Birth and Parentage+.--The record of baptism of April 26, 1564, is the
only evidence we possess of the date of Shakespeare's birth. It is
probable that the child was baptized when only two or three days old.
The poet's tomb states that Shakespeare was in his fifty-second year
when he died, April 23, 1616. Accepting this as strictly true, we
cannot place the poet's birthday earlier than April 23, 1564. There is
a tradition, with no authority, that the poet died upon his birthday.

John Shakespeare, the poet's father, sold the products of near-by farms
to his fellow-townsmen. He is sometimes described as a glover,
sometimes as a butcher; very likely he was both. A single reference,
half a century later than his day, preserves for us a picture of John
Shakespeare. The note reads: "He [William Shakespeare] was a glover's
son. Sir John Mennes saw once his old father in his shop, a
merry-cheekt old man, that said, 'Will was a good honest {4} fellow,
but he durst have crackt a jesst with him att any time.'"[1]

John Shakespeare's father, Richard Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer,
who was in 1550 renting his little farm at Snitterfield, four miles
north of Stratford, from another farmer, Robert Arden of Wilmcote.
John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, the daughter of his father's rich
landlord, probably in 1557. He had for over five years been a
middleman at Stratford, dealing in the produce of his father's farm and
other farms in the neighborhood. In April, 1552, we first hear of him
in Stratford records, though only as being fined a shilling for not
keeping his yard clean. Between 1557 and 1561 he rose to be ale tester
(inspector of bread and malt), burgess (petty constable), affeeror
(adjuster of fines), and finally city chamberlain (treasurer).

Eight children were born to him, the two eldest, both daughters, dying
in infancy. William Shakespeare was the third child, and eldest of
those who reached maturity. During his childhood his father was
probably in comfortable circumstances, but not long before the son left
Stratford for London, John Shakespeare was practically a bankrupt, and
had lost by mortgage farms in Snitterfield and Ashbies, near by,
inherited in 1556 by his wife.

+Education+.--William Shakespeare probably went to the Stratford
Grammar School, where he and his {5} brothers as the sons of a town
councilor were entitled to free tuition. His masters, no doubt, taught
him Lilly's Latin Grammar and th