SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616), English poet, player and playwright, was baptized in the parish church of Strat ford-on-Avon in Warwickshire on April 26, 1564. The exact date of his birth is not known. Two 18th-century antiquaries, William Oldys and Joseph Greene, gave it as April 23, but with out quoting authority for their statements, and the fact that April 23 was the day of Shakespeare's death in 1616 suggests a possible source of error. In any case his birthday cannot have been later than April 23, since the inscription upon his monument is evidence that on April 23, 1616, he had already begun his 53rd year. His father, John Shakespeare, was a burgess of the recently consti tuted corporation of Stratford, and had already filled certain minor municipal offices. From 1561 to 1563 he had been one of the two chamberlains to whom the finance of the town was en trusted. Aubrey (1681) called him a butcher and Rowe (17°9) a wool-dealer, but it is clear from formal documents that by occupation he was a glover, although he appears to have dealt from time to time in various kinds of agricultural produce, such as barley, timber and wool. He is also described as a yeoman, and it is possible that he combined a certain amount of farming with the practice of his trade. He was living in Stratford as early as 1552, in which year he was fined for having a dunghill in Henley street, but he does not appear to have been a native of the town, in whose records the name is not found before his time; and he may reasonably be identified with a John Shakespeare of Snitter field, who administered the goods of his father, Richard Shake speare, in 1561. Snitterfield is a village in the immediate neigh bourhood of Stratford, and here Richard Shakespeare had been settled as a farmer since 1529. He may have come from Hampton Corley in Budbrooke, where a Richard Shakespeare is on the sub sidy roll for 1525. It is probable that John Shakespeare carried on the farm for some time after his father's death, and possible that by 157o he had acquired a small holding called Ingon in Hampton Lucy. But the Snitterfield farm seems to have passed subsequently to his brother Henry, who was buried there in 1596. There were also at Snitterfield a Thomas Shakespeare and an Anthony Shakespeare, who seems to have moved to Hampton Corley ; and these may have been of the same family. A John Shakespeare, who dwelt at Clifford Chambers, another village close to Stratford, is clearly distinct. Strenuous efforts have been made to trace Shakespeare's genealogy beyond Richard of Snit terfield, but so far without success. Certain drafts of heraldic grants of the Shakespeare arms speak, in one case of John Shakespeare's grandfather, in another of his great-grandfather, as having been rewarded with lands and tenements in Warwick shire for service to Henry VII. No such grants, however, have
been traced, and even in the 16th century statements as to "an tiquity and service" in heraldic preambles were looked upon with suspicion.
The name Shakespeare is extremely widespread, and is spelt in an astonishing variety of ways. The verdict of competent palaeographers is to the effect that Shakespeare himself, in the extant examples of his signature, generally wrote "Shakspere" in full or in an abbreviated form, but possibly, in the main signa ture to his will, "Shakspeare." In the printed signatures to the dedications of his poems, on the title-pages of nearly all the con temporary editions of his plays that bear his name, and in many formal documents it appears as Shakespeare. This may be in part due to the martial derivation which the poet's literary con temporaries were fond of assigning to his name, and which is acknowledged in the arms that he bore. Certain forms often used at Stratford, however, such as Shaxpere and Schackspere, suggest a short pronunciation of the first syllable, and thus tend to sup port Dr. Henry Bradley's derivation from the Anglo-Saxon per sonal name, Seaxberht. It is interesting, and even amusing, to record that in 1487 Hugh Shakspere of Merton college, Oxford, changed his name to Sawndare, because his former name vile reputatum est. The earliest record of a Shakespeare that has yet been traced is in 1248 at Clapton in Gloucestershire. The name also occurs during the 13th century in Kent, Essex and Surrey, and during the i4th in Cumberland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Notting hamshire, Essex, Warwickshire and as far away as Youghal in Ireland. Thereafter it is found in London and most of the Eng lish counties, particularly those of the midlands; and nowhere more freely than in Warwickshire. There were Shakespeares in Warwick and in Coventry, as well as around Stratford ; and the clan appears to have been very numerous in a group of villages about 12 miles north of Stratford, which includes Baddesley Clinton, Wroxall, Rowington, Haseley, Hatton, Lapworth, Pack wood, Balsall and Knowle. William was in common use as a per sonal name, and Williams from more than one other family have from time to time been confounded with the dramatist. Many Shakespeares are upon the register of the gild of St. Anne at Knowle from about 1457 to about 1526. Amongst these were Isabella Shakespeare, prioress of the Benedictine convent of Wroxall, and Jane Shakespeare, a nun of the same convent.