Who influenced Shakespeare in his lifetime?

Answer 1

It is difficult to know who had a direct influence on Shakespeare during his lifetime. One suspects that family and friends influences him when he was growing up. We know from his sonnets that he liked the poetry of Ovid which he must have studied in the Stratford public school. Some of his plays show the influence of Terence, Plautus, and Seneca, who he must have also studied. His early plays show the influence of Christopher Marlowe's "mighty line" in Shakespeare's new blank verse, which he would later refine into a more flexible instrument. He was no doubt influenced by the actors in his troupe: Richard Burbage, Will Kemp, and the rest; after all, he wrote specific roles to showcase heir individual talents. Yet, in the end, there is just not enough information to do more than make logical speculations.