Shakespeare lived at a time when people, as a rule, did not write and print the details of famous men's lives while they were living or soon after their deaths. We know much of the daily lives of such people as Scott and Dickens, and many others like Queen Victoria, Napoleon, Lincoln, Disraeli, Gladstone. But we know comparatively little about Shakespeare, partly because many people during his lifetime thought of him only as a play actor and writer of plays, and partly because there were at that time few books and there was little reading. Incidents of history and in the lives of men and women were told by older people to their children. These stories were remembered and repeated and served instead of printed books. Such traditional knowledge is sometimes inaccurate, but it is generally interesting, and frequently true. We know that Shakespeare was born April 22nd or 23rd, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He was baptised on April 26th of that year; his baptism is on record. He died on his birthday, April 23rd, 1616, fifty-two years later. His father was John Shakespeare, who sold farm produce in Stratford, and his mother was {42} Mary Arden, who came of what are called gentlefolk. He was married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway. They had three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. Susanna later married John Hall, a doctor of medicine; and Judith married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, in the same year that her father died. But Hamnet died in 1596; his death was a heavy grief to Shakespeare. Shakespeare went to London probably in 1586. The story told by tradition is that he had been poaching on a neighbouring estate belonging to a Sir Thomas Lucy. In any case, he left Stratford and journeyed to London, a small London, very different from the great city of to-day; nevertheless, it must have been an interesting place. Shakespeare acted, and wrote plays. By 1593, he had achieved a noted success. Four years later, 1597, he bought New Place, the finest house in Stratford. At first, he paid a visit there only once a year. Then he left London, and spent his later years in Stratford at New Place. His custom was to write two of his plays each year. We know something of Shakespeare's character from what his contemporaries said of him. We know what interested him most, and probably what he cared about most, from his plays. He was most frequently called by other people the gentle Shakespeare. For a man of great genius who was busy making wonderful plays, and who could have met few people, if any, who were his intellectual equals, to be called gentle by everyone who knew him is a great tribute to the lovableness of his disposition and the sweetness of his temper. It shows that he must have been {43} courteous, patient and considerate. We know from his writings that he was a well-balanced man. He was genial, and he had a great zest for life.