Shakespeare's Life

Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a town in central England, an important river-crossing and market center. He was one of many children of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, the daughter of a farmer who had distant relatives who were nobility. John was trained as a glove-maker, but he also traded in wool and was a money lender. He was a respectable member of the community and in 1568 he became the town Bailiff i.e. …showed first 75 words of 910 total…

…showed last 75 words of 910 total…lived comfortably of her widow's dower until the end of her life in 1623, demonstrating that, as Stephen Daedalus facetiously put it "others had their will but Anne hath a way". She was buried next to him. The lines above his grave, presumably of Shakespeare's own writing, say: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones And cursed be he that moves my bones.