Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–1580?) was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays.Holinshed was born c. 1525, the son of Ralph H
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Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–1580?) was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays.Holinshed was born c. 1525, the son of Ralph Holinshed of Sutton Downes in Cheshire.[1]
In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for him, Cyndia Susan Clegg cites two main sources for biographical information: Athenæ Cantabrigiensis (1858) by Charles Henry and Thompson Cooper, and Athenæ Oxonienses (1692) by Anthony à Wood.[1] Cooper and Cooper gives the name of his father and Sutton Downes as the likely place of birth, but gives his date of birth as unknown, and claims it "is commonly supposed"[2] that he was educated at the University of Cambridge.[1]
He lived in London where he worked as a translator for the printer Reyner Wolfe.[1] Wolfe gave him the project of compiling a world history from the Flood to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This ambitious project was never finished, but one portion was published in 1577 as The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.[1] Holinshed was only one contributor to this work; others involved in its production included William Harrison, Richard Stanihurst, and John Hooker.
Shakespeare used the revised second edition of the Chronicles (published in 1587) as the source for most of his history plays, the plot of Macbeth, and for portions of King Lear and Cymbeline.
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