1. Other than what is found in a few church records and legal documents and in a few contemporary documents such as playgoers’ diaries, most evidence of Shakespeare’s life is circumstantial. Very little is known for certain.

2. More than 80 spelling variations are recorded for Shakespeare’s name, from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.”

3. In the few signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelled his name “Willm Shaksp,” “William Shakespe,” “Wm Shakspe,” “William Shakspere,” ”Willm Shakspere,” and “William Shakspeare”–but never “William Shakespeare.”

4. Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, just three days before the Stratford parish register recorded an outbreak of the plague.e

5. By tradition, it is generally supposed that Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. April 23 is Saint George’s Day, the national day of England, and the same date as Shakespeare’s death in 1616 at the age of 52.

6. Shakespeare was born under the old Julian calendar, not the current Gregorian calendar that was created in 1582 and adopted in England in 1751. What was April 23 during Shakespeare’s life would be May 3 on today’s calendar.

7. Shakespeare’s father, John, was a glover and leather-worker who rose through a series of positions of authority until, in 1568, he became high bailiff, the highest elective office in Stratford.b

8. In the 1570s, John Shakespeare was prosecuted (or threatened with prosecution) four times for the illegal activities of trading in wool and money-lending.

9. A document from 1576 mentions Shakespeare’s father, “John Shappere alias Shakespere of Stratford upon Haven,” and accuses him of usury. Shortly afterward, John Shakespeare retired from public life.

10. In November 1582, Shakespeare applied for a license to marry Anne Whateley. “Anne Whateley” could be a scribal error for Anne Hathaway, whom he married on or about November 30. She was three months pregnant at the time.

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