William Shakespeare born - Apr 23, 1564 - HISTORY.com William Shakespeare born Publisher A+E Networks According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. Shakespeare’s date of death is conclusively known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old and had retired to Stratford three years before. Although few plays have been performed or analyzed as extensively as the 38 plays ascribed to William Shakespeare, there are few surviving details about the playwright’s life. This dearth of biographical information is due primarily to his station in life; he was not a noble, but the son of John Shakespeare, a leather trader and the town bailiff. The events of William Shakespeare’s early life can only be gleaned from official records, such as baptism and marriage records.

He probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read classical literature. He did not go to university but at age 18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of the marriage. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months later, and in 1585 William and Anne had twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died 11 years later, and Anne Shakespeare outlived her husband, dying in 1623. Nothing is known of the period between the birth of the twins and Shakespeare’s emergence as a playwright in London in the early 1590s, but unfounded stories have him stealing deer, joining a group of traveling players, becoming a schoolteacher, or serving as a soldier in the Low Countries. The first reference to Shakespeare as a London playwright came in 1592, when a fellow dramatist, Robert Greene, wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed. It is believed that Shakespeare had written the three parts of Henry VI by that point.

In 1593, Venus and Adonis was Shakespeare’s first published poem, and he dedicated it to the young Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd earl of Southampton. In 1594, having probably composed, among other plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, he became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which became the King’s Men after James I’s ascension in 1603. The company grew into England’s finest, in no small part because of Shakespeare, who was its principal dramatist. It also had the finest actor of the day, Richard Burbage, and the best theater, the Globe, which was located on the Thames’ south bank. Shakespeare stayed with the King’s Men until his retirement and often acted in small parts. By 1596, the company had performed the classic Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That year, John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, a testament to his son’s growing wealth and fame. In 1597, William Shakespeare bought a large house in Stratford.

In 1599, after producing his great historical series, the first and second part of Henry IV and Henry V, he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre. The beginning of the 17th century saw the performance of the first of his great tragedies, Hamlet. The next play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I , who wanted to see another play that included the popular character Falstaff. During the next decade, Shakespeare produced such masterpieces as Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest. In 1609, his sonnets, probably written during the 1590s, were published. The 154 sonnets are marked by the recurring themes of the mutability of beauty and the transcendent power of love and art. Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1616. Today, nearly 400 years later, his plays are performed and read more often and in more nations than ever before. In a million words written over 20 years, he captured the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a precision that remains sharp today.

As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, “He was not of an age, but for all time.” Related Videos The Life of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | Shakespeare in American Communities Home › Educational Resources › The Life of William Shakespeare › The Life of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Within the class system of Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare did not seem destined for greatness. He was not born into a family of nobility or significant wealth. He did not continue his formal education at university, nor did he come under the mentorship of a senior artist, nor did he marry into wealth or prestige. His talent as an actor seems to have been modest, since he is not known for starring roles. His success as a playwright depended in part upon royal patronage. Yet in spite of these limitations, Shakespeare is now the most performed and read playwright in the world. Born to John Shakespeare, a glovemaker and tradesman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent farmer, William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

At that time, infants were baptized three days after their birth, thus scholars believe that Shakespeare was born on April 23, the same day on which he died at age 52. As the third of eight children, young William grew up in this small town 100 miles northwest of London, far from the cultural and courtly center of England. Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, King's New School, where the curriculum would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, Roman comedy, ancient history, rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his childhood, Shakespeare's father struggled with serious financial debt. Therefore, unlike his fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, he did not attend university. Rather, in 1582 at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior and three months pregnant. Their first child, Susanna, was born in 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, came in 1585.

In the seven years following their birth, the historical record concerning Shakespeare is incomplete, contradictory, and unreliable; scholars refer to this period as his “lost years.” In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene, Shakespeare reappears as an “upstart crow” flapping his poetic wings in London. Evidently, it did not take him long to land on the stage. Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, and The Comedy of Errors were performed. When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague, the playwright wrote two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and probably began writing his richly textured sonnets. One hundred and fiftyfour of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. By 1594, he had also written, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love's Labor's Lost. Having established himself as an actor and playwright, in 1594 Shakespeare became a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most popular acting companies in London.

He remained a member of this company for the rest of his career, often playing before the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare entered one of his most prolific periods around 1595, writing Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice. With his newfound success, Shakespeare purchased the second largest home in Stratford in 1597, though he continued to live in London. Two years later, he joined others from the Lord Chamberlain's Men in establishing the polygonal Globe Theatre on the outskirts of London. When King James came to the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players, organizing them as the King's Men. During King James's reign, Shakespeare wrote many of his most accomplished plays about courtly power, including King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In 1609 or 1611, Shakespeare's sonnets were published, though he did not live to see the First Folio of his plays published in 1623. In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare revised his will.

Since his only son Hamnet had died in 1596, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his two daughters, with monetary gifts set aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. A fascinating detail of his will is that he bequeathed the family's “second best bed” to his wife Anne. He died one month later, on April 23, 1616. To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems. When William Shakespeare died in his birthplace of Stratford-upon- Avon, he was recognized as one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. In the four centuries since, he has come to be seen as not only a great English playwright, but the greatest playwright in the English language. Reflecting upon the achievement of his peer and sometimes rival, Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, “He was not of an age, but for all time.” William Shakespeare Timeline of Important Dates William Shakespeare is christened at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

1569 Shakespeare Goes to School Shakespeare enters King's New School, an excellent grammar school in Stratford attended by the sons of civil servants like his father. Boys typically enter the school around the age of five, but since no official records survive its impossible to know exactly when Shakespeare starts his education. Other than the dates of his marriage and children's births, little is known about Shakespeare's life before 1592—a period known as the " Lost Years ." Nov 28, 1582 Shakespeare Marries The Bishop of Worcester issues a marriage license to "William Shagspere" and "Ann Hathwey," formalizing the marriage of 18-year-old William Shakespeare and 26-year-old Anne Hathaway . May 26, 1583 Six months after their marriage, the Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, is born and baptized. 1585 Twins Born Anne Hathaway gives birth to twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith. The babies are named after Shakespeare's close friends, Hamnet and Judith Sadler. 1590 First Play Around this time, Shakespeare writes Henry VI, Part One —his very first play.

Like all of Shakespeare's plays, the precise year of its authorship is now unclear. Also around the same time, Shakespeare leaves Stratford to begin work as a playwright and actor in London. 1592 Greene Attacks Shakespeare Playwright Robert Greene pens a scathing critique of Shakespeare, calling him an "upstart crow" who doesn't belong with Greene's university-educated dramatist crowd. Thanks to this diatribe, we now know that Shakespeare has become successful enough as a playwright by 1592 to make his peers jealous. Jan 1593 Plague Closes Theaters London theaters are closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague that eventually kills about five percent of the city's residents. Shakespeare uses the break to write poetry. Apr 1593 "Venus and Adonis" Shakespeare publishes " Venus and Adonis ," his first long published poem. It is dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothesley , the Earl of Southampton. 1594 Theaters Reopen In the spring of 1594, the London theaters reopen to the public. Over the next five years Shakespeare's troupe, the Chamberlain's Men , becomes one of the most popular acting groups in London.

They accept frequent invitations to perform in the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I . May 1594 "The Rape of Lucrece" Shakespeare publishes " The Rape of Lucrece ," also dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. Shakespeare purchases shares in the Chamberlain's Men. Aug 11, 1596 Death of Hamnet William and Anne bury their only son, Hamnet, who dies at the age of 11 of unknown causes. May 1597 New Home Wealthy thanks to his theater work and shrewd investments, Shakespeare buys New Place, the second-largest house in Stratford. 1598 Shakespeare Praised Writer Francis Meres publishes a glowing review of Shakespeare's work. Thanks to Meres' review, we know that by this time Shakespeare has become a noted playwright with at least a dozen plays under his belt, including Romeo and Juliet , A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Merchant of Venice , Love's Labors Lost , Richard II and Titus Andronicus . 1599 Globe Theater Built The Chamberlain's Men build the Globe , a wooden theater in London.

Many of Shakespeare's most famous plays are performed for the first time here, including a href="" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Hamlet, Othello , and King Lear . Plays Shakespeare is believed to have written in this amazingly productive year include Much Ado About Nothing , As You Like It , Julius Caesar , and The Merry Wives of Windsor . 1601 Hamlet Shakespeare's father dies and his patron Earl Southampton is sentenced to death (later reprieved) for his role in the Essex rebellion . It is believed that his father's death motivates Shakespeare to write Hamlet around this time. Shakespeare's plays over the next few years take a dark, brooding tone. Mar 24, 1603 Elizabeth Dies, Jacobean Age Begins Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I, King James ascends the throne. The Chamberlain's Men change their name to the King's Men, and perform before King James eleven times between 1 November 1604 and 31 October 1605. 1608 Blackfriars Theater The King's Men begin performing at Blackfriars , an indoor theater in London.

In contrast to the somber mood of the last seven years, Shakespeare's work takes on a lighter tone in plays like Cymbeline , The Winter's Tale , and The Tempest . 1609 Publisher Thomas Thorpe prints a collection of 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets . 1611 Return to Stratford Shakespeare leaves London and moves back to Stratford, where his wife and married daughters live. (The exact date of this move remains in some dispute, with historians placing it anywhere between 1610 and 1613.) 1613 Final Plays Shakespeare composes his final plays— Henry VIII , Two Noble Kinsmen (possibly written in 1614), and the now-lost Cardenio—in collaboration with John Fletcher , replacement playwright for the King's Men. The Globe catches fire during a performance of Henry VIII and burns to the ground. Mar 25, 1616 Last Will An ailing Shakespeare calls his lawyer to revise his will, making some odd changes that include leaving his "second-best bed" to his wife and £10 to the poor.

Apr 23, 1616 Sufferning from an unknown illness, William Shakespeare dies on his 52nd birthday. Apr 25, 1616 Burial Shakespeare is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, the same church where he was baptized. His marker orders a curse on anyone who disturbs his grave. 1623 First Folio Published John Heminge and Henry Condell , Shakespeare's former colleagues in the King's Men, collect 36 of their late friend's plays and publish them together in a volume now known as the First Folio . Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated - Apr 23, 1564 - HISTORY.com Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated Share this: Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated Author Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated URL Publisher A+E Networks Historians believe Shakespeare was born on this day in 1564, the same day he died in 1616. Although the plays of William Shakespeare may be the most widely read works in the English language, little is known for certain about the playwright himself.

Some scholars even believe the plays were not written by William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon but by some other well-educated, aristocratic writer who wished to remain anonymous. Shakespeare’s father was probably a common tradesman. He became an alderman and bailiff in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Shakespeare was baptized in the town on April 26, 1564. At age 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, and the couple had a daughter in 1583 and twins in 1585. Sometime later, Shakespeare set off for London to become an actor and by 1592 was well established in London’s theatrical world as both a performer and a playwright. His earliest plays, including The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew, were written in the early 1590s. Later in the decade, he wrote tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595) and comedies including The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597).

His greatest tragedies were written after 1600, including Hamlet (1600-01), Othello (1604-05), King Lear (1605-06), and Macbeth (1605-1606). He became a member of the popular theater group the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, who later became the King’s Men. The group built and operated the famous Globe Theater in 1599. Shakespeare ultimately became a major shareholder in the troupe and earned enough money to buy a large house in Stratford in 1597. He retired to Stratford in 1610, where he wrote his last plays, including The Tempest (1611) and The Winter’s Tale (1610-11). Meanwhile, he had written more than 100 sonnets, which were published in 1609. Although pirated versions of Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet and some other plays were published during Shakespeare’s lifetime, no definitive collection of his works was published until after his death.

In 1623, two members of Shakespeare’s troupe collected the plays and printed what is now called the First Folio (1623). Related Videos BBC - iWonder - William Shakespeare: The life and legacy of England’s bard William Shakespeare: The life and legacy of England’s bard 26 April 1564 TodayWorld superstardom Not of an age, but for all time Shakespeare is England’s most celebrated dramatist and poet. His works have been translated into 80 languages, including Star Trek’s Klingon. He helped shape the English we use today, introducing up to 300 words and dozens of well-known phrases. His plays are known around the world for their universal themes and insight into the human condition. Yet much about the playwright is a mystery. Historians don’t know his date of birth, where he was educated or how he spent seven years of his life. 26 April 1564 Getty Images Shakespeare is believed to have been born in this house on Henley Street, Stratford. There is no record of Shakespeare’s birth, but his christening is recorded. It was usual for christenings to take place on the third day after birth.

He was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had recently converted England to Protestantism. Shakespeare’s parents had been Catholics, and the tension between the new and old religions can be seen in much of his work. William’s father, John Shakespeare, was a member of the borough council of Stratford-upon-Avon. William was the third of eight children, though his two elder siblings did not survive childhood. When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of fools. King Lear (Act 4, Scene 6), William Shakespeare 1571 Getty Images King Edward VI's School, Stratford-upon-Avon. Attendance records from this time have been lost. Details of Shakespeare’s schooling are unknown. It is likely that he began his education at the age of six or seven. As his father was now a bailiff, young William probably attended the local grammar school. Its curriculum emphasised Greek classics and pupils also learned plays in Latin. Religious education was also important, and Shakespeare drew on these sources in his later work with classical and religious allusions. Shakespeare probably attended school until about age 15. There is no record of him going to university.

The whining school-boy, with his satchel / And shining morning face, creeping like snail / Unwillingly to school. As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7), William Shakespeare 1585-1592 Marriage and the lost years You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this clip. Francesco da Mosto investigates how plausible it is that Shakespeare could have visited Venice. Shakespeare in Italy (BBC Two, 2012). Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, in 1582 when he was 18. She was already three months pregnant with their first child. The baptisms of his three children are the last record of him for seven years, known as his lost years. At some point Shakespeare went to London, leaving his family in Stratford, and established himself as a playwright and actor. Some claim he worked as a teacher, an apprentice butcher or a lawyer’s clerk. A century later his first biographer suggested he fled to London to escape punishment for deer poaching. However, no records have been found of his activities in these years. A young man married is a man that's marr'd.

All's Well That Ends Well, (Act 2, Scene 3), William Shakespeare 1592 Shakespeare’s first review British Library Characters, including Shakespeare's bumbling Falstaff, feature in The Wits – a 17th Century collection of comic play scenes. The next known record of Shakespeare appears after he was already a playwright in London. It's a review – and not a positive one. Playwright Robert Greene called Shakespeare an "upstart crow”, accusing him of reaching above his rank compared with university-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe and Greene himself. Drama in Elizabethan theatre shifted from the religious to the secular and companies of players formed to entertain the public under the patronage of noblemen. Shakespeare belonged to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He is thought to have written the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III by this point. [Shakespeare] supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you. Robert Greene, Groats-worth of wit, 1592 October 1596 Shakespeare becomes a gentleman William Shakespeare's coat of arms, reproduced in 1787. 'Non sanz droict' means 'Not without right'.

William is thought to have revived his father’s lapsed application for a family coat of arms in 1596. Scholars suggest the application showed he was now a successful businessman as much as a talented playwright. In 1602 he had to defend his title against accusations that “Shakespeare ye player” did not merit the honour of a coat of arms. By this time Shakespeare's company had performed Romeo and Juliet, Richard II and a Midsummer Night’s Dream. He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends. As you like it, (Act 3, Scene 2), William Shakespeare 1598 Shakespeare is credited on his own work Getty Images The title page of the First Quarto of Love's Labour's Lost, 1598, is 'by W. Shakespere'. In 1598, Love's Labour's Lost was Shakespeare's first work published with his name on the title page, suggesting it was now a selling point. That year the author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. His work attracted royal attention; he acted in several performances before Queen Elizabeth I.

Some academics suggest that his history plays were supportive of Elizabeth’s claim to the throne. Others suggest Richard II criticised her as it describes the overthrowing of a monarch. Building the Globe You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this clip. James Shapiro on the building of the Globe. The king and the playwright: A Jacobean history (BBC 4, 2012). Shakespeare’s plays made him both famous and wealthy. By now he was a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The group built their own theatre called the Globe, and Shakespeare owned a 12.5% stake. This made him even wealthier. He invested in property in Stratford and London, and records of his purchases survive. In 1597 he bought the second biggest house in Stratford for his family, as well as 107 acres of farmland and a cottage. Later, he bought property to let in London, showing his business acumen. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players As You Like It, (Act 2, Scene 7), William Shakespeare 1603 Royal patronage You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this clip.

James Shapiro explains the changes Shakespeare faced after King James took the throne. The king and the playwright: a Jacobean history (BBC 4, 2012)/ After Elizabeth I died, Shakespeare’s company was awarded a royal patent by King James I (VI of Scotland), and became the King’s Men. King Lear, probably composed in this year, took divided kingdoms as its theme mirroring James I's new domain of England, Scotland and Wales. Meanwhile Macbeth, also written early in James's reign, gives a kind portrayal of James’s ancestor Banquo and was probably intended to honour the new king’s Scottish ancestry. I hereby announce that I’ve divided my kingdom into three parts. King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1 Around this time… Shakespeare's sonnets published Frontispiece of Shakespeare's sonnets, dedicated to a Mr W. H. Shakespeare published 154 sonnets which explored themes of love, sex and beauty. He probably started them in 1592 when plague closed the theatres. The sonnets include a dedication to one "Mr. W.H.". The identity of this person remains a mystery and has provoked a great deal of speculation.

Sonnets were a traditional and popular form during the Elizabethan period. Several of them, including Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?), and Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds) have become some of the most familiar poems in all of English literature. Shakespeare writes his last play You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this clip. The Tempest was one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote. Shakespeare Uncovered: Trevor Nunn on the Tempest (BBC 4, 2012). The Two Noble Kinsmen was possibly the last play Shakespeare worked on. He wrote it with a collaborator, John Fletcher. In the previous decade he had written his late romances - Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. These plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s but less so than the tragedies, as they end with reconciliation and forgiveness for potentially tragic actions. This change of mood may simply reflect the theatrical fashion of the day, but it could also be evidence Shakespeare had developed a more temperate view of life as he aged.

Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Cymbeline (Act 4, Scene 2), William Shakespeare 23 April 1616 Shakespeare dies Shakespeare's grave in Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon. There are no contemporary accounts of Shakespeare’s death, though he made his will a month before he died, in which he says he is in “perfect health”. Fifty years later the vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote that Shakespeare died of a fever contracted after a “merry meeting” where he “drank too hard.” His will contains some insight into his property. For unknown reasons, he left his wife his “second best bed”. He was buried in Stratford and his grave featured a stone-carved bag of grain to represent his family’s traditional occupation. He was not of an age, but for all time. Preface to the First Folio, Ben Johnson, 1623 1644 The Globe shut down and demolished by Puritans Getty Images Theatres were not considered suitable entertainment by Puritans.

The Puritans – a powerful group of protestant Christians who had gained power - outlawed plays and theatres in 1642. Two years later, the Globe was demolished. Anyone caught performing a play was seized and whipped and anyone caught attending a play was fined. The work of Shakespeare – and his contemporaries – was no longer performed in public. It wasn’t until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 that plays were legalised again. Jubilee celebrations Getty Images A later painting of Garrick's Shakespeare Jubilee. In reality, the celebrations were stopped short by rain. Shakespeare's work was performed throughout the next hundred years as his fame and reputation grew throughout the country. Samuel Johnson quoted Shakespeare’s work thousands of times in his English dictionary, published in 1755. He noted Shakespeare coined or introduced thousands of words and phrases into the English language. In 1769, Shakespeare’s life was celebrated in a jubilee organised by actor David Garrick. It was a hugely anticipated event, with the papers reporting all aspects of it during the preparation. Shakespeare had become famous, though no Shakespeare plays were performed at the Jubilee due to rain.

After the joy of the Jubilee came the uneasy reflection that I was in a little village in wet weather and knew not how to get away. Diarist James Boswell, attendee of the Shakespeare Jubilee, 1769 Around this time… Shakespeare's Birth Shakespeare's Birth The baptismal register of the Holy Trinity parish church, in Stratford , shows the following entry for April 26, 1564: Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare. The actual date of Shakespeare's birth is not known, but, traditionally, April 23, St George's Day, has been Shakespeare's accepted birthday, and a house on Henley Street in Stratford, owned by William's father, John, is accepted as Shakespeare's birth place. However, the reality is that no one really knows when the great dramatist was born. According to The Book of Common Prayer, it was required that a child be baptized on the nearest Sunday or holy day following the birth, unless the parents had a legitimate excuse. As Dennis Kay proposes in his book Shakespeare: If Shakespeare was indeed born on Sunday, April 23, the next feast day would have been St. Mark's Day on Tuesday the twenty-fifth.

There might well have been some cause, both reasonable and great -- or perhaps, as has been suggested, St. Mark's Day was still held to be unlucky, as it had been before the Reformation, when altars and crucifixes used to be draped in black cloth, and when some claimed to see in the churchyard the spirits of those doomed to die in that year. . . .but that does not help to explain the christening on the twenty-sixth (54). No doubt Shakespeare's true birthday will remain a mystery forever. But the assumption that the Bard was born on the same day of the month that he died lends an exciting esoteric highlight to the otherwise mundane details of Shakespeare's life. How to cite this article: Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare of Stratford: Shakespeare's Birth. Shakespeare Online. 12 Sept. 2000. < >. References Byzant Biography - William Shakespeare William Shakespeare 1564-1616 The playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer of all time.

He was born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the son of John Shakespeare, a glover and a burgess of the borough, and Mary Arden, who came from an ancient family. Shakespeare was entitled to a place at the local grammar school because of his father's civic position and, while there are no written records of the school's pupils during Shakespeare's time, his works are in keeping with a solid grammar school education. Shakespeare would have spent nine hours a day year round being taught by Oxford-educated scholars at the Stratford School, which was known, like other schools of its time, as being strict and sometimes dull. Shakespeare's great contemporary and fellow dramatist, Ben Jonson, wrote that Shakespeare knew 'little Latin and less Greek', and this certainly fits well with the fact that Shakespeare did not go to University. In 1582, he married Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter from a neighboring village who was eight years his senior. Six months later, Shakespeare's first daughter, Susanna, was born. In 1585, Anne gave birth to twins, Judith and Hamnet.

Shakespeare's writing is generally divided into four periods: prior to 1594, 1594-1600, 1600-1608 and after 1608. His work demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of human nature, and he had the ability to create realistic characters and place them in the most strenuous, though still probable, circumstances and still have a convincing chain of events. While he liked to use magic in some of his plays, the vast majority of his writing involved true to life characters who used their intellectual abilities to rise above and defeat the problems that they faced or to struggle against them before finally succumbing. This further endeared Shakespeare to his patrons, especially as other dramatists of the Elizabethan era tended to create characters to which the audience could not easily relate. Shakespeare also had a command of a variety of subjects and professions, ranging from the law to petty thievery, making his characters and their trials all the more believable for his audiences. Add to this a profound poetic gift, and it is easy to see why Ben Jonson's belief that Shakespeare "was not of an age, but for all time," has proved to be accurate.

Shakespeare's writing likely began before the twins' births, but he was not immediately successful, and since no records of his life exist from the time of the twins' arrival to his debut in London, many people refer to this time as 'The Lost Years'. Some modern literary critics refer to this period as 'In the Workshop', alluding to the fact that Shakespeare was learning his craft at the time. Shakespeare arrived in London sometime in 1588, and his style of writing at this stage of his career had a more formal and less inventive construction than his later work and had a more conventional verse structure. Shakespeare wrote mainly comedies and histories during this time, and examples of his early works include Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (which showed in both Stratford and London), The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labour's Lost. These first plays often borrowed plots from history, other Elizabethan dramatists and Roman writers.

Because of this and his early successes, Robert Green, a 'university wit' and writer of the time, became jealous and accused Shakespeare of being an 'upstart crow, beautified with our feathers' in his pamphlet Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance, which attacked acting companies and Shakespeare in particular who, he believed, had abused the talents of university-educated playwrights, such as himself. Shakespeare apparently took exception to the publication, as Greene's editor, Henry Chettle, later wrote an apology for the incident. Despite the publication of Groatsworth in 1592, Shakespeare was making important friends, and he was becoming successful as an actor and a playwright. An outbreak of plague meant that the theatres had to be closed, and they did not reopen until the summer of 1594. In the hope of spreading his name further, a mildly successful Shakespeare focused on poetry, which Elizabethans considered of far higher esteem than plays, writing The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis, both of which brought him great popularity and saw many publications; he also began work on his sonnets.

The plays he wrote during his second period, by some referred to as 'In the World' because of his popularity at the time, had taken on a highly definitive style that can only be called 'Shakespearian'. A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar are just a few examples of the success and diverse writing during this stage of his career. By 1596, Shakespeare was the most celebrated playwright in all of London. He was part owner of a theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which was the source of most of his wealth. Whereas he had previously been either an actor or the featured playwright (and sometimes both) and had been paid only for those duties, he now was allotted a considerable portion of each play's performance monies in addition to those wages and royalties. The combination of the fine actors in the company and Shakespeare's writing resulted in unequivocal success. While with the company, in a short four-year period, he wrote five comedies, three histories and a tragedy, all of which riveted London.

Shakespeare and his plays were so popular that the language used within them became both contemporary and modern clichés and part of the everyday vocabulary of those who saw his works performed. In late 1596 came the dual shock of his father's demise and Hamnet's death of an unknown illness at the age of eleven, and Shakespeare's priority for the time became his family rather than his involvement with the theatre. After these sad events, he purchased one of the largest homes in Stratford, New Place, and held back nothing monetarily in its refurbishment so that his wife and daughters could move into a fine home. During this time, the Lord Chamberlain's Men began having troubles with their landlord and were forced to dismantle, relocate and rebuild their playhouse, newly called the Globe Theatre, on the south bank of the Thames in London. It was an open air theatre with the largest stage of the London theatres, tiered seating (a floor section for standing patrons, seats on the lower level, and a balcony), and could accommodate state of the art stage effects for the time; no other theatre could compare.

With a transition to the third period of his life, sometimes appropriately referred to as 'In the Dumps' because of his emotional state, Shakespeare rejoined his company and began writing again. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the theatre acquired a new and well-paying patron in her cousin and successor, King James I, who paid the company twice as much as Elizabeth had. The king's patronage and license gave the company leave to rename itself 'The King's Men - His Majesty's Servants'. James enjoyed the company's productions and saw them as many as thirteen times in one year, a vast difference from Elizabeth's three requests per annum, which were both record requests of any playwright by a monarch. Much of the writing done at this time, such as Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth, was of a darker tone with profound messages within, suggesting perhaps Shakespeare's lingering grief over the death of his son. In 1608, the beginning of the end of Shakespeare's life, the King's Men acquired the competing Blackfriars Theatre and used the enclosed, indoor stage to perform during the winter while reserving the open-air Globe for summer showings.

Shakespeare soon began to lessen his obligations with the company, and by 1612, his withdrawal from them was complete. Family events, such as his daughters' marriages and his mother's death, called him back to Stratford. He did not stop writing, however, producing among others The Winter's Tale and The Tempest during this time on his own and collaborating with John Fletcher on Henry VIII. The romantic tragicomedies of this period reflected pain and suffering during the bodies of the plays but they often had endings that brought about some form of redemption. Shakespeare's work was not limited to the plays with which most people associate him. His poetry was, and is, also very popular. His remarkable sequence of 154 sonnets were in circulation among friends by 1598, but not published until 1609. Sonnets 1 to 126 explore the poet’s love for a beautiful youth whose identity is open to debate, but often believed to be the poet’s patron, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton.

The first 17 of these concentrate on the transience of beauty, a standard Elizabethan theme, and urge the youth to marry so that his beauty may survive in his children. The remaining poems to the young man explore in more detail the difficulties of the relationship. Sonnets 127 to 154 are about Shakespeare’s relationship with a ‘Dark Lady’, an unfaithful mistress. Shakespeare died on 23 April, 1616. His last direct descendant was a granddaughter by Susanna named Elizabeth who died in 1670, bringing an end to the family line. His works may well have been lost, too, if it were not for John Hemminge and Henry Condell, two of his friends and colleagues in The King's Men. They preserved his manuscripts and had them published in the First Folio of 1623; most subsequent editions of his texts have been based on this collection. Shakespeare was buried in the church where he had been christened in Stratford-on-Avon under a marker with no name, only this inscription, perhaps his own words: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here.

Blest be the man that spares these stones And curst be he that moves my bones. Shakespeare's Life and Times Life and Times Very little is known about Shakespeare's life, beginning even the exact date of his birth. Records from the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon indicate that he was christened on April 26, 1564. Since babies were customarily christened three days after birth, Shakespeare's birthday is officially recognized as April 23. In England, April 23 has long been celebrated as Saint George's Day , a national holiday for the country's other patron saint, a legendary warrior and martyred hero who famously 'slew the dragon.' Thus, the date chosen to commemorate Shakespeare's life and death (for he is presumed to have died on his birthday), although perhaps not entirely accurate, carries with it enormous cultural significance. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the bubonic plague descended upon Stratford. Known as the Black Death, the plague was a disease carried by fleas on the backs of rats. Indiscriminate and deadly, its victims succumbed within days, sores covering their bodies, every organ afflicted.

That year in Stratford, hundreds of citizens died. As the infant mortality rate in Elizabethan times was high in even the best of circumstances, Shakespeare's survival in the face of this deadly disease, during one of the cruelest months of the year, is made all the more remarkable. William was not John Shakespeare and Mary Arden's first child. He was, however, their first to live past infancy. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden in 1557. A glover by trade, John Shakespeare was an ambitious man, achieving the elected office of High Bailiff in 1568, the equivalent of Stratford's mayor. Mary herself came from a prominent family. The Ardens were wealthy landowners, and John, a yeoman's son, was a tenant on her family's property before they married. Together, the couple set up home and shop on Henley Street, a bustling area in downtown Stratford. Presumably, this is where young William was born. The birthplace site (although not the exact house) remains the center of attraction in Stratford today.

Though no records survive from Shakespeare's boyhood, as the son of an upstanding gentleman (though not yet in arms), it is assumed that Will attended the local grammar school . A typical day for Will would see him arriving at school at seven in the morning (six o'clock during the summer), and studying until five in the afternoon, with recesses for breakfast and lunch. The curriculum was Latin. Latin and nothing else. Although the school could be a harsh and foreboding institution, corporeal punishment freely reigning, sitting at his desk was where young Will was first introduced to the classics of Roman literature , works by Ovid and Seneca, storytellers whose epics he would remember in the years to come. There is no evidence to suggest that Shakespeare continued his studies beyond a basic education. As there is a significant gap in time between his schoolboy days and his life in London, scholars have long postulated a number of different theories as to what occurred in the life of the young poet during these so-called lost years . Looking to his plays for clues, many have assumed that he was a law clerk, a sailor, a soldier or, even more likely, a glover like his father.

Many believe that, at one time or another, Shakespeare acted as a schoolmaster, perhaps composing plays for his students to perform, citing The Comedy of Errors as a prime candidate. One fact is certain, however. At age eighteen, William Shakespeare got married. At age twenty-six, Anne Hathaway was eight years older than her groom. They married in such haste that they had to obtain special permission from the church, forgoing the normally required three readings of the banns. The apparent urgency of the matter is explained when, six months later, Anne gives birth to a baby girl, Susanna. Two years after that, she gives birth to twins, Judith and Hamnet. When William Shakespeare made the hundred-mile journey to London from Stratford in the late 1580's, he left behind a wife and three children. No one knows for certain how or why he left, whether for financial reasons or in search of adventure. It is unlikely that Shakespeare made the trip alone, for England at the time had laws against 'master-less men,' those traveling by themselves would be easily susceptible to accusations of vagrancy.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was associated with many of England's top theatre companies, including the Queen's Men, Pembroke's Men and Lord Strange's Men, companies which all made visits to Stratford. The theatres in London would frequently close due to the plague, so actors oftentimes found themselves traveling the country in search of a living. As High Bailiff, one of John Shakespeare's duties was to pay the actors when they came to town, so his son must have had at least a passing knowledge of the inner workings of players' companies. Shakespeare, already displaying an enthusiasm and talent for poetry, may have signed on as an apprentice. Perhaps one of the acting troupes was shorthanded. With a wife and three children to support, he had four mouths to feed, and, after all, other Stratfordians had made their fortune in the big city. Why not him? London in the late sixteenth century could arguably have been called the capital of the world. At the height of the English Renaissance, it was a time of growth and exploration, art and education, science and invention. Patriotism was strong. As England sought to increase and solidify its power, wars were fought and countries were conquered.

As the sailing ships discovered, the earth was no longer flat, and travelers set their sights on the New World. Journeying to the farthest reaches, the 'Antipodes,' the explorers found pristine lands ruled by barbarians, cannibals and men whose heads grew beneath their shoulders. They sent home tales of the New World, published pamphlets filled with stories to spark the imagination. Back in England, advances were being made in all areas of learning, as science and technology scrambled to keep pace with new developments in the understanding of the natural world. Not only was the earth not flat, it might not be the center of the universe, either! Johann Gutenberg had invented the printing press over a hundred years earlier, but the true revolution in reading and writing came during Elizabeth's reign, as a once predominantly illiterate populace reaped the benefits of an expanded education system, one which provided for more than just the wealthy few. The world had Spenser, Gallileo, Marlowe, Inigo Jones - thinkers and artisans years before their time. The Dark Ages gave way to a time of enlightenment, as fundamental beliefs were challenged and reevaluated.

It was an age of infinite possibility and new hope, and London was in the center of it all. Messy and chaotic, dark, noisy and dangerous, London was also a place where citizens both literally and figuratively watched where they stepped. To an extent unfathomable by present-day standards, filth and disease simply permeated everyday life, from unclean drinking water to the human and animal waste which littered the alleyways and filled the river. The plague had ravaged the city for years, with no relief in sight. In the hottest months of summer, when the plague was most virulent, those with means evacuated the city, while the unlucky who remained were quarantined in their own homes, windows and doors sealed, their dying moans heard from the street. Indeed, except for the privileged few, life was more often than not a daily grind for survival, and times were unpredictable. With Queen Elizabeth I on the throne, the English people had themselves a ruler whom the Pope had branded a heretic, for both her 'bastard' birth and her Protestant policies. As she had not married, produced or even named an heir, the air was taut with suspicion and mistrust.

Many were accused of treason against the Queen, and those convicted faced a horrible, public death. Hung, drawn and quartered, the heads of the condemned were set upon the spikes of London Bridge, a warning to all who entered the city of the fate which befell all traitors to the Queen. The executions themselves were often treated as a form of entertainment, an afternoon's diversion for the whole family, proof that Elizabethan audiences had a stomach for blood. When a good public hanging was not on the marquee, there were always the playhouses. The theatres in London were not actually inside the city proper, but rather in its outskirts, on the other side of the river Thames, this, of course, to avoid the jurisdiction of the city government. As such, the entertainment district could be a fairly seedy place, with prostitution and petty thievery coexisting with the taverns and arenas. In addition to plays, the theatres staged such real life-and-death amusements as cockfighting and bear-baiting, the former of which involving a giant wild animal fighting a gang of rabid dogs.

In the 1580's, William Shakespeare began to write for the stage, possibly by mending the plays of others, practicing his newfound craft as a musician might do scales, studying the basics, then learning to improvise. In 1592, Philip Henslowe, proprietor of the Rose Theatre, records in his diary a performance, "Harey the vj," which most scholars interpret as the debut of Shakespeare's Henry VI, performed by the Lord Strange's Men. While no one knows for certain if Shakespeare was an actual member of this acting company, it seems probable in light of the fact that they would go on to perform many of Shakespeare's early plays, including the remainder of the Henry VI cycle, as well as the Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus. Records from Henslowe's diary indicate that Shakespeare's plays did very well at the box office, audiences demanding repeat performances. However, regardless of his affiliation with Philip Henslowe, by the mid 1590's, Shakespeare had become a member of a rival acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

It was for this company that Shakespeare would author his greatest works, including of course all of the late, great tragedies. Although Shakespeare was primarily a playwright, he occasionally acted in some of his plays, taking such roles as Adam in As You Like It, and the Ghost in Hamlet. When the Lord Chamberlain's Men built the Globe Theatre in 1599, Shakespeare became a shareholder. They were the top acting company in London, and, with the ascension of King James I in 1603, their patron became no less than the King himself. Throughout his career, Shakespeare never ceased writing pure poetry. In his time, plays were mainly considered vulgar entertainments, not high art. He composed four narrative poems, two of which were dedicated to a rich patron and published himself, entitled Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Shakespeare also wrote more than a hundred and fifty sonnets. Of all his works, these seem to be the most intimate, written primarily in the first person, and expressing such passionate emotions as love and desire, jealousy, heartbreak and lust.

The sonnet cycle features three characters, the speaker, whom many believe to be Shakespeare as himself, a youth, thought to be the Earl of Southampton (to whom Shakespeare had dedicated his poems), and a so-called 'Dark Lady.' All three are involved in a dangerous love triangle. Although, in this instance, truth is impossible to separate from fantasy, many scholars have enjoyed speculating who the mysterious Dark Lady might be, and if Shakespeare ever had an affair, either with her, or with the Earl of Southampton. More anon...

Question: During which month of the year was William Shakespeare born?
Answer: April