Shakespeare, one of the greatest bards of all time. It seems almost silly to think of him as unimportant; however, it is a very apt topic in a time of great change and acceptance. 

William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, came from a working class family, in a working class town. He could have easily gone to school, got an apprenticeship in his father’s glove making company and lived a very unremarkable life. But no, he left for to London at a young age and started writing plays. Initially they went unnoticed - not for long though! By the end of the 16th century, he was the talk of the town.

Although it is often a bit of a task to get around the renaissance English language, the topics behind all the ‘thees’ and ‘thys’ are immortal. For example in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream,  Helena and Hermia could be arguing about height right now in 2021 and you would still understand what the two characters were feeling. (their relationship at that point had definitely seen better days!) 

As now we see the theater as quite a ‘night out’ it was seen as the polar opposite by the upper class in Shakespeare’s era. I can imagine that if the great bard himself had walked in on Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 she would have sent him packing!  For that reason I feel that Shakespeare can easily connect in that way to ordinary people like you and me today, just as he did whilst he was alive and writing plays. He was never an upper class Duke or Marquess, he was just Will.

His criticisms of people such as the Queen herself were seen as outrageous; however, he spoke to the people - the people of his time. He can still speak to us today.