SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, dramatist and poet, was born at
Stratford-on-Avon, in England, in April, 1564. Of his early life
almost nothing is known. It is believed that he was a student in the
Free School of Stratford, and that in his youth he assisted his
father in the latter's business, but even of this we are not
certain. Neither of his parents could read or write. At the age of
eighteen he married Ann Hathaway, who was eight years his senior. Of
this marriage only a vague report that it proved uncongenial has
come down to us. At about 1587 Shakespeare seems to have gone to
London, and two years later he appears as one of the proprietors of
the Blackfriars Theatre. In the few years next following he became
known as a playwright, and in 1593 he published his first poem. The
dates of the publication of his plays are not settled beyond doubt,
but the best authorities say that _Henry the Sixth_, was the first
and _The Tempest_ the last, all produced between the years 1589 and
1611. Shakespeare was an actor as well as a writer of plays, and was
on the stage until 1603. Two years later, he bought a handsome house
at Stratford, where he settled down, enjoying the friendship and
respect of his neighbours until his death in 1616. This is
practically all that the world knows of the most colossal genius
that ever lived. A mist seems to have settled over him almost wholly
obscuring his personality from posterity. We know a great deal of
all the illustrious contemporaries that surrounded him, for he lived
at a time of great men. Yet of Shakespeare nothing is known beyond
the foregoing facts. In his works, however, he lives, and will
continue to live while written records survive. The name of
Shakespeare is so pre-eminently famous, standing out in the
firmament of literature like the moon among the lesser stars, that
no attempt to convey an idea of his greatness seems either wise or
necessary. Volumes have been written about his immortal plays. Lord
Macaulay pronounced him the greatest poet that ever lived, and
esteemed _Othello_ as the greatest literary work in the world. The
following selections from _Romeo and Juliet_ and _The Merchant of
Venice_ have been taken as coming within the scope of our editorial
purpose, and the reader is advised to read in connection with them
the stories of the plays from which they are taken, by Charles and
Mary Lamb, which are to be found in a preceding volume of this set.