William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (/ˈʃeɪkspɪər/; 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet,playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon".His extant works, includingcollaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing companycalled the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, which has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, and religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.^[5]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarilycomedies and histories, and these are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known asromances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, however,John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time".

In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been repeatedly adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular, and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Early life

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 date of birth remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, because Shakespeare died on 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,^[13] 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, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcesterissued 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. 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.

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. 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. Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

Later years and death

Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death".He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635 Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of theBlackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However it is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness inBellott v. Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the formerBlackfriars priory; and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted",not an impossible scenario, since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon/From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."^[

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day his new son-in-law, Thomas Quiney was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, who had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation.^[76] Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be  man  spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he  moves my bones.

(Modern spelling: 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.)

Sometime before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.

Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Wife of William Shakespeare

The Wife of William Shakespeare. Marriage to Anne Hathaway. The hamlet of Shottery was only a mile from the town of Stratford where William Shakespeare lived with his family. Anne Hathaway would have often visited the town and would have therefore had the opportunity to meet William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare His Children & Grandchildren 

William Shakespeare's Children
William Shakespeare Had Three Children. Susanna Was Born In May 1583, Six Months After The Wedding Of Her Parents Anne Hathaway And William Shakespeare. The Baptism Of Susanna Shakespeare Took Place In Stratford Parish Church On May 26th 1583. Two Years Later In 1585 Anneand William's Twins, Hamnet And Judith Shakespeare, Were Born. The Baptism Of Hamnet And Judith Shakespeare Took Place In Stratford Parish Church On February 2nd 1585.The Twins Were Named After Two Very Close Friends Of William And Anne, The Baker Hamnet Sadler And His Wife, Judith. These Were The Three Legitimate Children Of The Bard.
William Shakespeare's Son, Hamnet
Little Is Known About The Life Of William Shakespeare's Son Hamnet. He Was Raised In His Grandfather's House Predominantly By His Mother Anne As His Father's Work In Theatre Was Based In London. There Are No Records That Show That Hamnet Shakespeare Ever Attended A School Although It Was Customary For A Boy From Hamnet's Background To Have Had An Education. Neither Of Hamnet's Sisters Had An Education And Neither Of Them Were Able To Read Or Write. There Were Constant Outbreaks Of The  Bubonic Plague, Otherwise Known As The Black Death Or The Black Plague, During Elizabethan Times And In 1596 Hamnet Contracted The Deadly Disease And Died At The Age Of Eleven.Shakespeare's Son Hamnet Was Buried In Stratford On August 11, 1596.
William Shakespeare's Daughter, Susanna
Anne Raised All Of Her Children Including Her Daughters In Stratford. The First We Hear Of Susanna Is In 1606 When On May 5th Susanna Was Named As A Recusant For Not Attending An Easter Day Church Service. When Susanna Was 24 Years Old She Announced Her Betrothal To Dr. John Hall. Hall Had Settled In Stratford Around 1600, Where He Founded A Prosperous Medical Practice And Became One Of The Town's Leading Citizens. The Wedding Took Place On June 5th 1607. Susanna's Marriage To The Noted Physician Must Have Pleased Anne And William Enormously. Evidence Of The Esteem That Shakespeare Held For Dr. John Hall And His Marriage To His Daughter Was That Shakespeare Appointed John And Susanna Executors Of His Will. (Dr. Hall And Susanna Inherited And Moved Into New Place After Shakespeare's Death). Susanna Gave Birth To A Baby Girl Eight Months After Her Wedding To Dr. John Hall. Anne And William's Granddaughter, Elizabeth, Was Baptized February 21, 1608 At Holy Trinity Church In Stratford. William And Dr. Hall Also Had Mutual Business Interests As They Were Known To Have Travelled To London On Business Concerning Stratford Tithes. 
William And Anne's Daughter, Judith
Anne And William's Younger Daughter, Judith, The Youngest Of The Bard's Children Was Betrothed To Richard Quiney. Anne And William Would Have Initially Approved Of The Betrothal Of Judith And Thomas As Quiney Came From A Good Family. In View Of The Changes In His Family's Circumstances, And His Own Advancing Years And Possibly Declining Health, William Shakepeare Prudently Drafts His Will On January 25th 1616, A Few Days Before Judith And Quiney's Marriage. Judith Married Thomas Quiney, A Vintner And Tavern Owner From Stratford, On February 10th 1616. Judith Was 31 And Thomas Quiney Was 27 Years Of Age. The Initial Approval Of The Marriage Quickly Changed With The Scandalous News That Thomas Quiney Had Made Another Girl Pregnant. Anne Must Have Been Desperately Worried About Judith. The Scandal Would Have Spread Through Stratford. It Then Appeared That Quiney Did Not Receive The Special Licence Necessary For A Wedding During Lent Before His Marriage. The Situation Was Really Serious And On  March 12th Judith And Thomas Were Excommunicated. William Must Have Been Mortified With The Turn Of Events. He Summoned His Lawyer And Promptly Modifies And Signs His Will On March 25th 1616.  The Modification Of The Will Was To Ensure That Judith Would Receive A Sum Of Money (£300) Inherited In Her Own Name. Shakespeare Leaves The Bulk Of His Fortune To His Daughter, Susanna. On March 26th Quiney Was Prosecuted For 'Carnal Copulation' With A Woman Named Margaret Wheeler, Who Had Died In Childbirth That Month Along With Her Baby By Quiney. He Confessed And Was Sentenced To Perform Public Penance. His Penalty, However, Was Commuted To A Small Fine Of Five Shillings And Private Penance.
William And Anne's Grandchildren
Richard And Judith Quiney Had Three Children Giving The Bard Three Quiney Grandchildren:
Shakespeare Quiney Was Born In Nov 1616. He Died In Infancy, Aged 6 Months, In May 1617.
Richard Quiney Was Born In Oct 1617. He Died In Jan 1639 Aged 21 (Possibly Of The Plague).
Thomas Quiney Was Born In Jan 1619. He Also Died In Jan 1639, The Same Month As His Brother, Aged 19 (Possibly Of The Plague). So None Of The Children Of Judith Survived To Continue The Shakespeare Line.
Susanna And Dr. John Hall Had Just The One Daughter, Elizabeth Who Was Born In 1608. Elizabeth Was The Only Grandchild That William Shakespeare Knew As His Other Grandchildren Were Born After His Death In 1616. Elizabeth Married Thomas Nashe In 1629. They Were Married For Just Six Years When In 1635 Thomas Nashe Died.  He Was Buried In The Chancel Of Holy Trinity Church Next To Elizabeth's Grandfather, William Shakespeare. Elizabeth Married Again. Her Second Marriage Was To Sir John Bernard (1604 - 1674) And So Elizabeth Received The Title Lady Elizabeth Bernard. Although She Inherited The Family Estate And Was Married Twice Elizabeth Had No Children Of Her Own.

And so ends the direct line of William Shakespeare

TIMELINE -  CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN OF ANNE & WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
1583 May 26, The baptism of Susanna in Stratford Parish Church Susanna was the first of Anne and
         William's children, born six months after the wedding of her parents.
1585 Anne and William's children - twins, Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare, were born
1585 February 2,  The baptism of Hamnet and Judith Shake-speare in Stratford Parish Church
1596 August 11, Hamnet Shakespeare died, possibly from the plague, at the age of eleven. He was
         buried in Stratford
1607 June 5, Marriage of Anne and William's daughter Susanna to Dr. John Hall
1608 February 21, The baptism of Elizabeth Hall Anne and William's granddaughter
1616 February 10th -  Marriage of Anne and William's daughter Judith to Thomas Quiney
1616 March 12th Judith and Thomas are excommunicated
1616 November -  Shakespeare Quiney, Judith Quiney's son ( Anne and William Shakespeare's
         grandson) was born
1617 May - Shakespeare Quiney dies just six months old
1617 October - Richard Quiney was born
1619 January - Thomas Quiney was born 
1629 Elizabeth Hall marries Thomas Nashe (1575 -1635)
1635 Thomas Nashe, husband of Elizabeth Hall, dies and is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church
1639 January 28th January Richard Quiney dies, possibly of the plague
1639 January Thomas Quiney dies ,possibly of the plague
1649 Dr. John Hall, husband of Susanna, dies and is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church
1649 Elizabeth Hall marries Sir John Bernard (1604 - 1674)
1649 Susanna (Shake-speare) Hall dies and is buried next to her mother and father in the chancel of Holy
         Trinity Church, Stratford
1670 Lady Elizabeth Hall Bernard dies leaving no heirs

Shakespeare's Parents

Shakespeare's father, John, came to Stratford from Snitterfield before 1532 as an apprentice glover and tanner of leathers. John Shakespeare prospered and began to deal in farm products and wool. It is recorded that he bought a house in 1552 (the date that he first appears in the town records), and bought more property in 1556. Because John Shakespeare owned one house on Greenhill Street and two houses on Henley Street, the exact location of William's birth cannot be known for certain.

Sometime between 1556 and 1558 John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, the daughter of the wealthy Robert Arden of Wilmecote and owner of the sixty-acre farm called Asbies. The wedding would have most likely taken place in Mary Arden's parish church at Aston Cantlow, the burial place of Robert Arden, and, although there is no evidence of strong piety on either side of the family, it would have been a Catholic service, since Queen Mary I was the reigning monarch.

We assume neither John nor Mary could write -- John used a pair of glovers' compasses as his signature while Mary used a running horse -- but it did not prevent them from becoming important members of the community. John Shakespeare was elected to a multitude of civic positions, including ale-taster of the borough (Stratford had a long-reaching reputation for its brewing) in 1557, chamberlain of the borough in 1561, alderman in 1565, (a position which came with free education for his children at the Stratford Grammar School), high bailiff, or mayor, in 1568, and chief alderman in 1571. Due to his important civic duties, he rightfully sought the title of gentleman and applied for his coat-of-arms in 1570 (see picture on left). However, for unspecific reasons the application was abruptly withdrawn, and within the next few years, for reasons just as mystifying, John Shakespeare would go from wealthy business owner and dedicated civil servant to debtor and absentee council member.

By 1578 he was behind in his taxes and stopped paying the statutory aldermanic subscription for poor relief. In 1579, he had to mortgage Mary Shakespeare's estate, Asbies, to pay his creditors. In 1580 he was fined 40 pounds for missing a court date and in 1586 the town removed him from the board of aldermen due to lack of attendance. By 1590, John Shakespeare owned only his house on Henley Street and, in 1592 he was fined for not attending church. 

However, near the very end of John Shakespeare's life, it seems that his social and economic standing was again beginning to flourish. He once again applied to the College of Heralds for a coat-of-arms in 1596, and, due likely to the success of William in London, this time his wish was granted. On October 20 of that year, by permission of the Garter King of Arms (the Queen's aid in such matters) "the said John Shakespeare, Gentlemen, and...his children, issue and posterity" were lawfully entitled to display the gold coat-of-arms, with a black banner bearing a silver spear (a visual representation of the family name "Shakespeare"). The coat-of-arms could then be displayed on their door and all their personal items. The motto was Non sanz droict or not without right. The reason cited for granting the coat-of-arms was John Shakespeare's grandfather's faithful service to Henry VII, but no specifics were given as to what service he actually performed. The coat-of-arms appears on Shakespeare's tomb in Stratford. 

In 1599 John Shakespeare was reinstated on the town council, but died a short time later, in 1601. He was probably near seventy years old and he had been married for forty-four years. Mary Shakespeare died in 1608 and was buried on September 9. 

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareparents.html