About Shakespeare

Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, known for his various plays and drama written over four hundred years ago. His writing shows an extraordinary level of insight into the human experience, our innermost thoughts. However, his life is a mystery filled with unanswered questions.  William Shakespeare lived during a time of conquest and expansion; England was a rising international power. He was born in the spring of 1564. The year he was born, Stratford was hit with a plague were many died. William was the third child and the first son of John and Mary Shakespeare;  his older sisters died in infancy. John Shakespeare was a glover and leather maker. His mother, Mary, was a very intelligent woman whom influenced Shakespeare a lot in his younger years. William Shakespeare was able to go to school and went for long hours of the day. He translated English works to Latin, and Latin works to English. As a child, his interest in theatre was sparked at a very young age. His earliest years are known as the “lost years”. The most known of his childhood were his years up to fourteen, the age he was taken out of school. Anne Hathaway was his wife, pregnant with his child when he was eighteen. They married six months before the child was born, in 1582. Throughout his twenties, there have been many predictions in what he was doing around this time, but no one knows for sure his choice of career or much about his marriage. He had three children, a daughter, and twins. During the 1580’s he left home headed for London to begin writing some of the best plays known in the English literature.