shakespeare.org.uk

This resource is designed to help you understand your visit to the home in which Shakespeare was most likely to have been born.

Resource KS 3/4Birthplace Wordsearch

W A T T L E J G O V C P I B

O S A A W O R K S H O P R D

O L V S B T P D J A E H E Y

D S K H T V E R U H D B T U

E F O O R H C T A H T I O M

N Z F F P R G K F S D R P Y

B X Q E R I C W E C G T S D

E C J L F Y U B F R R H S K

A N S E S X D N L U V R I R

M Y Z V B N I D C H R O P I

S Z G I O Z C K B Y G O A J

G M J C W G L R I U S M H W

J X E A R E P O G T A Z C S

U S T R U C K L E B E D J Q

Wooden beams

Thatch roof

Workshop

Birthroom

Truckle bed

Second best bed

Wattle

Daub

Piss pot

Shakespeare’s Birthplace

Pupil’s booklet

This resource was created by Anjna Chouhan for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Learning Department www.shakespeare.org.uk

with images by Mya Gosling www.goodticklebrain.com © Mya Gosling

@SBTeducation Registered Charity Number 209302

Visiting the exhibition

Before you visit the house you will see a small exhibition of objects

relating to Shakespeare’s life and legacy. You will also see and hear

information about Shakespeare’s work.

Look at the word wall as you enter the exhibition. Which words do

you recognise?

Did you know that each of these words first appeared in Shakespeare’s

works?

Who was Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most famous playwrights

and poets.

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, travelled to London in the

late 1580s and became an actor, and eventually he started writing his

own plays.

During his lifetime Shakespeare wrote 38 plays that we know of, many

of which were collaborations with other playwrights, 154 sonnets and

5 narrative poems.

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More Facts

The main meal of the day was taken at 11’o clock in the morning.

Food was prepared in a small room separated from the house.

The kitchen you see today was added shortly after the Shakespeare

family left.

“These gloves the count sent me; they are an

excellent perfume” Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3 Scene 4

William’s father, John Shakespeare, made and sold gloves for his

living. He sold the gloves from the window of the workshop looking

out onto Henley Street. As a boy, William would have worked with

his father and played in the workshop.

? Want to find out more about specific objects in our collection?

Go to www.shakespaedia.org

William helping his father in the glover’s workshop.

House Facts

The building is made from oak beams filled in with wattle (woven hazel

sticks) and daub (a mixture of mud, clay, dung, straw and hair).

The parlour was the best room in the house, used for entertaining and

housing guests. The best bed in the house would be on display here to show

off the family’s wealth. The second-best bed was reserved for the master and

mistress of the household.

“One feast, one house, one mutual happiness” The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 5 Scene 4

Beds were surrounded by thick woollen curtains to expel draughts,

while the sheets were made from linen. The mattresses were stuffed with

feathers or wool.

“Some undeserved fault I’ll find about the making of the bed, And here I’ll fling the pillow, there the bolster, This way the coverlet, another way the sheets” The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4 Scene 1

Indoor plumbing didn’t arrive in Stratford until the 19th century. People

used objects known as ‘piss pots’ and emptied them into the streets.

“There’s his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed and truckle-bed” The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 4 Scene 5

Shakespeare Facts

William Shakespeare’s record of baptism was made on April 26th

1564. His date of birth is likely to have been several days before on

the 23rd. He was lucky to survive, given that plague broke out in

Stratford-upon-Avon the same year. It claimed 1 in 6 lives.

William was the first surviving son of John and Mary Shakespeare.

He had 7 siblings, 3 of whom died during childhood.

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in

November 1582, who was 8 years his senior.

She was pregnant at the time and he was 18

years of age.

6 3

One in six people in Stratford died of the plague in 1564.

The Shakespeare family: William with his parents, brothers and sisters.

William’s wife Anne was already pregnant when they got married.

Between 1582-1592 Shakespeare disappears from all record.

These have been called the ‘lost years’.

Scholars have speculated for centuries

about what Shakespeare got up to

during the lost years. Theories include

Shakespeare becoming a schoolmaster,

a lawyer’s clerk, a soldier and even

a pirate.

Shakespeare’s work was collected and published

in 1623 by his friends and colleagues.

The book, called ‘Mr William Shakespeare’s

Comedies, Histories and Tragedies’, contains

36 plays. It has no poetry or sonnets, and does

not include 4 plays (2 of which are lost) known

to have been written by Shakespeare. The book

went on sale for £1 (around £100 today).

Fun Folio Facts

Contains 14 comedies, 10 histories and 12 tragedies.

The Comedy of Errors is the shortest play, while Hamlet is the

longest.

The tragedy Titus Andronicus has the highest body count

at 14.

Nobody knows exactly what William Shakespeare looked like.

Although his friends saw the image from the 1623 First Folio

and his wife saw the bust over his grave, there is no evidence to

suggest that either was a good likeness.

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? Want to find out more about specific objects in our collection?

Go to www.shakespaedia.org

William left Stratford and we do not know where he went during the next six years.

Advertisement for the First Folio.

Did William become a pirate in the six years of his life in which he disappeared from all records?