Sir Thomas Lucy. He was a local justice of the peace. Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had a daughter in 1583 and twins- a boy and a girl- in 1585. The boy however, eventually did not live.The age of Shakespeare was a great time in English history. The reign of Elizabeth, from 1558 to 1603, saw England emerge as the leading naval and commercial power of the Western world. Elizabeth I's England consolidated its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and firmly established the Church of England. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh sent colonists eastward in search of profit. In trade, might, and art, England established an envious preeminence.At this time, London was the heart of England, reflecting all the vibrant qualities of the Elizabethan Age. It was in this atmosphere that London became a leading center of culture as well as commerce. Its dramatists and poets were among the leading literary artists of the daythis is the environment in which Shakespeare lived and wrote.In the 1580's, the writings of the University Wits defined the London theatre. Though grounded in medieval/Jacobean roots, men such as Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Kyd, and Peele, produced new dramas and comedies using Marlowe's styling of blank verse. Shakespeare outdid them all; he combined the best traits of Elizabethan drama with classical sources, enriching the admixture with his imagination and wit.Shakespeare apparently arrived in London around 1588 and by 1592 had gained success as an actor and a playwright. Shortly after that, he secured the business of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton. The publication of Shakespeare's two poems Venus and Adonis in 1593, and The Rape of Lucrece in 1594, and some of his Sonnets, published in 1609, established a reputation for him as a talented and popular Renaissance poet. Shakespeare's modern reputation is based mainly on the 38 plays that he wrote, modified, and collaborated on. When in his days, the...
