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Shakespeare on Stage
SIP Editors, King Henry VIII. To Aug. 4, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, As You Like It. To Jun. 23, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, All's Well That Ends Well. To Nov. 29, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Return to the Forbidden Planet. To Dec. 1, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, Comedie of Errors. To Jun. 22, 2013.
More Performances…
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Bad news and good news

The record of the death of Hamnet. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office.

For Shakespeare, 1596 was a year of mixed fortunes: domestic tragedy and worldly advance.

  • Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, was buried on 11 August. He was only eleven years old.
  • In October, the Shakespeare family became gentry; Shakespeare's father was granted a coat of arms.

It is a cruel irony that a scant two months before the grant, Shakespeare had lost the only male heir in his family to whom the arms could descend.