William Shakespeare, 1564–1616, English dramatist and poet, b.
Stratford-upon-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest
playwright who ever lived. His father, John Shakespeare, was
successful in the leather business during Shakespeare's early
childhood but later met with financial difficulties .... William
Shakespeare, 1564–1616, English dramatist and poet, b.
Stratford-upon-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest
playwright who ever lived. His father, John Shakespeare, was
successful in the leather business during Shakespeare's early
childhood but later met with financial difficulties. During his
prosperous years his father was also involved in municipal
affairs, holding the offices of alderman and bailiff during the
1560s. While little is known of Shakespeare's boyhood, he
probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he
would have been educated in the classics, particularly Latin
grammar and literature. Whatever the veracity of Ben Jonson's
famous comment that Shakespeare had "small Latine,