WilliamShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. Located in the centre ofEngland, the town was and still is an important river-crossing settlement andmarket centre. The register of Stratford s Holy Trinity Church recordsShakespeare s baptism on 26 April. He istraditionally said to have been born on 23
April.John Shakespeare, William s father, was a successful Stratfordbusinessman, in the glove-making and wool-dealing trades. He had settled inStratford by 1552 and later bought property in the town.John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, the daughter ofRobert Arden. John and Mary set up home in Henley Street,
Stratford, in thehouse now known as Shakespeare s Birthplace .John and Mary lost two children before William was born. They had five morechildren, another of whom died young.As the son of a leading townsman, William almost certainly attendedStratford s petty or junior school before progressing, perhaps at the age ofseven, to the
Grammar School, which still stands.It is not known what Shakespeare did when he left school, probably atthe age of fourteen, as was usual. In November 1582 he married Anne Hathaway,the daughter of Richard Hathaway, a local farmer. Her home, now known as Anne Hathaway s Cottage,still stands in the village of
Shottery, a mile from Stratford. At the time oftheir marriage William was eighteen and Anne was twenty-six. Their first-bornchild, Susanna, was baptized on 26 May1583. Two years later twins followedHamnet and Judith, baptized on 2 February1585. Shakespeare s elder daughter,Susanna, married John Hall a Stratford physician, in1607, and gave birth to a daughter,
Elizabeth, the following year. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nashin 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by eitherhusband. Hamnet died in 1596, at the age of 11 and was buried in Stratford on11 August 1596. The cause of death is unknown. In 1616 Judith married ThomasQuiney, a Stratford vintner, in 1616 by whom she had three sons,
ShakespeareQuiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died unmarried,early in 1639 within a month of each other.Shakespeare s reputation was established in London by 1592 in that yearanother dramatist, Robert Greene, was envious of his success and called him anupstart crow . Shakespeare s earliest plays included the three parts of
HenryVI, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Titus Andronicus.Shakespeare s first printed works were two long poems, Venus and Adonis 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece 1594 .1n 1594, Shakespeare joined othersin forming a new theatre company, under the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain,with Richard Burbage as its leading actor.
For almost twenty years Shakespearewas its regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year. Shakespeare ssuccess in the London theatres made him wealthy and in 1597 he bought New Place, one of thelargest houses in Stratford.Here he probably wrote The Winter s Tale and TheTempest. In 1598, the author of a book on the arts, Francis Meres, describedShakespeare as the best contemporary dramatist and mentioned twelve of hisplays,
including A Midsummer Night s Dream, The Merchant of Venice,Richard II and Henry IV. In 1599 he became a part owner ofthe Globe Theatre, and in 1608 of the Blackfriars Theatre. Two of his plays, HenryV and Julius Caesar, were almost certainly written during the yearin which the Globe opened. In 1613, during a performance of Henry
VIII,a fire broke out and destroyed the Globe, but it was rebuilt the followingyear. Some of Shakespeare s most famous tragedies were written in the early1600s, including Hamlet and, after James I s accession, Othello, KingLear and Macbeth. His late plays, often known as the Romances, datefrom c. 1608 to 1612 and include Cymbeline, The Winter s Tale andThe
Tempest. He retired to Stratford in 1613. From around 1611Shakespeare seems largely to have disengaged himself from the London theatreworld and to have spent his time at his Stratford house, New Place. In March1616 he signed his will, in which he leftsubstantial property and other bequests to his family and friends, includingtheatre colleagues in the King s Men.Shakespeare died in Stratford, aged fifty-two, on 23
April 1616, and wasburied in Holy Trinity Church two days later.Shakespeare s burial is recorded in Stratford s parish register as having takenplace on 25 April 1616. On the stone of Shakespeare s grave are the lines Goodfriend, for Jesus sake forbear To digthe dust enclosed here. Blest bethe man that spares these stones And curstbe he that moves my bones.
His widow, Anne, died in 1623 and was buried beside him. Shakespeare sfamily line came to an end with the death of his grand-daughter Elizabeth in1670.