William Shakespeare

The exact date of birth and death have not been recorded, but are both believed to be the 23^th of April. Most evidence of his personal life is circumstantial, and becomes more so every day. He married in 1582, had three children, and moved to London somewhere between 1587 and 1592, where he went on to become a celebrated personality, entertaining the crowds and the queen, before the turn of the century. He retired back to Stratford some time after 1612. He changed his will in March 1616. He died the next month, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in his hometown.

But the words in his works have by now proven their timelessness, transcending religions, enlightment and industrial and technological revolutions. His plays have not been away from the stage since they were written.

Footprint

Shakespeare's (presumed) birthplace in Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon (map).

The slabstone over Shakespeare's tomb in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford (map).
The epitaph reads:

• Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare
• to digg the dvst encloased heare
• Blese be y man y spares thes stones,
• and cvrst be he y moves my bones.

In a more modern spelling:

• Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
• to dig the dust enclosed here:
• Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
• and cursed be he that moves my bones.

Statues

Bronze statue on a granite pedestal in New York City's Central Park by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the Bard's birth in 1864.

The Gower Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Marble statue by Kent in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.

Statue of Shakespeare in Leicester Square, London, by G. Fontana, 1874, a copy of the Westminster Abbey memorial, photographed by Lonpicman in 2005.

Statue of Shakespeare in the façade of the Burgtheater in Vienna, photographed by yours truly through a tram window in april 2007.

Statue of Shakespeare at The Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, USA.