Of the life of Shakespeare little is known. No biography of him was attempted until nearly a century after his death. Floating traditions then collected, partly at Stratford and in the neighbourhood, partly from theatrical circles in London, clothed the bare facts for which there was documentary evidence with some amount of flesh and blood. The portrait of Shakespeare thus produced remains substantially unchanged by the laborious research of two centuries more. Most modern Lives expand their contents partly by accumulation of details however minute and bearing however remotely on Shakespeare himself; and much more largely by inference and conjecture based on treatment of the plays and the sonnets as veiled or unconscious autobiography.

The known facts may be summarised as follows.

The traditional date of Shakespeare's birth is April 23rd, 1564. He was christened in Stratford Church on the 26th: the date assigned for his birth is probable enough, but its acceptance is mainly due to its being the day of St George, the patron saint of England, and also the day, fifty-two years later, of his own death. His father, John Shakespeare, was a prosperous burgess and tradesman of Stratford, described as a glover, or more largely as a dealer in wool and leather, and living at the house in Henley Street now known as the Shakespeare birthplace. His mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a family of small land-owners in the neighbourhood.