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Spotlight on… William Shakespeare

As an actress based in London, I could not miss out on this renowned figure, William Shakespeare. But did you know that he wasn’t from London?

I will explain in this brief article who really is this extraordinary genius.

Let’s go!

William Shakespeare in a few dates


Who was William Shakespeare? Here are some key dates to get to know him better:

  • William was born on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, to a glove-maker father. He left school at age 15 due to his family’s financial difficulties.
  • He married Anne Hathaway at age 18 while she was 26.
  • He had 3 children:
    • 1583: His daughter Susanna was born when he was just 19, a year after his mariage.
    • 1585: The twins Hamnet and Judith were born.
  • At age 22, William Shakespeare left his family and moved to London to pursue his career and the success we associate with him today.
  • His son Hamnet tragically died at age 11.
  • In 1599, Shakespeare built the famous Globe Theatre, which burned down in 1613. He returned to Stratford-upon-Avon at age 49, shortly after the Globe burned down. In 1614, the Globe was rebuilt.
  • Shakespeare died on 26 April 1616, at 52, possibly on his birthday. He was in fact buried in a church in Stratford-upon-Avon, an exceptional privilege for an artist at the time.

Now, let’s have a look and Shakespeare’s success. Why is he famous to the point that he is still so relevant today?

Why was Shakespeare so popular?


Most artists become famous after their death, but William was already beloved at his time. Why? Here are a few reasons:

  1. He had the support of the Queen Elizabeth 1st. She loved drama, and had her own troupe which William was a part of. So he was famous in the higher society!
  2. His rebellious spirit. Shakespeare challenged censorship. At the time, it was forbidden to talk about the Queen or the Church. And yet, Romeo and Juliet features a priest with ambiguous interventions.
  3. He represented the people in his work. Indeed, who says London says PUB! And people drank a lot! We can see allusions to this, for example in MacBeth, there is a sentence with this double-meaning: “Your spirits shine through you”. This sentence means that the soldiers gave a good answer: spirit = the mind, so essentially “great guys, you are clever!”. But the second meaning: spirit = alcohol, these soldiers were totally drunk, so it meant “you stink of alcohol!”
    Shakespeare represented the people through his stories of love, drama, combat. It’s a universal resonance.
  4. His works are an encho to his own life. For example, when he lived with French housemates, he had fun transcribing the accent in some of his plays! Or the day where he lost his son Hamnet, a year after he wrote Romeo and Juliet with this phrase: “Death lies on her like an untimely frost, Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” and 3 years after Hamnet’s death, the play Hamlet was born with the famous phrase To be or not to be
  5. He showed the people unique aspects of the higher society. For example in 1600, the Moroccan ambassador Abdel-Ouahed Ben Messaoud visited the Queen Elizabeth to discuss an Anglo-Moroccan alliance against Spain. Three years later, Shakespeare wrote Othello, featuring a Moorish protagonist, a groundbreaking depiction at the time.

He was so famous that the Globe Theatre welcomed 3,000 spectators each day!

Now that we know a bit more about his popularity, let’s have a look at his legacy

William Shakespeare’s legacy


How Have William Shakespeare’s Works Survived to This Day? For that, we can thank John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors who, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, searched across London to collect all his works.

They found and gathered 36 plays, which they carefully recopied onto high-quality paper. This became the First Folio, the first printed collection exclusively featuring Shakespeare’s plays. Without their efforts, half of Shakespeare’s works would have been lost, as they had never been published in quarto form.


We can see that Shakespeare led a rather eventful life, from leaving his rural home for London to enduring personal grief. He was extraordinarily popular in his time, and his influence on English theatre, and theatre worldwide, remains immense today!


I hope you enjoyed this article and that it taught you something new about this literary icon!
Now that you know everything, feel free to take our fun “knowledge quiz below.