WEEK 2 - SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND BIOGRAPHY

Birth date: Approximately 23rd April, 1564
Baptize date: 26th April, 1564 - Stratford-upon-Avon
Death date: 23rd April, 1616

He spent the majority of his life in Stratford and London. Growing up, making a family and buying property in Stratford and working in London. He became very well known and prosperous throughout his life as an actor, a playwright and a partner in a leading acting company.

His Family Tree:

William's father, John, began as a leatherworker, and after marrying Mary Arden (whose family was very prominent), rose through local offices in Stratford and eventually became the town bailiff. Not long after however, he stepped out of the public eye for reasons unknown.

This prosperous beginning allowed William to attend a grammar school where he would have had Latin lessons, which would have included; memorising, writing and acting in classic Latin plays up until the age of, most likely, 15.

A few years after leaving school, in late 1582, he married Anne Hathaway, who was already expecting their first child, Susanna. In early 1585, they had twins, Judith and Hamnet. William ended up moving to London at some point for work, leaving his family alone almost all the time. This and the fact they had relatively few children suggested that there was a stress on the marriage. But there is no evidence of this and he would have had to live in London anyway to pursue any work in the theatre.

Shakespeare's only son died when he was 11 in 1596. Susanna married John Hall, a doctor, and gave Shakespeare his first grandchild, Elizabeth, in 1608. A few months before his death, his other daughter, Judith, married a vintner named Thomas Quiney.

Not much is known about Shakespeare's life after Judith and Hamnet's arrival in 1585. 1592 is the next time there is a definite record of him. He was, by then, already an established actor and playwright who getting mocked by a contemporary playwright, getting called a "Shake-scene". The same guy talked about Shakespeare's Henry VI, one of his earlier historical pieces, so it must have already been performed by then. The following year, Shakespeare published the long poem, Venus and Adonis, but it was in 1594 that the first quarto editions of his early plays appeared. Over the next 2+ decades, he gathered more success through his acting, writing and part ownership of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603).

Shakespeare prospered financially from the partnership of the theatre company, as well as the acting and writing. He invested most of his earning into buying property in Stratford, purchasing the second largest estate in the town, New Place, in 1957.

One of the last plays he worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with John Fletcher (someone who he collaborated with often) around 1613. His cause of death is unknown, but his brother-in-law died the week before which could suggest and infectious disease, but then again, his health could have been poor for a while before also.