In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of marriage. They had three children, Susanna (1583), and twins, Hamnet and Judith (1585). Nothing is known of the period between the birth of the twins and Shakespeare's emergence as a playwright in London (c.1592). However, various suggestions have been made, including that he fled Stratford to avoid being prosecuted for steaing deer, that he joined a group of travelling players, and that he was a country school teacher.
In 1594 Shakespeare became an actor and playwright for The Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company that later became the Kings's Men under JAmes I. Until the end of his London career, Shakespeare remained with the company; it is thought that as an actor he played old men's roles, such as the ghost in Hamlet and Old Adam in As You Like It. In 1596 he obtained a coat of arms, and by 1597 he was prosperous enough to buy New Palace in Stratford, which later was the home of his retirement years. In 1599 he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre, and in 1608 he was part owner of the Blackfriars Threatre. Shakespeare retired and returned to Stratford c.1613. |
