William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His father was a glove-maker and served as alderman in Stratford. After completing school, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children – Susanna, Judith and Hamnet. By 1594, he had joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theatre company in London, as an actor and playwright and had written three comedies, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as well as two tragedies, Titus Andronicus and Richard III. He had also written the narrative poems “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594), as well as over 150 sonnets, which were published in 1609.