard was killed. 

With the marriage of Henry to Elizabeth, the sister of the young Princes in the Tower, reconciliation was finally achieved between the warring houses of Lancaster and York in the form of the new Tudor dynasty, which combined their respective red and white emblems to produce the Tudor rose.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - LANCASTRIANS (PART 6)


The accession of Henry IV sowed the seeds for a period of unrest which ultimately broke out in civil war. Fraught by rebellion and instability after his usurpation of Richard II, Henry IV found it difficult to enforce his rule. His son, Henry V, fared better, defeating France in the famous Battle of Agincourt (1415) and staking a powerful claim to the French throne. Success was short-lived with his early death.
By the reign of the relatively weak Henry VI, civil war broke out between rival claimants to the throne, dating back to the sons of Edward III. The Lancastrian dynasty descended from John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III, whose son Henry deposed the unpopular Richard II. 

Yorkist claimants such as the Duke of York asserted their legitimate claim to the throne through Edward III's second surviving son, but through a female line. The Wars of the Roses therefore tested whether the succession should keep to the male line or could pass through females.
Captured and briefly restored, Henry VI was captured and put to death, and the Yorkist faction led by Edward IV gained the throne.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - PLANTAGENETS (PART 5)


The Plantagenet period was dominated by three major conflicts at home and abroad.

Edward I attempted to create a British empire dominated by England, conquering Wales and pronouncing his eldest son Prince of Wales, and then attacking Scotland. Scotland was to remain elusive and retain its independence until late in the reign of the Stuart kings. 

In the reign of Edward III the Hundred Years War began, a struggle between England and France. At the end of the Plantagenet period, the reign of Richard II saw the beginning of the long period of civil feuding known as the War of the Roses. For the next century, the crown would be disputed by two conflicting family strands, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.

The period also saw the development of new social institutions and a distinctive English culture. Parliament emerged and grew, while the judicial reforms begun in the reign of Henry II were continued and completed by Edward I. 

Culture began to flourish. Three Plantagenet kings were patrons of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry. During the early part of the period, the architectural style of the Normans gave way to the Gothic, with surviving examples including Salisbury Cathedral. Westminster Abbey was rebuilt and the majority of English cathedrals remodelled. Franciscan and Dominican orders began to be established in England, while the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had their origins in this period.
Amidst the order of learning and art, however, were disturbing new phenomena. The outbreak of Bubonic plague or the 'Black Death' served to undermine military campaigns and cause huge social turbulence, killing half the country's population. 

The price rises and labour shortage which resulted led to social unrest, culminating in the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - ANGEVINS (PART 4)


Henry II, the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet and Henry I's daughter Matilda, was the first in a long line of 14 Plantagenet kings, stretching from Henry II's accession through to Richard III's death in 1485. Within that line, however, four distinct Royal Houses can be identified: Angevin, Plantagenet, Lancaster and York.
The first Angevin King, Henry II, began the period as arguably the most powerful monarch in Europe, with lands stretching from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees. In addition, Ireland was added to his inheritance, a mission entrusted to him by Pope Adrian IV (the only English Pope).

A new administrative zeal was evident at the beginning of the period and an efficient system of government was formulated. The justice system developed. However there were quarrels with the Church, which became more powerful following the murder of Thomas à Becket.
As with many of his predecessors, Henry II spent much of his time away from England fighting abroad. This was taken to an extreme by his son Richard, who spent only 10 months of a ten-year reign in the country due to his involvement in the crusades.

The last of the Angevin kings was John, whom history has judged harshly. By 1205, six years into his reign, only a fragment of the vast Angevin empire acquired by Henry II remained. John quarrelled with the Pope over the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, eventually surrendering.

He was also forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, which restated the rights of the church, the barons and all in the land. John died in ignominy, having broken the contract, leading the nobles to summon aid from France and creating a precarious position for his Plantagenet heir, Henry III.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - THE NORMANS (PART 3)


The Normans came to govern England following one of the most famous battles in English history: the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Four Norman kings presided over a period of great change and development for the country. 

The Domesday Book, a great record of English land-holding, was published; the forests were extended; the Exchequer was founded; and a start was made on the Tower of London. 

In religious affairs, the Gregorian reform movement gathered pace and forced concessions, while the machinery of government developed to support the country while Henry was fighting abroad. 

Meanwhile, the social landscape altered dramatically, as the Norman aristocracy came to prominence. Many of the nobles struggled to keep a hold on their interests in both Normandy and England, as divided rule meant the threat of conflict.
This was the case when William the Conqueror died. His eldest son, Robert, became Duke of Normandy, while the next youngest, William, became king of England. Their younger brother Henry would become king on William II's death. The uneasy divide continued until Henry captured and imprisoned his elder brother.
The question of the succession continued to weigh heavily over the remainder of the period. Henry's son died, and his nominated heir Matilda was denied the throne by her cousin, Henry's nephew, Stephen. 

There then followed a period of civil war. Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, who took control of Normandy. The duchy was therefore separated from England once again. 

A compromise was eventually reached whereby the son of Matilda and Geoffrey would be heir to the English crown, while Stephen's son would inherit his baronial lands. 

It meant that in 1154 Henry II would ascend to the throne as the first undisputed king in over 100 years - evidence of the dynastic uncertainty of the Norman period.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - ANGLO-SAXON (PART 2)


In the Dark Ages during the fifth and sixth centuries, communities of peoples in Britain inhabited homelands with ill-defined borders. Such communities were organised and led by chieftains or kings. 

Following the final withdrawal of the Roman legions from the provinces of Britannia in around 408 AD these small kingdoms were left to preserve their own order and to deal with invaders and waves of migrant peoples such as the Picts from beyond Hadrian's Wall, the Scots from Ireland and Germanic tribes from the continent.

King Arthur, a larger-than-life figure, has often been cited as a leader of one or more of these kingdoms during this period, although his name now tends to be used as a symbol of British resistance against invasion.

The invading communities overwhelmed or adapted existing kingdoms and created new ones - for example, the Angles in Mercia and Northumbria. Some British kingdoms initially survived the onslaught, such as Strathclyde, which was wedged in the north between Pictland and the new Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.
By 650 AD, the British Isles were a patchwork of many kingdoms founded from native or immigrant communities and led by powerful chieftains or kings. In their personal feuds and struggles between communities for control and supremacy, a small number of kingdoms became dominant: Bernicia and Deira (which merged to form Northumbria in 651 AD), Lindsey, East Anglia, Mercia, Wessex and Kent. 

Until the late seventh century, a series of warrior-kings in turn established their own personal authority over other kings, usually won by force or through alliances and often cemented by dynastic marriages.
According to the later chronicler Bede, the most famous of these kings was Ethelberht, king of Kent (reigned c.560-616), who married Bertha, the Christian daughter of the king of Paris, and who became the first English king to be converted to Christianity (St Augustine's mission from the Pope to Britain in 597 during Ethelberht's reign prompted thousands of such conversions). 

Ethelberht's law code was the first to be written in any Germanic language and included 90 laws. His influence extended both north and south of the river Humber: his nephew became king of the East Saxons and his daughter married king Edwin of Northumbria (died 633).
In the eighth century, smaller kingdoms in the British Isles continued to fall to more powerful kingdoms, which claimed rights over whole areas and established temporary primacies: Dalriada in Scotland, Munster and Ulster in Ireland. In England, Mercia and later Wessex came to dominate, giving rise to the start of the monarchy. 

Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period the succession was frequently contested, by both the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and leaders of the settling Scandinavian communities. The Scandinavian influence was to prove strong in the early years. 

It was the threat of invading Vikings which galvanised English leaders into unifying their forces, and, centuries later, the Normans who successfully invaded in 1066 were themselves the descendants of Scandinavian 'Northmen'.

MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - INTRO (PART 1)


English Monarchs 400ad-1603

The history of the English Crown up to the Union of the Crowns in 1603 is long and eventful.
The concept of a single ruler unifying different tribes based in England developed in the eighth and ninth centuries in figures such as Offa and Alfred the Great, who began to create centralised systems of government.
Following the Norman Conquest, the machinery of government developed further, producing long-lived national institutions including Parliament.
The Middle Ages saw several fierce contests for the Crown, culminating in the Hundred Years War
.
The conflict was finally ended with the advent of the Tudors, the dynasty which produced some of England's most successful rulers and a flourishing cultural Renaissance.
The end of the Tudor line with the death of the 'Virgin Queen' in 1603 brought about the Union of the Crowns with Scotland.

BRITAIN AND WORLD IN 16th CENTURY


During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires bestowed, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (Britain, following the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland) the dominant colonial power in North America and India. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after a war of independence deprived Britain of some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815, Britain enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance, and expanded its imperial holdings across the globe. Increasing degrees of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies, some of which were reclassified as dominions.
The growth of Germany and the United States had eroded Britain's economic lead by the end of the 19th century. Subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous financial strain on Britain, and although the empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after the war, it was no longer a peerless industrial or military power. The Second World War saw Britain's colonies in South-East Asia occupied by Japan, which damaged British prestige and accelerated the decline of the empire, despite the eventual victory of Britain and its allies. India, Britain's most valuable and populous possession, won independence within two years of the end of the war.
After the end of the Second World War, as part of a larger decolonisation movement by European powers, most of the territories of the British Empire were granted independence, ending with the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997. 14 territories remain under British sovereignty, the British Overseas Territories. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states. 16 Commonwealth nations share their head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, as Commonwealth realms.


To read more follow the link:

POLITICAL CONTEXT - ELIZABETHAN ERA

QUEEN ELIZABETH (1588-1603)
In political terms, Elizabethan England wasn't great. They weren't the most successful with the military and was lucky to avoid major fights. There were many plots, conspiracies and troubles during the time and most of it related to Queen Elizabeth I. High Officials in Rome, Madrid and Paris wanted to kill Elizabeth - who was a Protestant - and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots or known as "Bloody Mary" - who was a Catholic.

The political context of Elizabethan is jumbled and recorded in many ways, therefore you can decide which is right or read all of it.( as you can't fit every record in the Blog). There are links below that will help you with the inquiry:

THE GLOBE THEATRE - (PART 2)

HISTORY
The Swan Theatre (de Witt)
SKETCH OF GLOBE THEATRE
The sketch at top is perhaps one of the most important in theatrical history. In 1596, a Dutch student by the name of Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan Theatre. While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre's interior. A friend, Arend van Buchell, copied this drawing—van Buchell's copy is the sketch rendered here—and in doing so contributed greatly to posterity. The sketch is the only surviving contemporary rendering of the interior of an Elizabethan-era public theatre. As such, it's the closest thing historians have to an original picture of what the Globe may have looked like in its heyday.
Shakespeare's company erected the storied Globe Theatre circa 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators. The rectangular stage platform on which the plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep. This staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects.


he story of the original Globe's construction might be worthy of a Shakespearean play of its own. The Lord Chamberlain's Men had been performing in the Theatre, built by James Burbage (the father of Richard Burbage) in 1576. In 1597, although the company technically owned the Theatre, their lease on the land on which it stood expired. Their landlord, Giles Allen, desired to tear the Theatre down. This led the company to purchase property at Blackfriars in Upper Frater Hall, which they bought for £600 and set about converting for theatrical use.
Unfortunately, their aristocratic neighbors complained to the Privy Council about the plans for Blackfriars. Cuthbert Burbage tried to renegotiate the Theatre lease with Giles Allen in autumn of 1598; Allen vowed to put the wood and timber of the building "to better use." Richard and Cuthbert learned of his plans and set in motion a plot of their own. It seems that the company's lease had contained a provision allowing them to dismantle the building themselves.
In late December of 1598, Allen left London for the countryside. The Burbage brothers, their chief carpenter, and a party of workmen assembled at the Theatre on the night of December 28. The men stripped the Theatre down to its foundation, moved the materials across the Thames to Bankside, and proceeded to use them in constructing the Globe.
The endeavor was not without controversy. A furious Giles Allen later sued Peter Street, the Burbage's carpenter, for £800 in damages. The courts found in favor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and ordered Allen to desist from any further legal wrangling. The Globe would play host to some of Shakespeare's greatest works over the next decade. In an ironic epilogue, the troupe won the right in 1609 to produce plays at Blackfriars, and subsequently split time between there and the Globe.
In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. The company completed a new Globe on the foundations of its predecessor before Shakespeare's death. It continued operating until 1642, when the Puritans closed it down (and all the other theatres, as well as any place, for that matter, where people might be entertained). Puritans razed the building two years later in 1644 to build tenements upon the premises. The Globe would remain a ghost for the next 352 years.

The Globe in Southwark
SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE (NOW)


The foundations of the Globe were rediscovered in 1989, rekindling interest in a fitful attempt to erect a modern version of the amphitheater. Led by the vision of the late Sam Wanamaker, workers began construction in 1993 on the new theatre near the site of the original. The latest Globe Theatre was completed in 1996; Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the theatre on June 12, 1997 with a production of Henry V. The Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model, seating 1,500 people between the galleries and the "groundlings." In its initial 1997 season, the theatre attracted 210,000 patrons.






THE GLOBE THEATRE - (PART 1)

The Globe Theatre was Shakespeare's theatre and the centre of his plays. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company - "Lord Chamberlains Men". It was destroyed by a fire in June 29 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built in June 1614 however it was closed in 1642.
A modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre named "Shakespeare's Globe" opened in 1997 at approximately 750 feet (which is 250 metres) from the original site. The architect for the first theatre was Peter Street - who was also a carpenter.  
The theatre at the time could contain 3000 people sitting and standing(although if you stand you could have more than 3000)

Life During Shakespeare's Time - ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND


The age of Shakespeare was a great time in English history. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) saw England emerge as the leading naval and commercial power of the Western world. England consolidated its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and Elizabeth firmly established the Church of England begun by her father, King Henry VIII (following Henry's dispute with the Pope over having his first marriage annulled).
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world and became the most celebrated English sea captain of his generation. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh sent colonists eastward in search of profit. European wars brought an influx of continental refugees into England, exposing the Englishman to new cultures. In trade, might, and art, England established an envious prominence.


At this time, London was the heart of England, reflecting all the vibrant qualities of the Elizabethan Age. This atmosphere made London a leading center of culture as well as commerce. Its dramatists and poets were among the leading literary artists of the day. In this heady environment, Shakespeare lived and wrote.
London in the 16th century underwent a transformation. Its population grew 400% during the 1500s, swelling to nearly 200,000 people in the city proper and outlying region by the time an immigrant from Stratford came to town. A rising merchant middle class carved out a productive livelihood, and the economy boomed.
In the 1580s, the writings of the University Wits (Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Kyd, and Peele) defined the London theatre. Though grounded in medieval and Jacobean roots, these men produced new dramas and comedies using Marlowe's styling of blank verse. Shakespeare outdid them all; he combined the best traits of Elizabethan drama with classical sources, enriching the admixture with his imagination and wit.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (ADAPTATIONS - PART 4)

GRAPHIC NOVELS

COLLECTION OF GRAPHIC NOVELS:
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Hamlet
  • The Tempest
  • Richard III
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Macbeth
  • Julius Caesar
  • As You Like It
  • Othello
  • Much Ado
  • King Leah
  • Twelfth Night
  • Henry VIII
  • Merchant Of Venice

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (ADAPTATIONS - PART 3)


  • Romeo and Juliet (Leornado di Caprio and Claire Danes)
The film released in 1996 that won many awards.

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (ADAPTATIONS - PART 2)


  • The Tempest (Both TV and Film)

Animated Tales and the latest Film (released 2010) which features a womanised Prospero (Prospera)

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (ADAPTATIONS - PART 1)

There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare's Works - Movies, Books, Graphic Novels etc.
MOVIES
  • Macbeth  

This is the Trailer for the Macbeth Film 

  • Hamlet(TV and Film) 

SHAKESPEARE'S WORK (PART 6)

APOCRYPHA

 

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (PART 5)

LOST PLAYS


SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (PART 4)

POEMS


SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (PART 3)

TRAGEDIES

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (PART 2)

HISTORIES

SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS (PART 1)

COMEDIES

BIOGRAPHY (PART 3 - DEATH & AFTER)

SHAKESPEARE'S FUNERARY MONUMENT
Shakespeare died at the age of 52 (23rd April 1616), his cause of death unknown. He was married to Anne Hathaway until his death and was survived by his 2 daughters: Susanna and Judith. His son died in 1596.
SHAKESPEARE'S GRAVESTONE
INSCRIBED:
"Good Friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones" 
Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on the account of fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the Church for £440 - which was a considerable amount of money at the time.
A monument on the wall nearest his grave, probably placed by his family, features a bust showing Shakespeare posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust. He is believed to have written the epitaph on his tombstone.

SHAKESPEARE'S GENEALOGY (His Family Tree and Succession)


BIOGRAPHY (PART 2- EDUCATION & MARRIAGE)

SHAKESPEARE'S SCHOOL NOW
(KING EDWARD VI GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON)


Shakespeare attended(probably) to King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford from the age of 7. Edward VI - the King's name, in which its honoured in the school name - had diverted money from the Dissolution of the Monasteries to endow a network of grammar schools to "propagate good literature throughout the kingdom" during the mid 16th Century. However, the school had been set up by the GUILD OF THE HOLY CROSS - a church institution in the town, early in the 15th Century. It is presumed that this is the school that W.Shakespeare attended, albeit this cannot be confirmed due to the fact that the school's records have not survived. While the element of Elizabethan era Grammar Schools was uneven, the school probably would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and literature reinforced with frequent use of corporal punishment. As a part of this education, the students would have likely have been exposed to Latin plays, in which students performed to better understand the language. One of Shakespeare's earliest plays - THE COMEDY OF ERRORS -  bears similarity to Plautus' "Menaechmi", which could've been performed at the school.
No evidence have been found that shows/proves that Shakespeare was University educated.  


On 29 November 1582 at Temple Grafton near Stratford, 18-year-old Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was 26. Two neighbours of Hathaway, Fulk Sandalls and John Richardson, posted bond that there were no impediments to the marriage.Hathaway gave birth six months later.
On 26 May 1583 Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, was baptised at Stratford. A pair of Twins - a son, Hamnet, and a daughter, Judith - were baptised on 2 February 1585. Hamnet died in 1596, Susanna in 1649 and Judith in 1662.
After his marriage, Shakespeare left few traces in the historical record until he appeared on the London theatrical scene. Indeed, the period from 1585 (when his twin children were born) until 1592 (when Robert Greene called him an "upstart crow") is known as Shakespeare's "lost years" because no evidence has survived to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London. A number of stories are given to account for his life during this time, including that Shakespeare fled Stratford after he got in trouble for poaching deer from local squire Thomas Lucy, or that he wrote a scurrilous ballad about him. Shakespeare's first biographer Nicholas Rowe recorded both these tales, stating that he wrote the ballad after being prosecuted for poaching by Lucy. John Aubrey says that he worked as a country school teacher, and Rowe that he minded the horses of theatre patrons in London. There is no documentary evidence to support any of these stories and they all were recorded only after Shakespeare's death

BIOGRAPHY (PART 1- EARLY LIFE)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
WARNING: if you don't like reading a lot (or gets boring after a long time) or like visual explanations then watch the 4-part Shakespeare Biography:
And for Readers:
Shakespeare was baptised on 26th April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small country town. He was the son of John Shakespeare. who was a successful glover and alderman from Snitterfield, and of Mary Arden - a daughter of the Gentry. The date of his birth is unknown as they didn't produce Birth Certificates during Elizabethan England (During Queen Elizabeth I's Reign) and his baptism is the first official record of his existence. As baptisms are normally performed  around a few days after your birth, an assumption can be made that he was born in April 1564.
Shakespeare's parents had eight children(including himself): Joan(born 1558 but died during infancy), William( himself, from 1564-1616), Gilbert (1566-1612), Joan (1569-1646), Anne (1571-1571), Richard (1574-1613) and Edmund (1580-1607).
    

INTRO

William Shakespeare (born 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English Poet and Playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called English's National Poet and the "Bard of Avon".