His father John had made gloves for a living (before eventually becoming a bailiff of Stratford upon Avon and later illegally selling wool).Shakespeare's mother was a member of the Arden family who were one of the most prominent families in Warwickshire. They're also one of the only three families that it's family tree can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon times. She therefore had a higher status to John which helped him rise through the local councils to be elected as a town councillor in July and then later became the town mayor. This status had meant Shakespeare was sent to a Grammar school (the King Edward VI School in Stratford) which he had to attend from from eight until five each day for six days a week from the age of seven. A popular lesson to study had been Latin, which is where a lot of the language in his plays comes from. He also used many common words that he'd picked up living in Warwickshire with in his plays, which may not have been known across the nation due to regional dialects.
He married Anne Hathaway in 1582, with whom he had three children: Susanna (Hall), Hamnet (Shakespeare) and Judith (Quiney). Judith and Hamnet were twin, however Hamnet died age eleven.
His occupation was as poet and actor but he is predominantly known as a playwright having written some of the most famous plays ever written, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear, Hamlet, The Tempest, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, to name only a few. However little in known about how he got into theatre but between 1592-94 his plays were performed in London, although the theatre were closed due to the plague in 1593.
"From about 1590 to 1613, Shakespeare lived mainly in London and by 1592 was a well-known actor there. He was also a playwright. His play, Henry VI, was performed
at the Rose theatre in 1592. He went on to write, or co-write, about 40 plays. Shakespeare was also a poet and in 1609 published a book of 154 sonnets. And Shakespeare was a businessman too. He was a sharer (part-owner) of a theatre company called The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men. And from 1599, he was part-owner of the Globe Theatre. [1]"
He died on the 23rd April 1616, aged 52, of unknown causes.
My thoughts:
For Shakespeare I feel as though his life was incredibly privileged, with the ability to have such a good education allowing him to write the plays we now know and love. I feel this may not have been possible with out his mother's prominent status in the county which led to his father's future position as Mayor that would've offered William a free place at the grammar school. I also find it incredible how he survived the period with such poor infant mortality rates, after seeing how this affected his two previous sisters who dies soon after birth, and living through the plague that had halted his shows being produced in London.
References:
[1] http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/files/2014/06/william_shakespeare.pdf
http://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-life
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_shakespeare/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
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