LibGuides: Significant Individuals of the Middle Ages: William Shakespeare

Finding Resources in Accessit

Here are some books that you may find useful during your studies. Search the Bennies catalogue Oliver for more, or browse the Non-fiction collection NFS..

Bard of Avon by Diane Stanley (Illustrator); Peter Vennema
ISBN: 0688091091
Publication Date: 1992-08-14
William Shakespeare was the son of a glovemaker, a small-town boy with a grammar school education. Yet he grew up to become the greatest English-speaking playwright in the world. Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare is both his story and that of a great art rediscovered in the modern world. Drama had been forgotten since the days of ancient Greece, but it reemerged in Elizabethan London with the building of the first modern theater. Its impact can still be imagined today. There were the theaters, open to the weather and featuring neither sets nor curtains, but equipped with dramatic special effects. There were the companies of actors--the leading men, the comedians, the boys who played women's roles--and the playwrights who gave them all lines to say. Best of all, there was William Shakespeare, who rubbed shoulders with noblemen and royalty as well as with the rowdy crowds at the foot of the stage. He was suspected of involvement in a treasonous rebellion, and his last play literally brought down the house when cannon effects set fire to the famous Globe theater and it burned to the ground. Award-winning collaborators Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema have once again created a feast of words and pictures to celebrate the life of a remarkable person from the pages of history: William Shakespeare, a man for all time."
Daily Life by Elgin, Kathy
Call Number: NFS 942.05 ELG
ISBN: 1842341871
Publication Date: 2003
Shakespeare, a life by Greenhill, Wendy & Wignall, Paul
Call Number: NFS 822.33B SHA
ISBN: 0431076383
Publication Date: 2006

You Tube

Watch a short video biography of William Shakespeare, The Bard of Avon best known for his plays "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," and "King Lear."

William Shakespeare, was an English poet, playwright, and actor from Stratford-Upon-Avon England. Most people accept he was born in 1564, on April 23rd, which is also Saint Georges Day. Although there is no birth certificate, we know he was baptised on 26th April.

ClickView

An enthralling look at the appeal of the playwright and poet. Interviews with many current stars of the screen recount what Shakespeare means to them including Kenneth Branagh, Alicia Silverstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Glenda Jackson."

Images

The History Channel

Considered the greatest English-speaking writer in history and known as England’s national poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has had more theatrical works performed than any other playwright. To this day, countless theater festivals around the world honor his work, students memorize his eloquent poems and scholars reinterpret the million words of text he composed.

Folger-Shakespear Library

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.