Early life of the Shake
Early life
William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover
(glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of
an affluent landowning family.[14] He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was
baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23
April, Saint George's Day.[15] This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George
Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in
1616.[16][17] He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.[18]
John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon
Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that
Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford,[19][20][21] a free
school chartered in 1553,[22] about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools
varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely
similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree,[23][24] and the school would have
provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.[25]
At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of
the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two
of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the
marriage.[26] 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,[27][28]
and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May
1583.[29] Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were
baptised 2 February 1585.[30] Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried
11 August 1596.[31]
Shakespeare's coat of arms, as it appears on the rough draft of the application to grant a coat-of-
arms to John Shakespeare. It features a spear as a pun on the family name.[e]
After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as
part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the
"complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated
Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589.[32] Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and
1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".[33] 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.[34][35] Another 18th-
century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre
patrons in London.[36] John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country
schoolmaster.[37] Some 20th-century scholars 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.[38][39] Little evidence substantiates such
stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in
the Lancashire area.[40][41]
