WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616)

Shakespeares Life

the first documentary reference: the parish Register from Stratfordupon-Avon recording Williams baptism on April 26, 1564
Guiliamus filius Johannes Shakspere, that is, William son of
John Shakspere (the third child of eight born to John and Mary
Shakespeare, but the first son, and the first child to survive past
infancy.) (the date of birth most likely April 23, 1564)

Shakespeares birthplace

Shakespeares Life

Shakespeares father, John Shakespeare: a tanner,

glove-maker and dealer in agricultural products, who
also held a number of public offices over a twenty year
period, ranging from Borough Ale-Taster to alderman to
bailiff, the highest public office in Stratford-upon-Avon
(by that time, a prosperous market centre for the county
of Warwickshire in the rural heartland of England)
Shakespeares mother, Mary Shakespeare (born Mary
Arden) : the daughter of a well-to-do landowner in a
lesser branch of an aristocratic family from the
neighbouring Wilmcote.

Mary Ardens house

Shakespeares Life

Education: up to the crisis of his fathers fortune (about 1577) - the

Stratford Grammar School established by the corporation of the town as
early as 1553. This is where Shakespeare learnt small Latin and less Greek.
(Ben Jonson, To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare)

Shakespeares Life

the next official public record on William Shakespeare: a 40 pound

marriage bond of sureties posted by two Warwickshire farmers on
November 28, 1582 for the legality of the marriage between William
Shakespeare (William Shagspere) (18) and Anne Hathaway (Anne
Hathwey) (26).

Shakespeares Life
the next public record: May 26, 1583, Shakespeares first daughter
Susanna was christened.
February 2, 1585: the christening of the twin children Hamnet
and Judith, sonne and daughter to William Shakspeare.
Unfortunately, Hamnet, Shakespeares only son, died at the age of
11 and was buried at Stratford in 1596.
1585-1592: only vague information about his life in London
about 1587- fleeing Stratford for London (caught poaching deer
in the park of the influential Sir Thomas Lucy at Charlcote?);
theatrical career: accepted as an actor in the company of the
Earl of Leicester, as his name appears in casts of players for Ben
Jonsons plays;
1592: Robert Greenes A Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a
Million of Repentance: an upstart Crow, beautified with our
feathers, that with his Tigers heart wrapped in a Players hide,
supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the
best of you: and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his
own conceit the only Shake-scene in the country.

Shakespeares Life

1592-93: during the plague, the

theatres were closed 1593: the
narrative poem Venus and Adonis;
1594: the narrative poem The Rape of
Lucrece, both dedicated to Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.
Some of the sonnets may have also
been composed during the same period.
1595: Shakespeare an important
member of the Lord Chamberlains Men.
October 1596: the College of Heralds
granted a coat of arms to the family
patriarch, John Shakespeare. The grant
was approved on the basis of the
faithefull & approved service to H7
[Henry VII] performed by Johns greatgrandfather, and because John himself
had maryed the daughter & one of the
heyrs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote.

Shakespeares Life

1597: Shakespeare, aged 33,

had already improved his
fortune and bettered his
social status. He invested
60 pounds in New Place, the
second largest house in
Stratford, with two barns and
two orchards attached.

Shakespeares Life
From 1598, Shakespeares name began to appear upon published plays:
Richard III, Richard II, Loves Labours Lost. (Titus Andronicus
had also been published but anonymously in 1594.) appreciated by
his contemporaries, e.g. Francis Meres (Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury 1598): praising Shakespeares poetry the two narrative poems, Venus
and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and the Sonnets and then
comparing Shakespeare to Plautus in comedy and to Seneca in tragedy.
1601: Shakespeares name was related to that of the Earl of Essex
conspirers against Queen Elizabeth I (the performance of his play
Richard II by Shakespeares company, the Lord Chamberlains Men).
Nonetheless, that did not affect Shakespeares popularity at the royal
court: during the last ten years of Elizabeths reign, the Lord
Chamberlains Men performed at court thirty-two times, compared to
thirty-seven performances by all other companies combined.
1603: The royal documents mention Shakespeare as one of the sharers
of the Kings Men (the former Lord Chamberlains Men) and 5 years
later, he becomes an owner of the Blackfriars Theatre with a seventh
share.

Shakespeares Life
1607: Shakespeares eldest daughter Susanna married Dr. John Hall and one
year later, in February 1608, her only child Elizabeth was born.

1609: Shakespeares sonnets were piratically printed, apparently without

their authors knowledge or consent.

Shakespeares Life

1610-11: Shakespeare retired from London to

Stratford-upon-Avon at New Place to lead the life of a
country gentleman, taking interest in municipal affairs or
receiving visits from his old friends Ben Jonson and his
fellow actors Heminge, Burbage and Condell.
1611: He was one of a number of citizens who
contributed to the maintenance of highways in the
Stratford area.
1612: He was in London, giving evidence in a civil suit
brought by a London tire-maker against a former
apprentice.
June 29, 1613: the performance of the play he wrote
in collaboration with John Fletcher, Henry VIII The
Globe burned to the ground.

Shakespeares Life
March 25, 1616: He revised and signed his will.
April 25, 1616: his burial recorded in the Stratford Parish Register,
but he died on April 23 (this is the date given on the funerary
monument erected before 1623).
buried on April 25, 1616 in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, where he
had been baptised just over 52 years earlier. His epitaph:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here!
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

(In 1741, a monument was erected to his memory in the Poets Corner
of Westminster Abbey. The house where he was born was purchased
for preservation as a National Memorial in 1847 and the First
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre now the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
was opened in 1879.)

Shakespeares Will

the executors: my son-in-law, John Hall, gent. and my

daughter Susanna, his wife.