William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1564 and married Anne Hathaway at age 18. He had three children with Anne: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare had a successful career as a playwright and actor in London, writing comedies, tragedies, and histories as well as sonnets and poems. Many of his plays were first performed at the Globe Theatre, of which he was a part owner, though an outbreak of plague forced him to stop writing plays from 1592-1594. He died in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616.

1. William Shakespeare

2. Shakespeare
1.Where did Shakespeare
come from and when?
Shakespeare was born
and raised in Stratford-
upon-Avon in England.
He was probably born on
April 23rd, 1564, but we
don’t know for sure!

3. Shakespeare
2. Did he get married or have
any kids?
Shakespeare married 26-
year-old Anne Hathaway when
he was only 18 years old.
He had a girl, Susanna, and
twins Hamnet and Judith.
His son Hamnet died when
he was only 11!

4. Shakespeare
3. How and when did he die?
Nobody knows how Shakespeare died, but we do
know he died on April 23rd, 1616.

5. Shakespeare
4. What were the three types of plays
that Shakespeare wrote?
One of the types of plays Shakespeare
wrote was “Comedies” (Much Ado about
Nothing, Allʼs Well that Ends Well, Twelfth
Night, etc.).
Another type of plays Shakespeare wrote
was “Tragedies”, (Romeo & Juliet, Othello,
Julius Caesar, etc.)
The last type of plays Shakespeare wrote
was “Histories”. (Henry V, Richard III, etc.)

6. Shakespeare
5.Did Shakespeare
only write plays?
Shakespeare wrote
38 plays and dozens
of poems called
“sonnets”.

7. Shakespeare
6.What jobs did Shakespeare
have?
Shakespeare had a successful
career as an actor and writer of
plays.
He was also part owner of a
company of actors called “The
Lord Chamberlain’s Men” and
owned a part of the Globe
Theater where they performed.

8. Shakespeare
7.Where were most of
Shakespeare’s plays
performed during his
lifetime?
Although Shakespeare’s
plays were performed at other
places during the playwright’s
career, the Globe Theatre was
the venue at which his best
known stage works were first
performed.

9. Shakespeare
8.What caused Shakespeare to stop writing plays for a
little while?
In 1592, an outbreak of the plague made it too
dangerous for people to go to theaters, where they could
get sick. For two years,
Shakespeare had to
stop writing plays
because he had
nowhere to perform
them, so he wrote
poetry instead!
Fleas and rats!