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It is tantalizing to scholars that they can know so little of Shakespeare's life, especially his life as a dramatist during his years in London. Some facts are known of his early years in Stratford and of his death in that town 52 years later; but few details are known of his life after he left Stratford until a mention of him in 1592. This may have been some 4 or 5 years after his arrival in London when he is referred to as a successful writer and actor.

Stratford-upon-Avon is in Warwickshire, "the heart of England" according to a contemporary of Shakespeare, the poet Michael Drayton. The countryside thereabouts is still lovely with wide meadows beside the gently flowing Avon river that winds its way through the town as it did 400 years ago. William was born there possibly on April 23, 1564. Certainly there is a record of his baptism on April 26, the 3rd child and the first to survive for John and Mary Shakespeare whose first two children both girls died in infancy. Plague ravaged the town in the year of William's birth, and reduced the inhabitants who numbered around 1400 at that time. Later, there were 3 brothers for William and a sister Joan, who outlived him.

John Shakespeare, father of the future dramatist was a fairly prosperous man in Stratford, a Glover by trade and active in civic society. In 1562 he was appointed to the responsible position of Chamberlain rising to the post of Bailiff in 1568, a title that could claim a coat of arms. William's mother came from a family of Warwickshire gentry; Mary Arden who John wooed and wed in 1557 was his landlord's daughter.

The old Grammar School still stands in Stratford and it was there doubtless, that the young William was educated. Ben Johnson has described Shakespeare's knowledge of classical languages as, "small Latin and less Greek" but nonetheless he would have received a good grounding which stood him in good stead in his later career. He then had recourse to translations and did not have to go to the original Latin or Greek for his plays.There was entertainment too, in Stratford: money was paid by the town Chamberlain to the players who came there to perform. There is record of visits by "The Earl of Leicester's Players" and "My Lord of Warwick's Players" among others, during the years of William's growing up and it is not too fanciful to imagine him among the appreciative audience.

It is not known what William Shakespeare did on leaving school, probably around the age of 14 but at that time his

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