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The house now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace stands on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Documentary evidence allows us to trace who owned the house and who lived there, from the time of William's parents John and Mary Shakespeare, onwards.

John Shakespeare lived and worked in this house for fifty years. When he married Mary Arden she came to live with him and they had a total of eight children, including their son William Shakespeare. The house doubled as a glover's shop where John worked at the eastern end of the building, with a barn and workshops in the backyard.

During the 16th century the area behind Shakespeare's house would have served various practical purposes, partly in connection with John Shakespeare's glove-making and wool-dealing activities. Outbuildings for the storage of animal skins and liming pits may have been sited there, together with a barn and a stable. The family is likely to have kept livestock such as a pig and hens. They would also have grown a range of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees for cooking and medicine.

Around 20 years after its construction, a two-roomed cottage was added to the western end of the house, which is now known as Joan Hart's cottage. Shakespeare's sister Joan lived here with her husband William Hart in the early 17th century.

John Shakespeare died in 1601 and as the eldest surviving child, William inherited the house. He leased part of the property and it became an inn, later called the Swan and Maidenhead, which remained in the house until 1847. When Shakespeare died he left the house to his eldest daughter Susanna, although Joan Hart continued to rent the property as her home. When Susanna died the house passed to her daughter, Elizabeth.

Although Elizabeth married twice, she had no children, so when she died the house fell to Joan Hart's descendants. The house was owned by the Hart family until the late 18th century, until it went up for sale and was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1847. We have cared for it ever since.

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The house now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace stands on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Documentary evidence allows us to trace who owned the house and who lived there, from the time of William's parents John and Mary Shakespeare, onwards. John Shakespeare lived and worked in this house for fifty years.

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William Shakespeare - Playwright | Mini Bio | BIO

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William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John and Mary Shakespeare. John Shakespeare was a glove-maker, who married Mary Arden, the daughter of a farmer from the nearby village of Wilmcote. When William was born, John and Mary were living on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the house now known as Shakespeare's Birthplace. They had eight children in total.

Shakespeare's Parents and Siblings

John Shakespeare was a prominent citizen who served on the town council for many years. He even became a high bailiff in 1568 (the equivalent of Mayor). Aside from his craft as a glover, he traded as a wool dealer and was also involved in money-lending. He was granted a Coat of Arms in 1596, elevating him and his heirs to the official status of gentlemen.

When William was born in 1564, his parents had already lost two infant daughters. Joan died within the first few weeks of her life, and Margaret died a year after she was born. William's younger siblings were Gilbert (1566-1612), Joan (1569-1646), Anne (1571-1579), Richard (1574-1613) and Edmund (1580-1607).

Gilbert was probably based in Stratford for most of his life. There are records that suggest he may have been a haberdasher. He may have spent some time in London as there is a record of a haberdasher with the name in St Bride's London.

Joan was the only surviving daughter of John and Mary Shakespeare and the only one of Shakespeare's siblings to outlive him. She married hatter William Hart in the late 1590's. From 1601 the Harts lived in a cottage within the west part of the Shakespeare house on Henley Street.

It's likely that Richard was named after his paternal grandfather. Anne unfortunately died at the age of eight.

Edmund was the youngest of Shakespeare's siblings, born when William was 16 years old. Edmund became an actor in London, as his brother William did. He died in 1607 and is buried in Southwark Cathedral in London. It is thought that William Shakespeare paid for his brother's burial inside the church and for the great bell to be rung in his memory.

Shakespeare Family Life

At the age of eighteen, William married Anne Hathaway, a young woman from the village of Shottery, just outside Stratford-upon-Avon.

William and Anne Shakespeare had three children. Susanna was born six months after their marriage, followed by twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585. Hamnet died at age 11.

Shakespeare's four grandchildren all died without heirs, so there are no direct descendants of his line today. Susanna and John Hall's only daughter, Elizabeth, married twice but both marriages remained childless. His daughter Judith and her husband Thomas Quiney's three sons all died at an early age, either in infancy or as young adults before having children.

It is possible to claim a relationship to Shakespeare through his sister, Joan. There are many descendants of Joan and William Hart alive today, in both the male and female lines.

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Read about William Shakespeare's immediate family, including his parents, siblings and descendants.

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Who was Shakespeare's Wife?

William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in November 1582 and they remained married until Shakespeare's death. At the time of their marriage William was 18, while Anne was 26-and pregnant with their first child.

The average age of marriage was 26 years of age, so Anne would have been an eligible young lady of her time. William, on the other hand, was still a minor in the eyes of the law and so required permission from Anne's father to marry Anne. Shakespeare's early marriage also meant that he wouldn't legally be able to complete an apprenticeship.

To avoid any scandal surrounding Anne's pregnancy, William sped up proceedings by applying to the Bishop's Court in Worcester. This licence also authorised the marriage to take place outside the parish of normal residence, allowing William and Anne to be married outside of Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford then lay in the diocese of Worcester, and two documents survive in the diocesan archives to establish the marriage was performed in November 1582, but neither document specifies the parish in which they did marry. The parishes of Luddington, Bishopton, Billesley, and Temple Grafton have all been suggested.

Anne and William's first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after their marriage, and they would go on to have twins Judith and Hamnet a few years later. Read the article, 'How Many Children did Shakespeare Have?' to learn more about Shakespeare's children.

'[...] woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her'
- The Taming of the Shrew (Act 1 Scene 1)

The Courtship of William Shakespeare

Tudor Wedding Customs

On her wedding day, a Tudor bride would have worn her best set of clothes, with her hair worn loose and crowned with a garland of herbs. She would have been escorted by her bridesmaids who would spread rushes before her to protect her shoes and clothes from mud.

The groom would dress in his finest doublet and hose, and been escorted by his male friends to the bride's house with the musical accompaniment of the pipe and tabor. It was common for the groom to bring gloves for wedding guests in exchange for herbs and flowers (an appropriate gift since Shakespeare's father was a glover).

The wedding ceremony began at the door of the church and the ring was blessed. Afterwards the wedding party entered the main body of the church for nuptial mass.

Did Shakespeare love his wife?

It is difficult to define the exact nature of Anne and William's relationship due to a lack of documentary evidence. William Shakespeare signed his will on 25 March 1616. In the will, he leaves his second-best bed to Anne; the document reads, 'Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed wth the furniture' (furniture is used to refer to the curtains and bedcover which formed part of the complete bed). Some have read this as a slight against Anne; but the second-best bed would have been their marriage bed, since the best bed was typically reserved for guests.

Under medieval common law in England a widow was entitled to one third of her late husband's estate for her life (or widowhood) even though it was not specifically mentioned in the will. In practice however, most wives were mentioned, usually in terms of affection and trust, and were frequently made executrix of the will.

The bequest of the second best bed is not in itself unusual, and wills were not places for the expression of personal feelings. The best bed, or indeed best of any type of item was usually regarded as an heirloom to be passed to the major heir, his daughter Susanna.

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Learn more about the events surrounding William Shakespeare's wedding and marriage.

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The History of English - Shakespeare (3/10)

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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

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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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There Is No Escaping Shakespeare | The New York Times

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Chapman University Department of Theatre

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Macbeth Introduction & Historical Context

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Kent Lehnhof: Insight to a Tragedy - "Macbeth"

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Prof. Kent Lehnhof discusses Shakespeare's "Macbeth," providing background information and a context for the tragedy. Dr. Lehnhof is an associate professor in the Department of English at Chapman University. The production he discusses was produced by the Department of Theatre at Chapman in Orange, California.

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Scene 4

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Banquo's Ghost

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Banquo's Ghost

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Macbeth Movie CLIP -  Banquet (2015) - Michael Fassenbender, Marion Cotillard Drama HD

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Macbeth Polanski 1971 pt.11 Fantasma de Banquo (português)

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Macbeth Polanski 1971 pt.11 Fantasma de Banquo (português)