Research: William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare was a very mysterious man because little about his life is actually known, aside from his works of literature. The only other documents that exist about his life are a few church and legal documents. Shakespeare was born on April 23rd (which is a weird coincidence that i'm writing this on April 23rd!!) 1564. He was born to a leather merchant and local heiress and he was the third of eight children (three of who actually died). Because his parents couldn't really afford an education, they enrolled Shakespeare in a free grammar school where he learned about Greek Classics and Latin but because he never chose to attend a University, his works of literature were controversial. Many people debated whether or not his works were actually acurate and authentic.
In 1582, he married Anne Hathaway and had twins Hamnet and Judith and Hamnet later died at the age of 11. Then in 1592, he once again appeared in London, after showing no signs of life for four years, establishing himself as a devout actor and playwriter. The irony of his life was, of course, that he ended up dying on his birthday, April 23rd, in 1611.
Another interesting thing about Shakespeare is that in the time period that he was writing, there was no dictionary or any word reference source where he could of looked to helped him write. He had a vocabulary of 17,000 words, which is quadruple that of an average writer which is highly impressive considering that he didn't even attend a university. Also, it is said that he added almost 3,000 words to the English language, which is absolutely incredible and inspiring. This definitley makes me respect him more as a person and certainly as a writer.