Shakespeare

Shri Nathji occasionally spoke of Shakespeare and often used Shakespeare’s favorite quotation:

“Blow, Blow, Thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude!”

The above lines which Shri Nathji used are from Shakespeare’s play - As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII. In this act of the play; Lord Amiens, a musician, sings before Duke Senior's company -

 Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

  Thou art not so unkind

      As man's ingratitude;

  Thy tooth is not so keen,

  Because thou art not seen,

      Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

  Then, heigh-ho, the holly!

      This life is most jolly.

  Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

  That does not bite so nigh

      As benefits forgot:

  Though thou the waters warp,

  Thy sting is not so sharp

      As friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing . . .

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, two epitaphs on a man named John Combe, one epitaph on Elias James, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.  His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".  In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.