Shakespeare is a fairly mysterious figure. We know him, yet we don't. We know he exists, yet we do not know his birthdate. We know he was a brilliant playwright, yet no information of his education persists. Even his will is mysterious, most notably how it leaves very little to his wife, Anne Hathaway. Past the age of 40, his prominence seemingly diminished due to the decline in the amount of plays he wrote with no real indication why, as full-on retirement was not a prominent thing in medieval England. What we do know is that Shakespeare was baptized the 26th of April, the year 1564, and that he died 23 April, 1616. We also know that, barring some out-of-left-field conspiracy theories, Shakespeare wrote every play he is credited to. However, that is all we really know. The rest is mystery.This is partially why students are so vehement against Shakespeare. We fear what we do not know. And we do not know Shakespeare, at all. We don't understand his language, his archaic writing style, etc. And we flat out don't know anything about Shakespeare except that he wrote plays. My understanding of Shakespeare is progressing, but it's fairly slow, which can be frustrating to many. And then there's the inherent complexity of a Shakespearean play, which only adds more fuel to the fire. Hopefully, though, I'm getting there.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare, http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/, and http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/biography/shakespeare_biography.htm.
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