Who was William Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare grew up in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
His family were rich so he went to a good school and grew up to be a playwright.
He wrote different types of plays – histories, tragedies and comedies.
Watch: William Shakespeare
Who was William Shakespeare?
Today we watch stories through TV, computers or on phones. But 450 years ago, people could only watch stories acted in front of them on the streets or in theatres.
People loved watching plays. They were as popular then as TV shows are now and some of the actors became just as famous.
One of these actors was William Shakespeare.
He's still famous today. Not for acting but because he was, and still is, one of the best known writers in the English language.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He went to school there and learned Latin and Greek. He got married at 18 and had children.
Shakespeare moved to London, and became a rather famous actor there.
He also wrote plays which everyone, rich and poor, even royalty, paid to watch.
Soon Shakespeare was rich enough to help build a new theatre, called ‘The Globe’.
Shakespeare wrote many different types of plays. Sad tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, funny comedies like A Midsummer Night's Dream and important histories about kings like Henry V.
They were fun, scary, exciting and serious!
He also wrote poetry and invented new words like 'eyeball' and 'bedroom'. He truly changed the way we speak English!
William Shakespeare lived over 450 years ago, but his name, plays and poetry are still known all over the world today.
Students learn about him at school and at university. People come from many countries to see where he lived and his plays are just as popular now as when they were first performed all those years ago!
Watch: Summary of Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare's most famous comedies. Here's a short summary, with a video below to help.
Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck.
Viola thinks that Sebastian is dead, therefore she disguises herself to look like her brother and calls herself ‘Cesario’. She then takes a job with Duke Orsino.
She falls in love with the Duke but cannot do anything about it because of her disguise.
She also discovers that Duke Orsino has fallen in love with a woman called Olivia. Later, Olivia rejects the Duke because her brother recently died.
Duke Orsino sends Viola (aka Cesario) to Olivia to try and win her love. However, Olivia then falls in love with Viola because she mistakenly thinks that she is a handsome man (Cesario).
Meanwhile Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, is trying to keep order in her house but her uncle Sir Toby Belch and his friends have other ideas. They convince poor Malvolio that Olivia is in love with him and make him look extremely foolish. Olivia thinks her servant has gone mad.
Later, it turns out that Sebastian survived the shipwreck. He arrives on the island. When Olivia sees him, she naturally thinks that he is Cesario and promptly marries him (remember Viola’s disguise made her look like Sebastian).
Duke Orsino is furious when he finds out but, once Viola and Sebastian meet and reveal their true identities, there is a happy ending for everyone but poor Malvolio.
Watch: Twelfth Night
Watch this animation of Shakespeare’s famous play, Twelfth Night.
An animated version of William Shakespeare’s 'Twelfth Night'.
Over in the land of IllyriaIt’s the funniest thing that you’ll ever hearA case of mistaken identityLessons in cross-dressing and fighting a-plenty!
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah! (hey!)A criss-crossing of love and a muddling upAnd the whole mad show rolls on!
Viola’s shipwrecked, thinks she’s lost her twin“I’m scared to live alone as a girl, where’s Sebastian?I know! I’ll disguise as a blokeWait, I need a name (hmmmm?) Cesario!”
I hope I can cope, I can go work for OrsinoThe duke, “I’m a fella (yo!) for all he knows”There’s a bit of a problem with Viola’s planShe falls madly in love with this man
But he’s in love with Lady OliviaHis love's not returned so Viola goes to visit herAnd woo her for him, see she has many admirersBut she’s not bothered, she’s sad, her brother’s just died
Now Olivia doesn’t know Viola’s not a blokeAnd (oh no!) falls in love with ‘Cesario’So, Orsino loves Olivia, Viola loves OrsinoOlivia loves Cesario, it's far from ideal yo!
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!Falseness and faking, the pranks that are madeEmotions, disguises that get in the way (hey!)
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!A criss-crossing of love and a-muddling upAnd the whole mad show rolls on!
At Olivia’s estate (yeah!) there’s mischief afootSir Toby, Sir Andrew, the rowdiest drunks thereMaking noise, waking up the houseMalvolio, the steward tells them off for being too loud
They decide to play a prank on himMaria fakes a love letter and hands it to himHe performs in yellow stockings and cross-gartered lacesLater on the crew lock him up like he was crazy!
Sir Andrew is jealous of Olivia’s loveFor ‘Cesario’, and challenges him to a fightWhat a fright! Cesario hasn’t fought beforeSee it’s not easy being a man, no not at all!
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!Falseness and faking, the pranks that are madeEmotions, disguises that get in the way (hey!)
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!A criss-crossing of love and a-muddling upAnd the whole mad show rolls on!
Viola’s twin, Sebastian’s alive you knowHe finds Olivia who thinks he’s CesarioShe proposes to him, declaring her loveHe’s confused but agrees ‘cause she looks pretty good
Orsino is mad, see he believesCesario is married to the girl of his dreamsOlivia sees Cesario, thinks it's SebastianBut of course Cesario denies Olivia’s ever married him!
Eventually Sebastian and Viola are unitedHe reveals her true self, and everyone’s enlightenedThey can’t believe their eyes, it was a girl in disguise!The Duke proposes to Viola, the madness is over!
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!Falseness and faking, the pranks that are madeEmotions, disguises that get in the way
If music be the food of love, play on(Don’t stop!) Oooh yeah!A criss-crossing of love and a-muddling upAnd the whole mad show rolls on!
Activity 1
Can you order the key events in Shakespeare’s life?
Activity 2
Can you write a ‘tower’ version of the story?
There are three key rules:
- The first line only has one word.
- Each line has one more word than the line before.
- You can use a maximum of ten lines to tell the story.
Here's one version to help you out, but be sure to write your own!
Line 1 - Crash! (one word).
Line 2 - A storm. (two words).
Line 3 - Siblings become separated. (three words).
Line 4 - Viola disguised as Cesario. (four words).
Line 5 - Begins work for the Duke. (five words).
Line 6 - Duke Orsino loves beautiful Lady Olivia. (six words).
Line 7 - Yet Lady Olivia adores the handsome Cesario. (seven words).
Line 8 - Oh what a terribly confusing puzzle to solve. (eight words).
Line 9 - Until, a handsome stranger appears in the old town. (nine words).
Line 10 - With looks similar to Cesario, but with the name Sebastian. (ten words).
Activity 3
Imagine that Sebastian was first to make it to back to land, instead of Viola.
What do you think he would have done?
Would he have dressed as Viola?
Write your own short version of the story, where Sebastian works for Duke Orsino (instead of Viola).
Make sure there’s a happy ending!
Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers! game
Use grammar, punctuation and spelling skills to explore jungles, caves and tombs on your mission.
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