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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 798 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)  , See also:English poet, player and playwright, was baptized in the See also:parish See also:church of See also:Stratford- upon-See also:Avon in See also:Warwickshire on the 26th of See also:April See also:Birth 1564 . The exact date of his birth is not known . Two and parentage . 18th-See also:century antiquaries, See also:William See also:Oldys and See also:Joseph See also:Greene, gave it as April 23, but without quoting authority for their statements, and the fact that April 23 was the See also:day of See also:Shakespeare's See also:death in 1616 suggests a possible source of See also:error . In any See also:case his birthday cannot have been later than April 23, since the inscription upon his See also:monument is See also:evidence that on April 23, 1616, he had already begun his fifty-third See also:year . His See also:father, See also:John Shakespeare, was a See also:burgess of the recently constituted See also:corporation of Stratford, and had already filled certain See also:minor municipal offices . From 1561 to 1563 he had been one of the two chamberlains to whom the See also:finance of the See also:town was entrusted . By occupation he was a See also:glover, but he also appears to have dealt from See also:time to time in various kinds of agricultural produce, such as See also:barley, See also:timber and See also:wool . See also:Aubrey (Lives, 168o) spoke of him as a See also:butcher, and it is quite possible that he bred and even killed the calves whose skins he manipulated . He is sometimes described in formal documents as a See also:yeoman, and it is highly probable that he combined a certain amount of farming with the practice of his See also:trade . He was living in Stratford as See also:early as 1552, in which year he was fined for having a dunghill in See also:Henley See also:Street, but he does not appear to have been a native of the town, in whose records the name is not found before his time; and he may reasonably be identified with the John Shakespeare of Snitterfield, who administered the goods of his father, See also:Richard Shakespeare, in 1561 . Snitterfield is a See also:village in the immediate neighbourhood of Stratford, and here Richard Shakespeare had been settled as a See also:farmer since 1529 .

It is possible that John Shakespeare carried on the See also:

farm for some time after his father's death, and that by 1570 he had also acquired a small holding called Ingon in See also:Hampton See also:Lucy, the next village to Snitterfield . But both of these seem to have passed subsequently to his See also:brother See also:Henry, who was buried at Snitterfield in 1596 . There was also at Snitterfield a See also:Thomas Shakespeare and an See also:Anthony Shakespeare, who afterwards moved to Hampton Corley; and these may have been of the same See also:family . A John Shakespeare, -who dwelt at See also:Clifford See also:Chambers, another village See also:close to Stratford, is clearly distinct . Strenuous efforts have been made to trace Shakespeare's See also:genealogy beyond Richard of Snitterfield, but so far without success . Certain drafts of heraldic exemplifications of the Shakespeare arms speak, in one case of John Shakespeare's grandfather, in another of his See also:great-grandfather, as having been rewarded with lands and tenements in Warwickshire for service to Henry VII . No such grants, however, have been traced, and even in the 16th-century statements as to " antiquity and service " in heraldic preambles were looked upon with suspicion . The name Shakespeare is extremely widespread, and is spelt in an astonishing variety of ways . That of John Shakespeare occurs 166 times in the See also:Council See also:Book of the Stratford corporation, and appears to take 16 different forms . The See also:verdict, not altogether unanimous, of competent palaeographers is to the effect that Shakespeare himself, in the extant examples of his See also:signature, always wrote " Shakspere." In the printed signatures to the dedications of his poems, on the See also:title-pages of nearly all the contemporary See also:editions of his plays that See also:bear his name, and in many formal documents it appears as Shakespeare . This may be in See also:part due to the See also:martial derivation which the poet's See also:literary contemporaries were fond of assigning to his name, and which is acknowledged in the arms that he See also:bore . The forms in use at Stratford, however, such as Shaxpeare, by far the commonest, suggest a See also:short See also:pronunciation of the first syllable, and thus tend to support Dr Henry See also:Bradley's derivation from the Anglo-Saxon See also:personal name, Seaxberht .

It is interesting, and even amusing, to See also:

record that in 1487 See also:Hugh Shakspere of Merton See also:College, See also:Oxford, changed his name to Sawndare, because his former name vile reputatum est . The earliest record of a Shakespeare that has yet been traced is in 1248 at Clapton in See also:Gloucester-See also:shire, about seven See also:miles from Stratford . The name also occurs during the 13th century in See also:Kent, See also:Essex and See also:Surrey, and during the 14th in See also:Cumberland, See also:Yorkshire, See also:Nottinghamshire, Essex, Warwickshire and as far away as See also:Youghal in See also:Ireland . There-after it is found in See also:London and most of the English counties, particularly those of the midlands; and nowhere more freely than in Warwickshire . There were Shakespeares in See also:Warwick and in See also:Coventry, as well as around Stratford; and the See also:clan appears to have been very numerous in a See also:group of villages about twelve miles See also:north of Stratford, which includes Baddesley See also:Clinton, Wroxall, Rowington, Haseley, See also:Hatton, See also:Lapworth, Packwood, Balsall and Knowle . William was in See also:common use as a personal name, and See also:Williams from more than one other family have from time to time been confounded with the dramatist . Many Shakespeares are upon the See also:register of the gild of St See also:Anne at Knowle from about 1457 to about 1526 . Amongst these were See also:Isabella Shakespeare, prioress of the See also:Benedictine See also:convent of Wroxall, and Jane Shakespeare, a See also:nun of the same convent . Shakespeares are also found as tenants on the manors belonging to the convent, and at the time of the See also:Dissolution in 1534 one Richard Shakespeare was its See also:bailiff and See also:collector of rents . Conjectural attempts have been made on the one See also:hand to connect the ancestors of this Richard Shakespeare with a family of the same name who held See also:land by military See also:tenure at Baddesley Clinton in the 14th and 15th centuries, and on tnc other to ideal ify him with the poet's grandfather, Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield . But Shakespeares are to be traced at Wroxall nearly as far back as at Baddesley Clinton, and there is no See also:reason to suppose that Richard the bailiff, who was certainly still a See also:tenant of Wroxall in 1556, had also since 1529 been farming land ten miles off at Snitterfield . With the breaking of this See also:link, the See also:hope of giving Shakespeare anything more than a grandfather on the father's See also:side must be laid aside for the See also:present .

On the See also:

mother's side he was connected with a family of some distinction . Part at least of Richard Shakespeare's land at Snitterfield was held from See also:Robert See also:Arden of Wilmcote in the adjoining parish of See also:Aston Cantlow, a See also:cadet of the Ardens of Parkhall, who counted amongst the leading gentry of Warwickshire . Robert Arden married his second wife, See also:Agnes See also:Hill, formerly See also:Webbe, in 1548, and had then no less than eight daughters by his first wife . To the youngest of these, See also:Mary Arden, he See also:left in 1556 a See also:freehold in Aston Cantlow consisting of a farm of about fifty or sixty acres in extent, known as Asbies . At some date later than See also:November 1556, and probably before the end of 1557, Mary Arden became the wife of John Shakespeare . In See also:October 1556 John Shakespeare had bought two freehold houses, one in Greenhill Street, the other in Henley Street . The latter, known as the wool See also:shop, was the easternmost of the two tenements now combined in the so-called Shakespeare's birthplace . The western See also:tenement, the birthplace proper, was probably already in John Shakespeare's hands, as he seems to have been living in Henley Street in 1552 . It has sometimes been thought to have been one of two houses which formed a later See also:purchase in 1575, but there is no evidence that these were in Henley Street at all . William Shakespeare was not the first See also:child . A See also:Joan was baptized in 1558 and a See also:Margaret in 1562 . The latter was buried in 1563 and the former must also have died See also:young, although her See also:burial is not recorded, as a second Joan was baptized in 1569 .

A See also:

Gilbert was baptized in 1566, an Anne in 1571, a Richard in 1$74 and an See also:Edmund in 1580 . Anne died in =.579; Edmund, who like his brother became an actor, in 1607; Richard in 1613 . Tradition has it that one of Shakespeare's See also:brothers used to visit London in the 17th century as quite an old See also:man . If so, this can only have been Gilbert . During the years that followed his See also:marriage, John Shakespeare became prominent in Stratford See also:life . In 1565 he was chosen as an See also:alderman, and in 1568 he held the See also:chief municipal See also:office, that of high bailiff . This carried with it the dignity of See also:justice of the See also:peace . John Shakespeare seems to have assumed arms, and thenceforward was always entered in corporation documents as " Mr " Shakespeare, whereby he may be distinguished from another John Shakespeare, a " corviser " or shoemaker, who dwelt in Stratford about 1584-1592 . In 1571 as an ex-bailiff he began another year of office as chief alderman . One may think, therefore, of Shakespeare in his boyhood as the son of one of the leading citizens of a not unimportant Youth. provincial See also:market-town, with a vigorous life of its own, which in spite of the dunghills was probably not much unlike the life of a similar town to-day, and with See also:constant reminders of its past in the shape of the stately buildings formerly belonging to its college and its gild, both of which had been suppressed at the See also:Reformation . Stratford stands on the Avon, in the midst of an agricultural See also:country, throughout which in those days enclosed orchards and meadows alternated with open See also:fields for tillage, and not far from the wilder and wooded See also:district known as the See also:Forest of Arden . The See also:middle ages had left it an heritage in the shape of a See also:free See also:grammar-school, and here it is natural to suppose that William Shakespeare obtained a See also:sound enough See also:education,' with a working knowledge of " Mantuan72 and See also:Ovid in the See also:original, even though to such a thorough See also:scholar as See also:Ben See also:Jonson it might seem no more than " small Latin and less See also:Greek." In 1577, when Shakespeare was about thirteen, his father's fortunes began to take a turn for the worse .

He became irregular in his contributions to town levies, and had to give a See also:

mortgage on his wife's See also:property of Asbies as See also:security for a See also:loan from her brother-in-See also:law, Edmund See also:Lambert . See also:Money was raised to pay this off, partly by the See also:sale of a small See also:interest in land at Snitterfield which had come to Mary Shakespeare from her sisters, partly perhaps by that of the Greenhill Street See also:house and other property in Stratford outside Henley Street, none of which seems to have ever come into William Shakespeare's hands . Lambert, however, refused to surrender the mortgage on the plea of older debts, and an See also:attempt to recover Asbies by litigation proved ineffectual . John Shakespeare's difficulties increased . An See also:action for See also:debt was sustained against him in the See also:local See also:court, but no personal property could be found on which to distrain . He had See also:long ceased to attend the meetings of the corporation, and as a consequence he was removed in 1586 from the See also:list of aldermen . In this See also:state of domestic affairs it is not likely that Shakespeare's school life was unduly prolonged . The chances are that he was apprenticed to some local trade . Aubrey says that he killed calves for his father, and " would do it in a high See also:style, and make a speech." Whatever his circumstances, they did not deter him at the early See also:age of eighteen from the See also:adventure of marriage . Rowe Marriage recorded the name of Shakespeare's wife as Hathaway, and Joseph Greene succeeded in tracing her to a family of that name dwelling in Shottery, one of the hamlets of Stratford . Her monument gives her first name as Anne, and her age as sixty-seven in 1623 . She must, therefore, have been about eight years older than Shakespeare .

Various small trains of evidence point to her See also:

identification with the daughter Agnes mentioned in the will of a Richard Hathaway of Shottery, who died in 1581, being then in See also:possession of the farm-house now known as " Anne Hathaway's Cottage." Agnes was legally a distinct name from Anne, but there can be no doubt that See also:ordinary See also:custom treated them as identical . The See also:principal record of the It is See also:worth noting that See also:Walter See also:Roche, who in 1558 became See also:fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was See also:master of the school in 1570-1572, so that its See also:standard must have been See also:good . 2 Baptista Mantuanus (1448-1516), whose Latin Eclogues were translated by See also:Turberville in 1567.marriage is a See also:bond dated on November 28, 1582, and executed by See also:Fulk Sandells and John See also:Richardson, two yeomen of Stratford who also figure in Richard Hathaway's will, as a security to the See also:bishop for the issue of a See also:licence for the marriage of William Shakespeare and " Anne Hathwey of Stratford," upon the consent of her See also:friends, with one asking of the banns . There is no reason to suppose, as has been suggested, that the See also:procedure adopted was due to dislike of the marriage do the part of John Shakespeare, since, the bridegroom being a minor, it would not have been in accordance with the practice of the bishop's officials to issue the licence without evidence of the father's consent . The explanation probably lies in the fact that Anne was already with child, and in the near neighbourhood of See also:Advent within which marriages were prohibited, so that the ordinary procedure by banns would have entailed a delay until after See also:Christmas . A kindly sentiment has suggested that some See also:form of See also:civil marriage, or at least See also:contract of espousals, had already taken See also:place, so that a canonical marriage was really only required in See also:order to enable Anne to secure the See also:legacy left her by her father " at the day of her marriage." But such a theory is not rigidly required by the facts . It is singular that, upon the day before that on which the bond was executed, an entry was made in the bishop's register of the issue of a licence for a marriage between William Shakespeare and " See also:Annam Whateley de See also:Temple See also:Grafton." Of this it can only be said that the bond, as an original document, is infinitely the better authority, and that a scribal error of " Whateley " for " Hathaway "-is quite a possible See also:solution . Temple Grafton may have been the nominal place of marriage indicated in the licence, which was not always the actual place of See also:residence of either See also:bride or bridegroom . There are no contemporary registers for Temple Grafton, and there is no entry of the marriage in those for Stratford-upon-Avon . There is a tradition that such a record was seen during the 19th century in the registers for Luddington, a chapelry within the parish, which are now destroyed . Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, was baptized on the 26th of May 1583, and was followed on the 2nd of See also:February 1585 by twins, Hamnet and See also:Judith . In or after 1584 Shakespeare's career in Stratford seems to have come to a tempestuous close .

An 18th-century See also:

story of a drinking-bout in a neighbouring village is of no obscure importance, except as indicating a local impression years, that a distinguished See also:citizen had had a wildish youth . 1584-But there is a tradition which comes from a See also:double 1594 source and which there is no reason to reject in substance, to the effect that Shakespeare got into trouble through poaching on the estates of a considerable Warwickshire See also:magnate, See also:Sir Thomas Lucy, and found it necessary to leave Stratford in order to See also:escape the results of his See also:misdemeanour . It is added that he afterwards took his revenge on Lucy by satirizing him as the Justice Shallow, with the dozen See also:white louses in his old coat, of The Merry Wives of See also:Windsor . From this event until he emerges as an actor and rising playwright in 1592 his See also:history is a See also:blank, and it is impossible to say what experience may not have helped to fill it . Much might indeed be done in eight years of crowded Elizabethan life . Conjecture has not been idle, and has assigned him in turns during this or some other See also:period to the occupations of a scrivener, an See also:apothecary, a See also:dyer, a printer, a soldier, and the like . The See also:suggestion that he saw military service rests largely on a confusion with another William Shakespeare of Rowington . Aubrey had heard that " he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country." The mention in Henry IV. of certain obscure yeomen families, See also:Visor of Woncote and Perkes of Stinchcombe Hill, near Dursley in See also:Gloucestershire, has been thought to suggest a sojourn in that district, where indeed Shakespeares were to be found from an early date . Ultimately, of course, he drifted to London and the See also:theatre, where, according to the See also:stage tradition, he found employment in a See also:menial capacity, perhaps even as a holder of horses at the doors, before he was admitted into a See also:company as an actor and so found his way to his true vocation as a writer of plays . See also:Malone thought that he might have left Stratford with one of the travelling companies of players which from time to time visited the town . Later biographers have fixed upon See also:Leicester's men, who were at Stratford in 1587, and have held that Shakespeare remained to the end in the same company, passing with it on Leicester's death in 1588 under the patronage of Ferdinando, See also:Lord See also:Strange and afterwards See also:earl of See also:Derby, and on Derby's death in 1594 under that of the lord See also:chamberlain, Henry See also:Carey, Lord See also:Hunsdon . This theory perhaps hardly takes sufficient See also:account of the shifting combinations and recombinations of actors, especially during the disastrous See also:plague years of 1592 to 1594 .

The continuity of Strange's company with Leicester's is very disputable, and while the names of many members of Strange's company in and about 1593 are on record, Shakespeare's is not amongst them . It is at least possible, as will be seen later, that he had about this time relations with the earl of See also:

Pembroke's men, or with the earl of See also:Sussex's men, or with both of these organizations . What is clear is that by the summer of 1592, when he was twenty-eight, he had begun to emerge as a playwright, and had evoked the See also:jealousy of one at least of the group of See also:nay- scholar poets who in See also:recent years had claimed a See also:weight and poet See also:monopoly of the stage . This was Robert Greene, who, in an invective on behalf of the See also:play-makers against the play-actors which forms part of his Groats-worth of Wit, speaks of " an upstart See also:Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers See also:heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke See also:verse as the best of you: and being an See also:absolute Johannes fac iotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-See also:scene in a countrie." The play upon Shake- speare's name and the See also:parody of a See also:line from Henry VI. make the reference unmistakable.' The London theatres were closed, first through riots and then through plague, from See also:June 1592 to April 1594, with the exception of about a See also:month at each Christmas during that period; and the companies were dissolved or driven to the provinces . Even if Shakespeare had been connected with Strange's men during their London seasons of 1592 and 1593, it does not seem that he travelled with them . Other activities may have been sufficient to occupy the See also:interval .. The most important of these was probably an attempt to win a reputation in the See also:world of non-dramatic See also:poetry . See also:Venus and See also:Adonis was published about April 1593, and Lucrece about May 1594 . The poems were printed by Richard See also:Field, in whom Shakespeare would have found an old Stratford acquaintance; and each has a See also:dedication to Henry Wriothesley, earl of See also:South- ampton, a brilliant and accomplished favourite of the court, still in his nonage . A possibly super-subtle See also:criticism discerns an increased warmth in the See also:tone of the later dedication, which is supposed to argue a marked growth of intimacy . The fact of this intimacy is vouched for by the story handed down from Sir William See also:Davenant to Rowe (who published in 1709 the first See also:regular See also:biography of Shakespeare) that See also:Southampton gave Shakespeare a thousand pounds " to enable him to go through with a purchase which he'heard he had a mind to." The date of this generosity is not specified, and there is no known purchase by Shakespeare which can have cost anything like the sum named . The mention of Southampton leads naturally to the most • difficult problem which a biographer has to handle, that of the Sonnets .

But this will be more conveniently taken up at a later point, and it is only necessary here to put on record the See also:

probability that the earliest of the sonnets belong to the period now under discussion . There is a surmise, which is not in itself other than plausible, and which has certainly been supported with a good See also:deal of ingenious See also:argument, that Shakespeare's enforced leisure enabled him to make of 1593 a Wanderjahr, and in particular that the traces of a visit to See also:northern See also:Italy may clearly be seen in the local colouring of Lucrece as compared with Venus and Adonis, and in that of the group of plays which may be dated in or about 1594 and 1595 as compared with those that preceded . It must, however, be See also:borne in mind that, while Shakespeare may perfectly well, at this or at some earlier time, have voyaged ' It is most improbable, however, that the apologetic reference in See also: