William Shakespeare

An actor became a shareholder. The shareholder wrote the repertory. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, married Anne Hathaway, and was established in the London theatre by 1592. He acted, wrote, and shared in the income of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later the King’s Men, and held interests in the Globe and Blackfriars theaters. Comedies, histories, tragedies, romances, narrative poems, and 154 sonnets survived him; about half the plays might not have done so without his fellow actors’ First Folio of 1623. He returned to Stratford a prosperous property owner and died there in 1616. The documents show a working theatre man. The voices onstage refuse to stay four centuries away.