The Life & Story Of William Shakespeare

1. The Life & Story Of William Shakespeare By: Mackenzie Hughes, Ashley Glendon, & Shannon Harding

2. William Shakespeare

3. Shakespeare was married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway who was 26 years old. • They were married in 1582 in London, England • Shakespeare had his oldest daughter Susanna in 1583.His twins Judith & Hamnet followed 2 years later in 1585.

4. Living & Financial Situations • It is not recorded where he lived other then London, England. Also it is not known how he supported himself and his family financially. • We do not know when and why he left Stratford for the London theatrical world, or how he rose to be the important figure in that world that he had become by the early 1590s.

5. Family Life & Death • Anne Hathaway Died in 1623, 7 years after Shakespeare. • On February 2, 1585, twins were baptized, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, died 11 years later. • Judith Quiney was buried on 9 February 1662, having outlived her last surviving child by 23 years. • Susanna died when she was 66 years old. She was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford next to her parents

6. ShakespearesDeath • The Cause of William Shakespeare's death is unknown. • The exact date of death is not known but it seems fitting that he died on the 23rd April, 1616 the same date given for his birth. • Shakespeare died at age 52. • He died in Stratford, and he was buried on April 25.

7. William Shakespeare’s Life at the Beginning • William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual birth date remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. • Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the grammar curriculum was standardized by royal decree throughout England, and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar based upon Latin classical authors. • John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

8. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage license 27 November 1582. The next day two of Hathaway's neighbors posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

9. After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592, and scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare’s first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.Some 20th-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. No evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

10. The Final Years • Sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare seems to have returned to live in Stratford-upon-Avon • He owned a large house and some property • His wife, two daughters and their husbands lived there • (His son, Hamnet, died in 1596)

11. During his professional years in London, Shakespeare presumably derived income from the acting company's profits, and from his own career as an actor. • It was believed that the income that he carefully invested into land and other property, made him the wealthy man documents showed him to be. • It is also believed that William Shakespeare's growing wealth and reputation played some part in inclining the crown, in 1596, to give William's father the coat of arms that he had wanted for so long.

12. Seven years after his death, his collected plays were published as Mr. William ShakespearesComedies, Histories, & Tragedies, the work now known as the First Folio.