Shakespeare gained popularity when he began his acting career in the year 1585. He worked as an actor, writer and co owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became famous due to his comedy and tragic plays. He was very respected and famous in his time. However, he rose to fame in the 19th century, after his death.
Yes he was famous when he was alive. He reached the position of an eminent dramatist gradually. At first he 0nly did odd jobs in the theatre. In 1593 c0z 0f plague theatres were cl0sed d0wn and when they re0pened, Shakespeare became the member 0f Chamberlains c0mpany. He w0rked there( wr0te dramas and acted).
Shakespeare was famous in his time because he wrote various plays which are still recognised today. A very famous play of Shakespeare is "Romeo and Juliet" this is a play about a man and women who fall in love with each other, but are destined to never be together.
Not in his lifetime. In 1623, seven years after his death, two good friends of his, Hemmings and Condell, brought about the First Folio, containing most of Shakespeare's written work for the stage. Ben Jonson had done the same thing a little earlier, so Hemmings and Condell followed suit. No other playwright of the age was so respected and remembered. Marlowe, Spencer, Lyly, etc, are now recalled solely for individual pieces, Shakespeare however, is quite a different story. After the English Civil War, and the end of Cromwell, a new kind of freedom arrived, led by a new king, Charles 11. He re-opened the theatres, shut by the puritans, and, for the first time, actresses were introduced onto the English stage, among the first were Anne Bracegirdle, and Nell Gwynn.Shakespeare had been dead for half a century, but his works, under Charles 11, were revived, and given new interest by the actresses. Later, David Garrick arrived. He leased a small theatre, off Drury Lane, and portrayed Richard 111. In two weeks, everybody was clamouring to see this new, brilliant actor, who took Shakespeare and turned him upside down! Shakespeare had been added to, subtracted from, changed completely, diversified, badly interpreted, etc, so that, when Alexander Pope was asked to look into Shakespeare, and remove all the extraneous rubbish and gibberish, he made such a good job that, even then, he sold all his editions, and made a quarter of a million pounds! So through out the English age, Shakespeare has, by hook or by crook, remained at the forefront of literature, because it is still fresh! Romeo and Juliet! Read today as avidly as it was when first written! Macbeth! The actors revere this play, so packed with tradition, and still so terrifying with the witches, imagine how it was in Shakespeare's day! Shakespeare became famous through his understanding of human nature, a science which transcends all ages.
This is a difficult question! Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, a devout Roman Catholic, and his first Latin tutor, Simon Hunt,(later a Jesuit), impressed their religion on an impressionable Shakespeare. He later went on to be a "star" in the reign of a paranoid and neurotic English Protestant Queen, (Elizabeth 1)! Shakespeare never went out of his way to be recognised. In fact, during his lifetime, 50 individuals were put up as being William Shakespeare, simply because, although all London knew of him, hardly anybody had ever seen him! He began, in the theatre, on the stage as an actor, but soon became more and more involved with the writing of plays and the productions. Eventually, as in Much Ado About Nothing, he wrote the part of Leonarto, Governor of Messina, for himself, solely to open the play, drop in now and then with one-liners, and finally end the play, the rest of the time, he was backstage organising and directing. He did the same in Julius Caesar, being Caesar, and murdered in Act 2 of a 5act play, gave him the time to get the whole thing organised backstage. John Somerville, a distant relation, Thomas Babington, perhaps known to him, Edmund Campion and Thomas Cottam, Jesuits, and Robert Catesby, all Catholics, went to the fire, Shakespeare didn't, thank God!
