[Music] William Shakespeare one of the greatest authors of all time was born in Stratford upon Avon England his actual birth date is uncertain but most scholars believe he was born on or near April 23rd 1564 we think he may have been educated in the King School at Stratford because that would have been typical for a child with a father who was an alderman what we do know is that he didn't go to University we have a marriage record for Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway in 1585 we also have baptism records for a daughter and a set of twins and we also know that his son hamnet one of the twins died Shakespeare moved to London in the late 1580s by the early 1590s we know he's writing and we know that he's acting by 1597 Shakespeare had authored 15 of the 37 plays attributed to him him including Romeo and Juliet comedy of errors and the merry wives of Windsor people think of William Shakespeare as an artist a playwright he was a pretty good businessman in 1599 he built the largest open air Amphitheater in London the Globe Theater he was an entrepreneur he knew his Market he knew how to cater to that market he made shrewd real estate Investments Shakespeare's company the Lord Chamberlain's men changed its name to the King's Men when King James became its Patron in 1603 this was a mark of exceptional Prestige the different types of Shakespeare plays that separated into histories comedies tragedies and then later on tragic comedies Shakespeare's phrases the ways he used words are so common that people often get mixed up and can't remember if they came from the Bible or from Shakespeare My grandmother used to say when something bad happened that these were the slings and arrows of everyday life she was not an educated woman and she didn't go to Shakespeare plays she didn't get that one from the Bible what Scholars call Shakespeare's middle period from 1595 to 16005 included such classic comedies as Midsummer Night's Dream As You Like It 12th night and much ad do about nothing he also produced Hamlet aello and MC Beth during this period right at the cusp where Shakespeare begins to write leer it tips into what we could call the later Shakespeare and this period produces Lear Anthony and Cleopatra Tempest Winter's Tale Pericles symboling Shakespeare wrote great stories for example one of the stories starts with a king who is tired he doesn't want to govern anymore so he says to his three daughters I'm going to separate the kingdom between the three of you but it's going to be based on who tells me how much they love me however much you love me that's how much of the Kingdom you're going to get now that's going to make me sit up I mean what a way to start a story and that's King Leah Shakespeare was not only a playright he also was a poet partly because of economic necessity during the early 1590s plague closed the theaters in London and there was quite a Vogue for producing sonnets Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in addition to several narrative poems Shakespeare worked the English language milked it for all it was worth made up words if it didn't give him the right words he is one of the first professional writers the details of William Shakespeare's death remain a mystery but scholars believe he died on his birthday April 23rd 1616 in the 400 years since Shakespeare's influence has only grown his writing is the second most quoted after the Bible he has been credited with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language and a Google search on Shakespeare returns more than 140 Million results Shakespeare talked about the human condition he explains to us how we think how we feel the human psyche he eloquently explains it in the 18th century questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare's work given the vague details we know of his life his lack of higher education and the similarity of his plays to others of the day today most scholars believe Shakespeare wrote all his plays and sonnets I would argue that Shakespeare's Legacy is the most influential figure in human [Music] civilization Mark Twain is now thought of as America's first celebrity because he was so good at capturing the public imagination and it became important to him to have a Public Image