1564–1616

Poet
Playwright

Early Life.

Myth and conjecture surround the life of England's greatest poet. Shakespeare's date of birth is relatively certain since he was baptized in the parish church in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26 April 1564, and was thus born in the same year as the innovative Tudor dramatist Christopher Marlowe. Shakespeare's father was a prosperous local glove maker who fell on hard times around 1577. Despite this hardship the young Shakespeare probably attended a "petty" or elementary school, followed by a term at the King's New School in Stratford, where he received a Latin education. Typically, a child entered a school like King's at the age of seven and faced long hours of instruction each day. The student generally devoted himself to the study of Latin from around six or seven in the morning until five in the afternoon. In this traditional curriculum students read Ovid, Terence, Plautus, and...