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William Shakespeare

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25 Nov, 2014

Folio discovered

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SHAKESPEARE folioA previously unknown folio surfaces at a small library in northern France, bringing the world’s known total of surviving first folios to 233. American Shakespeare expert Eric Rasmussen:

This is huge. First folios don’t turn up very often, and when they do, it’s usually a really chewed up, uninteresting copy. But this one is magnificent.

23 Apr, 1616

William Shakespeare dies on 52nd birthday

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Exactly 52 years after the day of his birth, Shakespeare dies of a fever, supposedly induced by an excess of drinking, one of his contemporaries says

Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.

He dies in his home town of Stratford-upon-Avon and is buried in the Holy Trinity Church. Upon his tombstone his own words are engraved.

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here!

Blest be the man that spares these stones,

And curst be he that moves my bones

23 Apr, 1564

William Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England

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William Shakespeare is born of John and Mary Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He is their third child, however his two younger sisters die prior to his birth, the presumed cause being plague. John is an Alderman and Bailiff, and Mary is a housewife. As such he is educated at a local grammar school, where he first develops his love of writing.