The Life of William Shakespeare (15641616)

Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for
greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth. He did not continue his
formal education at university, nor did he come under the mentorship of a senior artist, nor did he
marry into wealth or prestige. His talent as an actor seems to have been modest, since he is not
known for starring roles. His success as a playwright depended in part upon royal patronage. Yet
in spite of these limitations, Shakespeare is now the most performed and read playwright in the
world.
Born to John Shakespeare, a glovemaker and tradesman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an
affluent farmer, William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
At that time, infants were baptized three days after their birth, thus scholars believe that
Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day on which he died at age 52. As the third of eight
children, young William grew up in this small town 100 miles northwest of London, far from the
cultural and courtly center of England.
Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, King's New School, where the curriculum
would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, Roman comedy, ancient history,
rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his childhood, Shakespeare's father
struggled with serious financial debt. Therefore, unlike his fellow playwright Christopher
Marlowe, he did not attend university. Rather, in 1582 at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a
woman eight years his senior and three months pregnant. Their first child, Susanna, was born in
1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, came in 1585. In the seven years following their birth, the
historical record concerning Shakespeare is incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable; scholars
refer to this period as his lost years.
In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene, Shakespeare reappears as an upstart crow flapping his
poetic wings in London. Evidently, it did not take him long to land on the stage. Between 1590
and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, andThe Comedy of Errors were performed.
When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague, the playwright wrote two narrative
poems, Venus and Adonisand The Rape of Lucrece, and probably began writing his richly
textured sonnets. One hundred and fiftyfour of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation
as a gifted poet. By 1594, he had also written, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of
Verona and Love's Labor's Lost.
Having established himself as an actor and playwright, in 1594 Shakespeare became a
shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most popular acting companies in
London. He remained a member of this company for the rest of his career, often playing before
the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare entered one of his most prolific periods around
1595, writing Richard II, Romeo and Juliet,A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of
Venice. With his newfound success, Shakespeare purchased the second largest home in Stratford

in 1597, though he continued to live in London. Two years later, he joined others from the Lord
Chamberlain's Men in establishing the polygonal Globe Theatre on the outskirts of London.
When King James came to the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his
fellow players, organizing them as the King's Men. During King James's reign, Shakespeare
wrote many of his most accomplished plays about courtly power, including King Lear, Macbeth,
and Antony and Cleopatra. In 1609 or 1611, Shakespeare's sonnets were published, though he
did not live to see the First Folio of his plays published in 1623.
In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare revised his will. Since his only son Hamnet had
died in 1596, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his two daughters, with monetary gifts set
aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. A fascinating detail of his
will is that he bequeathed the family's second best bed to his wife Anne. He died one month
later, on April 23, 1616. To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the form of 38 plays, 154
sonnets, and two narrative poems.
When William Shakespeare died in his birthplace of Stratford-upon- Avon, he was recognized as
one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. In the four centuries since, he has come to be
seen as not only a great English playwright, but the greatest playwright in the English language.
Reflecting upon the achievement of his peer and sometimes rival, Ben Jonson wrote of
Shakespeare, He was not of an age, but for all time.
A Fairy Song - Poem by William Shakespeare
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare

John Donne Biography

John Donne, leading English poet of the Metaphysical school, is often considered the greatest
loved poet in the English language.
Synopsis
The first two editions of John Donne's poems were published posthumously, in 1633 and 1635,
after having circulated widely in manuscript copies. Readers continue to find stimulus in his
fusion of witty argument with passion, his dramatic rendering of complex states of mind, and his
ability to make common words yield up rich poetic meaning. Donne also wrote songs, sonnets
and prose.
Profile
John Donne was born into a Catholic family in 1572, during a strong anti-Catholic period in
England. Donnes father, also named John, was a prosperous London merchant. His mother,
Elizabeth Heywood, was the grand-niece of Catholic martyr Thomas More. Religion would play
a tumultuous and passionate role in Johns life.
Donnes father died in 1576, and his mother remarried a wealthy widower. He entered Oxford
University at age 11 and later the University of Cambridge, but never received degrees, due to
his Catholicism. At age 20, Donne began studying law at Lincolns Inn and seemed destined for a
legal or diplomatic career. During the 1590s, he spent much of his inheritance on women, books
and travel. He wrote most of his love lyrics and erotic poems during this time. His first books of
poems, Satires and Songs and Sonnets, were highly prized among a small group of admirers.
In 1593, John Donnes brother, Henry, was convicted of Catholic sympathies and died in prison
soon after. The incident led John to question his Catholic faith and inspired some of his best

writing on religion. At age 25, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton,
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.
On his way to a promising career, John Donne became a Member of Parliament in 1601. That
same year, he married 16-year-old Anne More, the niece of Sir Egerton. Both Lord Egerton and
Annes father, George More, strongly disapproved of the marriage, and, as punishment, More did
not provide a dowry. Lord Egerton fired Donne and had him imprisoned for a short time. The
eight years following Donnes release would be a struggle for the married couple until Annes
father finally paid her dowry.
In 1610, John Donne published his anti-Catholic polemic Pseudo-Martyr, renouncing his faith.
In it, he proposed the argument that Roman Catholics could support James I without
compromising their religious loyalty to the pope. This won him the kings favor and patronage
from members of the House of Lords. In 1615, Donne converted to Anglicanism and was
appointed Royal Chaplain. His elaborate metaphors, religious symbolism and flair for drama
soon established him as a great preacher.
In 1617, John Donnes wife died shortly after giving birth to their 12th child. The time for
writing love poems was over, and Donne devoted his energies to more religious subjects. In
1621, Donne became dean of St. Pauls Cathedral. During a period of severe illness, he wrote
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, published in 1624. This work contains the immortal
lines No man is an island and never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
That same year, Donne was appointed Vicar of St. Dunstans-in-the-West and became known for
his eloquent sermons.
As John Donnes health continued to fail him, he became obsessed with death. Shortly before he
died, he delivered a pre-funeral sermon, Deaths Duel. His writing was charismatic and
inventive. His compelling examination of the mortal paradox influenced English poets for
generations. Donnes work fell out of favor for a time, but was revived in the 20th century by
high-profile admirers such as T.S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats.
No Man Is An Island - Poem by John Donne
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
John Donne
Death Be Not Proud - Poem by John Donne
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

John Donne
George Herbert Biography
George Herbert was an ordained priest and poet. In 1633, his book The Temple: Sacred Poems and
Private Ejaculations was published posthumously.
Synopsis
George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593, in Montgomery Castle, Wales. In 1620, he was
elected orator of the University of Cambridge. By the following decade, however, he had left that
post and become ordained priest. Herbert served two small, civil parishes located in Wiltshire,
England, Fugglestone St. Peter and Bemerton. He also wrote a number of religious poems over
the years, which he sent to friend Nicholas Ferrar. In 1633, Ferrar had The Temple: Sacred
Poems and Private Ejaculations published. Herbert died in Bemerton, Wiltshire, England, on
March 1, 1633.

Early Years
Born into a prominent family on April 3, 1593, in Montgomery Castle, Wales, George Herbert
was an English poet who largely earned for acclaim for his work after his death. One of 10
children, he lost his father, Sir Richard Herbert, at age 3. His mother, Magdalen, moved the
family to England, where she became a patron of the poet and clergyman John Donne. Herbert
soon displayed his own gift for poetry, penning his earliest known works in her honor after her
marriage to Sir John Danvers in 1609.
Education and Early Career
Herbert studied at Westminster School and then attended Trinity College at Cambridge
University, where he demonstrated his writing talents. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1613
and his master's degree in 1616. Herbert remained with the university after graduation as a fellow
before becoming its public orator in 1620. He acted as a sort of an ambassador for the school in
this role, writing and delivering speeches to King James.
While still at the university, Herbert became an ordained deacon in 1624. His mother died in
1627 and he expressed his grief in verse, penning several poems in tribute to her. Herbert also
resigned his post at Cambridge that same year. He married Jane Danvers in 1629.
Poet and Pastor
Herbert devoted himself to religion in 1630 by taking responsibility for the parish of
Fugglestone-cum-Bemerton, where he spent the final three years of his life. He wrote about this
experience in A Priest to the Temple; or, The Country Parson, His Character and Rule of Holy
Life, which was published after his death.
While dying from tuberculosis, Herbert sent a collection of his poems to his friend Nicholas
Ferrar. Shortly after Herbert passed away on March 1, 1633, Ferrar had the poems published in a
book titled The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. This collection featured such
works as "The Altar," "The Storm" and "Love."
Mattins - Poem by George Herbert
I cannot ope mine eyes,
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice:
Then we must needs for that day make a match.
My God, what is a heart?
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
Or star, or rainbow, or a part

Of all these things or all of them in one?

My God, what is a heart?
That thou should'st it so eye, and woo,
Pouring upon it all thy art,
As if that thou hadst nothing else to do?
Indeed man's whole estate
Amounts (and richly) to serve thee:
He did not heav'n and earth create,
Yet studies them, not him by whom they be.
Teach me thy love to know;
That this new light, which now I see,
May both the work and workman show:
Then by a sun-beam I will climb to thee.
George Herbert
Bitter-Sweet - Poem by George Herbert
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Ah, my dear angry Lord,

Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.
I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.
George Herbert

Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley, (born 1618, Londondied July 28, 1667, Chertsey, Eng.), poet and essayist
who wrote poetry of a fanciful, decorous nature. He also adapted the Pindaric ode to English
verse.
Educated at Westminster school and the University of Cambridge, where he became a fellow, he
was ejected in 1643 by the Parliament during the Civil War and joined the royal court at Oxford.
He went abroad with the queens court in 1645 as her cipher secretary and performed various
Royalist missions until his return to England in 1656. Seemingly reconciled to the
Commonwealth, he did not receive much reward after Charles II was restored in 1660 and retired
to Chertsey, where he engaged in horticulture and wrote on the virtues of the contemplative life.

Cowley tended to use grossly elaborate, self-consciously poetic language that decorated, rather
than expressed, his feelings. In his adolescence he wrote verse (Poeticall Blossomes, 1633, 1636,
1637) imitating the intricate rhyme schemes of Edmund Spenser. In The Mistress (1647, 1656)
he exaggeratedJohn Donnes metaphysical witjarring the readers sensibilities by
unexpectedly comparing quite different thingsinto what later tastes felt was fanciful poetic
nonsense. His Pindarique Odes (1656) try to reproduce the Latin poets enthusiastic manner
through lines of uneven length and even more extravagant poetic conceits.
Cowley also wrote an unfinished epic, Davideis (1656). His stage comedy The Guardian (1641,
revised 1661) introduced the fop Puny, who became a staple of Restoration comedy. As an
amateur man of science he promoted the Royal Society, publishing A Proposition for the
Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1661). In his retirement he wrote sober, reflective
essays reminiscent of Montaigne.
Cowley is often considered a transitional figure from the metaphysical poets to the Augustan
poets of the 18th century. He was universally admired in his own day, but by 1737 Alexander
Pope could write, justly: Who now reads Cowley? Perhaps his most effective poem is the
elegy on the death of his friend and fellow poet Richard Crashaw.
The Given Heart - Poem by Abraham Cowley
I wonder what those lovers mean, who say
They have giv'n their hearts away.
Some good kind lover tell me how;
For mine is but a torment to me now.
If so it be one place both hearts contain,
For what do they complain?
What courtesy can Love do more,
Than to join hearts that parted were before?
Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come
Into the self-same room;
'Twill tear and blow up all within,
Like a granado shot into a magazine.
Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts,
Of both our broken hearts:
Shall out of both one new one make,
From hers, th' allay; from mine, the metal take.
For of her heart he from the flames will find
But little left behind:
Mine only will remain entire;
No dross was there, to perish in the fire.
Abraham Cowley

Beauty - Poem by Abraham Cowley

LIBERAL Nature did dispence
To all things Arms for their defence;
And some she arms with sin'ewy force,
And some with swiftness in the course;
Some with hard Hoofs, or forked claws,
And some with Horns, or tusked jaws.
And some with Scales, and some with Wings,
And some with Teeth, and some with Stings.
Wisdom to Man she did afford,
Wisdom for Shield, and Wit for Sword.
What to beauteous Woman-kind,
What Arms, what Armour has she'assigne'd?
Beauty is both; for with the Faire
What Arms, what Armour can compare?
What Steel, what Gold, or Diamond,
More Impassible is found?
And yet what Flame, what Lightning ere
So great an Active force did bear?
They are all weapon, and they dart
Like Porcupines from every part.
Who can, alas, their strength express,
Arm'd when they themselves undress,
Cap a pe* with Nakedness?
Abraham Cowley

Biography of Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of
England clergyman (also named Andrew Marvell). As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with
John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton.
Marvell was born in Winestead-in-Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, near the city of
Kingston upon Hull. The family moved to Hull when his father was appointed Lecturer at Holy
Trinity Church there, and Marvell was educated at Hull Grammar School. A secondary school in
the city is now named after him.
His most famous poems include To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode upon
Cromwell's Return from Ireland, The Mower's Song and the country house poem Upon Appleton
House.

Early Life
At the age of twelve, Marvell attended Trinity College, Cambridge and eventually received his
BA degree. Afterwards, from the middle of 1642 onwards, Marvell probably travelled in
continental Europe. He may well have served as a tutor for an aristocrat on the Grand Tour; but
the facts are not clear on this point. While England was embroiled in the civil war, Marvell
seems to have remained on the continent until 1647. It is not known exactly where his travels
took him, except that he was in Rome in 1645 and Milton later reported that Marvell had
mastered four languages, including French, Italian and Spanish.
First poems and Marvell's time at Nun Appleton
Marvell's first poems, which were written in Latin and Greek and published when he was still at
Cambridge, lamented a visitation of the plague and celebrated the birth of a child to King
Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. He only belatedly became sympathetic to the successive
regimes during the Interregnum after Charles I's execution, which took place 30 January 1649.
His Horatian Ode, a political poem dated to early 1650, responds with sorrow to the regicide
even as it praises Oliver Cromwell's return from Ireland.
Circa 1650-52, Marvell served as tutor to the daughter of the Lord General Thomas Fairfax, who
had recently relinquished command of the Parliamentary army to Cromwell. He lived during that
time at Nun Appleton House, near York, where he continued to write poetry. One poem, Upon
Appleton House, To My Lord Fairfax, uses a description of the estate as a way of exploring
Fairfax's and Marvell's own situation in a time of war and political change. Probably the bestknown poem he wrote at this time was To His Coy Mistress.
Marvell's poetic style
Marvells poetry is often witty and full of elaborate conceits in the elegant style of the
metaphysical poets. Many poems were inspired by events of the time, public or personal. The
Picture of Little TC in a Prospect of Flowers was written about the daughter of one of Marvell's
friends, Theophila Cornwell, who was named after an elder sister who had died as a baby.
Marvell uses the picture of her surrounded by flowers in a garden to convey the transience of
spring and the fragility of childhood. This poem's title is ironically echoed by John Ashbery's
poem "The Picture of Little JA in a Prospect of Flowers."
Others were written in the pastoral style of the classical Roman authors. Even here, Marvell
tends to place a particular picture before us. In The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her
Fawn, the nymph weeps for the little animal as it dies, and tells us how it consoled her for her
betrayal in love.

His pastoral poems, including Upon Appleton House achieve originality and a unique tone
through his reworking and subversion of the pastoral genre.
Bermudas - Poem by Andrew Marvell
Where the remote Bermudas ride
In th' Oceans bosome unespy'd,
From a small Boat, that row'd along,
The listning Winds receiv'd this Song.
What should we do but sing his Praise
That led us through the watry Maze,
Unto an Isle so long unknown,
And yet far kinder than our own?
Where he the huge Sea-Monsters wracks,
That lift the Deep upon their Backs.
He lands us on a grassy stage;
Safe from the Storms, and Prelat's rage.
He gave us this eternal Spring,
Which here enamells every thing;
And sends the Fowl's to us in care,
On daily Visits through the Air,
He hangs in shades the Orange bright,
Like golden Lamps in a green Night.
And does in the Pomgranates close,
Jewels more rich than Ormus show's.
He makes the Figs our mouths to meet;
And throws the Melons at our feet.
But Apples plants of such a price,
No Tree could ever bear them twice.
With Cedars, chosen by his hand,
From Lebanon, he stores the Land.
And makes the hollow Seas, that roar,
Proclaime the Ambergris on shoar.
He cast (of which we rather boast)
The Gospels Pearl upon our coast.
And in these Rocks for us did frame
A Temple, where to sound his Name.
Oh let our Voice his Praise exalt,
Till it arrive at Heavens Vault:
Which thence (perhaps) rebounding, may
Eccho beyond the Mexique Bay.
Thus sung they, in the English boat,
An holy and a chearful Note,
And all the way, to guide their Chime,
With falling Oars they kept the time.

Andrew Marvell
The Definition Of Love - Poem by Andrew Marvell
My Love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high:
It was begotten by despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone.
Could show me so divine a thing,
Where feeble Hope could ne'r have flown
But vainly flapt its Tinsel Wing.
And yet I quickly might arrive
Where my extended Soul is fixt,
But Fate does Iron wedges drive,
And alwaies crouds it self betwixt.
For Fate with jealous Eye does see.
Two perfect Loves; nor lets them close:
Their union would her ruine be,
And her Tyrannick pow'r depose.
And therefore her Decrees of Steel
Us as the distant Poles have plac'd,
(Though Loves whole World on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embrac'd.
Unless the giddy Heaven fall,
And Earth some new Convulsion tear;
And, us to joyn, the World should all
Be cramp'd into a Planisphere.
As Lines so Loves Oblique may well
Themselves in every Angle greet:
But ours so truly Paralel,
Though infinite can never meet.
Therefore the Love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debarrs,
Is the Conjunction of the Mind,
And Opposition of the Stars.
Andrew Marvell