WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUICK BIOGRAPHY NOTES

English 9A Foster

William Shakespeare—who IS this guy? He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in

England.

He was said to have been born on April 23, 1564. There is no record of his actual birth, so this is approximate.

Parents Born to John and Mary Shakespeare. John was a mayor and a shopowner.

Mary came from a wealthy family with high social status. Together they were middle class.

He had 7 brothers and sisters.

First comes love, then comes MARRIAGE. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway.

She was 8 years older than him. She was 26 and he was 18 when they married.

She was also pregnant with their first child at the time of the wedding, which was VERY scandalous in this time!

Children Anne and William had three children:

Susanna (born 6 months after the wedding), and twins Hamnet and Judith.

Hamnet died from the plague when he was 11, which undeniably set Shakespeare into an emotional stage.

Work Life Shakespeare worked for the theatrical

company called Lord Chamberland’s Men.

It later became known as The King’s Men.

He wrote 37 plays in his time.

The Globe Shakespeare’s theater was called The

Globe, also known as The Wooden “O”.

These plays were only performed during the day because there was no electricity to do them at night.

Women were forbidden to be involved in plays so all of the actors were men.

Society at The Globe There were royalty boxes at The Globe

which offered the best seating for high class.

Groundlings or stinkers were the low class people who paid a penny to get in and stood up shoulder to shoulder the whole time around the stage.

Death He died on April 23, 1616 and the cause

of death was unknown.

He is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.

He didn’t want his body moved since they were moving so many bodies to the catacombs.