Scholars generally agree that Shakespeare villainized Richard to some degree for the enjoyment of Shakespeare's Tudor audience: Richard III was the last king of the house of York before the accession of the powerful and prosperous Tudor dynasty. In the famous opening lines of Shakespeare's Richard III (1592-1593?), Richard, then duke of Gloucester, sarcastically describes the quiet reign of his eldest brother, Edward IV of the house of York, and plots to defame his brother George, duke of Clarence, who is ahead of Richard in the line of succession. .
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II LIFE .
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Ten Who Changed the Millennium .
In this December 1999 feature article from Encarta Yearbook, educator and author Agnes Hooper Gottlieb identifies and profiles ten individuals who changed the course of the last 1,000 years. .
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For someone who lived almost 400 years ago, a surprising amount is known about Shakespeare's life. Indeed we know more about his life than about almost any other writer of his age. Nonetheless, for the life of the greatest writer in the English language, there are still significant gaps, and therefore much supposition surrounds the facts we have. He composed his plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1558 to 1603, and during the early part of the reign of her cousin James VI of Scotland, who took England's throne as James I after Elizabeth's death in 1603. During this period England saw an outpouring of poetry and drama, led by Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Christopher Marlowe, that remains unsurpassed in English literary history (see English Literature). .
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Shakespeare's Birthplace English playwright William Shakespeare was born in this house on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564. Shakespeare's father, John, purchased the building in two stages, in 1556 and 1572. Today, Shakespeare's birthplace is a museum, furnished as it might have been in Shakespeare's time.
