Many details of Shakespeare's childhood in Stratford, England are lacking, but we do know a few major facts. John Shakespeare, the father of this elite writer was a "burgess of the borough" (Encarta '96), the position corresponding to mayor for the town of Stratford. His mother, Mary Arden, was a descendant of a rich, ancient family, and was the heiress to some land. They got married, thus moving John and Mary Shakespeare up a step on the social scale. Together, they bore eight children, the third and oldest son, William Shakespeare was born in 1564, and they baptized him in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

The Shakespeare family was not rich and therefore could not afford to send their children to a "private school," and i

Shakespeare and his new family didn't stay long in Stratford and eight years after the birth of his twins, they moved to London. There are many theories as to what Shakespeare had done in those eight years and what made him move. "The most accepted theory is that he worked odd jobs for minimal pay and decided to move to London to avoid getting in trouble for poaching deer in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy, a local justice of the peace" (Encarta 96). As funny as it seems, it is on record that Shakespeare was caught poaching deer; however, there is no indication of a punishment, leaving room for rumors to begin about why he actually .

Once the Shakespeare family moved to London in 1588, they needed a start. He began working in the Globe Theater and in his spare time wrote his first poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrese in 1594, once people started reading his plays and watching him on stage. They then realized that Shakespeare was a talented man. Other works began to circulate around like his Sonnets which drew more attention and fame to his name. The hard part was behind him and Shakespeare now had a base to his career as a writer and entertainer (Encyclopedia Americana 104).

Toward the end of Shakespeare's career, he began to settle down. The family moved back to Stratford and bought a summer house they called New Place and they became leading local citizens (Encarta 96). With no records that show why, William Shakespeare died in 1616 and is buried in Stratford church. After his death, Shakespeare's greatness began to flow to other European countries, and America. It was around this time that people beganto study his works. Universities were reading his plays, and more and more people were learning about what Shakespeare had written, his literary tactics and not only the plot. Today, more than ever, Shakespeare is studied and widely read in every country and language. With the increase in the study of Shakespeare, there are also movies made about his plays, (including the famous Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and the recent Othello), the bigger turnouts at places of interest in his life (his grave, home. . .) and especially the use of his famous quotes.

t is commonly accepted that the children attended Stratford's Grammar School.

The Third Period includes more of the tragedies than anything else. It seems as if after seeing the success and popularity that Romeo and Juliet and Julias Caesar brought him, he decided that more tragedies would do his reputation nothing but good. Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Antony and Cle

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