William Shakespeare, The World's Great Bard

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. Their marriage takes place in a lot of hurry, probably because of Anne's pregnancy. William and Anne had three children together: Susanna and the twins named Hamnet (who died at the early age of 11) and Judith. Between 1582 and 1592 Shakespeare is said to have been recruited by a theater company in London.

Shakespeare's name was first mentioned by Robert Greene in 1592. Robert Greene was one of the so-called "University Wits" and he wrote his autobiography in which he also accused Shakespeare of having become famous due to unfair methods and means. But after Greene's death, his editor apologized to William Shakespeare who had apparently already been a recognized actor.

Between 1593 and 1594, because of the plague, the theaters were closed and Shakespeare managed to publish two narrative poems: "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece", which he dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, Count of Southampton, thus becoming his protege. In 1594 Shakespeare came back to his beloved world of acting and began to work both as a playwright and as an actor. He became the co-owner of a company of actors called "The Chamberlain's Men", who soon turned out as the most appreciated company of actors in London and which gave representations even in front of Queen Elizabeth I. During this period of time, he wrote especially comedies ("A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Merchant of Venice", etc), his historical plays ("Richard III", "Henry IV", "Henry V", "Henry VI"), continuing with his great tragedies in the 17th century (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth).

The most significant feature of the writer called William Shakespeare is his great innovative spirit when it comes to language, which is an amazing fact if we are to consider his poor education. Although there were no dictionaries in those times and the grammar treaties published then were very few, Shakespeare is said to have introduced over 3000 words in the vocabulary of the English language. Gathered from his works, his vocabulary amounts to 17.000 words approximately, and this is four times richer than the active vocabulary of a regular educated man. In his First Folio of 1623, Ben Jonson, a great mystery lover, makes the connection between Shakespeare and his birthplace, calling the playwright "the sweet Swan of Avon". This metaphor is actually an allusion to a story by Ariosto, in which some swans on the Lethe Lake, which is a lake of forgetfulness, save some great names from the powerful, tempestuous stream, to bring those names into the temple of eternal fame.

Dating from the end of the 18th century, the anti-Stratford movement discharges William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon as the author of the plays and poems, attributing the paternity of his works to a member of aristocracy, mostly because of the discrepancy between Shakespeare the man and his poetic genius. Throughout the years, supporters of this theory comprised notorious names such as Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Henry James and Sigmund Freud. The main reason for this authorial dispute are that, within a time span of three or four years from the birth of the twins until the approximate date of his first plays, the simple man of Stratford (whom the anti-Stratfordians call "Shakspere") couldn't have acquired a refined accent, the knowledge of classical languages and of juridical affairs, he couldn't have gained the experience of life at the Royal Court and the understanding of political maneuvers, or to develop his acting skills or the easiness with which he could write poetry in various literary genres and species. Also, Shakespeare seemed to know a lot about life on the European continent, especially about Italy, a thing which a common Englishman could not easily do unless he would have spent some time there, which was too complicated for an ordinary inhabitant of England. On the list of Shakespeare's contesters we could also find names like Sir Francis Bacon, Roger Manners, Christopher Marlowe or even Queen Elizabeth I herself. Quite a few!

However, despite the great number of conspiracy theories, there isn't enough evidence to discredit the great Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. Only jealous writers, perhaps.