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. …

…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.