His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare’s health may have had a longer decline. We also do not know the cause of his death. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. ![]() He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.Īmong the last plays that Shakespeare worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher, most likely in 1613. Shakespeare prospered financially from his partnership in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men), as well as from his writing and acting. Over the years, he became steadily more famous in the London theater world his name, which was not even listed on the first quartos of his plays, became a regular feature-clearly a selling point-on later title pages. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.įor more than two decades, Shakespeare had multiple roles in the London theater as an actor, playwright, and, in time, a business partner in a major acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (renamed the King’s Men in 1603). The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.įor several years after the birth of Judith and Hamnet in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare’s activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theater.įollowing this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a “Shake-scene.” The same writer alludes to one of Shakespeare’s earliest history plays, Henry VI, Part 3, which must already have been performed. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare’s daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare’s first grandchild, was born in 1608. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families. Some later observers have suggested that this separation, and the couple’s relatively few children, were signs of a strained marriage, but we do not know that, either. In the years ahead, Anne and the children lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London, although we don’t know when he moved there. In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.Ī few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford’s grammar school. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life we don’t know why. ![]() John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. ![]() Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan. He was John and Mary Shakespeare’s oldest surviving child their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth.
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