Shakespeare died in 1616 of a rumored “fever” just a month after creating a will in which he declared himself to be in good health. In 1609, he published a book of sonnets, and released other long poems in the mid-1590s while London’s theaters were closed due to the plague. His theatrical career likely began in the mid-1580s, and between then and 1613, he composed such works as Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, the Henriad, Julius Caesar, Othello, and many more.
There is a gap in the historical record between the birth of Shakespeare’s twins and his first recorded appearance on the London theater scene in 1592. She later bore two more children-one of whom, Hamnet, died at the age of 11. At 18, Shakespeare wed a woman eight years his senior, Anne Hathaway just six months after their marriage, Hathaway gave birth to a daughter.
His father was a glove-maker and assemblyman in Stratford-upon-Avon, and his mother was the daughter of a well-to-do landowner.
