William Shakespeare: 400 year anniversary of First Folio
- Published
Watch Newsround's report all about Shakespeare as a child (2015)
Many people believe William Shakespeare is the best British writer of all time.
The world famous writer's First Folio, containing 36 of his plays, turns 400 years old on 8 November.
The folio was published shortly after he died.
The First Folio is the closest thing to the plays as Shakespeare wrote them. The writer's original handwritten works were lost long ago.
Putting his works into print meant they were preserved. Without the First Folio, 18 plays, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Tempest might have been lost forever.
Shakespeare's many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder, magic and mystery.
He wrote the blockbuster plays of his day - some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.
What do we know about Shakespeare?
What was life like for young Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1564.
Nobody is exactly sure which day he was born, but we do know he was baptised on 26 April that year.
In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and the couple went on to have three children.
Shakespeare lived in London for 25 years and wrote most of his plays there.
He died at his home in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616, aged 52.
Shakespeare the writer
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (though some experts think it may have been more). He wrote three different types of plays:
Histories - about the lives of kings and famous figures from history
Comedies - which end with a marriage
Tragedies - which end with the death of the main character
Shakespeare also wrote plenty of poetry and in 1609 published a book of 154 sonnets.
We know his work was popular at the time because he earned enough money to live in a smart area of London, where he wrote some of his most famous plays.
Words Shakespeare invented
He had an incredible influence on the English language and invented hundreds of words we still use today.
Born 1564, died 1616
Wrote about two plays every year for 20 years
Was married and had three children
Wrote 37 plays and lots of poetry
His longest play, Hamlet, has 4,042 lines
His complete works contain 884,647 words
Was famous for playing with words - he invented more than 1,700
Thanks to Folger Shakespeare Library and Shakespeare Online
Here are some of the more than 1,700 words first used in Shakespeare's writing:
amazement
bedroom
champion
dawn
eyeball
fashionable
gossip
moonbeam
olympian
puking
swagger
unreal
zany
Shakespeare the actor
We'll never know exactly what Shakespeare looked like, but many portraits share similar features
As well as writing plays, Shakespeare performed on stage with a group of actors called the Lord Chamberlain's Company.
When James I became king in 1603 the group was renamed the King's Company.
The group performed in two theatres near the banks of the River Thames in London - the Globe and Blackfriars. Shakespeare went on to own a share of these theatres.
In Shakespeare's time, women were not allowed to act on stage so all the female parts had to be played by men or boys.
To find out more go to the BBC Bitesize Shakespeare page
- Published18 March 2015
- Published23 April 2014
