William Shakespeare, the national poet of England, wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and many poems. And he wrote all these without the help of computers!
Now if that isn’t a commendable performance, I don’t know what is. But Shakespeare shifted his office to heaven in 1616, and now when he writes, he often wishes that he had a computer!
Shakespeare's Secret Wish!
Shakespeare’s Shortest Biography on the Web:
The “Bard of Avon” was born some time before April 26, 1564. He married young (at least by the standards of today) at 18. His wife was Anne Hathaway, who was about 8 years his senior but outlived the great writer. Shakespeare was most productive between the age of 25 and 50. He died when he was 52. At the beginning of his career, he was drawn towards writing comedies but towards the end he became disposed to writing tragedies. Two of his colleagues were responsible for his plays surviving him. They published the First Folio, a collection of most of his dramatic works.
As it happens, most geniuses are recognized only after they’ve settled in heaven. This was also true for Shakespeare. Fortunately, unlike Van Gogh (the artist,) his work earned him not just his bread and butter, but also some respect, even when he was alive. However, he wasn’t considered one of the greats until the eighteenth century. (To be considered a “Great” you need to check out. It ensures that you aren’t a threat to anyone else anymore!)
Note this (taken from Wikipedia…)
Robert Greene (you know him?!) attacked Shakespeare’s work in print, by calling him “an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers…”
What?! Yes, he was talking about the “Greatest English Writer!”
Shakespeare’s Plays:
I haven’t read a lot of plays written by Shakespeare, and whatever I ever read didn’t make a lot of sense to me (with the exception of The Merchant of Venice, which ends with a simple to understand and logical solution to a grave problem)…yet…here are the ones that I’ve read.
Comedies:
Tragedies:
Honestly, I don’t remember anything at all from those wonderful stories that I hardly understood:-( I had been happier had Shakespeare not been part of my syllabus in school – I’d have definitely scored much better in English! But you can’t do much about the Greats – you’ve got to read them. Period.)
Here are some other popular Plays that he wrote:
More Comedies:
More Tragedies:
An Important Note:
I had a crazy urge today. I wanted to draw in color! As you can surmise…I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, or I wouldn’t even consider something as crazy as using colors – but I didn’t just consider it, I caved in! So, now I have a caricature of Romeo and Juliet in COLOR! If you’d like to see it – come back! To find your way back to this blog, either subscribe to it (top of the right sidebar) or bookmark it! (It’s cool tattooed fun – promise!)
Shafali's Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons 