The age of Shakespeare in English literature

Born around 1564. William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer in the English language and is sometimes Known as England's national poet. He produced 37 plays. 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and possibly several other works during his lifetime. He also invented more than 1,700 common words and more than 160 phrases, idioms and axioms still in common use today, His influence has — Spanned generations from his own contemporaries to the modern day. 

Shakespeare had possibly arrived in London by 1585 and worked as an actor and playwright. Several of his plays were on the stage by 1592, the same year he also began getting noticed as an actor. The earliest is Suspected to be The Two Gentlemen of Verona, written around 1590 However, the theaters would be closed the same year Shakespeare got his first glimpse of success due to the plague. The following year 1593, Shakespeare began writing his famous sonnets and saw the publication of his first narrative poem, Venus and Adonis, 

By 1894, Shakespeare was attached to the Lord Chamberlain's Men along with famed actors of the day Richard Burbage and Will Kemp. The Lord Chamberlain's men were patronised by Henry Carey who was who was Anne Boleyn's nephew and Elizabeth I's first cousin. Some also speculate he was Elizabeth's half-brother since his mother and the king were having an affair around the time he was born. After Carey's death, his son would take over the troupe and under his patronage, the Globe Theatre would open. 

When Queen Elizabeth I died in "1603, Shakespeare received continued patronage under the new king, James I . Luckily for Shakespeare, James | was also a lover of the arts and Shakespeare's troupe became among his favourites after renaming themselves The King's Men in his honour. Shakespeare would earn a commendation from the king in 1605 and some believe Macbeth was written to honour the new king's Scottish ancestry. The last of his plays is generally believed to be The Two Noble Kinsman, which was written sometime between 1613-4. He would die two years later. 

However, it wouldn't be until the death of his wife in 1623 that actors John Hemminges and Henry Condell would work together to publish a collection of 36 of Shakespeare's 37 plays in what became known as the First Folio. Before this event, Shakespeare's plays were only seen and performed, but after the publication, anyone who could afford a copy could read these works in their entirety. Soon, Shakespeare's vocabulary, style of blank verse and poetry as well as many of the theatrical elements. he employed were being copied by playwrights and writers in England and beyond.