Who Was Shakespeare?

Do a quick search and see if you can piece together who Shakespeare was. What do we know about him, and what are we left to wonder? Write about how Shakespeare is perceived by students-- the name alone inspires strong feelings-- and how you have progressed in your understanding of his work over the years. What do you "get" now that you didn't before? What still causes you to struggle? 

His birthday is a guess and his identity itself is sometimes argued. Shakespeare was born in 1564, the third child and first son of John Shakespeare and his wife Mary Arden, in England. William was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1564. John Shakespeare was a landowner, a merchant, a glovemaker, and a man on a political track. In 1567 he became "high bailiff," the highest elected office in Stratford, equivalent to a mayor today. He wrote 36 plays and 154 sonnets. He married a young lady named Anne Hathaway, and lost his son Hamnet to the plague. Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday in 1616.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html