SHAKESPEARE His Life. William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, England, in April, 1564. He was baptized on the 26th of April (Old Style); and, as it was a common practice to christen infants when three days old, the tradition which makes his birthday the 23d (May 3, as dates are now reckoned) is generally accepted. His father, John Shakespeare, who had been a farmer in a neighbouring village, came to Stratford about 1553, and adopted the trade of a glover. His mother, Mary Arden, belonged to a younger branch of a good old Warwickshire family, and inherited a considerable estate from her father. John Shakespeare was evidently shrewd, energetic, ambitious, and public-spirited. He made money, and was popular with his fellow-townsmen. After passing through the lower grades of office, he was elected alderman, and in 1568 became high bailiff or mayor. Of a family of four sons and four daughters, William was the third child, but the eldest son. When he was seven years old, he was doubtless sent to the Stratford grammar school, where he got all the regular schooling he ever had. In 1582, when he was only eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, of the hamlet of Shottery, near a Stratford, who was some eight years older than himself. A daughter was born to him in 1583, and twins boy and a girl-two years later. children. He had no other It was probably in the next year, 1586, that Shakespeare went to London, where he became, first an actor, then a writer for the stage. As an actor he seems to have made no special mark, but as a writer he very soon distinguished himself, and in a few years had won the foremost rank among the dramatists of his time. In 1598, Francis Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, or Wit's |