The Tragedy of Hamlet

It isn’t an overstatement to say that William Shakespeare is the most famous and important playwright of world literature. He wrote a total of 36 plays and 154 sonnets. He is presumed to have been born on April 23, 1564 as the son of glove maker and mayor John Shakespeare. His mother, Mary Arden, descended from a wealthy family of the Roman Catholic landed gentry. In 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior and daughter of a landowner, with whom he had three children: Susanna and the twins Hamnet and Judith. Around 1590, he moved to London, where he quickly made a name for himself as an actor and playwright. Starting in 1594, he was a member of the theater troupe Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later named King’s Men. In 1599, a partnership of members built the Globe Theater, which he lovingly referred to as “my wooden O,” the circular form of which is modeled after a Greek amphitheater. Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, King James took over the throne. Starting in 1608, Shakespeare also became involved in the Blackfriars Theater. In 1597, he bought a property in Stratford and most likely retired from theater life after 1613. He died on April 23, 1616. Shakespeare’s life was only sparsely documented, which is why his biography is so fragmented. Time and again, speculations arise to the effect that someone else wrote his works – or at least parts of them. They have been attributed to the philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, the playwright Christopher Marlowe, and even Queen Elisabeth I herself. However, no one has been able to produce evidence for such hypotheses. Today, the majority of scholars believe that Shakespeare is the authentic and sole author of his literary work.