Learn About William Shakespeare

Male: “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. At first, the infant mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms, then the whining schoolboy with a satchel and shinning morning face creeping like a snail”—William Shakespeare

Narrator: So, let's begin with Shakespeare’s first age and his own arrival into the world. Stepping back so far in history to a time when official records were few, it's difficult to be absolutely sure about anything that happened in Shakespeare’s life.

However, one of the few indisputable facts is that Mary Arden was Shakespeare’s mother. For many people visiting Stratford, the Arden family house reputed to have been her home before she married John Shakespeare is one of the highlights of any tour.

This lovely half-timbered 16th century farmhouse is in the picturesque village of Wilmcote just a few miles to the northwest of Stratford.