...ury have survived, but it ould be absurd to suppose the bailiff of the ton did not send his son there. The boys education ould consist mostly of Latin studies-learning to read, rite, and speak the language fairly ell and studying some of the classical historians, moralists, and poets. Shakespeare did not go on to the university, and indeed it is unlikely that the tedious round of logic, rhetoric, and other studies then folloed there ould have interested him. Instead, at the age of 18 he married. here and exactly hen are not knon, but the bishop registry at orcester preserves a bond dated November 28, 1582, and executed by to yeomen of Stratford, named Sandells and Richardson, as a security to the bishop for the issue of a license for the marriage of illiam Shakespeare and Anne Hathaay of Stratford, upon the consent of her friends and upon once asking of the banns. Anne died in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare. There is good evidence to associate her ith a family of Hathaay ho inhabited a beautiful farmhouse, no much visited, to miles from Stratford. The next date of interest is found in the records of the Stratford church, here a daughter, named Susanna, born to illiam Shakespeare, as baptized on May 26, 1583. On February 2, 1585, tins ere baptized, Hamlet and Judith. The boy Hamlet, Shakespeares only son, died 11 years later. Ho Shakespeare spent the next eight years or so, until his name begins to appear in London theatre records, is not knon. There are stories--given currency long after his death--of stealing deer and getting into trouble ith a local magnate, Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Stratford of earning his living as a schoolmaster in the country of going to London and gaining entry to the orld of theatre by minding the horses of theatre goers it has also been conjectured that Shakespeare spent some time as a member of a great household and that he as a soldier, perhaps in the Lo Countries. In lieu of external evidence, such extrapolations about Shakespeares life have often been made from the internal evidence of his ritings. But this method is unsatisfactory one cannot conclude, for example, from his allusions to the la that Shakespeare as a layer for he as clearly a riter, ho ithout difficulty could get hatever knoledge he needed for the composition of his plays. Career in the theatre.The first reference to Shakespeare in the literary orld of London comes in 1592, hen a fello dramatist, Robert Greene, declared in a pamphlet ritten on his deathbed There is an upstart cro, beautified ith our feathers, that ith his Tigers heart rapped in a Players hide supposes he is as ell able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his on conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. It is difficult to be certain hat these ords mean but it is clear that they are insulting and that Shakespeare is the object of the sarcasm. hen the book in hich they appear Greenes goats-orth of it, bought ith a million of Repentance, 1592 as published after Greenes death, a mutual acquaintance rote a preface offering an apology to Shakespeare and testifying to his orth. This preface also indicates that Shakespeare as by then making important friends. For, although the puritanical city of London as generally hostile to the theatre, many of the nobility ere good patrons of the drama and friends of actors. Shakespeare seems to have attracted the attention of the young Henry riothesley, the 3rd earl of Southampton and to this nobleman ere dedicated his first published poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. One striking piece of evidence that Shakespeare began to prosper early and tried to retrieve the family fortunes and establish its gentility is the fact that a coat of arms as granted to John Shakespeare in 1596. Rough drafts of this grant have been preserved in the College of Arms, London, though the final document, hich must have been handed to the Shakespeares, has not survived. It can scarcely be doubted that it as illiam ho took the initiative and paid the fees. The coat of arms appears on Shakespeares monument constructed before 1623 in the Stratford church. Equally interesting as evidence of Shakespeares orldly success as his purchase in 1597 of Ne Place, a large house in Stratford, hich as a boy he must have passed every day in alking to school. It is not clear ho his career in the theatre began but from about 1594 onard he as an important member of the Lord Chamberlains Company of players called the Kings Men after the accession of James I in 1603. They had the best actor, Richard Burbage they had the best theatre, the Globe they had the best dramatist, Shakespeare. It is no onder that the company prospered. Shakespeare became a full-time professional man of his on theatre, sharing in a cooperative enterprise and intimately concerned ith the financial success of the plays he rote. Unfortunately, ritten records give little indication of the ay in hich Shakespeares professional life molded his marvelous artistry. All that can be deduced is that for 20 years Shakespeare devoted himself assiduously to his art, riting more than a million ords of poetic drama of the highest quality. Private life.Shakespeare had little contact ith officialdom, apart from alking--dressed in the royal livery as a member of the Kings Men--at the coronation of King James I in 1604. He continued to look after his financial interests. He bought properties in London and in Stratford. In 1605 he purchased a share about one-fifth of the Stratford tithes-a fact that explains hy he as eventually buried in the chancel of its parish church. For some time he lodged ith a French Huguenot family called Mountjoy, ho lived near St. Olaves Church, Cripplegate, London. The records of a lasuit in May 1612, due to a Mountjoy family quarrel, sho Shakespeare as giving evidence in a genial ay though unable to remember certain important facts that ould have decided the case and as interesting himself generally in the familys affairs. No letters ritten by Shakespeare have survived, but a private letter to him happened to get caught up ith some official transactions of the ton of Stratford and so has been preserved in the borough archives. It as ritten by one Richard Quiney and addressed by him from the Bell Inn in Carter Lane, London, hither he had gone from Stratford upon business. On one side of the paper is inscribed To my loving good friend and countryman, Mr. m. Shakespeare, deliver these. Apparently Quiney thought his fello Stratfordian a person to hom he could apply for the loan of Picture Ipound sterlingS30--a large sum in Elizabethan money. Nothing further is knon about the transaction, but, because so fe opportunities of seeing into Shakespeares private life present themselves, this begging letter becomes a touching document. It is of some interest, moreover, that 18 years later Quineys son Thomas became the husband of Judith, Shakespeares second daughter...
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