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Introduction
Shakespeare the Man
Shakespeare is recognized worldwide as the soul of English literature, and as one of the few truly great dramatists of all time, yet his life was unremarkable - indeed, his gift as poet and dramatist aside, the most remarkable thing about his life is that he did live: he was born during an epidemic of the plague, which wiped out a substantial proportion of Stratford's population, including near neighbours of the Shakespeares.
An entry in the baptism records of Stratford-upon-Avon's Holy Trinity Church reads: '1564 April 26 Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere', and as it was traditional to baptize a child about three days after birth, 23 April - St George's Day - has been settled on as Shakespeare's birthday. His father was John Shakespeare, a glover and leather-worker; Mary, his mother, was the youngest of eight daughters of a well-to-do farmer called Robert Arden (whose family had given its name to the Forest of Arden), who had died the year before she married John Shakespeare (it is thought in 1557) when she was eighteen. For John Shakespeare, already beginning to make his way up the local social hierarchy, marriage to a girl of 'good family' was a good step up in the world. By 1561 he was a burgess, a town councillor, and then a chamberlain, in charge of the borough's financial affairs; in 1565 he was elected an alderman and in 1568 Bailiff of Stratford. In 1575, when William was eleven, he applied for a coat of arms. But perhaps his meteoric rise had tempted him to overreach himself, for at this point his fortunes took a downturn, and it was not until 1596 that he followed up his application for a
coat of arms and was granted it (the motto was Non Sanz
[?]