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Biography of William Shakespeare

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Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth. Hamlet. All of these plays have one thing in common. They were all written by a man named William Shakespeare. Now a household name, Shakespeare wrote a great number of plays and poems during the Elizabethan era. His work is studied by students everywhere, and his tales of adventure, comedy, and romance enjoyed by many. However, what if another author truly deserves the credit for his literature? Debated by historians for centuries, Shakespeare’s authorship has been challenged using a multitude of evidence.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Stratford was small, only being home to 1,500 inhabitants. Stratford was a market town where people from neighboring cities traveled to sell their crops, animals, and goods. Shakespeare’s birthday is unknown, but had to have taken place before his christening on April 26. As a child, he grew up in a well-off middle-class family. However, this all changed when the business of William's father, John Shakespeare, began to falter in 1576. The Shakespeare family tumbled into debt. William’s parents could not afford to send their son to work, so he was provided with free education at the local grammar school. The main purpose of the school was to teach its students Latin. Not much is known about Shakespeare between the time he was 15 until the year he became an up-and coming playwright in 1592. This period has been nicknamed Shakespeare's "lost years." What historians do know is

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