- As April 23rd is Shakespeare’s birthday, or is it, (more later) I thought I would write some notes about him.
- Shakespeare’s father John came to Stratford upon Avon from Snitterfield before 1532 as an apprentice glover and tanner of leathers. He prospered and began to deal in farm products and wool before being elected to a multitude of civic positions. He, then, applied unsuccessfully for a Coat of Arms to become a gentleman. It took, William to go to the College of Arms and secure their own family coat of arms (shown above). It cost them 30 guineas (£7,000 in today’s money) and was granted in October 1596, which meant:
- The granting to John Shakespeare a coat of arms showed gratitude to his grandfather’s service to Henry VII.
- Once John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, he and his male children had permission to put “gentleman” after their names and display their coat of arms on their door and personal items.
- I know we celebrate his birthday on 23rd April 1564, but is it the right date? I ask as he was born under the old Julian calendar, and under the Gregorian calendar, that we use today, it would have been May 3rd!
- Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18, she was 26 and three months pregnant with his child, who was born six months after the wedding!
- He left Stratford upon Avon and he went to London in the late 1580s and became an actor and writer, performing many of his own plays and those of other playwrights.
- He was also a brilliant businessman, the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his time.
- He formed a company with his actors giving him a share in the company’s profits, while allowing him to earn a fee for each play he wrote.
- He lived a double life, in London, the famous playwright, while in Stratford upon Avon, a well-known and highly respected businessman and property owner.
- He performed before both Queen Elizabeth I and James I, who became an enthusiastic patron of his work.
- The King made the actors of Shakespeare’s company ‘Grooms of Chamber’, allowing Shakespeare to change their name from the ‘Lord Chamberlain’s Men’ to the ‘King’s Men’.
- When Shakespeare died, which believe it or not was on his birthday, in his will all he left his wife was his second best bed and the bedclothes!
- As in those days copyright didn’t exist, and people traded copied plays. To get round this the actors got their lines only as the play was in progress. Someone backstage would whisper the lines to the actor just before he had to deliver them.
- His plays were never published during his lifetime. Two actors John Hemminges and Henry Condell somehow recorded and published 36 of them posthumously under the name ‘The First Folio’.
Isn’t History Interesting
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© Tony Dalton