THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20128, 23 April 1928, Page 8

THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

APRIL 23.—DEATH OF SHAKESPEARE (BY CHARLES CONWAY) On April 23, 1616, William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist in the history of the world died at the age of fifty-two. Less is authentically known of Shakespeare’s life than any of the other celebrities of his day, and this is possibly owing to the fact that he was regarded more as a talented actor than a great writer by his contemporaries, for they apparently failed to realise that his plays would live for all time, and thus his many literary friends, including Ben Johnson and Michael Drayton, lost the golden opportunity of recording for the benefit of prosperity the life and doings of the I most illustrious figure in the annals of literature.

! His father was one of the leading men in the little market town of Stratford-on-Avon, where he established a general store, in which he carried |on the combined trades of glover, butIcher and dealer in agricultural proIduce. William was born in 1564 and [was educated at the local Grammar School, where he remained until he '.was 13, when family reverses necessitated the boy being taken from school to assist in bis father’s store.

Shakespeare was only 18 years of age when he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior, and four years later he left his native town and travelled on foot to London where he seems to have at once turned his attention to the theatre, and having proved himself a .apable actor he speedily became a popular member of the leading company of the day. Of his thirty-seven plays only sixteen were published during his lifetime, so that it is difficult to determine the order in which they were written, but “Love’ o , Labour Lost*' seems to have been the first, and was produced on the stage in 1591. when the author was 27. Thenceforward he wrote a couple of plays each year, and as they are said to have only brought him from ten to fifteen pounds a-piece he must have made a considerable income by his acting. A year before the production of his first play he purchased an interest in the Globe Theatre at Southwark, and this with other investments subsequently produced him an income of six hundred pounds a year, which enabled him to purchase a fine residence at Stratford-on-Avon, to which he retired when he finally left London in 1611. He was the intimate friend and associate of some of the most brilliant men of his day, including Sir WaTter Raleigh and had many influential patrons. He w..s a well-known and popular figure at Court and was frequently honoured by command performances for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth, who was so delighted with the character of Falstaff in the play of “Henry IV” that she specially requested Shakespeare to introduce the corpulent knight in another play, whic.fi resulted in the writing of “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

The last five years of Shakespeare’s life were passed in prosperity and honour in his native town, where .he took an active interest in local affairs. Early in 1616 his health began to fail, and the festivities with which he celebrate.'! a visit from his friends Jonson and Drayton brought on a fever which caused his death. (Copyrighted).