Norton, Oxford, and Arden, all of which include
extensive commentary and annotations.
Author Biography
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-
upon-Avon, England, the third child and first
son born to John Shakespeare, a leather worker
and merchant, and Mary Arden, the daughter of
a prosperous farmer. One of eight children,
Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564.
April 23 is the traditional date observed for
both his birth and death. No known school
records survive, but it is likely that Shakespeare
attended the local grammar school, King’s New
School, which was free. This grammar school
emphasized a liberal arts education, including
Latin. Shakespeare’s education probably ended
after grammar school. In November 1582, an
eighteen-year-old Shakespeare married twenty-
six-year old Anne Hathaway. Their daughter
Susanna was baptized six months later. On
February 2, 1585, fraternal twins, Hamnet and
Judith, were also baptized. Hamnet died at age
eleven, but both Susanna and Judith lived to be
adults.
There are no records of Shakespeare’s life
between the birth of his twins in 1585 and his
first stage successes in London in 1592, but he
likely went to London sometime around 1587 or
- Shakespeare worked as an actor and as a
playwright and made money as a shareholder in
an acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s
Men, from which he received a share of the
gate receipts. Shakespeare depended on patron-
age for his survival as he became established, and
this financial arrangement was true for most
actors and playwrights. Eventually, Shakespeare
became one of the owners of the Globe Theatre,
which was built in 1599.
The 1623 Folio contains most of Shake-
speare’s plays, but they were not published in
chronological order, and the Folio does not
include the dates of their original composition.
Instead, dates are assigned to each work based
on examination of the quarto editions, published
during Shakespeare’s lifetime, or using referen-
ces from contemporary letters or diaries. (Folio
andquartoare terms that describe the size of
books. A quarto, which is formed by sheets
folded twice then cut along one fold and sewn
along the remaining fold, is half the size of a
folio.) The first play written by Shakespeare is
thought to beTwo Gentlemen of Verona, first
published in the 1623 Folio, but probably com-
posed in 1590 and 1591.The Taming of the Shrew
was also first published in the 1623 Folio, but it
may have been written in 1592 or earlier. Shake-
speare wrote several history plays, includingThe
Tragedy of King Richard the Third, which was
first printed in 1597 but probably first performed
in 1592 and 1593. Shakespeare also composed
long narrative poems, includingVenus and Ado-
nis(1593) andThe Rape of Lucrece(1594).
Shakespeare is thought to have written or
collaborated on thirty-nine plays. These include
several more comedies, includingThe Comedy of
Errors, which although not published until 1623,
was first performed in 1594; A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, probably written between 1594
and 1596; andMuch Ado About Nothing, which
was probably written in 1598. Shakespeare’s first
tragedy wasRomeo and Juliet, first published in
1597, followed byThe Tragedy of Julius Caesar,
which was not published until 1623 but was
probably composed in either 1598 or 1599.As
William Shakespeare(The Library of Congress)
Seven Ages of Man
