The exact date of his birth is, unfortunately, but conjectural. It is usually accepted as being April 23. But, as was the custom with the other children of John and Mary Shakespeare, only the dates of baptism are recorded. That in the case of William was April 26, and the date being old style brings it actually to May 5 in our present calendar. But there is a well–authenticated and continuous tradition that St. George’s Day, April 23, was the actual date of the poet’s birth; and most authorities are agreed that in this case tradition is probably right. It must be remembered in this connection that in those days it was the custom to bring children to baptism as soon as possible after birth, and two or three days after was a very common time. Shakespeare came into the world at a period when there was a perfect galaxy of prospective literary talent. Michael Drayton, born the previous year, was still an infant; Walter Raleigh, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser were boys; and Francis Bacon, destined to provide so much material for Shakespearian controversy in later times, was a tiny child. Indeed, the remembrance of Shakespeare’s birth year was likely to remain in the public mind for some considerable period, for it was the year of the Great Frost, when the Thames froze almost solidly from side to side above London Bridge, and a fair of several weeks’ duration was held upon it. Whilst in Stratford there was a recurrence of the plague, which is stated to have carried off at least one in seven of the total population. Fortunately the house of John Shakespeare escaped the scourge. In the following year Shakespeare’s father was made an alderman of the borough, and in 1566 a son, Gilbert, was born to him. In 1568 the alderman became high–bailiff of the town; in the following year a daughter was born, who (in spite of the ill–fortune popularly supposed to follow such a thing as giving a child the name of a previous one who had died) was named Joan. In 1571 John Shakespeare became senior alderman of the town, which was the most exalted civic office the place could bestow, and entitled its possessor to the title of Magister, both after as well as during his term of office. It is by this title that he is at and from this date described in the Parish Registers. In the same year was born his daughter Anne, who was baptized on September 28; and two years afterwards a son, baptized Richard, was born. In 1575 is recorded the purchase by John Shakespeare from one Edmund Hall of the house in Henley Street, now known as the birthplace, for the sum of £40. From this period the star of Shakespeare’s father, which hitherto, except for quite trivial ups and downs of fortune, appears to have been so distinctly in the ascendant, waned. Three years later his embarrassment was such that he was compelled to mortgage Asbies, which his wife had brought him, and also to sell his interest in certain lands at Snitterfield.