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William Shakespeare

Playwright and poet William Shakespeare is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery.

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Wife and children, shakespeare’s lost years, poems and sonnets, the king’s men: life as an actor and playwright, globe theater, william shakespeare’s plays, later years and death, legacy and controversies, who was william shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was an English poet , playwright , and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men theatrical company from roughly 1594 onward. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare’s works—at least 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 narrative poems—capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. Details about his personal life are limited, though some believe he was born and died on the same day, April 23, 52 years apart.

FULL NAME: William Shakespeare BORN: c. April 23, 1564 DIED: c. April 23, 1616 BIRTHPLACE: Stratford-upon-Avon, England, United Kingdom SPOUSE: Anne Hathaway (1582-1616) CHILDREN: Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

The personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat of a mystery . There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work, and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When Was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare’s birthday. Located about 100 miles northwest of London, Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road during Shakespeare’s time.

Parents and Siblings

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local heiress to land. John held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John’s fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s. Eventually, he recovered somewhat and was granted a coat of arms in 1596, which made him and his sons official gentleman.

John and Mary had eight children together, though three of them did not live past childhood. Their first two children—daughters Joan and Margaret—died in infancy, so William was the oldest surviving offspring. He had three younger brothers and two younger sisters: Gilbert, Joan, Anne, Richard, and Edmund. Anne died at age 7, and Joan was the only sibling to outlive William.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King’s New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing, and the classics, including Latin. He attended until he was 14 or 15 and did not continue to university. The uncertainty regarding his education has led some people question the authorship of his work.

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18, and Anne was 26 and, as it turns out, pregnant.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet died of unknown causes at age 11.

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where no records exist: after the birth of his twins in 1585 until 1592. Scholars call this period Shakespeare’s lost years, and there is wide speculation about what he was doing during this period.

One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from local landlord Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire. Some scholars believe he was in London, working as a horse attendant at some of London’s finer theaters before breaking on the scene.

By 1592, there is evidence Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. The September 20, 1592, edition of the Stationers’ Register , a guild publication, includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare:

“...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger’s heart wrapped in a Player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.”

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene’s way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe , Thomas Nashe, or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention and patronage of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594). In fact, these long narrative poems—1,194 and 1,855 lines, respectively—were Shakespeare’s first published works. Wriothesley’s financial support was a helpful source of income at a time when the theaters were shuttered due to a plague outbreak.

Shakespeare’s most well-known poetry are his 154 sonnets, which were first published as a collection in 1609 and likely written as early as the 1590s. Scholars broadly categorize the sonnets in groups based on two unknown subjects that Shakespeare addresses: the Fair Youth sonnets (the first 126) and the Dark Lady sonnets (the last 28). The identities of the aristocratic young man and vexing woman continue to be a source of speculation.

In 1594, Shakespeare joined Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the London acting company that he worked with for the duration of his career. Later called the King’s Men, it was considered the most important troupe of its time and was very popular by all accounts. Some sources describe Shakespeare as a founding member of the company, but whatever the case, he became central to its success. Initially, he was an actor and eventually devoted more and more time to writing.

Records show that Shakespeare, who was also a company shareholder, had works published and sold as popular literature. Although The Taming of the Shrew is believed to be the first play that Shakespeare wrote, his first published plays were Titus Andronicus and Henry VI Part 2 . They were printed in 1594 in quarto, an eight-page pamphlet-like book. By the end of 1597, Shakespeare had likely written 16 of his 37 plays and amassed some wealth.

At this time, civil records show Shakespeare purchased one of the largest houses in Stratford, called New Place, for his family. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it’s believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed. However, Shakespeare expert and professor Sir Stanley Wells posits that the playwright might have spent more time at home in Stratford than previously believed, only commuting to London when he needed to for work.

Although the theater culture in 16 th century England was not greatly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors. Two notable exceptions were Queen Elizabeth I , who was a fan of Lord Chamberlain’s Men by the late 1590s after first watching a performance in 1594, and her successor King James I. Following his crowning in 1603, the company changed its name to the King’s Men.

By 1599, Shakespeare and several fellow actors built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. Julius Caesar is thought to be the first production at the new open-air theater. Owning the playhouse proved to be a financial boon for Shakespeare and the other investors.

In 1613, the Globe caught fire during a performance of Henry VII I and burned to the ground. The company quickly rebuilt it, and it reopened the next year. In 1642, Puritans outlawed all theaters, including the Globe, which was demolished two years later. Centuries passed until American actor Sam Wanamaker began working to resurrect the theater once more. The third Globe Theater opened in 1997, and today, more than 1.25 million people visit it every year.

It’s difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays, but over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote 37 plays revolving around three main themes: history, tragedy, and comedy. Some plays blur these lines, and over time, our interpretation of them has changed, too.

Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

Many of Shakespeare’s first plays were histories. All three Henry VI plays, Richard II , and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare’s way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. Other histories include Richard III , King John , the two Henry IV plays, and Henry VIII . With exception of Henry VIII , which was Shakespeare’s last play, these works were likely written by 1599.

Although Shakespeare wrote three tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet , before 1600, it wasn’t until after the turn of the century that he truly explored the genre. Character in Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.

Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet , which explores betrayal, retribution, incest, and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

Julius Caesar , written in circa 1599, portrays upheaval in Roman politics that might have resonated with viewers at a time when England’s aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Titus Andronicus , Anthony and Cleopatra , Timon of Athens , and Coriolanus are Shakespeare’s other tragic plays.

Shakespeare wrote comedies throughout his career, including his first play The Taming of the Shrew . Some of his other early comedies, written before 1600 or so, are: the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream , the romantic Merchant of Venice , the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing , and the charming As You Like It .

Some of his comedies might be better described as tragicomedies. Among these are Pericles , Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest . Although graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Additional Shakespeare comedies include:

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona ,
• The Comedy of Errors ,
• Love’s Labour’s Lost ,
• The Merry Wives of Windsor ,
• Twelfth Night ,
• Measure for Measure , and
• All’s Well That Ends Well

Troilus and Cressida is emblematic of the Shakespearean “problem play,” which defies genres. Some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries classified it as a history or a comedy, though the original name of the play was The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida .

Collaborations and Lost Play

Shakespeare is known to have created plays with other writers, such as John Fletcher. They co-wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen around 1613–14, making it Shakespeare’s last known dramatic work. They also collaborated on Cardenio , a play which was not preserved. Shakespeare’s other jointly written plays are Sir Thomas More and The Raigne of King Edward the Third . When including these works, Shakespeare has 41 plays to his name.

Around the turn of the 17 th century, Shakespeare became a more extensive property owner in Stratford. When his father, John, died in 1601, he inherited the family home. Then, in 1602, he purchased about 107 acres for 320 pounds.

In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him uninterrupted time to write his plays.

A couple years prior, around 1603, Shakespeare is believed to have stopped acting in the King’s Men productions, instead focusing on his playwriting work. He likely spent the last three years of his life in Stratford.

When Did Shakespeare Die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52 nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Holy Trinity Church on April 25, 1616. The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown , though many people believe he died following a brief illness.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna, who by then was married. Although entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his “second-best bed.” This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor or that the couple was not close.

However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term “second-best bed” often refers to the bed belonging to the household’s master and mistress, the marital bed, and the “first-best bed” was reserved for guests.

The Bard of Avon has gone down in history as the greatest dramatist of all time and is sometimes called England’s national poet. He is credited with inventing or introducing more than 1,700 words to the English language, often as a result of combining words, changing usages, or blending in foreign root words. If you’ve used the words “downstairs,” “egregious,” “kissing,” “zany,” or “skim milk,” you can thank Shakespeare. He is also responsible for many common phrases, such as “love is blind” and “wild goose chase.”

First Folio

Although some of Shakespeare’s works were printed in his lifetime, not all were. It is because of the First Folio that we know about 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including Macbeth , Twelfth Night , and Julius Caesar . John Heminge and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s friends and fellow actors in the King’s Men, created the 36-play collection, which celebrates its 400 th anniversary this year. It was published with the title Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare died.

In addition to its literary importance, the First Folio contains an original portrait of Shakespeare on the title page. Engraved by Martin Droeshout, it’s considered one of the two authentic portraits of the writer. The other is a memorial bust at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.

Today, there are 235 surviving copies of the First Folio that date back to 1623, but experts estimate roughly 750 First Folios were printed. Three subsequent editions of Shakespeare’s Folio, with text updates and additional plays, were published between 1632 and 1685.

Did Shakespeare Write His Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere, and Francis Bacon —men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration—as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare’s life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare’s works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19 th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.

Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society, founded in 1957, put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17 th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of “William Shakespeare.” The Oxfordians cite de Vere’s extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.

They contend that King’s New School in Stratford had a curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare’s authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare’s life doesn’t mean his life didn’t exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona , The Comedy of Errors , and King John .

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King’s Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare’s plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in the late 16 th and early 17 th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn’t recognized until the 19 th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20 th century, new movements in scholarship and performance rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays remain highly popular and are constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare’s characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

• The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
• This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
• There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
• Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
• Lord, what fools these mortals be!
• To weep is to make less the depth of grief.
• In time we hate that which we often fear.
• Men at some time are masters of their fates: the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
• What’s done cannot be undone.
• We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
• Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
• The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
• All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
• I say there is no darkness but ignorance.
• I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
• Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

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William Shakespeare

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 7, 2019 | Original: October 3, 2011

Considered the greatest English-speaking writer in history and known as England’s national poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has had more theatrical works performed than any other playwright. To this day, countless theater festivals around the world honor his work, students memorize his eloquent poems and scholars reinterpret the million words of text he composed. They also hunt for clues about the life of the man who inspires such “bardolatry” (as George Bernard Shaw derisively called it), much of which remains shrouded in mystery. Born into a family of modest means in Elizabethan England, the “Bard of Avon” wrote at least 37 plays and a collection of sonnets, established the legendary Globe theater and helped transform the English language.

Shakespeare’s Childhood and Family Life

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a bustling market town 100 miles northwest of London, and baptized there on April 26, 1564. His birthday is traditionally celebrated on April 23, which was the date of his death in 1616 and is the feast day of St. George, the patron saint of England. Shakespeare’s father, John, dabbled in farming, wood trading, tanning, leatherwork, money lending and other occupations; he also held a series of municipal positions before falling into debt in the late 1580s. The ambitious son of a tenant farmer, John boosted his social status by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic landowner. Like John, she may have been a practicing Catholic at a time when those who rejected the newly established Church of England faced persecution.

Did you know? 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, he himself never spelled his name “William Shakespeare,” using variations such as “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” instead.

William was the third of eight Shakespeare children, of whom three died in childhood. Though no records of his education survive, it is likely that he attended the well-regarded local grammar school, where he would have studied Latin grammar and classics. It is unknown whether he completed his studies or abandoned them as an adolescent to apprentice with his father.

At 18 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway (1556-1616), a woman eight years his senior, in a ceremony thought to have been hastily arranged due to her pregnancy. A daughter, Susanna, was born less than seven months later in May 1583. Twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Susanna and Judith would live to old age, while Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died at 11. As for William and Anne, it is believed that the couple lived apart for most of the year while the bard pursued his writing and theater career in London. It was not until the end of his life that Shakespeare moved back in with Anne in their Stratford home.

Shakespeare’s Lost Years and Early Career

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” (evidence that he had already made a name for himself on the London stage). 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.

Whatever the answer, by 1592 Shakespeare had begun working as an actor, penned several plays and spent enough time in London to write about its geography, culture and diverse personalities with great authority. Even his earliest works evince knowledge of European affairs and foreign countries, familiarity with the royal court and general erudition that might seem unattainable to a young man raised in the provinces by parents who were probably illiterate. 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. (Most scholars and literary historians dismiss this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.)

Shakespeare’s Plays and Poems

Shakespeare’s first plays, believed to have been written before or around 1592, encompass all three of the main dramatic genres in the bard’s oeuvre: tragedy (“Titus Andronicus”); comedy (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Taming of the Shrew”); and history (the “Henry VI” trilogy and “Richard III”). Shakespeare was likely affiliated with several different theater companies when these early works debuted on the London stage. In 1594 he began writing and acting for a troupe known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (renamed the King’s Men when James I appointed himself its patron), ultimately becoming its house playwright and partnering with other members to establish the legendary Globe theater in 1599.

Between the mid-1590s and his retirement around 1612, Shakespeare penned the most famous of his 37-plus plays, including “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Hamlet,” “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “The Tempest.” As a dramatist, he is known for his frequent use of iambic pentameter, meditative soliloquies (such as Hamlet’s ubiquitous “To be, or not to be” speech) and ingenious wordplay. His works weave together and reinvent theatrical conventions dating back to ancient Greece, featuring assorted casts of characters with complex psyches and profoundly human interpersonal conflicts. Some of his plays—notably “All’s Well That Ends Well,” “Measure for Measure” and “Troilus and Cressida”—are characterized by moral ambiguity and jarring shifts in tone, defying, much like life itself, classification as purely tragic or comic.

Also remembered for his non-dramatic contributions, Shakespeare published his first narrative poem—the erotic “Venus and Adonis,” intriguingly dedicated to his close friend Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton—while London theaters were closed due to a plague outbreak in 1593. The many reprints of this piece and a second poem, “The Rape of Lucrece,” hint that during his lifetime the bard was chiefly renowned for his poetry. Shakespeare’s famed collection of sonnets, which address themes ranging from love and sensuality to truth and beauty, was printed in 1609, possibly without its writer’s consent. (It has been suggested that he intended them for his intimate circle only, not the general public.) Perhaps because of their explicit sexual references or dark emotional character, the sonnets did not enjoy the same success as Shakespeare’s earlier lyrical works.

Shakespeare’s Death and Legacy

Shakespeare died at age 52 of unknown causes on April 23, 1616, leaving the bulk of his estate to his daughter Susanna. (Anne Hathaway, who outlived her husband by seven years, famously received his “second-best bed.”) The slabstone over Shakespeare’s tomb, located inside a Stratford church, bears an epitaph—written, some say, by the bard himself—warding off grave robbers with a curse: “Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones.” His remains have yet to be disturbed, despite requests by archaeologists keen to reveal what killed him.

In 1623, two of Shakespeare’s former colleagues published a collection of his plays, commonly known as the First Folio. In its preface, the dramatist Ben Jonson wrote of his late contemporary, “He was not of an age, but for all time.” Indeed, Shakespeare’s plays continue to grace stages and resonate with audiences around the world, and have yielded a vast array of film, television and theatrical adaptations. Furthermore, 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”).

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Biography Online

Short Biography William Shakespeare

Short bio of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23rd April 1564.

His father William was a successful local businessman, and his mother Mary was the daughter of a landowner. Relatively prosperous, it is likely the family paid for Williams education, although there is no evidence he attended university.

In 1582 William, aged only 18, married an older woman named Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Juliet. Their only son Hamnet died aged just 11.

Due to some well-timed investments, Shakespeare was able to secure a firm financial background, leaving time for writing and acting. The best of these investments was buying some real estate near Stratford in 1605, which soon doubled in value.

It seemed Shakespeare didn’t mind being absent from his family – he only returned home during Lent when all the theatres were closed. It is thought that during the 1590s he wrote the majority of his sonnets. This was a time of prolific writing and his plays developed a good deal of interest and controversy. His early plays were mainly comedies (e.g. Much Ado about Nothing , A Midsummer’s Night Dream ) and histories (e.g. Henry V )

By the early Seventeenth Century, Shakespeare had begun to write plays in the genre of tragedy. These plays, such as Hamlet , Othello and King Lear , often hinge on some fatal error or flaw in the lead character and provide fascinating insights into the darker aspects of human nature. These later plays are considered Shakespeare’s finest achievements.

When writing an introduction to Shakespeare’s First Folio of published plays in 1623, Johnson wrote of Shakespeare:

“not of an age, but for all time”

Shakespeare the Poet

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets mostly in the 1590s. These short poems, deal with issues such as lost love. His sonnets have an enduring appeal due to his formidable skill with language and words.

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove:”

– Sonnet CXVI

The Plays of Shakespeare

The plays of Shakespeare have been studied more than any other writing in the English language and have been translated into numerous languages. He was rare as a play-write for excelling in tragedies, comedies and histories. He deftly combined popular entertainment with an extraordinary poetic capacity for expression which is almost mantric in quality.

 “This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!”

– Lord Polonius, Hamlet Act I, Scene 3

During his lifetime, Shakespeare was not without controversy, but he also received lavish praise for his plays which were very popular and commercially successful.

His plays have retained an enduring appeal throughout history and the world. Some of his most popular plays include:

• Twelfth Night
• Romeo and Juliet

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…”

Death of Shakespeare

Shakespeare died in 1616; it is not clear how he died, and numerous suggestions have been put forward. John Ward, the local vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), writes in a diary account that:

“Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.”

In 1616, there was an outbreak of typhus (“The new fever”) which may have been the cause. The average life expectancy of someone born in London, England in the Sixteenth Century was about 35 years old, Shakespeare died age 52.

Was Shakespeare really Shakespeare?

Some academics, known as the “Oxfords,” claim that Shakespeare never actually wrote any plays. They contend Shakespeare was actually just a successful businessman, and for authorship suggest names such as Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford .  Arguments have also been made for Francis Bacon . The argument that Shakespeare was actually the Earl of Oxford relies on circumstantial evidence and similarities in his writing style and relationships between his life and the play of Shakespeare. 

However, there is no hard evidence tying the Earl of Oxford to the theatre or writing the scripts.  By contrast, there is evidence of William Shakespeare working in theatres and he received a variety of criticism from people such as Ben Johnson and Robert Greene. Also, the Earl of Oxford died in 1604, and it is generally agreed there were 12 plays published after this date. (Oxfords contend these plays were finished by other writers.)

It is also hard to believe the vain Earl of Oxford (who killed one of his own servants) would write such amazing scripts and then be happy with anonymity. Also, to maintain anonymity, it would also require the co-operation of numerous family members and other figures in the theatre world. The theory of other writers to Shakespeare only emerged centuries after the publishing of the First Folio.

Shakespeare’s Epitaph

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare Blessed by y man y spares hes stones And curst be he y moves my bones

– More interesting facts on Shakespeare

Quotes on Shakespeare

“Shakespeare, no mere child of nature; no automaton of genius; no passive vehicle of inspiration possessed by the spirit, not possessing it; first studied patiently, meditated deeply, understood minutely, till knowledge became habitual and intuitive, wedded itself to his habitual feelings, and at length gave birth to that stupendous power by which he stands alone, with no equal or second in his own class; to that power which seated him on one of the two glorysmitten summits of the poetic mountain, with Milton’s his compeer, not rival.”

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Biographia Literaria (1817)

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of William Shakespeare”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net , 18th May 2006. Last updated 1 March 2019.

Popular quotes of Shakespeare

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

– Polonius, giving Laertes a pep talk. ( Hamlet )

“To be, or not to be: that is the question Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;”

– Hamlet

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

– Hamlet (to Horatio on seeing a ghost)

“We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”

– The Tempest (Prospero)

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Julius Caesar (Cassius to Brutus)

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

– Macbeth (on learning of the death of Queen)

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

— Hamlet in Hamlet

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”

—Dauphin in Henry V

“Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.”

—Lucio in Measure for Measure

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition at Amazon

Shakespeare: The Biography

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Shakespeare's life.

19th-century portrait of Shakespeare with his family at home in Stratford

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

Primary sources

Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials documenting Shakespeare’s life. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works, as well as additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

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.

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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Biography of William Shakespeare, History's Most Famous Playwright

His plays and sonnets are still studied and performed to this day

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• Shakespeare's Life and World
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• M.A., Theater Studies, Warwick University
• B.A., Drama and English, DeMontfort University

William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564–April 23, 1616) wrote at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets , which are considered among the most important and enduring ever written. Although the plays have captured the imagination of theatergoers for centuries, some historians claim that Shakespeare didn’t actually write them .

Amazingly, little is known about Shakespeare’s life. Even though he is the world’s most famous and popular playwright , historians have had to fill in the gaps between the handful of surviving records from Elizabethan times .

Fast Facts: William Shakespeare

• Known For : One of history's most famous playwrights, who wrote at least 37 plays, which are still studied and performed to this day, as well as 154 sonnets, which are also highly regarded
• Also Known As : The Bard
• Born : April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England
• Parents : John Shakespeare, Mary Arden
• Died : April 23, 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon
• Published Works : " Romeo and Juliet" (1594–1595), "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (1595–1596), " Much Ado About Nothing " (1598–1599), "Henry V" (1598–1599), " Hamlet " 1600–1601, "King Lear" (1605–1606), "Macbeth" ( 1605–1606), "The Tempest" (1611–1612)
• Awards and Honors : After Shakespeare's death, a funerary monument was erected to honor him at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he is buried. It depicts a half-effigy of The Bard in the act of writing. Numerous statues and monuments have been erected around the world to honor the playwright.
• Spouse : Anne Hathaway (m. Nov. 28, 1582–April 23, 1616)
• Children : Susanna, Judith and Hamnet (twins)
• Notable Quote : "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

Early Years

Shakespeare was probably born on April 23, 1564 , but this date is an educated guess because we only have a record of his baptism three days later. His parents, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, were successful townsfolk who moved to a large house in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, from the surrounding villages. His father became a wealthy town official and his mother was from an important, respected family.

It is widely assumed that Shakespeare attended the local grammar school where he would have studied Latin, Greek, and classical literature . His early education must have made a huge impact on him because many of his plots draw on the classics.

Shakespeare’s Family

At age 18, on November 28, 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway from Shottery, who was already pregnant with their first daughter. The wedding would have been arranged quickly to avoid the shame of having a child born out of wedlock. Shakespeare fathered three children, Susanna, born in May 1583 but conceived out of wedlock, and Judith and Hamnet, twins who were born in February 1585.

Hamnet died in 1596 at age 11. Shakespeare was devastated by the death of his only son, and it is argued that "Hamlet," written four years later, is evidence of this.

Theater Career

At some point in the late 1580s, Shakespeare made the four-day ride to London, and by 1592 had established himself as a writer. In 1594, an event occurred that changed the course of literary history: Shakespeare joined Richard Burbage’s acting company and became its chief playwright for the next two decades. Here, Shakespeare was able to hone his craft, writing for a regular group of performers.

Shakespeare also worked as an actor in the theater company , although the lead roles were always reserved for Burbage himself. The company became very successful and often performed in front of the Queen of England, Elizabeth I. In 1603, James I ascended the throne and granted his royal patronage to Shakespeare’s company, which became known as The King’s Men.

Shakespeare the Gentleman

Like his father, Shakespeare had excellent business sense. He bought the largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon by 1597, owned shares in the Globe Theater, and profited from some real estate deals near Stratford-upon-Avon in 1605. Before long, Shakespeare officially became a gentleman, partly due to his own wealth and partly due to inheriting a coat of arms from his father who died in 1601.

Later Years and Death

Shakespeare retired to Stratford in 1611 and lived comfortably off his wealth for the rest of his life. In his will, he bequeathed most of his properties to Susanna, his eldest daughter, and some actors from The King’s Men. Famously, he left his wife his “second-best bed” before he died on April 23, 1616 . (This date is an educated guess because we only have a record of his burial two days later).

If you visit Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, you can still view his grave and read his epitaph engraved into the stone:

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.

More than 400 years after his death, Shakespeare's plays and sonnets still hold a special place in theaters, libraries, and schools around the world. "His plays and sonnets have been performed in nearly every major language on every continent," notes Greg Timmons writing on Biography.com.

In addition to the legacy of his plays and sonnets, many of the words and phrases Shakespeare created infuse dictionaries today and are embedded in modern English, including these sayings from some of his plays:

• All that glitters isn't gold (" The Merchant of Venice ")
• All's well that ends well (" All's Well that Ends Well ")
• To be-all and the end-all (" Macbeth ")
• Break the ice (" The Taming of the Shrew )
• We have seen better days (" As You Like It ")
• Brave new world (" The Tempest ")
• Brevity is the soul of wit (" Hamlet ")
• Cruel to be kind ("Hamlet")
• It's Greek to me (" Julius Caesar ")
• Something wicked this way comes ("Macbeth")
• Star-crossed lovers (" Romeo and Juliet ")
• Wild-goose chase ("Romeo and Juliet")
• The world is my oyster (" The Merry Wives of Windsor ")

Few writers, poets, and playwrights—and Shakespeare was all three—have had the influence on culture and learning that Shakespeare has. With luck, his plays and sonnets may still be revered and studied four centuries from now.

• “ IWonder - William Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of England's Bard. ”  BBC.
• “ Shakespeare's Words & Phrases. ”  Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
• Timmons, Greg. “ William Shakespeare's 400th Anniversary: The Life & Legacy of The Bard. ”  Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 2 Nov. 2018.
• “ Who Was William Shakespeare? Everything You Need to Know. ”  Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline , thefamouspeople.com.
• “ William Shakespeare Quotes. ”  BrainyQuote , Xplore.
• Facts About Shakespeare
• A Timeline of William Shakespeare's Life
• Fun and Creative Ways to Celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday
• How Did William Shakespeare Die?
• William Shakespeare's School Life, Childhood, and Education
• Shakespeare's Brothers and Sisters
• Cervantes and Shakespeare: What They Had in Common (and Didn’t)
• The Influence of the Renaissance in Shakespeare's Work
• Was Shakespeare Gay?
• An Introduction to Shakespearean Sonnets
• William Shakespeare's Most Famous Plays
• William Shakespeare's Family
• Everything You Need to Know About Shakespeare's Plays
• Study Shakespeare
• A Complete List of Shakespeare’s Plays
• List of Phrases Shakespeare Invented

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, the United Kingdom in April 1564.  He was a son of the middle-class parents, John and Mary Shakespeare. They lived in a small town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, Shakespeare was the first surviving son, for two earlier children, Joan and Margaret, who died in childhood. His early life was spent at two locations; Stratford, his native town, and London , the hub of English theatre. His father passed away in 1601 at the age of 70, while around seven years later his mother, too, breathed her last in 1608.

Starting his early education at the age of seven at the Stratford Grammar School, William Shakespeare underwent rigors of learning grammar and literature which received special focus at school. He also learned basic manners and prayers in a theological setting besides traditional subjects of rhetoric , logic, history, Latin and the works of great classical authors. Unfortunately, the financial crisis forced him to quit his education. In spite of the challenges, Shakespeare retained his reading addiction and theatrical interests.

Married Life

Shakespeare married Anny Hathaway at eighteen in 1582. It is, however, interesting that Anny was seven years senior and pregnant at the time of their marriage. Therefore, they had to welcome Susanna, their first child very soon. After a few years, they welcome twins. Sadly, one of the twins died at eleven. Due to severe poverty Shakespeare decided to go to London. He wanted to try his luck in theatrical companies as an actor. Despite his talent in acting, he succeeded in making a name as a writer.

It is said that Shakespeare always had a sound mind and perfect health. However, he lost his life on 25th April 1616. The actual cause of his demise is unknown. However, he wrote a will almost a month before his death in which he described himself as a perfect man.

Some Important Facts of His Life

• He is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in his home town of Stratford, Warwickshire.
• In 1585, Shakespeare disappeared for almost seven years, and historians call this period of life as “the lost years.”
• When in 1952 he emerged as an actor and a playwright, he received the title of “upstart crow” from Robert Greene.
• Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary to have introduced almost 3,000 words in the English language.
• He wrote 37 plays and more than 150 sonnets and other poems .

Writing Career

Though Shakespeare left school at the age of fourteen forced by the financial crisis, he was sufficiently educated. Hence, he earned a good name in acting and writing. He moved to London where he established his career as an actor and writer. He wrote his first play ,  Henry-VI Part-I, in 1590 and Henry-VI Part-III and IV in 1591. He won unprecedented popularity due to his outstanding literary out. Despite this, in 1592, Robert Greene’s Groatworth of Wit  famously calls Shakespeare an ”upstart crow,” a negatively discouraging term. According to Robert Greene, Shakespeare was not capable enough to produce the finest pieces. He believed that Shakespeare borrowed ideas from others. His accusation, however, did not impact his writings. He continued producing masterpieces after masterpieces until his death. In 1593, he started working on his 124 sonnet collection. Despite facing criticism patiently, he never let himself derailed from the literary path. He established himself as an excellent poet and a great playwright with masterpieces such as The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth , Othello , Venus and Adonis’, The Rape of Lucrece and Hamlet to his credit.  

Shakespeare established his career as an actor first and then as a playwright. Shakespeare stepped into the world of literature and theatre, leaving lasting impressions. He became popular due to his traditional writing style in the early part of his career. First, he strictly followed iambic pentameter in his blank verse plays, but gradually he moved toward more conventional practices, adopting his own distinctly personal style in writing based on minute observation of human life and nature. It is stated that he added almost 1700 new words to English vocabulary during the depiction of the university of human nature and experience. The recurring themes of most of his poems and plays are love, death, betrayal, and jealousy. Regarding literary devices , he often used extended metaphors , heavy diction , conceits and soliloquies to create a unique style in his plays and poems.

William Shakespeare’s Works

Best Plays:   William Shakespeare has tried his hands in both plays as well as poetry.  Some of his best plays include; The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Othello, King Lear , Mid-Summer Night ’s Dream, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Best Poems:   Some of the best poems he has written includes; “The Rape of Lucrece”, “The Phoenix and the Turtle”, “ Sonnet 20 ”, “Sonnet 1”, “ Sonnet 73 ”, “Venus and Adonis”, “ Sonnet 29 ”, “ Sonnet 130 ”, “ Sonnet 116 ” and “Sonnet 18.”

William Shakespeare’s Impacts on Future Literature

His pen brought revolutionary changes to the world of literature. Even today, researchers tend to investigate how his works evolved social, political and theatrical settings. He not only wrote plays and poetry but also managed to leave a permanent mark on how we live and speak in contemporary culture. His writings are still subject to interpretation and translation in various languages. His writing style influenced a large number of renowned writers such as Charles Dickens , Maya Angelou, John Keats , and Herman Melville . Various writers and poets use his style as a guiding model for writing plays and poetry. Also, genres of tragedy , comedy , and tragi-comedy owe a great deal to Shakespeare for popularity and universal recognition.

William Shakespeare’s Famous Quotes

• “To be, or not to be: that is the question”.Hamlet (Act III, Scene I).
• “This above all: to thine own self be true ”. Hamlet (Act I, Scene III).
• “But, for my own part, it was Greek to me”. Julius Caesar (Act I, Scene II).
• “ Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry”. Hamlet (Act I, Scene III).
• “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”. Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene II).

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• 10 Examples of Irony in Shakespeare
• 15 Best Shakespeare’s Blank Verse
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• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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• Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
• Sonnet 11: As Fast As Thou Shalt Wane, So Fast Thou Grow’st
• Sonnet 12: When I Do Count The Clock That Tells The Time
• Sonnet 14: Not From The Stars Do I My Judgement Pluck
• Sonnet 15: When I Consider Everything That Grows
• Sonnet 10: For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any
• Sonnet 16: But Wherefore Do Not You a Mightier Way
• Sonnet 17:  Who Will Believe My Verse in Time to Come

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Shakespeare Research Resources

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s world and historical context, shakespeare’s plays, shakespeare’s poems, shakespeare’s writing style, shakespeare’s most common themes, shakespeare’s most famous quotations, the shakespeare authorship question, shakespeare teacher resources.

Four hundred years after Shakespeare's death, millions of people continue to read his poems, repeat his phrases, watch his plays, and use the words he coined. In addition to being the most celebrated writer in the English language, Shakespeare is also the most studied. Though understanding the breadth of research on Shakespeare would require multiple lifetimes, this guide will give you a comprehensive introduction to his life, work, and place in history. Below, you'll find a curated, annotated, and organized summary of the best available information on Shakespeare.

Even though Shakespeare is one of the most scrutinized authors of all time, there are few historical records regarding his private life. We know the essential facts (baptism date, family information, birthplace), but there are aspects of his life that are subject to speculation or assumption. These include the “lost years” (1578–82 and 1585–92). The resources below will help you piece together the biography of Shakespeare as we know it.

"Shakespeare’s Life" (Wikipedia)  

The Wikipedia entry on Shakespeare’s life discusses most of the public records available, such as lawsuits and accounting records. One helpful feature of the entry is the visual family tree.

"William Shakespeare Biography" (Biography.com)  

This resource from Biography.com outlines the contours of Shakespeare's life in a brief but comprehensive way. It includes sections on his childhood, education, and family.

Video summary of Shakespeare’s life (Biography.com)  

In less than five minutes, this Biography.com video summarizes Shakespeare’s life, work, and legacy. The video includes commentary from Shakespeare scholars and authorities.

William Shakespeare: A Study Of Facts And Problems

James Shapiro, an eminent Shakespeare professor at Columbia University, describes E.K. Chambers as "the most scrupulous of scholars and probably the most influential Shakespeare scholar to have ever lived." With accolades like this one, you'll want to check out Chambers's book, a thorough yet accessible treatment of Shakespeare’s life.

"The Seven Ages of Shakespeare’s Life" (Internet Shakespeare Editions)

This webpage, hosted by the University of Victoria, organizes Shakespeare’s life into seven periods and provides an overview and detailed discussion of each age. The pages provide insightful information as well as images of records such as Shakespeare’s marriage license.

"Shakespeare’s Life" (The British Library)  

Andrew Dickson (an author, journalist, and former arts editor for  The Guardian ) offers this short article on the known details of Shakespeare's life. The article is part of the British Library's series on Shakespeare and Renaissance writers.

"William Shakespeare" biography (Poetry Foundation)

The Poetry Foundation's website provides short biographies of major poets. This article on Shakespeare’s life discusses some of the scholarly disputes surrounding Shakespeare’s works, and the continuing impact of his work today.

"The Mystery of Shakespeare's Identity" ( Time Magazine)

The lack of actual historical records about William Shakespeare inhibits research on his life. As a result, some historians question the man’s very identity. This article discusses the broad outlines of this debate.

Timeline of Shakespeare’s life (BBC)

The BBC created a masterful timeline of Shakespeare's life. The page tracks Shakespeare’s life from birth to death, complete with dates, discussion, and images. To gain the deepest understanding of Shakespeare’s life and work in the shortest amount of time, this resource is a must.

"William Shakespeare" ( Encyclopædia Britannica )

This encyclopedia entry on Shakespeare’s life explores aspects of the bard's persona (man, poet, dramatist), his plays and poems, and his work's known sources. Included on the page are additional images, videos, and related articles.

"The Shakespeare Paper Trail" (BBC)

Michael Wood asks some questions regarding the lack of records surrounding Shakespeare’s life, and offers some tentative answers.

"William Shakespeare" biography (The Literature Network)

For a succinct summary of Shakespeare’s life, the Literature Network’s bio is a good place to start. The straightforward organization of Shakespeare’s tragedies, comedies, and histories is a helpful reference point.

"Four Periods of Shakespeare’s Life" (Shakespeare Online)

Many students of Shakespeare organize his life into four periods. Although these periods have been labelled in various ways, they can be described as the early period, the balanced period, the overflowing period, and the final period.

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Amazon)

The well-known early modern literary scholar Stephen Greenblatt published this "attempt" at a Shakespeare biography in 2004. Though he admits the gaps in our knowledge make this biographical project difficult, he successfully fleshes out the details. This book, though intended for a wide readership, is a few steps above "entry-level" treatments of the topic.

Shakespeare's career overlapped with the Elizabethan era, when the eponymous Queen Elizabeth reigned (1558–1603). This period, also known as the “Golden Age” and apex of the English Renaissance, was a time of economic growth, international expansion, and nationalistic fervor. The resources below will help you get to know the world in which Shakespeare lived.

"Shakespeare’s Medieval World" (University of Cambridge)

We tend to think that Shakespeare’s world was thoroughly Elizabethan, characterized by the optimism of the English Renaissance. In reality, as this essay by a prominent early modern scholar asserts, Shakespeare’s “world was largely a medieval one.”

"Shakespeare’s Life and Times" (Royal Shakespeare Company)

Although this article is largely biographical, it provides some insight into drama during Shakespeare's day and the way that Shakespeare himself profited from his plays.

"How the Tudor Dynasty Shaped Modern Britain" (BBC)

To understand Shakespeare in his historical context, it’s important to understand the period of the Tudor Dynasty in English history. This BBC timeline surveys the period from 1485 to 1603, during which Shakespeare lived.

"Theater Experience in Shakespeare's Lifetime" (ThoughtCo)

One of the best ways to understand Shakespeare’s plays is to understand what the theater experience was like in his day. What would it be like to attend a Shakespearean comedy at the Globe? This article discusses 16th century theater etiquette, the absence of female actors, and the business of running a theater.

"Shakespeare's Time and the Renaissance" (ThoughtCo)

Shakespeare lived during the apogee of the English Renaissance. Never before in English history had there been such a proliferation of masterful art, literary interest, and popular appeal in theater. This article discusses the nexus of the English Renaissance with Shakespeare’s life, how the era shaped the man, and how the man shaped the era.

"History and Politics" (Internet Shakespeare Editions)

To understand an era, it’s important to examine it from many angles—cultural, political, legal, and religious. This resource from Internet Shakespeare Editions provides some background on the many streams of influence in Shakespeare’s lifetime.

"Elizabethan Era" (Wikipedia)

The Wikipedia entry on Elizabethan England provides a helpful overview of the period, and includes sections on "government," "social history," "religion," and more.

"English Renaissance Timeline: Some Historical and Cultural Dates" (Univ. of Oxford)

For an at-a-glance-reference to major dates during the English Renaissance, check out this page from an English literature graduate student at the University of Oxford.

"Shakespeare’s London" (British Library)

Shakespeare was a Londoner, and his identity and daily activities were shaped by the city’s expansion, politics, and turmoil. This article provides a compelling description of London city life.

There are 37 extant plays attributed to Shakespeare, each of which is categorized below under tragedies, comedies, or histories. Clicking on the title of the play provides you with the full text alongside a modern English translation.

• Antony and Cleopatra
• Julius Caesar  
• King Lear  
• Romeo and Juliet
• Timon of Athens  
• Titus Andronicus
• Troilus and Cressida
• All's Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It  
• The Comedy of Errors  
• Love's Labor's Lost  
• Measure for Measure
• Merchant of Venice
• Merry Wives of Windsor  
• A Midsummer Night's Dream  
• Much Ado about Nothing  
• The Taming of the Shrew  
• The Tempest  
• Twelfth Night
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Winter's Tale
• Henry IV, Part I  
• Henry IV, Part II
• Henry VI, Part I
• Henry VI, Part II  
• Henry VI, Part III  
• Richard III

Most of us know Shakespeare as a playwright, but he first gained fame as a poet. Shakespeare’s poetry is no less masterful than his plays—some would even argue that Shakespeare was a better poet than playwright. Shakespeare’s poems contain some of the best-loved lines and popular expressions in the English language. The resources below will introduce you to this body of work.

The Sonnets

"Shakescleare: Shakespeare’s Sonnets" (LitCharts)

Our Shakescleare series provides the full text of all 154 Shakespearean sonnets, along with a line-by-line modern English translation and a one-line summary of each poem.

Sir John Gielgud’s Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (YouTube)

One of the best ways to understand and even interpret poems is to hear them read aloud. Sir John Gielgud performs each of Shakespeare’s sonnets in this YouTube collection.

"Shakespeare’s Sonnets" (Shakespeare Online)

Shakespeare Online has the complete text of each sonnet with accompanying interpretive notes. The introduction to the resource discusses the dates of composition for the sonnets and their narrative objects.

Sonnet Facsimiles (Internet Shakespeare Editions)

The form in which we read Shakespeare’s sonnets today are not the form in which they were originally written. These images from the UCLA Library and hosted by a University of Victoria site offer facsimiles (exact copies of printed material) of the early editions of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

"Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Don Paterson" ( The Guardian )

One arena of scholarly dispute is the interpretation of Shakespeare’s sonnets. For those who are interested in surveying the scholarly melee (and better understanding the sonnets), this essay from The Guardian should help.

"Understanding Shakespeare's Sonnets" (YouTube)

This video is a Q&A discussion between three Shakespeare authors and educators discussing the context and interpretation of Shakespeare’s sonnets. It is hosted by the University of Warwick.

CrashCourse Video: "Shakespeare’s Sonnets" (YouTube)

For an entertaining and humorous survey of Shakespeare’s sonnets, look no further than this 12-minute video from Crash Course Literature.

Other Poems

Aside from the famous sonnets, Shakespeare also published a handful of other, longer poems. The LitCharts Shakescleare series provides access to the text, alongside a modern English translation.

• The Rape of Lucrece
• Venus and Adonis  
• A Lover's Complaint
• The Phoenix and Turtle

Although Shakespeare sometimes followed dramatic conventions of the Renaissance, he also forged his own path. The Tempest  follows Aristotle's classical unities of time, space, and action (for example, that the play's action should occur during 24 hours or less), while The Winter's Tale traverses 16 years and two diverse kingdoms. The resources below survey Shakespeare's stylistic approaches and lasting influence on literature.  

"Shakespeare’s Writing Style" (Wikipedia)  

This entry gives an overview of Shakespeare’s style in both his plays and poems. One helpful aspect of the entry is the discussion on similarities to and differences from contemporaries.

"The Writing Style of William Shakespeare" (Freelancewriting.com)  

For a simple discussion of Shakespeare’s writing style, this article is a helpful place to start. The article surveys Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter and explores the depth of character development in his work.

"Why Shakespeare Loved Iambic Pentameter" (TED-Ed)  

This TED-Ed original introduces students to Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter and explains why "Shakespeare's words have such staying power."

"Shakespeare’s Reputation" (YouTube)

Gordon McMullan, a literature professor at King’s College, suggests that Shakespeare’s writing style was a result both of his inherent genius and the extrinsic forces of market and popular appeal.

Many of the themes in Shakespeare's work are easy to spot—for example, love in Romeo and Juliet . Other themes may be less obvious, but are no less significant. Had you noticed that  Romeo and Juliet also has a recurring theme of servants and masters? These figures' presence conveys a subtle message that the disadvantaged possess identity and worth apart from their menial duties. The resources below will help you get to know these common threads.

"'Romeo and Juliet' Themes" (LitCharts)

Each LitChart for Shakespeare's plays contains a guide to its major themes. Linked above is the "themes" section for  Romeo and Juliet , which features colors and icons you can use to track each theme across the play.

"What are the typical recurring themes in Shakespeare's plays?" (Mytutor)

When introducing students to the subject of themes in Shakespeare’s plays, it may be helpful to start at a basic level. Each Shakespeare play may have multiple themes, but the elemental ones are power, nature, love, and conflict.

"Themes in Shakespeare’s Plays" (Abilene Christian Univ.)

This resource by Shakespeare professor Tracey Sanders explains how Shakespeare communicates his themes, and discusses the four recurring themes found throughout Shakespeare’s plays and poetry.

"Teachers' Notes: Plays, Themes and Characters" (BBC)

This BBC archived page provides a list of Shakespeare's plays followed by the key themes of that play. For example, the listed themes for  Twelfth Night  are love and disguise.

"Shakespeare Tragedies" (ThoughtCo)

Shakespeare’s tragedies share several common features, as explained in this brief summary of tragic themes. It was written by a former university lecturer of Theater Studies.

"Thinking in Shakespeare" (Oxford Univ. Press via Vimeo)

This short animation from Oxford University Press discusses the theme of thinking in Shakespeare, and provides helpful examples from several of his plays.

According to some analyses, Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the English language, not counting quotations from the Bible. Shakespeare quotations are so common, in fact, that many people quote him without realizing it. Phrases like “Greek to me,” “fair play,” and “into thin air” come directly from Shakespeare plays ( Julius Caesar , King John , and  The Tempest , respectively). Each of the resources below deals with Shakespeare's contributions to the English language.

"Here Are Shakespeare's 15 Most Beloved Quotes" (TIME)

Rather than choosing quotations at random, TIME counted the Kindle highlights across three editions of Shakespeare’s works. Their quasi-scientific approach brought up 15 well-loved quotes.

"34 Of The Most Brilliant Shakespeare Quotes" (Buzzfeed)  

This admittedly arbitrarily-chosen Buzzfeed list will introduce you to many of the most quoted Shakespearean lines, including a few by Polonius ( Hamlet ), Jacques ( As You Like It ), and Cordelia ( King Lear ).

"Top Shakespeare Quotes" (ThoughtCo)

ThoughtCo, which publishes a wide variety of Shakespeare resources, offers this article on ten Shakespeare quotes. It was written by a former English teacher and believer in the persuasive power of quotations.

"William Shakespeare Quotes" (BrainyQuote)

If visual quotations are more to your liking, BrainyQuote provides quotations overlaid on scenic landscapes. Each quotation is tagged with its corresponding themes.

"William Shakespeare Quotes and Quotations" (William Shakespeare Info)

Although this website is dated and a bit clunky, it helpfully nests famous quotations under headings for the play in which the line is found.

Did Shakespeare actually write the plays attributed to him? The relative lack of records for Shakespeare's life has led to rampant speculation. The resources below will introduce you to the "Stratfordian position" (that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon authored the plays), along with the “anti-Stratfordian” position that he did not. Alongside these questions, it is important to note that recent scholarship has named a number of collaborators on plays we usually think of Shakespeare's alone.

"Shakespeare Authorship Question" (Wikipedia)

The Wikipedia treatment of the authorship question is thorough and well-organized. It is the perfect place to begin attempting to understand the main arguments for and against Shakespeare’s authorship.

AKA Shakespeare: A Scientific Approach to the Authorship Question (Amazon)

Peter A. Sturrock, an astrophysicist, uses Bayesian statistics to tackle the authorship question. Sturrock invites readers to answer the question themselves, but furnishes all the information needed to make up your mind.  

"The Simple Case for Shakespeare" (Shakespeare Resource Center)

This author makes a case for Shakespeare’s authorship by setting the stage with the four most likely authors, a discussion of motive and plausibility, and a conclusion—“the plausibility of Shakespeare.”

"Did Shakespeare Really Write His Plays? A Few Theories Examined" (BBC America)

Wade gently into the controversy by understanding the theories, the purported evidence, and who else might conceivably have written the plays if not William Shakespeare himself.

"Did Shakespeare Really Write His Own Plays?" (The History Channel)  

Another entry-level treatment of the question comes from History.com. In the end, the author takes the traditional position that Shakespeare authored the works attributed to him, but provides an informative sketch of the issue.

"Why the Shakespeare Authorship Question Matters to Teenagers" ( The Guardian )

For high school literature teachers wondering if this question matters, The Guardian says “yes.” They tend to side with the Stratfordians, and suggest that “if Shakespeare did write those works (and all the evidence makes that more likely than not) it reminds us that genius is not delimited by our start in life."

"Who Really Wrote Shakespeare?" ( The Guardian )

Robert McCrum of The Guardian uses James Shapiro’s book  A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (1599)  as a springboard for his own editorializing on the authorship question. McCrum’s article buzzes with the energy of the debate, while also naming names and pointing fingers at various characters.

"Who Were Shakespeare's Collaborators?" ( Oxford University Press Blog)

This piece from Oxford University Press's blog, an excerpt from the  New Oxford Shakespeare, will introduce you to the actors, poets and playwrights who scholars have identified as Shakespeare's collaborators.

"Who Was Shakespeare?" (WhoWasShakespeare.org)

Using primary source documents and visuals from as far back as 1597, Kennedy Center award-winning Shakespeare producer Ron Song Destro examines the case for the most popular candidate of the last hundred years, Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford, referencing such famous doubters as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Mark Twain.

Teaching students about Shakespeare is no easy task, but it can be immensely rewarding. The resources below offer starting points for preparing lessons geared toward any grade level. You'll find classroom activities, distinct resources to create units on the Bard's life and work, and entire websites devoted to teaching Shakespeare.

Classroom Activities on Shakespeare 

Online Shakespeare Games

The Shakespeare’s Globe website has a full selection of online games for kids on Shakespearean topics. The "Shakespeare Word Games" page provides a scrambled word game of Shakespearean terms and characters, as well as a Weird Words Quiz.

"Who Am I" Shakespearean Character Game (Folger Shakespeare Library)

The Folger Shakespeare Library has a list of eight "Who Am I" questions to help students learn about several important Shakespearean female characters.

"Life in Shakespeare’s Time" (Shakespeare Globe)

This page offers ten bits of trivia about life in Shakespeare’s era, and will help students to visualize the world in which Shakespeare lived.

Tales from Shakespeare (Amazon)

The classic children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays comes from Charles and Mary Lamb. Although the style is very much that of the 18th century, it remains a popular choice for young readers.

"Top 10 Shakespeare Books for Children" ( The Guardian )

The Guardian provides a list of ten excellent Shakespeare books for kids, from Leon Garfield's  Shakespeare Stories  to Bloomsbury's  Shakespeare Today.

Websites Devoted to Teaching Shakespeare

Teaching Shakespeare Blog (Folger Shakespeare Library)

This Folger education blog highlights individual lessons on Shakespeare and other resources. Under the "resources" tab, you'll find Shakespeare lesson plans, a digital image collection, and more.

Teaching Shakespeare website

This website, a collaboration between some of the U.K.'s major cultural institutions, aims to "provide creative routes into the world of Shakespeare."

"Teacher Resources" (Royal Shakespeare Company)

Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company offers a number of resources for teaching Shakespeare on its website. Simply choose a play, type of resource, and age range. (Note: KS1 corresponds to ages six and seven, while KS5 corresponds to ages 16 through 18).

"Teaching Shakespeare with 'The New York Times'"

The New York Times 's Learning Network has compiled a list of articles that will help your students connect Shakespeare's work to our contemporary world. (Note: Though access to The New York Times requires a subscription, you can access a few free articles a month).

Units on Shakespeare Plays

Though all of Shakespeare's plays are worthy of study, some of them are particularly suited for use in the middle school and high school classroom, or in undergraduate surveys. These links contain practical suggestions for selecting appropriate plays and advice for designing lesson plans.

"Best First Shakespeare Plays for High School Students" (Kenludwig.com)

Playwright Ken Ludwig suggests that educators start with A Midsummer Night’s Dream , since its themes and humor are accessible to both younger and older age groups. Among the tragedies, Ludwig singles out Macbeth  and  Romeo and Juliet .

Commonly Taught Shakespeare Plays (Folger Shakespeare Library)  

According to research from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the most common plays to teach in the high school English classroom are:  Romeo and Juliet , Hamlet , Macbeth , A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Othello , and  Julius Caesar .

"Best Works of Shakespeare to Use in High School Classes" (ThoughtCo)

ThoughtCo writer Melissa Kelly, a veteran high school English teacher, lists eight Shakespeare plays to use in the classroom. She starts with Romeo and Juliet  and concludes with T he Merchant of Venice .

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Unit (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This top-rated TPT unit on  Twelfth Night , designed for middle school and high school students, includes student handouts, a quiz and test, a character information sheet, and more.

Macbeth and Shakespeare Unit (Teachers Pay Teachers)

Another top-rated TPT Shakespeare unit, this resource includes an internet scavenger hunt, graphic organizers, group project, power writing prompt, and unit test.

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• The Tempest

William Shakespeare

• Literature Notes
• William Shakespeare Biography
• Play Summary
• About The Tempest
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Act I: Scene 1
• Act I: Scene 2
• Act II: Scene 1
• Act II: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 1
• Act III: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 3
• Act IV: Scene 1
• Act V: Scene 1
• Act V: Epilogue
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• Critical Essays
• Caliban and the Natural World
• The Tempest as a Political Romance
• Famous Quotes from The Tempest
• Film Versions of The Tempest
• Full Glossary for The Tempest
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Shakespeare's Early Life

Only a few documents chronicle William Shakespeare's life, and thus scholars have been forced to attempt a reconstruction of the playwright's life based on whatever official documents have survived. Shakespeare's father moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, from nearby Snitterfield, sometime before 1557, when he married Mary Arden, the daughter of a prosperous farmer. John Shakespeare was a leather worker and merchant who held several posts in local government after he settled in Stratford.

After the couple married, they had eight children. William Shakespeare was the third child and the first son born to the couple. His baptism was recorded April 26, 1564, and although the exact date of his birth is not known, it is now celebrated on April 23, which is also the day on which he died, 52 years later.

Education and Marriage

Shakespeare's education is a matter of speculation because no school records have ever been found, but it is likely that he attended the local grammar school, King's New School, which emphasized a liberal arts education. Shakespeare would have learned Latin while at this school, since the study of Latin was central to most Elizabethan education. His education ended after grammar school, and Shakespeare did not attend university.

In November 1582, an 18-year-old Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. Their daughter Susanna was baptized six months later. On February 2, 1585, twins, Hamnet and Judith, were also baptized. Hamnet died at age 11, but both Susanna and Judith lived to be adults, marrying, and providing Shakespeare with grandchildren.

There are no definitive records of Shakespeare's life between the birth of his twins in 1585 and reference to his stage success, noted in a letter dated 1592, but it is thought that he went to London sometime around 1587 or 1588. Records indicate that Shakespeare appeared as an actor and as a playwright. He also made money as shareholder in an acting company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, and as such, he would have received a share of the gate receipts. But most actors and playwrights depended on patronage for their survival, and this was also true for Shakespeare. Eventually, Shakespeare became one of the owners of the Globe Theatre, which was built in 1599. He later also became an investor in the Blackfriars Theatre, which opened in 1609. Shakespeare wrote many of his plays specifically for performance in these two theatres.

Literary Works

Shakespeare was very casual about the publication of his works, apparently having little interest in saving his writings. The 1623 Folio contains most of Shakespeare's plays, but they were not published in chronological order and do not include the dates of their original composition. Instead, the best scholars can do is examine the quarto editions, published during Shakespeare's life, or references from contemporary letters or diaries and try to determine from those dates the possible timeframe for a play's first performance.

After careful research, scholars have assigned probable dates of composition to Shakespeare's work, and those dates, used by the editors of the Oxford Shakespeare and adopted by other editors, including the editors of the Norton Shakespeare , will be used in the following discussion of the texts' probable dates of composition. In general, the plays before 1600 were histories and romantic comedies. After 1600, tragedies became the focus of Shakespeare's work, while the problem comedies, such as The Tempest , were darker in content, exploring serious social and moral problems.

Plays before 1600

Two Gentlemen of Verona is thought to be the first play written by Shakespeare. It was first published in the 1623 Folio but thought to have been composed in 1590-91.

The Taming of the Shrew may have been written in 1592 or earlier, but it was also first published in the 1623 Folio.

The Tragedy of King Richard the Third , with a first printing in 1597, was probably first performed in 1592-93.

The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster ( The Second Part of Henry VI ) was probably composed about 1594.

The Comedy of Errors, although not published until 1623, was presumably written much earlier and was first performed in 1594.

Titus Andronicus , the first of Shakespeare's Latin plays, the revenge tragedy, was printed in 1594.

The First Part of Henry the Sixth is often attributed to multiple authors, and there are no printed editions prior to the 1623 Folio, but the play is thought to have been performed for the first time in 1594-95.

Richard Duke of York ( 3 Henry VI ) was first printed in 1595.

Love's Labour's Lost followed in 1594-95 and was followed by Love's Labour's Won , which survives only in a small fragment.

A Midsummer Night's Dream may have been performed as early as 1595, although it was not printed until 1600. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet , first published in 1597, is also thought to have been composed in 1595. Both plays offer contrasting views of love and marriage.

While it was not published until 1623, The Life and Death of King John is usually dated at about 1596.

The Tragedy of King Richard the Second followed, but this play, whose abdication scene was said to have been deleted during the lifetime of Elizabeth I, was not printed until 1597.

Because of its perceived anti-Semitic content, The Merchant of Venice has been surrounded in controversy, but when it was first registered in 1598, its content simply reflected accepted views.

Shakespeare turned once again to history for inspiration with the composition of The History of Henry the Fourth ( 1 Henry IV ), first printed in 1598.

A comedy appeared next with the composition of The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597-98.

Although not printed until 1600, Shakespeare probably wrote The Second Part of Henry Fourth immediately after he finished the first play in the sequence.

As he had done in the past, Shakespeare penned a comedy after the historical play, this time Much Ado About Nothing , probably composed in 1598.

The Life of Henry the Fifth soon followed in 1599.

Another history followed, but this time Shakespeare turned to early Roman history for inspiration. Although The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was not published until 1623, its composition is thought to be 1598-99.

With the composition of As You Like It , probably in 1599, Shakespeare recalls the influences of earlier pastoral poetry; however, this comedy marks the end of the playwright's light romantic comedies.

Plays after 1600

The year 1600 represents the beginning of a new phase in Shakespeare's compositions with the printing of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark .

Twelfth Night, or What You Will followed a year later and marked a move toward darker comedies with complex plots and characters who are often cruel rather than comic.

With Troilus and Cressida in 1601-02, Shakespeare turns to Greek antiquity and the Iliad for inspiration, although as usual, Shakespeare rewrites the story to suit his needs.

Measure for Measure is another of Shakespeare's dark comedies, not published until 1623 but first performed in 1604.

During the same period (1603-04), Shakespeare was also writing The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice and All's Well that Ends Well , a complex comedy that raises questions about accepted gender roles.

With The Life of Timons of Athens , Shakespeare again turns to history, but this play, as with several others, was first published in the 1623 Folio.

The History of King Lear or The Tragedy of King Lear , first printed in 1607-08, exists in two different texts, which are often published on facing pages or combined into one text.

The composition of The Tragedy of Macbeth followed and is usually dated at 1606. At the same time, Shakespeare was writing his sequel to Julius Caesar , The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra .

Pericles, Prince of Tyre , probably 1607-08, is thought to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and George Wilkins.

With Coriolanus in 1608, Shakespeare again finds his source in Roman history.

After 1610, Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford and semi-retirement. But he continued to write plays, with The Winter's Tale (1609-11), Cymbeline, King of Britain (1609-10), and The Tempest (1611) largely composed in Stratford.

Shakespeare's life as a playwright concluded with his creation of All Is True or, as it was also known, The Famous History of the Life of Henry the Eighth (1613) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613-14).

His Other Works

Shakespeare's genius was not confined to the many plays he wrote and produced. He also wrote poetry. The long narrative poem Venus and Adonis was published in 1593, the first of Shakespeare's works to actually be published by Shakespeare. This poem was followed by another long narrative poem — The Rape of Lucrece , first published in 1594.

While writing his plays, Shakespeare was also composing sonnets, a format adapted by English poets from its Petrarchan origins. Although he probably began composing sonnets early in his writing career, evidence exists that Shakespeare continued revising his sonnets during the 1590s and through the early 1600s, finally publishing the entire sequence in 1609. The sonnet sequence was followed by "A Lover's Complaint," which was probably composed earlier (1602 — 5), and a collection of occasional poems.

Shakespeare died April 23, 1616. Although Shakespeare's authorship of these plays has been questioned by those who suggest that he did not pen the works, he was quite well known in Elizabethan London, and it would have been difficult for a sustained conspiracy to exist. In the end, it really does not matter whether the man we know as William Shakespeare composed the plays attributed to him or not. The plays exist for our enjoyment, and that is sufficient.

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• William Shakespeare Biography

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet, actor, and playwright, and is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the world. No birth record exists of William Shakespeare, but an old church record exists that says that he was baptised in April, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is called the “Bard of Avon” and is often referred to as England’s National Poet. William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time.

Throughout his career, he worked on 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays are very famous and have been translated into every language present on this planet, and are considered to be the most performed plays of any other playwright. William Shakespeare passed away on April 23, 1616, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

About Shakespeare’s Life

William Shakespeare’s Full Name: William Shakspere’s full name is the same only. He is also known as “the Bard of Avon”.

William Shakespeare’s Birth Date: April 1564

William Shakespeare’s Death: April 1616

Who is William Shakespeare?

Who William Shakespeare is is a smaller question as he had a bigger contribution towards society.  William Shakespeare was the greatest English poet, actor, and playwright of the Renaissance era. He was baptised on 26 April, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. From 1594 onwards, he was a very important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players. For more than 450 years, Shakespeare’s writing is celebrated throughout the world as his writing captures human emotions perfectly. In spite of being known all around the world, William Shakespeare’s life has been a mystery.

The outline of his life has been provided through his work on various poems, sonnets, plays, and others. Other sources that provide information about his life are official documentations, such as church and court records. However, seven years of his life have not been recorded as his work and the documents at the church only provide a brief sketch of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

William Shakespeare’s Birth Date

According to the church record, William Shakespeare was baptised at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564, but no official birth record exists to his name. Many scholars believe that he was born on April 23, 1564, and because of this reason, many scholars celebrate it as Shakespeare’s birthday.

John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, was his father and a local landed heiress by the name of Mary Arden was his mother. He was the third child of his father. Joan and Judith were the two older sisters of Shakspeare. He also had three younger brothers by the names Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund. John Shakespeare was a very successful merchant and held the position of alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor’s. Records suggest that John Shakespeare’s fortune declined in the late 1570s. There is no official record of Shakespeare’s schooling, but many scholars believe that he attended the King’s New School in Stratford, which helped him in learning reading and writing. That school was 400 m away from his home. During the Elizabethan era, the quality of grammar schools were high. The royal decree standardised the Latin text and the school had an intense grammar education that was based on Latin classical authors. 

On November 28, 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathway in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne Hathway was 26 when they married each other, and they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, they were blessed with twin daughters, named Hamnet and Judith.

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where there is no record of his life after the birth of his twins. Many scholars call this period the “Lost years”. These “lost years” gave birth to many stories about Shakespeare by the biographers. The first biographer of Shakespeare, Nicholas Rowe, told a story of Stratford, which was legendary. According to it, Shakespeare left the town and went to London, in order to escape from the prosecution for poaching deers in the estate of Thomas Lucy. By writing a ballad about Lucy, Shakespeare was supposed to take revenge on him. Another story came up about Shakespeare that he started his career in theatres by minding the horse of the theatre patrons in London. It was reported by John Audrey that Shakespeare was a country master. Scholars of the twentieth century suggested that Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire employed Shakespeare as a school master. Alexander Hoghton was a landowner, catholic by religion, named William Shakeshafte in his will. There is not much evidence to substantiate these stories which were heard and collected after his death, and it was also true that Shakeshafte was a common name in Lancashire. 

Shakespeare as an Actor and a Playwright

In 1592, Shakespeare began his career as a playwright and an actor in London and also produced several plays.

He continued to write and perform plays and in 1593, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, to whom he dedicated two poems, "Venus and Adonis" published in 1593, and "The Rape of Lucrece" in 1594. These poems showed the guilt and moral confusion that results from uncontrolled lust. Both of these poems were very popular and were reprinted many times during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

The third poem by the name of A Lover's Complaint also became very famous and was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609.

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published around 15 plays. In 1599, Shakespeare, with the help of his friends, built his own theatre on the south bank of the Thames River. The theatre was named Globe Theatre.

The exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays is very difficult to determine, but many scholars believe that over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays based on themes like tragedies, comedies, histories, and tragicomedies.

Shakespeare’s first plays were based on history. Plays like Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard II were dramas that portrayed the destructive result of a corrupt ruler.

William Shakspeare also wrote the famous Roman political drama, Julius Caesar, through which Shakespeare wanted to give a message of how arrogance can have a deadly result.

Shakespeare is also very known to have written many comedies during his early periods, such as the romantic Merchant of Venice, the witty and wordplay-filled Much Ado About Nothing, the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the charming As You Like It, and Twelfth Night.

Before 1600, he wrote several plays, such as The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, and The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1600, William Shakespeare wrote many tragedies, such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Many people praise these plays as Shakespeare’s characters showed powerful impressions of human temperament that are considered to be timeless and universal.

The play that has stood the test of time is Hamlet, which explores retribution, incest, hatred, betrayal, and moral failure. The moral failure that the characters have shown in his plays drives the twists and turns of his plots. Hamlet has been adapted into movies in many countries and is considered to be one of the best plays ever written. In his final period, William Shakespeare turned towards tragic comedies and romantic dramas, such as Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.

William Shakespeare Biography in Short

William Shakespeare was baptized on 26th April 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a great poet, actor, and playwright. His life has been a mystery for many but one thing is for certain, he has the greatest contribution to Society. After his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582, he was blessed with three daughters. Susann was the firstborn and later, after two years of marriage, he was blessed with two twin daughters by the names of Judith and Hamnet.

There are no records of Shakspeare’s life from the year 1582 to 1592. These years are called the “Lost Years''. From 1592, he got involved in writing and acting in the London theatre. Later in 1593, he published two poems, “Venus and Adonis’’ and ‘’The rape of Lucrece’’, which made him a household name. He wrote a lot of plays and they were performed by many around the world. The fortune he earned and the popularity he had let him build the Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and they were divided into histories, comedies, romance, and tragedies. His most famous works are Henry IV, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, The comedy of errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Measure for measure, Winter’s Tale, and so on. In the last years of his life, he decided to go back to Stanford, where he died in 1616. The reason for his death is unknown, but many scholars believe that he was very ill at the time of his death.

Many plays of Shakespeare were published in editions of diversifying the accuracy and quality of his lifetime. Two actors and friends of Shakespeare in 1623, Henry Condell and John Heminges published the First Folio, which is a more conclusive text, a collected edition of the dramatic works of Shakespeare’s that consists of all his plays, except two. A poem by Ben Jonson was its preface that praised Shakespeare with the famous tag that meant his work wasn’t for any age span but for the whole time of life. 

William Shakespeare’s life has been a mystery to many, but his plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied and performed all around the world.

FAQs on William Shakespeare Biography

1. Which are Shakespeare's shortest and longest Plays?

The shortest play of William Shakespeare is The Comedy of Errors, which is the only play with fewer than fifteen thousand words. Hamlet is considered to be the longest William Shakespeare play with more than thirty thousand words. The most difficult play of William Shakespeare to perform is Macbeth. As the plot of the story is complicated, it is considered to be the hardest play of Shakespeare.

2. Write about the reputation of William Shakespeare. 

Shakespeare received a great amount of praise, but he was not admired in his entire life span. Francis Meres, a cleric and author in 1598, among many English playwrights, singled him out as the most excellent in the genres tragedy and comedy,. Shakespeare was called “delight, the applause, the soul of the age, and the wonder of the stage” in the First Folio by Ben Jonson. It is also a fact that he made a remark about Shakespeare somewhere else, that he lacked skill. Critics of the time, between the end of the seventeenth century and the restoration of the monarchy, rated Shakespeare below Ben Jonson and John Fletcher. 

William Shakespeare

• Occupation: Playwright, actor and poet
• Born: April 26, 1564 baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (likely born on April 23rd)
• Best known for: Writing plays such as Romeo and Juliet , Hamlet , and Macbeth

• The lead actor and star of many of Shakespeare's plays was Richard Burbage.
• The original Globe Theatre burned down in 1613. It was rebuilt in 1614, but was then closed in 1642.
• A modern reconstruction of the Globe was built in London by American actor Sam Wanamaker. It opened in 1997.
• He wrote 37 plays in his lifetime averaging about 1.5 plays per year he was writing. Some scholars think that he wrote around 20 more plays that have been lost, which would put the total to 57!
• His plays were performed for both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
• You can take the letters from "William Shakespeare" and write "I am a weakish speller."
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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3.3: William Shakespeare (1564–1616)—The Sonnets

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Learning Objectives

• Identify the English sonnet structure of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
• Recognize vestiges of the Italian sonnet structure in the content of some Shakespearian sonnets.
• Analyze the use of 5 key themes in Shakespeare’s sonnets: time, poetry, beauty, love, and friendship.

William Shakespeare  (1564–1616) is undoubtedly the most well-known and revered name in British literature.

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William Shakespeare

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Although entire books of speculation about Shakespeare’s personal life and history abound, little documentary evidence exists. The  Folger Shakespeare Library , the  British Library , and  BBC Historic Figures  provide basic biographical information.

His  birth, his marriage, the births of his children , and his death are recorded in the  parish records of Holy Trinity Church  in Stratford-upon-Avon. Also, a few  records of business transactions and a few government documents  provide enough information for scholars to know that he lived in several places in London, bought a large house in Stratford-upon-Avon, and was involved in some legal proceedings. Shakespeare’s  will  survives in the National Archives.

Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare’s grave in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.

• Facsimile of The Sonnets Quarto One . The Library of the University of California, Los Angeles.  Internet Shakespeare Editions . University of Toronto.
• Sonnets .  Open Source Shakespeare: An Experiment in Literary Technology . George Mason University.
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets by William Shakespeare .  Project Gutenberg .
• Sonnets .  Electronic Text Center . University of Virginia Library.

The Sonnets

Although Shakespearian sonnets are named for Shakespeare, he was not the first, or the only, person to write sonnets in this form. And not all of his sonnets are entirely English in form. Shakespeare also used elements of the Italian form.

Shakespeare’s sonnets do not constitute a typical sonnet sequence because they do not all address a single topic. By the time Shakespeare was writing his sonnets, the sonnet sequence, usually tracing a love story, had declined in popularity. However, there are five themes that appear throughout all his sonnets: time, poetry, beauty, love, and friendship.

Statue of Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon Avon.

Some scholars, such  Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine , editors of the  New Folger Library Shakespeare edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets , view Shakespeare’s sonnets as autobiographical, referring to “the story that the sequence as a whole seems to tell about Shakespeare’s love life.”

Other critics find that interpretations of Shakespeare’s sonnets often reveal as much or more about the age in which the critiques are written than about the sonnets themselves. Michael Schoenfeldt, for example, writing in  The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Poetry  (Ed. Patrick Cheney. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Cambridge Collections Online.) asserts that “… the Sonnets have frequently functioned as a mirror in which cultures reveal their own critical presuppositions about the nature of poetic creation and the comparative instabilities of gender, race, and class. Although the Sonnets have proven particularly amenable to some of the central developments of late twentieth-century modes of criticism—particularly feminism and gender and gay studies—they continue to be richer and more complex than anything that can be said about them.”

Although some scholars read Shakespeare’s sonnets as autobiographical, others remind us that in literature the narrative voice should not be assumed to be the author but is instead a persona created by the author. Scholar Helen Vendler, for example, uses the term “fictive speaker” in reference to the speaker of the sonnets ( The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets . Harvard University Press, 1997).

Key Takeaways

• Shakespeare’s sonnets consistently develop 5 themes: time, poetry, beauty, love, and friendship.
• Shakespeare’s sonnets are English in structure although some sonnets retain elements of the Italian structure.
• Many theories of literary criticism posit that Shakespeare’s sonnets, like most literature, should not be read autobiographically.
• In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, identify elements that belong to the Petrarchan or Italian tradition. Also locate elements that would characterize the sonnet as an English sonnet.
• In Sonnets 55 and 73, identify the topic of each of the three quatrains. What images are developed in each quatrain? How are these images related? How do the couplets function in these two sonnets?
• In Sonnet 130, how does the speaker address the Petrarchan convention? How does the couplet affect the reader’s perception of the rest of the sonnet?
• “ Excerpts from Shakespeare’s Will .” Treasures.  The National Archives .
• “ Shakespeare .”  Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon .
• “ The Shakespeare Paper Trail: The Early Years .” British History In-depth. BBC.
• “ The Shakespeare Paper Trail: The Later Years .” British History In-depth. BBC.
• “ Shakespeare’s Biography .”  Shakespeare Resource Center .
• “ Shakespeare’s Life .” Folger Shakespeare Library.
• “ Shakespeare’s Life .” Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto. British Library.
• William Shakespeare . Dr. Carol Lowe. McLennan Community College.
• “ William Shakespeare .” Historic Figures. BBC.
• Facsimile of The Sonnets Quarto One  1609 at the Library of the University of California, Los Angeles.  Internet Shakespeare Editions . University of Toronto.
• Open Source Shakespeare : An Experiment in Literary Technology . George Mason University.
• Sonnets . Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.  Electronic Text Center . University of Virginia Library.
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets . Read by Sir John Gielgud. HarperAudio.  Internet Multicasting Service .
• Sonnets . By William Shakespeare.  LibriVox .
• Sonnet Central Listening Room .
• “ William Shakespeare .” Dr. Carol Lowe. McLennan Community College.
• “ William Shakespeare .”  Great Britons: Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, London .

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Research Projects

The shakespeare birthplace trust hosts special research projects and co-supervises doctoral students.

Our research has three themes: 

• Shakespeare’s life and biography.
• Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Shakespeare’s creative and global legacies.

We are delighted to host special research projects and to co-supervise doctoral students. Current work includes work on Grassroots Shakespeare (led by William Wolfgang, University of Warwick), the Stratford Antiquarians (led by Alice Maltby-Kemp, University College, London), the International Collections of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (led by Helen Hopkins, Birmingham City University), and the music of Guy Woolfenden (led by Leah Broad, University of Oxford).

‘Shakespeare on the Road’ Oral History Archive

William Wolfgang, Ph.D. Candidate at University of Warwick

International Responses to Shakespeare

Helen A. Hopkins, Ph.D. candidate at Birmingham City University

Shakespeare and the Stratford-upon-Avon Antiquarians

Alice Maltby-Kemp, Ph.D. candidate at University College, London

Opening up (and hearing) the Guy Woolfenden Archive

Dr Leah Broad, Christ Church, Oxford

To find out more about research into our Collections, please browse through our  online exhibitions .

Our monthly programme of Research Conversations takes place on the second Wednesday of every month from 5pm to 6pm. Entry is free, simply keep an eye on our  What's On  pages for details of upcoming events.

If you would like to join our Research e-mailing-list, then please contact our Head of Research, Dr Paul Edmondson .

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Welcome to the Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993.

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William Shakespeare, Author Study, Body Biography Project

Description, additional information.

This William Shakespeare Body Biography Project is filled with all you need to teach and promote the truly amazing British poet and playwright . This author study body biography is a collaborative research activity. Your students will find plenty of opportunities for creativity. This is truly unique, has high-quality vector graphics, and is the most inclusive group project for bringing together a growth mindset and a biography study. If you are teaching a Shakespeare unit for Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or for any of his works, this type of activity is a great way to kick it off! Learn all there is to know about the greatest and most influential poet in the English language!

This project can be used at any time of the year. I would use this Shakespeare biography project while introducing the Globe Theater and Elizabethan England. I adapted the body biography concept to align with informational texts, biography research, nonfiction, and history.

★ Features an original realistic image- all in line art for your students to add color and design. ★ The poster is 32 inches high by 10 inches wide. It requires 4 pages. ★ Rubric ★ Reflection Questions ★ Answer key ★ Student handout and planning sheet explains each part of the body biography project ★ The teacher set up directions, background, tips, and CCSS

★Classroom Décor ★Bulletin Board ★Hallway ★Showcase Display

Directions are clear and explicit. Danielle Knight Copyright 2019

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A Remarkable Discovery of a Document Shatters One of Shakespeare's Biggest Mysteries

A secret parchment has resurfaced, rewriting the Bard’s sketchy family history.

In the annals of William Shakespeare ’s legacy, a twist has emerged that’s practically as dramatic as any of the Bard’s plays: the real “Shakespeare” behind a centuries-old family document has been revealed ... and it’s not the man we expected.

In 1757, a bricklayer found a religious document hidden in the rafters of the Shakespeare House in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Historians have long attributed the document, which was signed, “ J. Shakespeare ,” to William’s father, John.

But a new study in Shakespeare Quarterly, from scholars at the University of Bristol, claims John wasn’t actually the writer of the scrutinized document. Instead, the researchers say it was William’s relatively unknown younger sister, Joan Shakespeare Hart, who is mentioned by name in only seven surviving documents from her lifetime, study author Matthew Steggle said in a statement :

“Virginia Woolf wrote a famous essay, Shakespeare’s sister , about how a figure like her could never hope to be a writer or have her writing preserved, so she has become something of a symbol for all the lost voices of early modern women. There are hundreds of thousands of works surviving from her brother, and until now, none at all, of any description, from her.”

In the tucked-away document, which heavily cites an obscure 17 th century Italian religious tract called The Last Will and Testament of the Soul, the writer pledges to die a good Catholic death. If the writer was indeed John Shakespeare, who remained a devout Protestant until his death in 1601, it would have indicated a major shift in his beliefs and suggested a clandestine life during an era when secret allegiance to the Catholic Church in Elizabethan England could have been dangerous. For this reason, many experts have suspected the document to be forged.

But in the new study, Steggle used internet archives to track down early editions of The Last Will and Testament of the Soul in Italian and six other languages and concluded the document could have only been written after John Shakespeare’s death. That left Steggle with just one other “J. Shakespeare”: Joan.

Joan, who was five years younger than William, survived for 30 years after her brother’s death, and long resided in the family home where the document was found.

“Even 30 years ago, a researcher approaching a problem like this would have been based in a single big research library, using printed catalogues and even card catalogues to try to find copies of this text,” Steggle said in the statement. “But research libraries have now made many of their resources available digitally, so that it is possible to look across many different libraries in different countries at once, and what’s more, you can look through the whole text, not just at the title and other details.”

Steggle emphasized the importance of this approach in aligning the document’s quotes with the original timing of the composition of The Last Will and Testament of the Soul. Joan, then, who outlived her tradesman husband and had four children in the old Shakespeare family house, had to have been the secret Catholic supporter.

The mystery flourished for centuries, in part, because William Shakespeare himself was a secretive figure, Biography writes .

Shakespeare, who lived from 1564 to 1616, left behind no letters, no handwritten manuscripts, few contemporary accounts, and only six signatures, all spelled differently. It seems almost unbelievable to scholars and critics that the country boy from Stratford-upon-Avon who never attended university wrote 37,000 words for his plays and added roughly 300 words to the English vocabulary.

Yet, the scarcity of Shakespeare’s personal artifacts does little to dim the luster of his legacy, which stands in stark contrast to his modest, mysterious origins.

The early years of Shakespeare’s life are murky. According to Biography , he was born to a father, John, who managed a portfolio as a landowner, moneylender, local official, and glover and leather craftsman. Instead of pursuing higher education, Shakespeare’s knowledge was gleaned from life experiences, absorbing wisdom from his dad’s civic engagements and perhaps gaining insights from his son-in-law, who was a doctor.

The idea that Shakespeare kept his London-based professional life separate from his personal life in Stratford-upon-Avon plays into the recent findings regarding his sister, Joan. “This secretive attitude,” Biography writes, “may have been because much of his family were known Catholic sympathizers and chose to live quietly in Protestant Elizabethan England. In fact, some believe Shakespeare himself received Catholic communion on his death bed.”

Shakespeare wasn’t known to be loud and boisterous; instead, he carried an air of mystery, relishing the relative anonymity provided by Stratford life. Following his marriage to Anne Hathaway and the birth of their children, there’s a seven-year gap in his historical record. These are known as the “lost years.”

Speculation about William Shakespeare’s “lost years” varies widely; some suggest he may have been in hiding due to accusations of poaching, while more substantiated theories propose he was making a living as an actor and playwright in London. But despite this period of obscurity, Shakespeare’s reputation flourished through his poetry, sonnets, and plays.

As a prominent member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a renowned London acting company, Shakespeare invested in his craft, and his financial success allowed him to buy New Place, one of the largest houses in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare’s theatrical endeavors didn’t stop there; in collaboration with fellow actors, he started the iconic Globe Theater, which became synonymous with his celebrated playwriting and solidified his legacy.

As Shakespeare grew his name in London’s theaters, he simultaneously established himself as a prominent figure in his hometown of Stratford. Acquiring the family estate in 1601 and subsequently purchasing 107 acres the following year, he strategically invested in additional properties. Experts suggest that the income from leasing these lands gave him the financial stability to pursue his writing.

Meanwhile, Joan resided in the Shakespeare family home amidst speculation and secrets. And its rafters served as a vault for her Italian-inspired religious writings—a hidden gem that’s still sparking scholarly intrigue, and revealing new layers to the Shakespeare legacy today.

Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland. 

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