Edmund Shakespeare
Brother of William Shakespeare
Edmund Shakespeare (1580 in Stratford-upon-Avon – buried 31 December 1607 in London) was a 16th- and 17th-century English actor, and the brother of William Shakespeare.
Life
He was the youngest child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden and the brother of William Shakespeare. He followed William to London to become an actor. While an actor, he had an affair with an unknown woman, probably around 1600 although there is no firm evidence. He fathered a son, Edward Shakespeare, in one record noted wrongly as Edmund Sharksbye. He died in 1607, at the age of 27, four months after the death of his son. Twenty shillings was paid for his burial (possibly by William) at St Saviour's in Southwark (known today as Southwark Cathedral) "with a forenoone knell of the great bell".
In popular culture
Edmund Shakespeare was the subject of a one-man show, written and performed by the British actor Ben Deery, in 2012, at The Last Refuge, Peckham, London. The play's title Most Savage and Unnatural, alludes to a line spoken by the character of Edmund in the play King Lear by William Shakespeare. The performance included elements of audience participation and was warmly received.
He appears as Ned Shakespeare in Nicole Galland's science fiction/time travel novel Master of the Revels, published in 2021.
References
- Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: a documentary life (1975), p. 26
- Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare of Stratford: "Shakespeare's Siblings". Shakespeare Online. 12 Sept. 2000.
- Bentley, Gerald Eades. Shakespeare: A Biographical Handbook. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961. Archive.org.
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William Shakespeare's family tree
Direct ascendants and descendants of William Shakespeare are shown with a blue background
Shakespeare's siblings are shown with a red background
Anne Hathaway and ascendants are shown with a yellow background
People related to Shakespeare only through marriage are shown with a green background
Relations whose identity is not known are shown with a dashed border
Years given are usually approximate and typically reflect baptismal and burial years, rather than birth and death. For remarriages, the number in parentheses after the name indicates the order of the marriages.
| Richard Shakespeare (1490–before 1561) | (unknown) | (unknown) | Robert Arden (died 1556) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Shakespeare (c. 1531–1601) | Mary Arden (c. 1537–1608) | (unknown) (1) | Richard Hathaway (–1581) | Joan Hathaway (2) (–1599) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joan (1558–1558) | Margaret (1562–1563) | Gilbert Shakespeare (1566–1612) | Joan Shakespeare (1569–1646) | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | Anne Hathaway (1555–1623) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anne (1571–1579) | Richard (1574–1613) | Edmund Shakespeare (1580–1607) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Hall (1575–1635) | Susanna Hall (1583–1649) | Judith Quiney (1585–1662) | Thomas Quiney (1589–1662) | Hamnet Shakespeare (1585–1596) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas Nash (1) (1593–1647) | Elisabeth Barnard (1608–1670) | John Barnard (2) (1604–1674) | Shakespeare Quiney (1616–1617) | Richard Quiney (1618–1639) | Thomas Quiney (1620–1639) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sources
- Chambers, E. K. (1930). William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. Vol. I 11–12, 18, Vol. II 8–9. OCLC 353406.
- Schoenbaum, S. (1977). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 292. ISBN 0195051610.
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