Short Biograghy:

For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history.

William Shakespeare's exact date of birth is not know. He was baptised on the 26th of April 1564 and as it was common practice to baptise children shortly after their birth, it has always been assumed that the date of birth was the 23rd of April 1564. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon to John and Mary (nee Arden) who married in about 1557. His father, who died in 1601 was a butcher and maker and seller of leather goods, primarily gloves. His mother died in 1608.

William was the third oldest in a family of eight. The oldest was Joan who was born in 1558 and died in infancy. The second child was Margaret who died in 1563, a year old. Gilbert was immediately after William and he died when he was 50. After Gilbert was Joan (it was common practice to use the name of a dead older sibling again). Joan lived until she was 77 years old. Next was Anna who died when she was 8 years old. Richard followed Anna and he lived until he was 39. Finally there was Edmund who died when he was 27. William himself very nearly died as a children from a plague that swept the village.
Surprisingly, William's father appeared to have been illiterate. Despite this, John Shakespeare was a burgess of the borough, an alderman and a bailiff. Mary, William's mother, came from a very well established family and was an heiress to some land. By the time William was 7, he could both read and write. He attended Grammar School and studied Latin.
At the age of 18, in 1582, William married Anne Hathaway who was eight years his senior. The exact date is not known, but the best guess is the 28th of November. Anne finally died in 1623, seven years after William.

Little more is known of William until 1592 (this is sometimes referred to as 'the missing years') when a rival criticised him and called him "an upstart Crow" (Robert Greene, 1592). In 1593 he published Venus and Adonis and followed this with The Rape of Lucrece in 1594.
In January 1593 he was involved in a group of 6 other men who started a new theatre company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, also known as the King's Men. During this time, William wrote most of the plays for the group, averaging two plays a year. In 1599, he was involved in the building of a new theatre called The Globe which was completed in May.
During his 52 years he wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets and various other poems. He did not, however, leave any direct descendants. Anne bore three children, two girls and one boy. The boy called Hamnet died when he was 11. The two girls both married. The oldest, Susanna, married Dr John Hall and had one daughter, Elizabeth, who, although she married twice, had no children. The other daughter Judith (Hamnet's twin) married Thomas Quiney Vintner. She and Thomas had three boys. The first died when he was a year old and the other two died at ages 21 and 19 without any children.

For more information :

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

http://gouk.about.com/cs/culturehistory/a/wshakespeare.htm

Edited&copied by :

Shakespearian Girl