My favourite English writers Plan

2 . A Very Brief William Shakespeare Biography.
1.Parents: John Shakekespeare & Mary Shakespeare (nee Arden).
2. Date of Birth: Generally accepted as 23^rd April 1564. Shakespear was baptized on 26^th April, 1564.
3.Wife: Anne Hathaway (married 1582).
4.Children: Susana (born 1583), Hamnet & Judith (twins, born 1585).
5.Resided: Born and raised in Statford - Upon –Avon. Prime working years spent away from family in Stratford - Upon - Avon upon retirement.
6.Career: Writer, actor, theatre owner and producer.
7. Body of Work: 37 plays. 149 sonnets. 2 long narrative poems.
8.Died : 23 April 1616, aged 52. Buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford –upon – Avon.
Shakespear was the third of the eight children born to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford - upon- Avon on April 23^rd 1564.
John Shakespeare ran his own business as a glove maker and a wool dealer. He held local public positions and was a bailiff (like a mayor) in the town council. After 1567 it is alleged that he was in financial difficulties. In 1557 John married Mary Arden who had no formal education at all. John and Mary had lost two daughters prior to his birth, around 1556, leaving William as their oldest surviving child. William’s younger siblising were Gilbert (born in 1566), Joan (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). Anne died at the age of eight, but the others lived into their adulthoods. Shakespeare’s family lived in a townhouse on Henley Street I the centre of Stratford –upon –Avon. John used one of his downstairs rooms as a workshop for his gloves on his house windowsill for passers – by to peruse and buy.
Shakespeare’s Childhood and Education: During Shakespear’s time it was typical for boys to start their education at grammar school at seven and be taught a curriculum with Latin at is centre. Children would be expected to learn long passages of prose and poetry. In addition, children were drilled in grammar, logic, rhetoric arithmetic and astronomy. Children of public officials received free tuition. Girls did not receive a school education.
It is likely that William lived with his family and was taught according to the above principles at his local grammar school. This was called The King’s New School, just was a five- minute walk from home. When William was fourteen his father lost his public position, so it’s highly probable that William left school and joined his father in business, probably making gloves. Thereis definitely no university. His contemporary Christopher Marlowe did go to Cambridge, but most playwrights, including Ben Johnson did not.
To get a feel for Shakespeare’s childhood it may be interesting to know that when Shakespeare was a child water was not clean enough to drink. It is therefore likely that attitudes towards hygiene differed to a modern understanding of ‘cleanliness. It is likely that bathing only occurred once a year, probably in May. After the water had been fetched it would need boiling and warmed in a large barrel or tub. The father bathed first, then any other men who lived in the house, then the women, and finally the children, in order of their age. Talking of such issues, the toilet facilities were quite basic with a simple pot of pewter chamber – pot (a wide jug with a handle) serving as a toilet to be used indoors. Outside garden privies would consist of a wooden seat with a hole cut in it, sitting over a cess - pit or open sewer.