
However, legends say he was born in April 1564 in Stratford upon Avon, the son of Mary Arden and John Shakespeare, a glover, a tradesman and a yeoman (farmer= coltivatore). William studied Latin, composition and rethoric at the local Grammar School. When he was 18, he married a girl called Anne Hathaway, probably eight years older than he, and they had three children, a daughter Susanna and twins (=gemelli) Hamnet and Judith. The tradition tells that, around 1584, Shakespeare left Stratford because he had got into trouble 8=si era messo nei pasticci) through hunting(=cacciando) in the territories of Sir Thomas Lucy, and in order to avoid (=per evitare) punishment (=punizione) he left his native town. The legend also narrates that the character of Justice Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor is a parody of Sir Lucy. Then there are about 8 years during which it there are no news about the Bard. Probably he emerged in London as an actor and a successful playwright. By 1594 Shakespeare had become the principal member of the company of the Chamberlain’s Men, which became the King’s Men when James I became king. They performed at first in their own theatre the Globe, built in 1599 and later in the covered (=coperto) Blackfriars theatre. Shakespeare bought a house,
New Place
, in Stratford where it seems he finally went to live in 1610 and where he died on April 23, 1616.