Six months after Shakespeare was born the Plague began (1564) He survived that
But later in life something had wearied him; was it London?
overcrowded. rat infested, (just as is today);
the average life expectancy in London in the 16th Century was 35 years in the more affluent parts and 25 in the less salubrious, in more rural
areas (Warwickshire) where Shakespeare was born it was 47.
areas where Shakespeare
Shakespeare was never a 'Londoner' as Peter Ackroyd points out; for he does not have the harshness
or magniloquence of his London contemporaries, say of Milton born in Bread Street; he does not have the hardness of Ben Johnson, a former pupil at Westminster school, or the sharpness of Alexander Pope, born in the City, or the obsessiveness of William Blake (Farringdon in London).
Today London wearies most people I know.
But later in life something had wearied him; was it London?
overcrowded. rat infested, (just as is today);
the average life expectancy in London in the 16th Century was 35 years in the more affluent parts and 25 in the less salubrious, in more rural
areas (Warwickshire) where Shakespeare was born it was 47.
areas where Shakespeare
Shakespeare was never a 'Londoner' as Peter Ackroyd points out; for he does not have the harshness
or magniloquence of his London contemporaries, say of Milton born in Bread Street; he does not have the hardness of Ben Johnson, a former pupil at Westminster school, or the sharpness of Alexander Pope, born in the City, or the obsessiveness of William Blake (Farringdon in London).
Today London wearies most people I know.
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