What did Shakespeare do?

William Shakespeare wrote two narrative poems, 38 plays and 154 sonnets during his lifetime and is often considered the greatest English-language dramatist, poet and writer. He was also an actor in both his own plays and those of others. read more

Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. read more

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died in 1596 at the age of 11. His older daughter Susanna later married a well-to-do Stratford doctor, John Hall. Their daughter Elizabeth, Shakespeare's first grandchild, was born in 1608. read more