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William Shakespeare was born around April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England .( That's the date given to him on his birth certificate.) He was the oldest living child but he did have two older sisters who died when they were 7 years old. Shakespeare has three younger brothers: Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund. Shakespeare's father John was a leather worker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. John married Mary Arden of the Arden family. He stepped back from the public eye, and no one knows why. William Shakespeare went to Statford's Grammer School, he went there until he was about 15 years old.

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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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William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 is the conventional date of his birthday, while his exact birthdate is uncertain.The Two Noble Kinsmen, one of Shakespeare's last plays, was most likely written in 1613 with a frequent collaborator, John Fletcher. The cause of death was unknown. Although his brother-in-law had died a week previously, which could imply contagious sickness, although Shakespeare's health may have declined over a longer period.

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Shakespeare's burial is recorded in Stratford's parish register on 25 April 1616. We do not know the cause of Shakespeare's death.

He made a will on 25 March, almost a month before he died, in which he describes himself as 'in perfect health & memorie, god be praysed'. This was a typical phrase and does not necessarily mean he was not already experiencing symptoms of an illness which later proved fatal. This version of his will is, apparently, a re-drafting of one made in the January before, which could be taken as an indication of illness over a longer period. However, the Tudors placed some emphasis on making preparations for death, so Shakespeare could simply have been ensuring his affairs were in order in accordance with the conventions of the day.

On Shakespeare's monument, still standing inside Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, we read that he died on 23 April. His gravestone, below the monument, does not bear his name, but was believed to be Shakespeare's from at least 1656, and is the first in a row which commemorates other members of his family. His gravestone reads, ''Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare, Blest by the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.'

Listen to our podcast ' How Did Shakespeare Die?' to hear experts discuss the rumours and stories surrounding Shakespeare's death, and other evidence about what his death would have been like.

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Learn about the circumstances of Shakespeare's death and the curse on his gravestone

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Elizabethan England: Queen Elizabeth and her Monarchy 

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Elizabethan England: Queen Elizabeth and her Monarchy 

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Queen Elizabeth I of England was born on September 7, 1533 in Greenwich Palace. Her father was King Henry VIII her mother was Queen Anne Boleyn. Queen Elizabeth I had 2 other siblings, Mary(oldest) and Edward(youngest). Elizabeth and her sister were to be proclaimed. Her mother was executed for treason, adultery and incest. On her mothers' death she would loose her title of princess. Her brother would be take over the thrown. Due to the 3rd act of Parliament his daughters Mary and Elizabeth were restored to the line of succession after their half-brother Edward. On November 17, 1558 on Mary's death, Queen Elizabeth would be pronounced queen at age 25. She was one of the most highly educated female's in her time. She wished to marry Robert Dudley, but there was a lot of disapproval from the family. Queen Elizabeth I was known to be one of the best rulers' and was known as the Virgin Queen Good Queen Bess. Her biggest task she wanted to tackle was the Church settlement even though she was a Protestant. She was a fair and wise ruler, she defeated the Spanish Almda. In the autumn 1602, a lot of her close friends died ,she became melancholy a year later she became sick and didn't rally died on march 24 1603, and was buried next to her sister Mary.

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Elizabethan England: Living conditions during this time period

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Elizabethan England: Living conditions during this time period

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During Elizabeth's reign, England's capital and largest city, London, witnessed dramatic transformations, increasing to a population of approximately 200,000 people. (The next largest English city, by comparison, had only roughly 15,000 people.) London's population was divided. It possessed an insignificant but powerful population of affluent nobles, a thriving middle class, and a massive and poor lower class living in deplorable conditions. Raw sewage (waste stuff) flowed through the dirty, overcrowded slum areas. Disease and criminality were rife. Laborers who arrived to London from their home country frequently struggled to find work. They were homeless and roamed about looking for food. Many turned to tiny crimes, such as begging, picking pockets, and prostitution, only to avoid starvation.

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Violence was an unavoidable reality for the Elizabethans, a constant threat but also a thrilling experience when played on stage. The Curtain playhouse in Shoreditch, where Romeo and Juliet was likely originally staged, was an unpleasant hotspot for street fighting. In an article about quarrels on London's streets, scholar Chris Fitter mentions a large-scale riot that occurred outside the Curtain in 1584. The vast majority of people during the Elizabethan age was quite poor and uneducated. Because many were uneducated, most of the information we have about daily life during this time comes from records kept by the educated nobility. However, most people spent their lives working hard for a meager living.

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Ep 287 True Crime on Stage in Shakespeare's England

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Shakespeare's London: Living Conditions 

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Shakespeare's London: Living Conditions 

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Shakespeare seems to have lived a simple life in London.

Although he owned at least one house there, he did not maintain his household in London, living in lodgings with landlords and other lodgers. Since he was always within walking distance of the theater area, we can imagine that he walked to work every day. As he walked through London, he would be surrounded by landscapes that looked more like Indian cities than those of England or America. The dirty, narrow streets were crowded and noisy, with every possible business going on. Prostitutes and pimps roamed, cockfights charmed passersby, beggars begged, and thieves learned techniques ranging from pickpocketing to robbery. Cats, dogs, and farm animals were running around and basking in the sun. Churches, houses, stables, workshops, food stalls, and theaters crowded together, and the streets were filled with human and animal feces.

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Shakespeare's life during his professional years was lived in two places, probably equally. His theatre work was in London but he was often with his family in Stratford, where he also attended to his business interests. He accumulated a property portfolio in both places while participating in the management of several theatres and acting companies in London. Shakespeare's 'London years' are generally considered to be from around 1585 to around 1612.

It seems that Shakespeare lived a simple life in London. While he owned at least one house there he did not maintain a London household but lived in lodgings with landlords and other lodgers. He was always within walking distance of the theatre zone so we can imagine him walking to work every day.

As he walked through London he would have been surrounded by scenes more like we would see in an Indian city today than anything we would find in England or America. The dirty, narrow streets were crowded, noisy and busy, with every imaginable trade going on. Prostitutes and pimps hovered, cockfighting beckoned passersby, beggars begged and thieves practiced their arts, from pickpocketing to mugging. Cats, dogs, pigs, goats, horses, and sheep wandered about or stretched out in the sun. Churches, houses, stables workshops, inns, stalls, and theatres were crammed together and human and animal waste lay in the streets.

In a pamphlet, "The Seven Deadly Sins of London", the playwright Thomas Dekker, wrote: "Carts and coaches make such a thundering din as if the world ran on wheels; at every corner men, women, and children meet in such shoals that posts are set up to strengthen the houses lest with jostling with one another they should shoulder them down. Besides, hammers are beating in one place, tubs hooping in another, pots clinking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in a fourth... Tradesmen, as if they were dancing galliards are lusty at legs and never stand still."

Shakespeare moved around quite a bit in London. We know that in 1593 he was living in Bishopsgate because court records show that he owed taxes there at that time. By 1599 he had moved across the river to the Liberty of the Clink on Bankside on property owned by the Bishop of Winchester's estate, where the Globe Theatre was built. By 1604 he had moved back to the city, to rented lodgings in the house of Christopher Mountjoy on the corner of Monkwell and Silver Street in Cripplegate, not far from St Paul's. (Read more on where Shakespeare lived in London.)

Shakespeare probably lived quite a full social life in London. Some of his plays include London pub scenes, notably Henry IV Part 1, which is almost entirely set in a Fleet Street pub. His depiction of life in such places rings true, strongly suggesting that Shakespeare was very familiar with pub life. On the other hand, he was also a visitor at the royal palace as some of his plays were performed in front of the king, and, although this is a huge assumption, it is likely that he attended the performances and may even have performed in them.

Any notion of Shakespeare as the lonely, isolated genius scratching away night and day, writing his great plays and poems in solitude, must be dismissed because it is as far from the truth as it could be. It is clear that he was always surrounded by people - friends, business associates, actors and other writers. He made several close friends while in London, mainly writers, and he kept in contact with them when he retired to Stratford. In fact, there are reports that Michael Drayton and Ben Johnson visited Shakespeare a week before he died and spent the evening eating and drinking together.

Shakespeare worked very hard at his trade while in London, producing plays at unbelievable speed. He was a big box-office success and came to be one of the most famous names in the theatre - in fact, when Shakespeare died his estate was substantial. In modern terms he would have been a multi-millionaire. After sweating at the grindstone at his trade in London, living in digs, in his retirement in Stratford he lived out the rest of his life as a gentleman in a big house with servants and all the modern conveniences.

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Shakespeare's London Years: Shakespeare's Time In London

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Shakespeare's 'London years' are generally considered to be from around 1585 to around 1612. His theatre work was in London but he was often with his family in Stratford, where he also attended to his business interests...

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In 1599, Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, established the Globe Theatre in London. The Globe was one of the first theaters to introduce an innovative approach to drama and theater art based on Renaissance concepts. It was the first venue where audiences watched several of Shakespeare's most famous plays, including as Julius Caesar and Henry VIII. The Globe was close to 30 feet tall, with three levels of seating. Audiences may enter the yard around the stage through two small pathways beneath the galleries or two external stair towers. The cheapest tickets were one penny and accepted guests to stand in the yard around the stage. For an additional penny, guests were able to sit on a bench in the lower galleries. In 1613, the Globe burned down during a performance of Henry VIII. A second Globe was quickly constructed on the same spot and debuted in 1614. The current Globe is the third Globe.

It was torn down in 1644.

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Elizabethan theater: Shakespeare and The Globe

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Elizabethan Theater: The Queens' Influence on the Theater  

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Elizabethan Theater: The Queens' Influence on the Theater  

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Elizabeth actively cultivated her image as the Virgin Queen, who had given up her personal life to focus on the wellbeing of her people. As a result, theater was only one of the mediums she utilized to portray her own and her family's glory, the Tudors. The Queen actively supported artists and playwrights. During the Elizabethan era, Protestants and Catholics faced increased secular play production as a result of Elizabeth's restriction on religious drama, which prevented religious criticism.The themes of plays shifted throughout Elizabeth's reign, and English playwrights began writing comedies and tragedies.