Where one is nurtured does not guarantee a genius but can condition a young genius to flourish. William Shakespeare was born in a little town called Stratford- upon-Avon. Shakespeare was born in the same region as his parents who were also long time inhabitants of Stratford.  The town inhabited about two thousand in population; a large city with history dating back to the pre-historic times.  Stratford was a large conglomeration of people of wealth and poverty.  This variety of people also created an urban lifestyle in the aspects of intuitive arts for this time period.  Shakespeare was given the opportunities to be in an environment to saturate the life around him into the plays he has become famous for today (Parrott 23).

William Shakespeare was born in a flourishing town filled with large impressive churches, castles, and palaces in an ancient time.  Given his amount of time in Stratford there are only two public records of Shakespeare in the urban city.  He was baptized and later on in life, married.  According to the parish register of Stratford, Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere was baptized on Wednesday, April 26^th 1564, the festival of England’s patron saint, St. George (Parrott 46).  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but with a great depth of knowledge of records, environment information and other forms of literature in the course of this time period can give a great portrayal of the accurate life of William Shakespeare. One example is during this time children were baptized as soon as possible and it was unlikely that William was born before the 21^stor 22^nd of April (Parrott 10). 

William was the oldest of the surviving children in his household.  There were two sisters who died before him during child birth and delivery.  However, he was not the only child in the home.  He had three brothers: Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two sisters: Joan and Ann (Parrott 11).  His childhood household upbringing was strict discipline of the Middle Ages.  The boys rose early, waited on their parents at the table, kept silent in their presence, and capped their hats to elders on the streets. This was the norm during his time, and there was not a doubt that William was raised in a very traditional home for their culture. However, one change from his parents childhood to those of their kin was education.  His parents wanted to provide an educational background for their children because they were never given the opportunity to advance their own knowledge and education.  William’s parents must have been very proud of him to immediately introduce him into a life which was denied to them (Parrott 72).

Education started from a very young age in the Shakespeare home.  William attended the old Guild School which had been transformed by Edward VI in 1553 into the King’s New School of Stratford-upon- Avon (Parrott 21).  The master of this new school was paid much higher than any of the similar schools in the area.  This type of increase in salary gave much publicity to the new school and attracted the smartest pupils and scholarly professors.   Free education was offered to the sons of the citizens of Stratford and since John Shakespeare was a town official and bailiff, he was not going to deprive his child of such an opportunity.  During this time, the Queen’s reign developed many free schools around the region.  This was one of Queen Elizabeth’s distinguishing characteristics to give advantages of classical education to the citizens (Parrott 14).  

The education of William Shakespeare was intense compared to the education individuals experience in present day society.  He also must have entered grammar school mastering the alphabet in the horn-book, which was a book that taught how to spell out simple English, and to write in the old-fashioned script which he continued to use all his life (Parrott 34).  Latin was the only language used in the education system of the Queen.  In fact only Latin Grammar books from the authors of Colet and Lyly were the only books authorized by the royal proclamation.  These were the only books used in the English school and the young boys were forced to learn the grammar book by heart before he understood the language in which they were written.  This type of teaching was to learn the Latin way of verbal use, proper dialogue which school masters demanded.  Some of the Latin literature pieces which Shakespeare was interested in were play wrights, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, Platus and the praised tragedies of Seneca.  Ovid was one of William’s favorite pieces of literature and has been known to make quotes from this piece in several of his own works.  For example, he referenced Ovid in one of his first poems and borrowed characters for other works. 

                After several years of grammar school and years of being apprentice for his father,William Shakespeare moved to London around 1587.  The new urban lifestyle of London was a perfect environment for a young educated man with a desire to provide literature for these citizens around him. He began enjoying the colorful and influential life of London and started to produce plays and poems. During Shakespeare’s time in London, the culture was influenced by the stimulus of the Renaissance.  This was the first city to rapidly move into this new culture. It also became the capital Centre of its social, commercial and intellectual life. 

                Years of success under the Queen was soon ended after her death.  There was a period of time during Shakespeare’s London period where time was lost.  During this time experts think he was a school teacher while writing many of his plays and comedies.  However, after the death of the Queen his written work transformed to a tragedy period.  His plays and poems were written with a humorous yet dark portrayal. His life continued with his last years back in Stratford.  Shakespeare’s travels and education only made way for some of the most famous pieces of literature and has continued to be an ongoing series of tremendously genius language and creativity. 

Works Cited  

Parrott, Thomas Marc. William Shakespeare: A Handbook. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955.

The source of the background history of William Shakespeare’s place of birth, home life and upbringing was from the William Shakespeare: A Handbook by Thomas Marc Parrott.  There are several reasons for using Parrott’s book and not some of the other more modern books about Shakespeare, however, the main reason was to start with an author in an earlier time period.  Our project is a sequence of time and the same principles were placed in the information as well.  The other reason for choosing Thomas Parrott’s book over the other many pieces of literature in the Valparaiso University Library was the accreditations which Parrott has earned.   Thomas Parrott attended Princeton University and also was a professor in the English department.  Over his time studying and teaching, he wrote many textual pieces on William Shakespeare.  His work has been duplicated over the years and still is being used today for his research. Furthermore, only the basic information was needed in the aspects of our project.  The background history was to give way into how and why William Shakespeare was involved with poetry, play writing and other pieces of literature.