William Shakespeare:

An unforgettable literary force

by Andrew SCOTT

Even though entire libraries have been devoted to books about Shakespeare, a man who soothed humanity far more than any other professional writer, the known facts about his inspiring life is scant and is richly ornamented with traditional legends. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon on April 23, 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. Shakespeare had several brothers and sisters most of whom died in infancy and Shakespeare himself had miraculously escaped an attack of plague which crippled Stratford when he was barely a year old.

Stratford-Upon-Avon described as a silver thread through the heart of Shakespeare's England is an unusually beautiful and enchanting place, specially in spring. Meadows, trees flowering hedges, attractive cottages and thatched houses had dominated her traditional landscape. William Shakespeare was born into these extraordinary circumstances.

An interesting feature in family life then was that unlike today, it was not documented by letters or diaries. As a result, Shakespeare's boyhood is full of conjectures and inventive traditional legends. However, there is no doubt that William's boyhood too was like that of hundreds of children who grew up in Stratford at that time.

Grammar School

In the 1550s William Shakespeare was attending the local Grammar School and he was about 11 years old when Queen Elizabeth paid her last visit to Kenilworth. William too, like any other boy, would have taken part in those royal visits. Thus, from his boyhood ideas about England - This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this fortress built by nature for herself against infection and the land of war' was already rioting in his poetic mind.

With the reformation drama ceased to be the exclusive property of the church and it turned out to be a part and parcel of everyday life resulting in London's first public playhouse, 'The Theatre' becoming a reality. For Shakespeare who had drama running in his veins this was the most opportune time and he began to think seriously of becoming an actor.

Later his philosophic solitude grew irksome, and as all young men will, he took to courting making Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a friend of his father's the object of his courtship. He married her in 1582 at the age of 18. Tradition has it that Shakespeare suddenly ran away to London where he met the destiny that awaited him. There is an unauthenticated legend that Shakespeare went to London to escape prosecution for poaching deer on an estate. He is also described as 'a poor, young, adventurer holding horses near theatre doors. However quaint and charming these traditional stories about Shakespeare's early life are, modern scholars disregard them completely.

Transition

Shakespeare arrived in London in an exciting and inspiring time in which the entire city was undergoing a great transition. The people loved and were loved by Queen Elizabeth. English seamen had sailed to unknown places across strange seas. Education was spreading rapidly and a new middle class was emerging.

Every day brought about some notable change in the life of the people. His first published work, Venus and Adonis, was very much appreciated and it was reprinted several times within a few years. By 1600 most of his works were published. In 1610 he reluctantly gave up his acting career in London and returned to his native village and in his retirement he produced The Winter's Tale and the sonnet cadences of The Tempest.

William Shakespeare, actor, poet and playwright who had a whole range of human emotions at his finger tips, died on April 23 1616 - on his very birthday. He was buried in the Parish church and the epitaph written by Shakespeare himself, inscribed on his tombstone reads:

'Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here;

Blest be ye man who spares these stones

And curst be he who moves my bones.'

Floral procession

Thus ended the life of William Shakespeare whose luxuriant flowering of genius has no other parallel in the history of the world's literature. Shakespeare's simple grave is arrayed in splendour once a year when, on his birthday, April 23, it is covered with the brilliant flowers of spring time which are deposited by countless people who come to revere the memory of this great literary force the world has ever known. This is known as the 'Floral Procession'.

During the half a century of Shakespeare's life there were notable developments in the field of art and literature. Even though Shakespeare is dead his breathing spirit is thrusting itself into our everyday life and he continues to speak profoundly to mankind all over the world. All his works show his intimate knowledge of all aspects of human life and emotions. Unlike many other contemporary writers he put into words the feelings, hopes, fears and frustrations of his age and because of these features his words have a universal appeal even today.