William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. (His exact date of birth is unknown, though he was baptized on April 26.) At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet, the latter of whom died in childhood.
After 1585, there is nothing known of Shakespeare’s life until 1592, when he was already in London and known as both an actor and a playwright. The following year, the plague broke out in the city, closing theatres for the rest of the year and turning Shakespeare to poetry. In 1593, he published Venus and Adonis, and the following year, he published The Rape of Lucrece and joined the prestigious acting company Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which later became known as The King’s Men.
Together with a few other members of the company, Shakespeare became a part owner of London’s famed Globe Theatre in 1599. Many of Shakespeare’s most famous works were performed there, including Julius Caesar, Hamlet, As You Like It, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear.
Shakespeare published a book of 154 sonnets in 1609 (though they were written considerably earlier), and retired to Stratford a few years later. He died there on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at Holy Trinity Church.