Shakespeare's life and biography

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, his exact date of birth is unknown apart from the fact he was baptised on April 26th of the same year. His parents, John and Mary (née Arden) Shakespeare, had already lost two daughters in infancy (Joan - 1558 and Margret 1562-3), before William's birth. Born at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 1st's reign, the country was torn apart by two religions: Catholic and Protestant. John Shakespeare was a glove maker and later an illegal dealer of wool. The Arden family were one of the most prominent families in Warwickshire and are one of the only three English families that we can trace back it's linage completely to the Anglo-Saxon times. When William was 1, his father was elected a town councilor on July 4th 1565, and then later when he was 4, the town mayor. Shortly after William was born in 1564, the plague hit Stratford and killed roughly between a 6th and a 7th of the population.

In 1571 aged 7, it is thought William began attending King Edward VI School in Stratford, at which he would study the core class of Latin. Despite there being no hard evidence of his attendance, it was the only school for miles and with his father's position in the town - he would've had a free place. During Elizabeth 1st's reign, there were 160 new schools - making William's generation the most literate yet.

On November 28th 1582, at the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway - who was 8 years older than him and the daughter of a local farmer who his father had known. Their first child, Susanna, was born 6 months after their wedding - this has caused multiple historians to suggest marriage due to possible wedlock. They then had twins, Hamnet and Judith, two years later - however, Hamnet died when he was only 11 years old.

There is very little to find on Shakespeare between 1585-1592; Shakepeare's "lost years". He appears again in 1592, as living London and already working in the theatre world. He was one of the managing members of the Lord Chamberlain's Company for whom he wrote for the large majority of his career. The Lord Chamberlain's Company featured Richard Burbage who played a lot of the prominent main roles including: Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet. Shakespeare also played secondary and supporting roles on multiple occasions. In 1593-4, his first poems were published at this time; "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". It's suggested by historians that this was the period in which he wrote a large majority of his sonnets.

Shakespeare's plays began to appear in records around 1594;"The Comedy Of Errors" is an example of one of his earliest works  He began to produce and develop around 2 plays a year all the way up until 1611. The actual timeline of Shakespeare's plays is virtually unknown because a large amount of his plays were performed before they were published: for example, "Titus Andronicus" was first performed in 1592 but wasn't published until 1594.  By the end of Elizabeth's reign, Shakespeare was well established as a famous playwright and poet, it's thought he was called upon by the Queen to perform some of his plays personally. In 1902, Shakespeare moved to Silver Street where he wrote multiple of his most famous tragedies, "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth".

Shakespeare died in 1916 on April 23rd, back in Stratford-upon-Avon where he had been living for 5 years. He was 52 years old and died within in a month of signing his will in which he described himself as having perfect health. Shakespeare left the large majority of his estate to his first daughter, Susanna, as well as leaving the "second best bed" to his wife Anne - a statement that has caused many a speculation. He was buried in Holy Trinity Church, the place of his baptism, 2 days after his death with, "Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be / man / spares thes stones, And cvrst / be he / moves my bones", written on the stone covering his grave - placing a curse on all of those who try to move his bones from their resting place. 

What I find extremely interesting about Shakespeare's early years is how lucky he was when it came to infant mortality. Both siblings that were born before him died at young ages, yet he survived, after the plague had killed hundreds during his early years, he still managed to survive. I feel that he was really against all the odds during childhood due to the natural way of life during that era, yet he managed to make it through and succeed further. His lost years are also an extremely important part of Shakespeare's life that we, in the modern day, have absolutely no definite clue of what took place. I find the ambiguity of his life extremely intriguing as he is such a pivotal element of our general education and the theatrical world, and we literally have to grasp onto every possible record we have of his presence to even begin to understand what his life may have entailed. My only hope is that in the future we are able to uncover more of his story and finally put the lost years to rest.

Information found: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareeducation.html, http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/06/william_shakespeare.pdf, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_shakespeare/ http://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-life and Michael Wood's In Search Of Shakespeare.