Who killed Shakespeare? Did he die on his birthday?

There's a conspiracy theory right there! No-one really knows how Shakespeare died, but, as there's nothing in the civil and legal documents telling us it was a murder, it seems unlikely that he was killed. He probably just died of old age.

Some scholars think that the signatures on his will, which he signed on March, 25, 1616, tell us he was sick. That seems a little bit of a stretch to me, though it's not been entirely discredited by scholars. John Ward - a Stratford vicar - wrote in his diary some fifty years after Shakespeare's death that "Shakspear Drayton and Ben Jhonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespear died of a feavour there contracted." This is just a rumour though - and written after, long after, the event.

 But most likely is that he just died of old age.

Shakespeare was buried on April 25, 1616 in Holy Trinity Church, in Stratford (you can visit his grave, even today!) which is where had been baptised some 52 years earlier. Shakespeare was baptised on April 26th 1564, and entered into the register. It was common to baptise children three days after birth, so it seems likely that Shakespeare was born on April 23rd. And that is also the date he died.

Hope it helps!

In Act 1, Scene 3 of Macbeth, what does Macbeth's aside reveal about his thinking?how does Banquo's comment support the "Fair is foul, foul is...

In Act I, scene 3, Banquo and Macbeth encounter the three witches who in Act I have stated,

Fair is foul, and foul is fair,/Hover through the fog and filthy air (I, i, ll.10-11)

Upon the request of Macbeth to speak, the witches pronounce their predictions:  Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and later King.  To Banquo they say that he will beget kings without ever being one, but he will be "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater."  Puzzled by these words Macbeth and Banquo, speaking in asides, wonder about the predictions made about them.  When Macbeth says in an aside

Blamis, and Thane of Cawdor:/The greatest is behind

he entertains the idea that he will become king, an idea that seems "fair," or good.  He then asks Banquo if he does not hope that the witches's prediction that his children will become kings will come true.  To this Banquo remarks upon Macbeth's eagerness for power:

That [news], trusted home,/Might yet enkindle you unto the crown

Banquo warns Macbeth that what appears "fair" could be "foul," knowing the evil nature of the witches; in other words, the outcomes of Macbeth's actions could be disastrous if he is "won to the harm" of these predictions.  Of course, the irony is that Macbeth does not heed Banquo's warning, and, while the predictions do come true, they are effected by extremely evil and "foul" methods. 

Can someone please explain the Duchess of York's speech "Dead life, blind sight..." from "Richard III"?

DUCHESS.
So many miseries have craz'd my voice
That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute.--
Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

QUEEN MARGARET.
Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet,
Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,
And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?
When didst Thou sleep when such a deed was done?

QUEEN MARGARET.
When holy Harry died, and my sweet son.

The women in "Richard III" act a lot like the women in Greek Tragedy, which basically means a lot of wailing and a lot of mourning. In this scene, the women all get together to mourn the way that the Wars of the Roses - and particularly Richard himself - has put the men in their lives into the ground. Sons, fathers, husbands, brothers have all gone missing - are all dead. And the women are exhausted with it.

DUCHESS.
Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life usurp'd,
Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,
[Sitting down.]
Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.

So the Duchess of York is talking about herself and how miserable her life is, in a series of antitheses. Her life is like being dead, her seeing is like being blind... she is like a poor ghost, though she is mortal and living... why? Because her world is a scene full of woe and shame, and she feels that she is the "due" (the thing owed to) the grave, because her life has been usurped by sorrows: by the death of all of her family (except Richard, her son).

She is the brief abstract and record (a written version of something) of a horrible family history. Her life, in short, has been ruined, and is a misery. And at the end, she decides to rest her unrested (i.e. troubled) soul on the earth.

Hope it helps!

Why doesn’t Simon believe in the beast?

In chapter 5, it has become apparent that order is vanishing among the boys on the island.  A meeting is held to, among other things, determine what is the problem.  Piggy suggests that fear among the boys, especially the littluns, is part of the problem.  The boys talk about whether or not there is a beast on the island.  Simon is asked his opinion and he tentatively says that he isn't sure; that maybe it's only them. He means that he doesn't think there is a beast with claws and fangs; something living and breathing outside of them. He thinks that the beast is the evil inside of each of them. Simon is the mystical thinker among the boys and he has been quietly watching them and their interactions.  He seems to understand things on a higher level than the other boys.  He, like the other bigger boys, hasn't seen a physical beast and common sense makes him doubt the existence of such a thing. He has seen, however, the way the boys act and the personalities of the boys, and he understands that there is an inner evilness at work among the boys.  When he sees the parachutist in chapter 9 after his chapter 8 conversation with the Lord of the Flies where he's come to fully understand that he was right about the source of evil on the island, Simon frees the parachutist from his strings and runs to tell the others of his discovery.  They kill him in their frenzy before he can tell them.

What kind of closure does the Requiem provide to the play in "Death of the Salesman"?

The setting of the brief Requiem at the play's conclusion is the cemetery following Willy's funeral. Through this scene, we experience dramatic closure in that we see the various characters' emotional reactions to Willy's death. In their concluding words and actions, several of the play's themes are finalized, with sad irony. 

Happy shows no moral growth or increased self-awareness as a result of his father's death. He continues to make the same unrealistic, empty promises that have characterized his adult life. We leave Happy with no hope that he will ever grow up or behave responsibly or unselfishly.

Linda remains the same loyal, loving wife she has always been, still lost in denial--or not. Linda truly may be unable to grasp the reasons behind Willy's self-destruction, or she may be continuing to live as she has always lived, denying truths she cannot face. Linda's words are steeped in irony: "I can't understand it," she says. Her final words are equally sad and ironic: "We're free . . . We're free . . ." 

A final thematic irony in the play is made complete in the Requiem. Biff continues to insist that Willy did not know who he was, implying, of course, that Biff knew who Willy was. It seems clear, however, that only Charley knew who Willy had been:

You don't understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life . . . . He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back--that's an earthquake . . . . A salesman is [sic] got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

Biff may have come to understand himself and his own life in some negative and self-defeating way, but he never achieved a real understanding of his father, even though he believed that he had. Thus, at the play's conclusion, no one in Willy's family truly can appreciate his life--or his death.

In Chapter 4 of "To Kill a Mockingbird," in what way does Jem unintentionally get even with Scout?

ON page 43-44 of chapter 4 Dill has just arrived from Mississippi and the children are trying to decide what to play.  Dill says that he "smells death" and the kids start talking about "hot steam."  Jem explains the theory of how to avoid death by the "hot steam" while walking down a road at night, but Scout contradicts him and tells Dill not to believe him.  The children decide to play roll the tire and Jem lets Scout go first.  Ms. Lee writes from this point from Scout's point of view:

"Until it happened I did not realize that Jem was offended by my contradicting him on Hot Steams, and that he was patiently awaiting an opportunity to reward me.  He did, by pushing the tire down the sidewalk with all the force in his body.  Ground, sky and houses melted into a mad palette, my ears throbbed, I was suffocation.  I could not put out my hands to stop, they were wedged between my chest and knees.  I could only hope that Jem would outrun the tire and me, or that I would be stopped by a bump in the sidewalk.  I heard him behind me, chasing and shouting."

In Chapter 14 of "To Kill a Mockingbird", what do we learn from Dill's account of his running away?

Once Dill gives up his wild tale of being left to die in a basement in Meridian by his step-father who chained him to the wall, the sad truth emerges. Dill ran away from home because he felt so unloved and unwanted. He said, "[T]hey just wasn't interested in me." Dill was neglected and ignored at home by his mother and her new husband who effectively excluded him from their lives. They bought him whatever he wanted, but soon shuffled him out of their way. Lip service was paid to their love for Dill, but little else, and he recognized the difference.

Furthermore, Dill felt their basic disapproval of him as a person: "You're not a boy. Boys get out and play baseball with other boys . . . ." The saddest part of Dill's situation is that it has made him feel so worthless. He confides to Scout, "The thing is . . . they do get on a lot better without me, I can't help them any." Dill ran away to Maycomb because Jem, Scout, and Atticus are the only real family he has.