Biographical notes on
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is unquestionably one of the world's greatest dramatists. The facts of his life are comparatively few for so influential a personage, but legions of scholars have pored over every scrap of information producing a thicket of biographical material. Most information about Shakespeare is based on four kinds of sources:

William Shakespeare was born 1564 in the Warwickshire village of Stratford-upon-Avon to John and Mary Arden Shakespeare, probably three or four days before his christening on April 26. He was the third child born to the couple after two daughters who had died in infancy. Five more children followed. John Shakespeare was a wool-dealer and a maker of gloves in the small market town, even serving in public office. In about 1577, he dropped out of public life, perhaps, as some speculate, because of financial reversals.

We know very little of young William Shakespeare's formal schooling. It is probable that he attended the grammar school in Stratford from about the time he was six years old, finishing at sixteen. If that is so, his schooldays were lengthy and, by today's standards, quite rigorous. Typically beginning at five or six o'clock in the morning, they did not finish until five in the afternoon, six days a week. The typical curriculum at such a school included Latin and Greek, exposing the student not only to the plays of Seneca, Plautus and Terence, but also to the poetry of Ovid, Vergil and Horace, as well as the histories of Julius Caesar and Livy. Rhetoric was central to the course of study.

In 1582, at the age of 18, Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior. Five months later, Susannah was born, followed three years later by the twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died at the age of eleven; Judith in 1662. Susannah married a physician, John Hall, and their daughter, Elizabeth Hall (who died in 1670) was the last surviving descendant of the Bard of Avon.

Most scholars agree that Will left Stratford in 1587, but exactly what he did in the following five so-called "lost years" is unknown. His name surfaces in 1592 in connection with the production of one of his plays in London. As he lay dying, Robert Greene, a rival playwright, warned his colleagues about young Will in his Groat's-worth of Wit:

The pamphlet clearly establishes Shakespeare as the author of three histories: Henry VI, Parts I, II & III. It is assumed by most scholars that he had also written several other plays by this time as well.

The Black Plague closed the theatres between 1592 and 1594, so Shakespeare turned to writing poetry: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. It was probably during this time that he wrote the sonnets as well.

When the theatres reopened in 1594, Shakespeare was a shareholder in one of London's two major acting companies, The Lord Chamberlain's Men. Four years later, the group opened the famous Globe Theatre. The company prospered and with it the material fortunes of Will Shakespeare. He lived in a fine home in London, purchased the largest house in Stratford and was granted a coat-of-arms acknowledging him as a "gentleman."

Many of Shakespeare's plays were popular with Elizabeth I and were often performed at court. When Elizabeth I died in 1603, her successor, James I took over patronage of The Lord Chamberlain's Men who called themselves thenceforth The King's Men. By 1608, the company was able to open a second theatre known as Blackfriar's, an indoor, "private" theatre. (See Shakespeare's Theatre below).

In 1611 or 1612, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, writing only occasionally thereafter. He died on his "birth" day 1616, some say as a result of a fever contracted after drinking with some playwright friends. He is buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, London.