Shakespeare Dies: English Literature Loses Its Greatest Voice
William Shakespeare died around April 23, 1616 — dates are uncertain because he died shortly before England switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, and some sources list the date as May 3. He'd been retired in Stratford for three or four years. He left a careful will that gave his daughter Susanna the bulk of his estate, his daughter Judith some cash and silver, and his wife Anne the 'second-best bed,' which some scholars read as an insult and others as sentimental — it would have been the marital bed, the best one being reserved for guests. He was buried inside Holy Trinity Church. The inscription on his grave warns against moving his bones. Nobody has.
May 3, 1616
410 years ago
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