Story&History

Shahrukh khan

2008-09-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sharukh Khan the King of Bollywood was born on 2 November 1965, New Delhi.His Father is Meer Mohammad Taj Khan, mother is Lateef Fatima Khan.His father ran a transport company and his mother was a magistrate.He was brought up in Delhi. He has a sister named Shehnaaz.He equally brilliant in studies and sports.His wife is Gouri Khan,Shahrukh Fell in love with Gouri who was then studying in Loreto Delhi.Their love is finally accepted and He married her before he got his break in Bollywood.This couple has a son called Aryan Khan and a daughter named Suhana Khan. Shahrukh started his career on a TV serial called "Fauji" (1988), that won him instant recognition. He also acted in another TV soap called "Circus" (1989)

Other Information Of Sharukh khan

Loves computer games and hi-tech gadgets.
His first name "Shahrukh" means "face of the king"
Shahrukh’s lived in a mansion called Mannat in Mumbai, India.
His parents died before he entered movies. Shahrukh considers it a big regret that they couldn't see the success of his son.
He Has a mannequin of himself in Madam Tussaud's Museum in England. Along with Amitabh Bachchan , Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Career:

My Name Is Khan (2009)
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)
Billo Barber(2008)
Main Aur Mrs Khanna (2008)
Kismat Konnection (2008) (voice) .... Narrator
Bhoothnath (2008) .... Aditya Sharma

Shaurya (2008) (voice)
Om Shanti Om (2007) .... Om Prakash Makhija/Om Kapoor
Heyy Babyy (2007) .... Raj Malhotra
Chak De! India (2007) .... Kabir Khan
I See You (2006) .... Street Guitarist
Don (2006) .... Don / Vijay
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) .... Dev Saran
Alag: He Is Different.... He Is Alone... (2006) .... Special Appearance - Song
Paheli (2005) .... Kishanlal/Ghost

Silsiilay (2005) .... Sutradhar
Kaal (2005) .... Special Appearance (Song)
Swades: We, the People (2004) .... Mohan Bhargav
Veer-Zaara (2004) .... Veer Pratap Singh
Main Hoon Na (2004) .... Maj. Ram Prasad Sharma
Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke (2004) .... Dushant
Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) .... Aman Mathur
Chalte Chalte (2003) .... Raj Mathur
Saathiya (2002) .... Yeshwant Rao (Special Apperance)
Shakthi: The Power (2002) .... Jaisingh (Drifter)
Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002) .... Gopal
Devdas (2002/I) .... Devdas Mukherji
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) .... Rahul Y. Raichand
Asoka (2001) .... Asoka
One 2 Ka 4 (2001) .... Arun Verma
Gaja Gamini (2000) .... Shahrukh (Special Appearance)
Mohabbatein (2000) .... Raj Aryan Malhotra
Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega... (2000) .... Rahul (Special Appearence)
Josh (2000) .... Max
Hey Ram (2000) .... Amjad Ali Khan
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000) .... Ajay Bakshi
Baadshah (1999) .... Raj 'Baadshah'
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) .... Rahul Khanna
Dil Se.. (1998) .... Amarkanth Varma
Duplicate (1998) .... Bablu Chaudhary/Manu Dada
Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) .... Rahul
Yes Boss (1997) .... Rahul
Koyla (1997) .... Shanker
Gudgudee (1997) .... Special Appearance
Pardes (1997) .... Arjun Saagar
Dushman Duniya Ka (1996) .... Badru (Rickshaw driver)
Chaahat (1996) .... Roop Singh Rathod
Army (1996) .... Arjun
English Babu Desi Mem (1996) .... Vikram/Hari/Gopal Mayur
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) .... Raj Malhotra
Guddu (1995) .... Guddu Bahadur
Karan Arjun (1995) .... Arjun Singh
Oh Darling Yeh Hai India (1995) .... Hero
Ram Jaane (1995) .... Ram Jaane
Trimurti (1995) .... Romi Singh/Bholey
Zamaana Deewana (1995) .... Rahul Malhotra
Anjaam (1994) .... Vijay Agnihotri
Darr (1993) .... Rahul Mehra
Baazigar (1993) .... Ajay Sharma/Vicky Malhotra
Maya (1993) .... Lalit
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993) .... Sunil
King Uncle (1993) .... Anil Bansal
Dil Aashna Hai (...The Heart Knows) (1992) .... Karan D. Sing
Chamatkar (1992/I) .... Sunder Srivastava
Deewana (1992) .... Raja Sahai
Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) (as Shah Rukh Khan) .... Raj Mathur 'Raju'
Idiot (1991) Tv series .... Pawan Raghujan
Circus (1989) Tv series
In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) (TV)
Fauji (1988) Tv series .... Abhimanyu Rai

Awards:
22 wins & 22 nominations

Bangladesh

2008-09-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

Bangladesh, on the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal, is surrounded by India, with a small common border with Myanmar in the southeast. The country is low-lying land full of river traversed by the many branches and tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. Tropical monsoons and frequent floods and cyclones inflict heavy damage in the delta region.
What is now called Bangladesh is part of the historic region of Bengal, the northeast portion of the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh consists primarily of East Bengal (West Bengal is part of India and its people are primarily Hindu) plus the Sylhet district of the Indian state of Assam.
The earliest reference to the region was to a kingdom called Vanga, or Banga (c. 1000 B.C.). Buddhists ruled for centuries, but by the 10th century Bengal was primarily Hindu. In 1576, Bengal became part of the Mogul Empire, and the majority of East Bengalis converted to Islam. Bengal was ruled by British India from 1757 until Britain withdrew in 1947, and Pakistan was founded out of the two predominantly Muslim regions of the Indian subcontinent. For almost 25 years after independence from Britain, its history was part of Pakistan's.

West Pakistan and East Pakistan were united by religion (Islam), but their peoples were separated by culture, physical features, and 1,000 miles of Indian territory.

Tension between East and West Pakistan developed from the outset because of their vast geographic, economic, and cultural differences. East Pakistan's Awami League, a political party founded by the Bengali nationalist Sheik Mujibur Rahman in 1949, sought independence from West Pakistan. Although 56% of the population resided in East Pakistan, the West held the lion's share of political and economic power. In 1970 East Pakistanis secured a majority of the seats in the national assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national assembly in an attempt to circumvent East Pakistan's demand for greater autonomy. As a consequence East Pakistan seceded, and the independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Civil war broke out, and with the help of Indian troops in the last few weeks of the war, East Pakistan defeated West Pakistan on Dec. 16, 1971. An estimated one million Bengalis were killed in the fighting or later slaughtered. Ten million more took refuge in India. In Feb. 1974, Pakistan agreed to recognize the independent state of Bangladesh.

Founding president Sheikh Mujibur was assassinated in 1975, as was the next president, Zia ur-Rahman. On March 24, 1982, Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad, army chief of staff, took control in a bloodless coup but was forced to resign on Dec. 6, 1990, amid violent protests and numerous allegations of corruption. A succession of prime ministers governed in the 1990s, including Khaleda Zia, wife of the assassinated president Zia ur-Rahman, and Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the daughter of Sheik Mujibur.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina completed her five-year term as prime minister in July 2000—the first leader to do so since the country gained independence from Pakistan in 1974. In Oct. 2001 elections, Khaleda Zia again won the prime ministership.

Violence erupted in Oct. 2006, when Zia's term ended and President Ahmed took over as the head of a caretaker administration. An alliance of parties, headed by the Awami League, said it would boycott the Jan. 2007 elections, alleging corruption in the electoral commission. The violence intensified in Jan. 2007, prompting President Ahmed to declare a state of emergency and postpone the elections. Fakhruddin Ahmed became the interim head of the government. He swiftly opened a broad corruption investigation that resulted in the imprisonment of dozens of prominent officials, the seizure of luxury vehicles, and the freezing of bank accounts. In March, Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was arrested in the investigation and charged with extortion. Khaleda Zia herself was arrested and charged with corruption in September. In addition, Sheikh Hasina was arrested and charged with corruption and organizing the murder of four supporters of a rival party.

Mudslides set off by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 100 people in June 2007 in Chittagong, a port in the southern part of the country. In November, Cyclone Sidr, with winds over 100 miles per hour, killed nearly 3,500 people in southern Bangladesh. The United Nations reported that a million people were left homeless.

Culture of Bangladesh

Bangladesh have a rich fictional legacy, with the first available form of literature being over a 1000 years old. Bengali literature developed considerably during the medieval period with the rise of popular poets such as Chandi Das, Daulat Kazi an Alaol.

The traditional music of Bangladesh is very much the same as that of the Indian sub-continent. The music in Bangladesh can be divided into three main categories: classical, modern and folk. Both vocal and instrumental classical music is enjoyed in Bangladesh. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan and Ustad Alauddin are 2 famous classical instrumental players that are internationally known and famous . Modern music is becoming more popular and is practiced widely. Contemporary, pop songs and bands are also enjoying more widespread fame, but are mainly popular in the regions of Dhaka City.

Tribal dances are very popular among the Bangalees. The countryside girls are in the habit of dancing to popular folk music. Their dances require no regulations as such, just a small amount of courage and a big amount of rhythm. Popular songs like Shari and Jari are presented with the accompanying dance of both male and female performers.

Drama and theatre is an old tradition that is very popular in Bangladesh. More than a dozen theater groups in Dhaka City have been regularly staging locally written plays for hundreds of years. Many have also started adopted some plays from European writers. Baily Road (Near Motijheel) in Dhaka is known as “Natak Para” and this is one location where drama shows are regularly held. Many shows are also held at the Dhaka University.

Another important aspect of the culture of Bangladesh is clothing. Bangali are so much careful in their dressing. Bangladeshi woman usually wear Saris, made of the world famous and expensive, finely embroidered quilted patchwork cloth produced by the village woman. Woman will traditionally wear their hair in a twisted bun, which is called the “Beni style”. Hindus will traditionally wear Dhuty for religious purposes. These days most men of Bangladesh wear shirts and pants. Specially young like jins and T shirt.

More Information about Bangladesh-

Land area of Bangladesh: 51,703 sq mi (133,911 sq km); total area: 55,598 sq mi (144,000 sq km)

Population of Bangladesh (2008 est.): 153,546,901 (growth rate: 2.0%); birth rate: 28.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 57.4/1000; life expectancy: 63.2; density per sq mi: 1,146

Mother languages: Bangla (official), English
Politics- democracy
Ethnicity/race: Bengali 98%, tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims (1998)
Religions: Islam 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
Main Religion- Islam

Agriculture: rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry

Transportation of Bangladesh : Highways: total: 239,226 km; paved: 22,726 km; unpaved: 216,500 km (2003). Railways: total: 2,706 km (2004). Waterways: 8,372 km; note: includes 2,635 km main cargo routes (2005).
Ports and harbors: Chittagong, Mongla Port. Airports: 16 (2005).

Rabindranath Tagore

2008-09-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Rabindranath Togore was born in 1861 on Calcutta west Baengal.His father name is Maharishi debendranath.

Tagore received his education at home.He was taught in Bengali, with English lessons in the afternoon. He read the Bengali poets since his early age and himself began writing poetry himself by the age of eight. Rabindranath Tagore did have a brief spell at St Xavier's Jesuit school, but found the conventional system of education uncongenial.

His father wanted him to become a barrister and he was sent to England for this reason.
In England, Tagore heard John Bright and W.E.Gladstone speak and was highly impressed and inspired by their "large-hearted, radical liberalism."
In 1879, he enrolled at University College, at London, but was called back by his father to return to India in 1880.By l883 he was married. Tagore's family choose his bride, an almost illiterate girl of ten years, named Bhabatarini (renamed Mrinalini), whom he married with little ceremony.
They were to have four children, the eldest was born when Mrinalini was 13. However, Mrinalini died at the age of 30.
From 1890, Tagore had undertaken the management of his family estates.
His earliest poetic collections Manasi (l890), Chitra (1895) and Sonar Tari (1895) used colloquial Bengali instead of the usual archaic literary form.
In 1901 he founded the famous Shantiniketan near Calcutta. This was designed to provide a traditional ashram and Western education. He began with 5 pupils and 5 teachers (three are Christian). His ideals were simplicity of living and the cultivation of beauty.
In 1912, Tagore visited Britain again and his own English translation of Gitanjali was published under Yeats' auspices. A lecture tour of Britain and the USA followed.
In 1913, he was awarded the famous Nobel Prize and used the prize money to improve his school at Shantiniketan.
Apart from his poetry, he held major exhibitions of his paintings in the West. He was also a noted composer. His works and his life influenced film director Shri Satyajit Ray, who had been one of his pupils.
Tagore was not politically motivated and tried to harmonise the views of east and west.
In August 1941, Shri Rabindranath Tagore was moved from Shantiniketan ashram to Calcutta for an operation. In the same year 1941, he passes away in the same house in which he was born in.

Works Of Rabindranath Tagore

Drama

Valmiki Pratibha ("The Genius of Valmiki")
Visarjan ("Sacrifice")
Dakghar ("Post Office")
Chandalika ("Untouchable Girl")

Plays

Raktakaravi ("Red Oleanders")
Chitrangada
Raja
Valmiki-Pratibha
Mayar Khela.
Short stories
"Bhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman")
"Cabuliwallah"
"Kshudita Pashan" ("The Hungry Stones")
"Atithi" ("The Runaway")
"Sabuj Patra"
Teen Kanya ("Three Daughters").
Haimanti
Darpaharan

Novels

Chaturanga, Gora (1910), Shesher Kobita, Ghare Baire, Char Odhay, and Noukadubi. Ghare Baire or The Home and the World.

Poetry

Gitanjali (Bangla: গীতাঞ্জলি) is Tagore's best-known collection of poetry.
Manasi
Sonar Tori ("Golden Boat")
Balaka ("Wild Geese" — the title being a metaphor for migrating souls)
Dui Bigha Jomi ("A Strip of Land") etc

William Shakespeare

2008-09-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare is one of the biggest writter of all time. Here i duscuss about the life story of this great star

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTH

The actual date of Shakespeare's birth is not known, but, traditionally, April 23,1564 St George's Day, has been Shakespeare's accepted birthday, and a house on Henley Street in Stratford, owned by William's father, John, is accepted as Shakespeare's birth place. However, the reality is that no one really knows when the great dramatist was born. According to the Book of Common Prayer, it was required that a child be baptized on the nearest Sunday or holy day following the birth, unless the parents had a legitimate excuse. As Dennis Kay proposes in his book Shakespeare.If Shakespeare was indeed born on Sunday, April 23, the next feast day would have been St. Mark's Day on Tuesday the twenty-fifth. There might well have been some cause, both reasonable and great -- or perhaps, as has been suggested, St. Mark's Day was still held to be unlucky, as it had been before the Reformation, when altars and crucifixes used to be draped in black cloth, and when some claimed to see in the churchyard the spirits of those doomed to die in that year. . . .but that does not help to explain the christening on the twenty-sixth.
No doubt Shakespeare's true birthday will remain a mystery forever. But the assumption that the Bard was born on the same day of the month that he died lends an exciting esoteric highlight to the otherwise mundane details of Shakespeare's life.
SHAKESPEARE'S EDUCATION AND CHILDHOOD
Shakespeare probably began his education at the age of six or seven at the Stratford grammar school, which is still standing only a short distance from his house on Henley Street and is in the care of the Shakespeare Birthplace. Although we have no record of Shakespeare attending the school, due to the official position held by John Shakespeare it seems likely that he would have decided to educate young William at the school which was under the care of Stratford's governing body. The Stratford grammar school had been built some two hundred years before Shakespeare was born and in that time the lessons taught there were, of course, dictated primarily by the beliefs of the reigning monarch. In 1553, due to a charter by King Edward VI, the school became known as the King's New School of Stratford-upon-Avon. During the years that Shakespeare attended the school, at least one and possibly three headmasters stepped down because of their devotion to the Catholic religion proscribed by Queen Elizabeth. One of these masters was Simon Hunt, according to tradition, left Stratford to pursue his more spiritual goal of becoming a Jesuit, and relocated to the seminary at Rhymes. Hunt had found his true vocation: when he died in Rome seven years later he had risen to the position of Grand Penitentiary.
Like all of the great poets and dramatists of the time, Shakespeare learned his basic reading and writing skills from an ABC, or horn-book. Robert Speaight in his book, Shakespeare: The Man and His Achievement, describes this book as a primer framed in wood and covered with a thin plate of transparent horn. It included the alphabet in small letters and in capitals, with combinations of the five vowels with b, c, and d, and the Lord's Prayer in English. The first of these alphabets, which ended with the abbreviation for 'and', began with the mark of the cross. Hence the alphabet was known as 'Christ cross row' -- the cross-row of Richard III, I, i, 55. A short catechism was often included in the ABC book (the 'absey book' of King John, I, i, 196).
Shakespeare's daily activities after he left school and before he re-emerged as a professional actor in the late 1580s are impossible to trace. Suggestions that he might have worked as a schoolmaster or lawyer or glover with his father and brother, Gilbert, are all plausible. So too is the argument that Shakespeare studied intensely to become a master at his literary craft, and honed his acting skills while traveling and visiting playhouses outside of Stratford. But, it is from this period known as the "lost years", that we obtain one vital piece of information about Shakespeare: he married a pregnant orphan named Anne Hathaway.
SHAKESPEARE'S MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN
Recordings in the Episcopal register at Worcester on the dates of November 27 and 28, 1582, reveal that Shakespeare desired to marry a young girl named Anne. There are two different documents regarding this matter, and their contents have raised a debate over just whom Shakespeare first intended to wed. Were there two Annes? Was Shakespeare in love with one but in lust with the other? Was Shakespeare ready to join in matrimony with the Anne of his dreams only to have an attack of conscience and marry the Anne with whom he had carnal relations? To discuss the controversy properly we should look at the documents in question. The first entry in the register is the following record of the issue of a marriage license to one Wm Shakespeare:
Anno Domini 1582...Novembris...27 die eiusdem mensis. Item eodem die supradicto emanavit Licentia inter Wm Shaxpere et Annam Whateley de Temple Grafton.1
The next entry in the episcopal register records the marriage bond granted to one Wm Shakespeare:
Noverint universi per praesentes nos Fulconem Sandells de Stratford in comitatu Warwici agricolam et Johannem Rychardson ibidem agricolam, teneri et firmiter obligari Ricardo Cosin generoso et Roberto Warmstry notario publico in quadraginta libris bonae et legalis monetae Angliae solvend. eisdem Ricardoet Roberto haered. execut. et assignat. suis ad quam quidem solucionem bene et fideliter faciend. obligamus nos et utrumque nostrum per se pro toto et in solid. haered. executor. et administrator. nostros firmiter per praesentes sigillis nostris sigillat. Dat. 28 die Novem. Anno regni dominae nostrae Eliz. Dei gratia Angliae Franc. et Hiberniae Reginae fidei defensor &c.25.2 The condition of this obligation is such that if hereafter there shall not appear any lawful let or impediment by reason of any precontract, consanguinity, affinity or by any other lawful means whatsoever, but that William Shagspere on the one party and Anne Hathwey of Stratford in the diocese of Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solemnize matrimony together, and in the same afterwards remain and continue like man and wife according unto the laws in that behalf provided...
Three possible conclusions can be reached from the above records: 1) The Anne Whateley in the first record and the Anne Hathwey in the second record are the same woman. Some scholars believe that the name Whateley was substituted accidentally for Hathwey into the register by the careless clerk. "The clerk was a nincompoop: he wrote Baker for Barber in his register, and Darby for Bradeley, and Edgock for Elcock, and Anne Whateley for Anne Hathaway. A lot of ingenious ink has been spilt over this error, but it is surely a simple one: the name Whateley occurs in a tithe appeal by a vicar on the same page of the register; the clerk could not follow his own notes, or he was distracted" (Levi, 37). Moreover, some believe that the couple selected Temple Grafton as the place for the wedding for reasons of privacy and that is why it is recorded in the register instead of Stratford. 2) The Wm Shaxpere and the Annam Whateley who wished to marry in Temple Grafton were two different people entirely from the Wm Shagspere and Anne Hathwey who were married in Stratford. This argument relies on the assumption that there was a relative of Shakespeare's living in Temple Grafton, or a man unrelated but sharing Shakespeare's name (which would be extremely unlikely), and that there is no trace of this relative after the issue of his marriage license. 3) The woman Shakespeare loved and the woman Shakespeare finally married were two different Annes. Not many critics support this hypothesis, but those that do use it to portray Shakespeare as a young man torn between the love he felt for Anne Whateley and the obligation he felt toward Anne Hathwey and the child she was carrying, which was surely his. In Shakespeare, Anthony Burgess constructs a vivid scenario to this effect:
It is reasonable to believe that Will wished to marry a girl named Anne Whateley. The name is common enough in the Midlands and is even attached to a four-star hotel in Horse Fair, Banbury. Her father may have been a friend of John Shakespeare's, he may have sold kidskin cheap, there are various reasons why the Shakespeares and the Whateleys, or their nubile children, might become friendly. Sent on skin-buying errands to Temple Grafton, Will could have fallen for a comely daughter, sweet as May and shy as a fawn. He was eighteen and highly susceptible. Knowing something about girls, he would know that this was the real thing. Something, perhaps, quite different from what he felt about Mistress Hathaway of Shottery. But why, attempting to marry Anne Whateley, had he put himself in the position of having to marry the other Anne? I suggest that, to use the crude but convenient properties of the old women's-magazine morality-stories, he was exercised by love for the one and lust for the other. I find it convenient to imagine that he knew Anne Hathaway carnally, for the first time, in the spring of 1582...
Whichever argument one chooses to accept, it is fact that Shakespeare, a minor at the time, married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six and already several months pregnant. Anne was the eldest daughter, and one of the seven children of Richard Hathaway, a twice-married farmer in Shottery. When Richard died in 1581, he requested his son, Bartholomew, move into the house we now know as Anne Hathaway's Cottage, and maintain the property for his mother, Richard's second wife and Anne's stepmother. Anne lived in the cottage with Bartholomew, her step-mother, and her other siblings. No doubt she was bombarded with a barrage of household tasks to fill her days at Hewland Farm, as it was then called. After her marriage to Shakespeare, Anne left Hewland Farm to live in John Shakespeare's house on Henley Street, as was the custom of the day. Preparations for the new bride were made, and for reasons unknown, her arrival greatly bothered John Shakespeare's current tenant in the house, William Burbage. A heated fight ensued, and John refused to release Burbage from his lease, so Burbage decided to take the matter to a London court. On July 24, 1582, lawyers representing both sides met and resolved the matter -- John would release William Burbage from his lease.
The Shakespeares' first child was Susanna, christened on May 26th, 1583, and twins arrived in January, 1585. They were baptized on February 2 of that year and named after two very close friends of William -- the baker Hamnet Sadler and his wife, Judith. The Sadlers became the godparents of the twins and, in 1598, they, in turn, named their own son William. Not much information is known about the life of Anne and her children after this date, except for the tragic fact that Hamnet Shakespeare died of an unknown cause on August 11, 1596, at the age of eleven. By this time Shakespeare had long since moved to London to realize his dreams on the English stage (a time in the Bard's life that will be covered in depth later on) and we do not know if he was present at Hamnet's funeral in Stratford. We can only imagine how deeply the loss of his only son touched the sensitive poet, but his sorrow is undeniably reflected in his later work, and, particularly, in a passage from King John, written between 1595 and 1597:
Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost
I am not mad: I would to heaven I were
For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:
O, if I could, what grief should I forget!
Preach some philosophy to make me mad
And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal;
For being not mad but sensible of grief
My reasonable part produces reason
How I may be deliver'd of these woes,
And teaches me to kill or hang myself:
If I were mad, I should forget my son,
Or madly think a babe of clouts were he
I am not mad; too well, too well I feel
The different plague of each calamity....
I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud
'O that these hands could so redeem my son,
As they have given these hairs their liberty!'
But now I envy at their liberty,
And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner
And, father cardinal, I have heard you say
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven:
If that be true, I shall see my boy again;
For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,
To him that did but yesterday suspire,
There was not such a gracious creature born.
But now will canker-sorrow eat my bud
And chase the native beauty from his cheek
And he will look as hollow as a ghost,
As dim and meager as an ague's fit,
And so he'll die; and, rising so again,
When I shall meet him in the court of heaven
I shall not know him: therefore never, never
Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. (III.iv.45-91)
Best works of Shakespeare
Poetry
It is generally agreed that most of the Shakespearean Sonnets were written in the 1590s, some printed at this time as well. Others were written or revised right before being printed. 154 sonnets and "A Lover's Complaint" were published by Thomas Thorpe as Shake-speares Sonnets in 1609. The order, dates, and authorship of the Sonnets have been much debated with no conclusive findings. Many have claimed autobiographical details from them, including sonnet number 145 in reference to Anne. The dedication to "Mr. W.H." is said to possibly represent the initials of the third earl of Pembroke William Herbert, or perhaps being a reversal of Henry Wriothesly's initials. Regardless, there have been some unfortunate projections and interpretations of modern concepts onto centuries old works that, while a grasp of contextual historical information can certainly lend to their depth and meaning, can also be enjoyed as valuable poetical works that have transcended time and been surpassed by no other.
Evoking Petrarch's style and lyrically writing of beauty, mortality, and love with its moral anguish and worshipful adoration of a usually unattainable love, the first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, sonnets 127-152 to a dark lady. Ever the dramatist Shakespeare created a profound intrigue to scholars and novices alike as to the identities of these people.
Tragedies
Some probably inspired by Shakespeare's study of Lives (trans.1597) by Greek historian and essayist Plutarch and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Some are reworkings of previous stories, many based on English or Roman history. The dates given here are when they are said to have been first performed, followed by approximate printing dates in brackets, listed in chronological order of performance.
Titus Andronicus first performed in 1594 (printed in 1594),
Romeo and Juliet 1594-95 (1597),
Hamlet 1600-01 (1603),
Julius Caesar 1600-01 (1623),
Othello 1604-05 (1622),
Antony and Cleopatra 1606-07 (1623),
King Lear 1606 (1608),
Coriolanus 1607-08 (1623), derived from Plutarch
Timon of Athens 1607-08 (1623), and
Macbeth 1611-1612 (1623).
Histories
Shakespeare's series of historical dramas, based on the English Kings from John to Henry VIII were a tremendous undertaking to dramatise the lives and rule of kings and the changing political events of his time. No other playwright had attempted such an ambitious body of work. Some were printed on their own or in the First Folio (1623).
King Henry VI Part 1 1592 (printed in 1594);
King Henry VI Part 2 1592-93 (1594);
King Henry VI Part 3 1592-93 (1623);
King John 1596-97 (1623);
King Henry IV Part 1 1597-98 (1598);
King Henry IV Part 2 1597-98 (1600);
King Henry V 1598-99 (1600);
Richard II 1600-01 (1597);
Richard III 1601 (1597); and
King Henry VIII 1612-13 (1623)
Comedies, again listed in chronological order of performance.
Taming of the Shrew first performed 1593-94 (1623),
Comedy of Errors 1594 (1623),
Two Gentlemen of Verona 1594-95 (1623),
Love's Labour's Lost 1594-95 (1598),
Midsummer Night's Dream 1595-96 (1600),
Merchant of Venice 1596-1597 (1600),
Much Ado About Nothing 1598-1599 (1600),
As You Like It 1599-00 (1623),
Merry Wives of Windsor 1600-01 (1602),
Troilus and Cressida 1602 (1609),
Twelfth Night 1602 (1623),
All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03 (1623),
Measure for Measure 1604 (1623),
Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1608-09 (1609),
Tempest (1611),
Cymbeline 1611-12 (1623),
Winter's Tale 1611-12 (1623).

The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted." Ward, a self-proclaimed Shakespeare fan, wrote his diary fifty years after Shakespeare died and most historians agree it appears to be a baseless anecdote. It should be noted though that a serious outbreak of typhus, known as the "new fever", in 1616 (the year Shakespeare died), lends credibility to Ward's story.