See The Shakespeare Clearing House
There is a paucity of facts surrounding the life of the world's most quoted poet and dramatist. As a result it is difficult to decide where truth ends and legend begins as scholars have constructed an additional mass of information of great magnitude and complexity. Stratford-on-Avon parish church register records that on 26 April 1564 Gulielmus Filius Johannes Shakespere was baptised. His father, John was a burgess of the town and had several occupations including, butcher, glover, and farmer. Shakespeare was the third of eight children and the oldest son.
The next factual information that remains extant is a bond dated 28 November 1582, recording his marriage, at the age of eighteen, to Anne Hatthwey of Stratford who was seven years his senior. His daughter Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith were all born before the end of 1585. From this time forward, Shakespeare's actions are difficult to trace, other than in his stage work and authorship. It is supposed that he joined a troupe of travelling players to escape the penalty of poaching but it is not until 1592 that another factual reference is made when Robert Green issued a pamphlet entitled a “Groatsworth of Wit” in which he parodied a line for Henry the Sixth, Part III and puns Shakespeare's name as “Shake-scene”. Green's publisher issued a public apology for it, in which he mentioned Shakespeare by name.
None of Shakespeare's original scripts remain extant, and while sixteen of his texts appeared singly in quarto form during his lifetime, they were all unauthorised editions (quarto refers to the size of a piece of paper cut four from a sheet). It was not until 1623, seven years after his death, that Heminges and Condell published the First Folio edition. It contained thirty-six dramas (Pericles was omitted) however they are not arranged chronologically nor are dates for composition recorded. Literary evidence, that is the construction of the plot, the style and metrical dexterity, has allowed scholars to loosely group Shakespeare's plays as follows (dates are approximate):
The Early Plays – immature plays with less original plots, the wit and wordplay often degenerating into verbal quibbling. The Comedy of Errors (1593), Two Gentlemen of Verona (1595), and Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) would be included here.
The English Histories – show a maturing technique and better character development.
The Mature Comedies – Shakespeare's comic genius comes to the fore in Much Ado About Nothing (1598), Twelfth Night (1601), and As You Like It (1600).
The Sombre Plays – include All's Well that Ends Well (1602), Troilus and Cressida (1602) and Measure for Measure (1604). While ostensibly comedies they reflect a cynical, disillusioned attitude to life making their tone sombre and tragic
The Great Tragedies – said to represent Shakespeare at his best with an intensity of emotion, psychological insight, and power of style. They include Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), Macbeth (1605) and King Lear (1605).
The Roman Plays – based on North's translation of Plutarch's Lives includes, Julius Caesar (1599), Anthony and Cleopatra (1606), Pericles (1608).
The Last Plays – Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale (1610) and The Tempest (1611) demonstrate a mellowed maturity and deal with reconciliation and forgiveness.
In addition to his plays, Shakespeare also wrote 154 Sonnets which were published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe in an unauthorised edition, which included one of his five narrative poems A Lover's Complaint.
Shakespeare was not an original author, instead he borrowed freely from older plays, chronicles and tales to create his plots. However it was with the development of his characters that Shakespeare excelled, from king to clown, from lunatic to seer he created his characters to be a mixture of good and bad, endearing and evil. In his earlier plays the blank verse is regular in beat and pause, and he also made use of the rhymed couplet. As his writing matured he mastered the metre to allow the cadence to vary and pauses to be anywhere within the line. Shakespeare's style was unique, often highly poetic, its humour, passion and intelligence is easily accessible even to those puzzled by the complexities of his imagery and syntax. He wrote for the common man and used the language they were familiar with, he was a particular favourite of the groundlings and would write his plays on a commission basis for companies within London and those who travelled. He was also an actor and in 1597 took a principal part in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour (recorded in the Ben Jonson's First Folio text in 1616)
It is generally accepted that Shakespeare retired to New Place in Stratford-on-Avon in 1610. While his work was successful during his lifetime it has become even more popular since his death on 23 April 1616.