William Shakespeare was a brilliant English playwright, dramatist, and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer's plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. Shakespeare contributed 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long poems to English literature. .
Shakespeare was born in the year of 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was born at the beginning of the Elizabethan age, a most promising time for poetry, music, and drama. His exact birth date is unknown, but it is traditionally celebrated on April 23. Church records from Holy Trinity Church indicate that he was baptized there on April 26, 1564. Baptisms usually occurred within two or three days of a child's birth. He was the third of eight children born to middle class parents. His father John was a Stratford businessman and prominent community leader. Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden was the daughter of a local farmer, whose family paid her husband a handsome dowry.
Though no school record exists, Shakespeare most likely attended public school like other boys of his social class in England. What is certain is that William Shakespeare never continued on to a university. It is believed that Shakespeare left school at the age of 16. In 1582, when he was 18 years old, he married Anne Hathaway who was eight years his senior. They had three children together and it is unknown how the twenty-one-year old supported his family.
The years 1585 to 1592 are called the "lost years" because no records of any kind document his activities. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London, working as an actor and by that time had already became known as an established playwright. He became a principle shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe Lord Chamberlain's men. In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark.
