Shakespeare's Life & Biography

RESEARCH: Research Shakespeare’s life, ensuring you include information about his origins, family, relationships, the world he lived in and questions surrounding his work. 

Shakespeare was born on the 23rd April 1564 to John and Marry Shakespeare. He was the oldest

surviving child out of two other siblings, both girls, who sadly didn't live beyond infancy, as well as three brothers and two younger sisters. His brothers were called Gilbert, Richard and Edmund and his sisters were called Anne and Joan, Anne died at the age of seven. Born and raised in Stratford-Upon-Avon his father was a leather worker and his mother was of the Arden family. He was a rising businessman and progressed through the local offices from an Alderman to the town bailiff when William was 5. Shakespeare's family was well recognized in Stratford and as a result of this we attend one of Stratfords leading grammar schools, where he learnt latin, writing, acting and classic latin plays.  He would have attend the grammar school until around 15. 

In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, with Anne already expecting their first born child Susanna. At the time Anne was 26 and William was 18. Unlike William Anne didn't grow up in Stratford, instead she grew up in a nearby village called Shottery, but after marring William she spent the rest of her life in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Three years later in 1585 William ans Anne had twins who they called Judith and Hamnet, they had no more children after this. During their marriage however, Shakespeare spent most of his time living in London while they lived in Stratford, as London was where we worked. It's suggested that the fact they didn't really live together and that they had a small family for the era was a large sign that they had quite a strained marriage. Hamnet died in 1596, aged 11, and his older daughter Susanna was married not long after to a doctor called John Hall. Shakespeare's first grandchild was born in 1608 via that marriage and was named Elizabeth. Just after this Judith married a man named Thomas Quiney who was a vinter, someone who imported and exported wine (a wine merchant). However the Shakespeare's increasingly small families eventually caught up with them and they died out leaving no descendants of Shakespeare today.

The first record we have of Shakespeare within his work is from 1592 when we became established in London as a playwright and actor. In 1952 Shakespeare's play Henry VI was put on in the Rose Theatre and then in 1593  Shakespeare published one of his first works, a poem entitled 'Venus and Adonis'. The next body of work appeared in 1594, which was a collection of various plays and pieces of writing, none of which had his name on, this only began to happen later when his name and work gathered popularity.  Over the next 20 years Shakespeare worked in various roles in the London Theater both as an actor and as a playwright, this then led onto a partnered business in a well known acting company, called 'The Lords Chamberlain's Men' and then 'The King's Men' in 1603. As his career went on he became more and more famous within London's theatre world, his name becoming something of recognition and a selling point on title pages. Shakespeare was also the part owner of the Globe Theatre from 1599 onward, proving himself to be a very good businessman. Both of these things meant that for at least 20 years after Shakespeare was getting a continuous flow of money from his acting, running of these theatres and writing.  In total Shakespeare wrote about 40 plays, as well as a huge number of other poems and pieces of writing. In 1609 Shakespeare published one of his first poetry books, it contained around 154 sonnets. 

The majority of wealth that Shakespeare gathered form his work was invested in a property in Stratford and then invested in the second largest property in New Place in 1597. New Place was a town just outside Stratford that Shakespeare and his family later moved into, this was while Shakespeare mostly resided in London. Shakespeare died on 23rd of April 1616, with one of the last play he wrote being 'The Two Noble Kingsman', this play was written with input and collaboration from John Fletcher, it was thought to be written in 1613. The actually root of Shakespeare's death is unknown, although it is speculated that he died from the same infection that killed his broth-in-law a week earlier. A memorial bust was created in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, the bust was approved by people who actually knew his and therefore is said to be the most accurate in terms of its likeness of him. In 1623 a First Folio editions of his plays was published by colleges and friends of him and the images engraved by Martin Droeshout, these images are also said to be closest to what he actually looked like. He was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, the same place his bust was created and displayed. 

What sense do you get of what life was like in Elizabethan England?

The reign of Queen Elizabeth I spanned from 1558 to 1603,it was the period of the Renaissance. The

renaissance was the time for new ideas in literature and science, along with loads of other aspects of Elizabethan daily life. The beginning of the renaissance within theatre began with the opening of 'The Red Lion' in 1567, this was followed by the opening of many more permanent theatres around London, eventually resulting the Globe Theatre being built in 1599. These theatres were gradually replacing the inn-yard venues, as it became a more and more popular source of entertainment. Theatre was a huge culture in the Elizabethan era with people from all classes gathering in the afternoon in playhouses to watch a play. The theatres built were open-air, making use of the natural light so the performances were able to take place, however this meant plays couldn't take place as night or in extremely bad weather. The theatres were built out of wood, taking about 6 months to make, and they were styled off the roman amphitheatres. The material's used to build with were  also quite cheap, meaning that the profits of most theatres went up too 5 times as high. The Elizabethan amphitheatres were either octagonal or circular, normally having between 8 to 24 sides. Women were not able to act in any theatre so all the female parts were played by men.

The role of the family was extremely important in this era. It was thought that families were the role models for the community, having a huge importance and belief upon the classic, standardised hierarchy. The way children were raised was also very important, with there even being a customary ruling for their behaviour that was taken from the bible. The way family life was was very different depending on whether they were rich or poor. A typical Elizabethan family day often revolved around the sun as electric light had not yet been invented, most families would be early to rise and early to bed following the pattern on sunrise and sunset. There was no running water, heat was obtained via fires and light via candles, this however was a lot harder for someone of a working class. All cooking would also happen over over an open flame, either in cauldrons, pots & pans, kettles or skillets.

In Elizabethan times the role of women was extremely different. Women were supposed to be reliant on the males in their life, with things like arranged marriages being the norm so they were able to have someone to support them.  There was no such thing as a school that allowed women, if they were going to be educated it had to be a home tutor, they couldn't enter a university let alone take part. Women weren't able to be a heir to their fathers title or have any say in politics or even cast vote.

The Queen was protestant and therefore the official religion of the country was protestant, however there was still a large catholic population. Despite Queen Elizabeth stating she had no reservations against the catholic community there were a large number of catholic plots against her, their end aim was to establish Mary Queen of Scots as Queen. This however only resulted in her execution later on. One of the differences between Catholics and Protestants was that Catholics decorated their churches with a low of shrines and statues to celebrate God where as Protestants kept their churches very plain so they could focus on praying.

There were a lot of superstitions in the Elizabethan era as well, with a huge belief in witches which ultimately resulted in a large number of women and some men being persecuted for belief that they were a witch.  Most unexplained events were pinned on witchcraft, things like the plague, crop failures, illness or death of both people and animals and wild fires. What is now the stereotypical idea of a witch was then the markings of a witch, they were seen as old hags that would often live alone in desolate places with the power to fly (later the idea of flying on a broomstick came about) and living with some sort of animal to endorse the 'witches familiar'. There was a common belief that the seventh son of the seventh son would possess extreme magical powers as well as many other superstitions that still exist today, such as not walking under ladders, spilling salt or pepper is bad luck, touching work to protect against bad luck and it being unlucky for a black cat to cross your path.

At the beginning of the era the population was around 2.8 million, this however rose significantly to 4.1 million during Queen Elizabeth's reign.  There were a large variety of jobs available for all classes, the most common being a nobleman, a merchant, a parson, a labourer or work in entertainment such as an acrobat or an actor. The lower class generally only traded in pennies as a pound would have been far too much money for they to get a hold of, with the Elizabethan pound being worth around 400 us dollars (£322.61) today.  And around 240 pennies were equal to a Elizabethan pound.

Medicine wasn't very advanced in the Elizabethan era with the bubonic plague killing around one-third of the population. Disease was very common due to the lack of sanitation and hygiene in the era. There were open sewers in the street that were very rarely emptied, becoming a heaven for things like rats, lice and fleas. Some of the beliefs within medicine came from astrology and certain bodily fluids, these were paid close attention too. However the services of a physician were only available to the rich as they had a high price of 10 shillings (one gold coin). The poor often had a 'local wise women' too go to if they ever had a health problem. It was also very common for lower class families to have different herbs and homemade potions that would be used to treat any sickness or illness's. Amputations was a common practise in upper class physicians to prevent any sort of disease from spreading.