We know very little about the man who is named William Shakespeare, and anyone who tells you differently is mad. Record keeping 400 years ago was inconsistent at best, and very few official documents still exist. Shakespeare, while a prolific writer for the stage did not keep a journal, letters, or much else in personal writings. The information that follows comes from Bill Bryson's mercifully brief and soulfully witty biography of Shakespeare, Shakespeare: The World as Stage.
The facts are these:
--He was baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is merely a tradition to say that he was born on April 23; birth certificates were not kept, only baptismal records. April 23 is an important date for a few reasons: (1) it is St. George's Day and (2) it is the same day Shakepeare died in 1612. Poets, dramatists and dreamers all love symmetry.
