Thou art more lovely and more temperate

Rough winds do shake the daring buds of May

And summer's lease hath all too short a date

William Shakespeare(1567-1616)

Without recourse to hyperbole, one of the greatest sonneteers and playwrights of the 16th century is William Shakespeare.

He is such a conspicuous poet and playwright that his art defies description. The celestial beauty of all his works is evident and that is why his fame waxes from moment to moment.

It is amazing that even four centuries after his death, he is still alive in the minds of intellectuals and on the tongues of speakers.

There is just one reason: Shakespeare epitomizes love and all his works are the embodiment of art and the manifestation of beauty.

From the aesthetic point of view, it is very hard to compare even one of his works or plays to any other works in the realm of literature.

Undoubtedly, all his works and all his ideas belong to every generation, they belong to everybody, to people from different areas and diverse languages and to people from different walks of life.

The whole world should honor this everlasting and never-dying phenomenon on his birthday.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on the 23rd of April, 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant who became an alderman and bailiff, but later suffered financial reverses. His mother, Mary Arden, owned some land and they seem to have been fairly prosperous at times but at other times in dire straits and actual want. Shakespeare presumably attended the Stratford grammar school but his education was cut short when he was 13 years old after his father was put in debtor's prison. The farm was mortgaged and some of his mother's property had to be sold. Shakespeare had to work to help the family make ends meet.

In 1582, he married Anne Hathaway who was eight years older than him. There is a vague rumor of unhappy relations between them, but it is significant that there is a passage in "The Twelfth Night" in which Shakespeare advises women to always marry men older than themselves.

At any rate, three children were born to them, a daughter named Susanna in 1582 and twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585. Sometime after his twentieth or twenty-first year, Shakespeare left for London. By 1592 he was living in London working as an actor and was apparently a well-known playwright.

At this time, there were several companies of actors in London. What connection Shakespeare had with one or more of them before 1592 is conjectural, but we do know of his long and fruitful connection with the most successful troupe, Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Shakespeare not only acted with the company, but eventually became a leading shareholder and its principal playwright. The company included some of the most famous and distinguished actors of the day, such as Richard Burbage, who no doubt created the roles of Hamlet, Lear, and Othello, and Will Kempe and Robert Armin, who acted the roles of Shakespeare's clowns and fools. Shakespeare did not limit himself to theater in his youth.

In 1593, he published a mythological-erotic poem, Venus and Adonis, dedicated to the Earl of Southampton.

But his plays and sonnets are what really made him famous. All of his 154 sonnets are beautiful and have a certain je ne sais quoi. It is possible to divide Shakespeare's plays into four periods. The earliest period lasted till 1595 and includes such comedies as "Love's Labor Lost" and "The Comedy of Errors." The greatness of Shakespeare's greatness is not yet fully evident in these works, though they indicate what is to come.

The second period lasted from 1595 to 1601. It was during this period that "As You Like It" was written, as well as the greatest of Shakespeare's comedies, "The Twelfth Night."

The third period continued till 1608, and seems to show a marked change in style. He appears to have given up writing light-hearted comedies and turned to tragedy, dealing with the serious aspects of life. Such great dramas as "Hamlet", "Othello", "Macbeth", and "King Lear" date from this period. Certain authorities, including Professor Dowden, have attempted to explain this change in style as being caused by an actual change in his mood, believing he was depressed and sad during this period.

The last period is known as his romantic period. It lasts till 1612 and includes "The Tempest", "Cymbeline" and "The Winter's Tale."

Shakespeare's tragedies, particularly the four great dramas which have risen above all the others like four mountain peaks, show the serious side of life. They have been called "tragedies of character" and "tragedies of destiny." In "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Hamlet", and "Othello", the protagonist comes to utter ruin and disaster because of a character flaw.

The hero has a strong personality and noble qualities, but has one weakness. Lear is passionate, Hamlet is incapable of action, Othello is jealous, and Macbeth is over-ambitious. Each hero finds himself in circumstances which require the very quality which he lacks. Fate conspires to tempt them by their weaknesses. If we could put Macbeth or Othello in the place of Hamlet, then these resolute soldiers would have soon settled Hamlet's problems.

The honorable Hamlet would never have been tempted by the inducements which were too strong for Macbeth. Macbeth fails because of his enormous and unscrupulous ambition. This play shows the great temptations of a man who is overly ambitious

All the tragedies have a strong sense of destiny. Shakespeare was impressed by the powerful forces which can bring men to ruin. In Hamlet, we are told: "There is a divinity that shapes our ends."

Of the actual details of Shakespeare's life in London, we know very little. Attempts have been made to read from his dramas that certain periods were full of gloom and sadness. This is not satisfactory evidence, and must always bear the stamp of pure conjecture. In 1611 he returned to Stratford with his wife and married daughter and lived there until his death, which occurred on his birthday, April 23rd, 1616.

Enter Hamlet

Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether' tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep- No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to; tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep- To sleep, perchance to dream, ay there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause; there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despise love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have.