Among the dramatic poets Christopher Marlowe, Beaumont
and Fletcher, who wrote together, and Ben Jonson hold an honorable
position. The most noted lyric poets of the day were George Herbert,
Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Philip Sidney. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
the greatest of English poets, was born at Stratford-on-Avon in
April, 1564. He is supposed to have been educated at the free school
of Stratford. When he was about twenty-two, he went to London, and
after a hard struggle with poverty, he became first an actor, then a
successful playwright and theater manager. Having gained not only
fame but a modest fortune, he retired in 1611 to live at ease in
Stratford until his death in 1616. Besides the two long poems,
"Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece," which first won popularity for
him, he has written thirty-seven plays, ranging from the lightest
comedy, through romance and historical narrative, to the darkest
tragedy. Whatever form his verse takes,--sonnet, song, or dramatic
poetry,--it shows the touch of the master hand, the inspiration of
the master mind. Of his plays those which are still most frequently
acted are the tragedies "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "King Lear," and
"Othello," the comedies "Midsummer-night's Dream," "The Merchant of
Venice," "As You Like It," and "The Comedy of Errors," and the
historical plays "Julius Caesar," "King Henry IV," "King Henry V,"
and "Richard III.
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