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All About Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare: A biography

Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about Shakespeare's life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes.

Looking for more in-depth information? Need something you can cite? Read an essay about Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Editions. Read essay

Early life: Birth and childhood

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. 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.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.

A horn book in the Folger collection, similar to one that Shakespeare might have learned to read from

Marriage (to Anne Hathaway) and children

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. She was already expecting their first-born child, Susanna, which was a fairly common situation at the time. When they married, Anne was 26 and William was 18. Anne grew up just outside Stratford in the village of Shottery. After marrying, she spent the rest of her life in Stratford.

In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet, completing the family. 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. 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. Someone pursuing a theater career had no choice but to work in London, and many branches of the Shakespeares had small families.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. In 1616, just months before his death, Shakespeare's daughter Judith married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford vintner. The family subsequently died out, leaving no direct descendants of Shakespeare.

London theater

For 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.

Following 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. The next year, in 1593, Shakespeare published a long poem, Venus and Adonis. The first quarto editions of his early plays appeared in 1594.

For 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). 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.

Final years and death

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. He invested much of his wealth in real-estate purchases in Stratford and bought the second-largest house in town, New Place, in 1597.

Among 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. He died on April 23, 1616-the traditional date of his birthday, though his precise birthdate is unknown. We also do not know the cause of his death. His brother-in-law had died a week earlier, which could imply infectious disease, but Shakespeare's health may have had a longer decline.

The memorial bust of Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is considered one of two authentic likenesses, because it was approved by people who knew him. The other such likeness is the engraving by Martin Droeshout in the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, produced seven years after his death by his friends and colleagues from the King's Men.

Timeline

View a timeline of Shakespeare's life with links to key supporting documents on Shakespeare Documented.
View timeline

The bust of Shakespeare in the Folger Reading Room is a copy of the statue at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his "second best bed"?

William Shakespeare wrote in his last will and testament, dated March 25, 1616, "Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture" (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed).

This was not an unusual bequest, nor was it likely to have been intended as a snub. The best bed was usually regarded as an heirloom piece, to be passed to the heir rather than the spouse. It is also probable that the best bed would have been reserved for guests, meaning the "second best" was the bed that William and Anne shared.

What did Shakespeare's son die of?

We don't really know how Shakespeare's young son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but Hamnet died at the age of 11 and a half. Child mortality was high in the 16th century; there were no antibiotics and many childhood diseases might therefore prove fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, and even measles. He was buried on August 11, 1596.

What is the inscription on Shakespeare's grave?

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye [the] MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt [that] MOVES MY BONES.

Did Shakespeare have a coat of arms?

Yes, William's father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms in 1596. It was disputed in 1602 by York Herald, Ralph Brooke, saying that the arms were too similar to existing coats of arms, and that the family was unworthy. However, the challenge was unsuccessful, as the Shakespeare coat of arms appears in later heraldic collections and on William Shakespeare's funeral monument in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Does Shakespeare have descendants?

William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children. The eldest, Susanna, was baptized on May 26, 1583, and married John Hall in 1607. They had one child, Elizabeth, in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband.

William and Anne also had twins, Judith and Hamnet, who were baptized on February 2, 1585. Hamnet died at age 11 and a half. Judith married Thomas Quiney in 1616, and the couple had three sons: Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died in 1639 within a month of each other. Since neither of the boys married, there is no possibility of any legitimate descendants from Shakespeare's line.

It is possible, however, to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600, and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Shakespeare's life | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Learn about Shakespeare's life and family: birth in Stratford-upon-Avon, marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, work in London theaters, and death.

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The Myth of Shakespeare

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Most scholars accept that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, and spent time acting in London before returning to Stratford, where he lived until his death in 1616. But actual documentation of his life is pitifully scarce: little more than several signatures, records of his marriage to Anne Hathaway and the birth of their children, a three-page will and some business papers unrelated to writing. Above all, nothing has been found documenting the composition of the more than 36 plays and 154 sonnets attributed to him, collectively considered the greatest body of work in the history of the English language.

In the absence of such "proof" of authorship, some skeptics have posed the question: How could a man of such humble origins and education come by such wealth of insight, wide-ranging understanding of complex legal and political matters and intimate knowledge of life in the English court?

Since the 19th century, a roster of famous people-Henry James, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplin and many others-have voiced their doubts about the man from Stratford. Thousands of books and articles have been devoted to the subject, many of which propose their own candidates for the true author of the Shakespeare canon.

Essayist Francis Bacon and playwright Christopher Marlowe may have their supporters, but for the last 90 years the favored candidate has been Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. First proposed in 1920 by J.T. Looney in his book 'Shakespeare' Identified, Oxford was highly educated, trained as a lawyer and was known to have traveled to many of the exact places featured in Shakespeare's plays. Oxfordians-as those who believe in de Vere's authorship of the Bard's works are known-argue that he concealed his identity because his works were so politically provocative, and he wished to avoid being outed as a lowly playwright.

But until hard evidence surfaces linking his plays to someone else, the man with the strongest claim to the plays of William Shakespeare appears to be...William Shakespeare. For one thing, Oxford died in 1604, and some of Shakespeare's greatest plays (including "King Lear," "The Tempest" and "Macbeth") were published after that date.

Shakespeare's supporters-known as Stratfordians-emphasize the fact that the body of evidence that does exist points to Shakespeare, and no one else, as the author of his works. This includes the printed copies of his plays and sonnets with his name on them, theater company records and comments by contemporaries like Ben Jonson and John Webster.

Doubts about Shakespeare's authorship and attempts to identify a more educated, worldly and high-born candidate, Stratfordians contend, reveal not only misguided snobbery but a striking disregard for one of the most outstanding qualities of the Bard's extraordinary work-his imagination.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Did Shakespeare Really Write His Own Plays? | HISTORY

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Nothing has been found documenting the composition of the more than 36 plays and 154 sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare.

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Go on virtual tours of some famous Shakespearean spots.

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Editorial Feature

Explore iconic places from the playwright's life, and the locations said to have inspired him

William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer in the English language. His influence is far-reaching, his narratives ubiquitous, and his words often quoted, despite him living over 400 years ago. If you've ever wondered what life was like at the time for the world's most famous playwright, then take a virtual tour with us of these important places from his own story.

Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon

The bard is believed to have been born here in 1564, in this restored half-timbered house in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. The house would have been considered quite large at the time, and was originally divided into two parts: one side for living, one side for his father to conduct his glove-making business from. Shakespeare married at the age of 18, but after the birth of his twins in 1585, few historical traces of him exist until he appeared on the London theatre scene in 1592.

Globe Theatre, Southwark

The original Globe Theatre was built in 1599 and then destroyed by a fire in 1613, when a theatrical cannon used during a performance of Henry VIII misfired and ignited the wooden beams. It was then rebuilt in 1614 and then demolished for the last time in 1644. The precise location of the building remained unknown until a small part of the foundations was discovered underneath a car park in 1989. The remains sit underneath a listed building so haven't been fully excavated, but a plaque commemorates the spot.

Juliet's Balcony, Verona

Many of Shakespeare's works are said to be inspired by real life stories, including the doomed romance Romeo and Juliet, which mirrors some real-life inhabitants of 13th-century Verona in Italy. Although the connection is disputed, this was the house of the Capello family, now known as the Casa di Giulietta for its resemblance to the name Capulet. It has become a tourist attraction for its "Juliet" balcony, where some believe the real-life Romeo and Juliet would have murmured sweet nothings to one another.

Kronborg, Denmark

The picturesque renaissance Kronborg castle located in the town of Helsingør, Denmark, is known to many as the setting of Shakespeare's famous tragedy Hamlet. Shakespeare never visited the castle himself, and it's supposed that he heard about the castle from someone that did-perhaps one of his actors who performed at Kronborg while touring Europe. Shakespeare called Hamlet's castle "Elsinore", which is the anglicized name for Helsingør.

Kenilworth Castle

The story goes that Queen Elizabeth I visited Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire in July 1575, and was wooed by nobleman and patron of the arts Robert Dudley with lavish pageants, fireworks, plays and banquets. Crowds of locals would gather to witness the festivities, and it's thought that the young William Shakespeare could have visited from nearby Stratford-up-Avon, gaining inspiration for a future life in the performing arts, as well as for his play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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9 Virtual Tours of Shakespearean Spots - Google Arts & Culture

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Editorial Feature Explore iconic places from the playwright's life, and the locations said to have inspired him William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer in the English language. His influence is far-reaching, his narratives ubiquitous, and his words often quoted, despite him living over 400 years ago.

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Things you wanted to know about Shakespeare...but didn't realize you wanted to know.

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1. Shakespeare's father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.

The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the borough's official "ale taster," meaning he was responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors. The next year he took another big step up the social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened to be his father's former boss. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran into legal problems for reasons that remain unclear.

2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.

In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter eight years his senior. Instead of the customary three times, the couple's intention to marry was only announced at church once-evidence that the union was hastily arranged because of Anne's eyebrow-raising condition. Six months after the wedding, the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Little is known about the relationship between William and Anne, besides that they often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his "second-best bed" in his will.

3. Shakespeare's parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were.

Nobody knows for sure, but it's quite likely that John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read or write, as was often the case for people of their standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have argued that John's civic duties would have required basic literacy, but in any event he always signed his name with a mark. William, on the other hand, is thought to have Stratford's local grammar school, where he would likely have mastered reading and Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.

4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592.

To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins' baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an "upstart crow." The insult suggests he'd already made a name for himself on the London stage by then. What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven "lost" years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician's estate.

5. Shakespeare's plays feature the first written instances of hundreds of familiar terms.

William Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining-or, at the very least, popularizing-terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words "fashionable" ("Troilus and Cressida"), "sanctimonious" ("Measure for Measure"), "eyeball" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and "lackluster" ("As You Like It"); and the expressions "foregone conclusion" ("Othello"), "in a pickle" ("The Tempest"), "wild goose chase" ("Romeo and Juliet") and "one fell swoop" ("Macbeth"). He is also credited with inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, which have become common over the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and Titania, which have not).

6. We probably don't spell Shakespeare's name correctly-but he may not have either.

Sources from William Shakespeare's lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from "Shappere" to "Shaxberd." In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard's name is never spelled "William Shakespeare." Instead, there are variations and abbreviations such as "Willm Shakp," "Willm Shakspere" and "William Shakspeare" instead. However it's spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words "schakken" ("to brandish") and "speer" ("spear"), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person.

7. Shakespeare's epitaph wards off would-be grave robbers with a curse.

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52-not bad for an era when the average life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years. We may never know what killed him, although an acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a Stratford church. Intended to thwart the numerous grave robbers who plundered England's cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones." It must have done the trick, since Shakespeare's remains have yet to be disturbed.

8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring-or so we think.

Our notion of William Shakespeare's appearance comes from several 17th-century portraits that may or may not have been painted while the Bard himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most famous depictions, known as the Chandos portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear. Even back in Shakespeare's time, earrings on men were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists. The fashion may have been inspired by sailors, who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral costs in case they died at sea.

9. North America's 200 million starlings have Shakespeare to thank for their existence.

William Shakespeare's works contain more than 600 references to various types of birds, from swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The starling-a lustrous songbird with a gift for mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia-makes just one appearance, in "Henry IV, Part 1." In 1890 an American "bardolator" named Eugene Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare's oeuvre but absent from the United States. As part of this project, he released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York's Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the highly adaptable species has taken over the skies, becoming invasive and driving some native birds to the brink of extinction.

10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.

How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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10 Things You Didn't Know About William Shakespeare | HISTORY

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Explore fascinating facts about the life and legacy of England's famous and mysterious Bard.

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Shakespearean Tragedies...in a Nutshell