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The Phenomenal Life & Times Of William Shakespeare - The Early Years

SIBLINGS, CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town of around 1,500 residents about 160 kilometres northwest of London. 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. The town was a centre for the slaughter, marketing, and distribution of sheep, as well as for hide tanning and wool trading. The date of his birth is unknown, but his baptismal record was dated April 26, 1564. This is the first official record of Shakespeare, as birth certificates were not issued at the time of Queen Elizabeth. Because baptisms were normally performed within a few days of birth it is highly likely that Shakespeare was born in April 1564, although the long-standing tradition that he was born on April 23 has no historical basis.

No doubt Shakespeare's true birthday will remain a mystery forever. But the assumption that the famous playwright was born on the same day of the month that he died lends an exciting esoteric highlight to the otherwise mundane details of Shakespeare's life.

William was indeed lucky to survive to adulthood in sixteenth-century England. Waves of the plague swept across the countryside, and pestilence ravaged Stratford during the hot summer months. Mary and John Shakespeare became parents for the first time in September of 1558, when their daughter Joan was born. Nothing is known of Joan Shakespeare except for the fact that she was baptized in Stratford on September 15, and succumbed to the plague shortly after.

Their second child, Margaret, was born in 1562 and was baptized on December 2. She died one year later. The Shakespeares' fourth child, Gilbert, was baptized on October 13, 1566, at Holy Trinity. Records show that Gilbert Shakespeare survived the plague and reached adulthood, becoming a haberdasher, working in London as of 1597, and spending much of his time back in Stratford. Gilbert Shakespeare seems to have had a long and successful career as a tradesman, and he died a bachelor in Stratford on February 3, 1612.

In 1569, John and Mary gave birth to another girl, and named her after her first born sister, Joan. Joan Shakespeare lived to be seventy-seven years old -- outliving William and all her other siblings by decades. Joan married William Hart the hatter and had four children but two of them died in childhood. Her son William Hart followed in his famous uncle's footsteps and became an actor, performing with the King's Men in the mid-1630s. His most noted role was that of Falstaff.

The Shakespeares' fourth daughter, Anne, was born in 1571, when William was seven years old. Unfortunately, tragedy befell the family yet again when Anne died at the age of eight. She was buried on April 4, 1579.

In 1574, Mary and John had another boy named Richard. Richard was baptized on March 11 of that year, and nothing else is known about him, except for the fact that he died, unmarried, and was buried on February 4, 1613 -- a year and a day after the death of Gilbert Shakespeare.

Mary gave birth to one more child in 1580. They christened him on May 3 and named him Edmund. Edmund was eager to follow William into the acting profession, and when he was old enough he joined William in London to embark on a career as a "player." Edmund did not make a great reputation for himself as an actor and died in 1607 -- not yet thirty years old. He was buried in St. Saviour's Church, in Southwark, on December 31 of that year. His funeral was costly and magnificent, with tolling bells heard across the Thames. It is most likely that William planned the funeral for his younger brother because he would have been the only Shakespeare wealthy enough to afford such an expensive tribute to Edmund.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most historians agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home. The grammar curriculum during the Elizabethan era, standardised by royal decree throughout England, provided an intensive education in Latin grammar based upon Latin classical authors.