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

From about 1590 to 1613, Shakespeare lived mainly in London and by 1592 was a well-known actor there. He was also a playwright. His play, Henry VI, was performed at the Rose theatre in 1592. He went on to write, or cowrite, about 40 plays. Shakespeare was also a poet and in 1609 published a book of 154 sonnets. 

And Shakespeare was a businessman too. He was a sharer (part-owner) of a theatre company called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. And from 1599, he was part-owner of the Globe Theatre.

In January 1616, he made a will and died on 23rd April 1616. 

William was born to prosperous parents. His mother, Mary, was the daughter of a local farmer. His father, John, was a glove-maker and wool trader with a large family house. When William was four years old, his father was elected Bailiff of Stratford – effectively the mayor. His father however eventually lost all his wealth due to gambling and frequent fines for being catholic, his titles were also stripped from him.

From the age of seven, boys like William went to grammar school. There was one in Stratford and it is still there today. But schooling was different then. The boys learned to read, speak and write in Latin. They also had to memorise and perform stories from history - useful skills for an actor and writer. Shakespeare probably left school aged fifteen.

In 1848 the American Joseph C Hart wrote a book putting forward the argument that the plays were written by several different authors. In 1856 Delia Bacon, another American, wrote an article to support this theory and attributed the authorship to a group of people who were overseen by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh. people also suggest that its possible Francis Bacon penned the plays, little evidence supports this though. With the initials WS, William Stanley is another strong contender for authorship of the plays. He was the 6th Earl of Derby and had his own theatre company called Derby's men.  He was related to William Cecil, on whom many believe the character of Polonius in Hamlet is based.