User:Linda laing

'''Will lived for 52 years as his biography confirms. In just 23 years, between approximately 1590 and 1613, he is attributed with writing 38 plays, Famous Shakespearean sonnets and 5 other poems. He is the most widely read of all Authors and the popularity of the Life and Works of Shakespeare, in English speaking countries, is second only to the Bible. It is therefore no surprise that Shakespeare's biography, or bio, sparks so much interest. We have categorised this William Shakespeare Biography, or bio, into sections to facilitate easy reference. These range from a section on Shakespeare's ancestors to his education and from William Shakespeare's brothers and sisters to Shakespeare's acting career.''' There are two periods in the life of William Shakespeare referred to as the Lost Years where there are very few known facts about his activities. The first of these ' Lost Years ' are between 1578 when he leaves school at the age of 14 and 1582 when he marries Anne Hathaway at the age of 18. Let' s look first at what facts are available during this period - the First Lost Years.'''There is no doubt that William Shakespeare's father, John Shake-speare was going through a particularly bad patch during the first lost years. He had been incredibly successful in Stratford both in his own businesses and his civic career. In 1568 he had been appointed the Mayor of Stratford and in 1570 he had been appointed to the even higher rank of Chief Alderman of Stratford. By 1578 things had started to go seriously wrong for the Shakespeare's. William and his brother were removed from school in order to help with the finances as John was behind with the taxes. Another tragedy struck the family in 1579 when eight year old Anne Shakespeare died. This must have been a terrible time for the Shakespeare family but despite their mounting financial problems their young daughter Anne was provided with an expensive funeral. Things went from bad to worse and in the same year as Anne's premature death William's father was forced to mortgage his wife's estate, Asbies. Despite the mortgaging of property their money problems continued and in 1580 John was fined £40 for missing a court date. There is no real evidence of the events which lead to John's downfall and how he descended from being a pillar of the community, and wealthy businessman, to a debtor whose only possession was a house on Henley Street. The events surrounding his father were, however, of major importance to William and the first lost years.'''