William Shakespeare,
Man of Mystery
Mike Jackson - A retired Primary Headteacher
Despite being one of the best known names around the
world, we know very little about the man himself.
Here is just some of what we don’t know:
We don’t know when he was born. We know
We have just 14 words in Shakespeare’s own
only the date when he was baptised – April
handwriting. 12 of these are 6 signatures
26 1564. As April 23 is St George’s day, it’s
and as 3 of these were written on his will,
become convenient to celebrate his birthday
it’s possible others may have written his
on this date as befits the great Englishman.
name for him, if he was too weak to sign for
To learn more and see the baptismal record,
himself. Interestingly, in each signature he
go to www.shakespearedocumented.org.
spells his name differently! To see these go
to www.en.mwikipedia.org and put Spelling
We don’t know why he was called William.
of Shakespeare’s name into the search bar.
He had three brothers and four sisters, all
of whom were given family names. Yet there
For many years of Shakespeare’s life, we
is no record of another William in his family.
have no clear idea where he was. He may
For more on his family and family tree, go to
have travelled abroad or he may just have
www.shakespeare-w.com and follow the link.
spent his time in Stratford-upon-Avon and
London. For more of what little we know, and
Despite the supposed portraits of
lots we don’t know about the man and his
Shakespeare, the truth is we don’t know
whereabouts, go to www.bardweb.net and
for certain what he looked like. Certainly
search for Shakespeare’s Biography.
Shakespeare himself never commissioned a
22
portrait. There is no written account of his
As well as a writer, Shakespeare was also
appearance and there are just three portraits
an actor – possibly in his own plays as well
which might be genuine. However, two of
as plays by other writers. Sadly, we have no
these - an engraving on an edition of his
record of any part he performed. We don’t
plays and a sculpted image on his memorial
know exactly how many plays he wrote; we
stone in Stratford - were done after he died.
think he wrote between 35 and 40 altogether,
To see the third ‘portrait’ and nearly 100
but we don’t know, and we don’t know the
other contenders, go to the National Portrait
order in which he wrote them. For more, visit
Gallery’s website at www.npg.org.uk and type
www.nosweatshakespeare/
William Shakespeare into the search bar.
shakespeares-plays
We don’t have even a single line from any of
We know Shakespeare died in 1616, but not
Shakespeare’s plays in his own handwriting.
the exact date. We do know when he was
The scripts we have amount to around
buried – 25th April – and so, as his birthday
1,000,000 words in total, but no original
has been accepted as April 23rd, it’s also
manuscript has survived. However, there is
been agreed to have the birth and death
just one script which may contain
dates as the same. And one final mystery:
Shakespeare’s handwriting, when it is
he is buried in Holy Trinity Church,
thought he was asked to revise an existing
Stratford-upon–Avon along with four other
play. Shakespeare’s possible contribution
family members. Strangely, William’s is the
amounts to just 3 pages of manuscript.
only headstone with no name. To see what
To get a glimpse and read more, go to
is written on it, go to the church’s ‘Visit Us’
www.bl.uk/shakespeare.
section of www.stratford-upon-avon.org