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Apr 23, 1564
Date of Birth
Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as William Shakespeare's birthday. -
Apr 23, 1564
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
William Shakespeare is known as one of the greatest writers. It is known very little about him. What we know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. -
Mar 18, 1565
His family
Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon. William was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Before William's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a -
Mar 20, 1579
The Bard’s Education
Very little is known about his education . Some records say that he studied in the King’s New Grammar School that taught boys basic reading and writing. But we have no definite proof. -
Shakespeare's marriage
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant. Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown cause at the age of 11. -
Theatrical Beginnings
By 1592, there is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers' Register (a guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at William Shakespeare. -
The Bard as a poet
His first poem was Venus and Adonis. The playwright registered his second poem The Rape of Lucrece by name on the 9th of May, 1594. -
Establishing Himself
By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted. -
Sonnets
Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership -
The Bard’s will and death.
Records reveal that the great Bard revised his will on March the 25th, 1616. William Shakespeare died on his birthday, April 23, 1616, though many scholars believe this is a myth.Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his
estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best." -
Shakespeare's plays
Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories and tragedies.
