William Shakespeare, the greatest of Renaissance English dramatists, was born into the family of a tradesman in the provincial town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Little is known about his early life. He left his native town, having gained a modest education, when he was about twenty, and went to London, where he found employment in the theatre. ---- Yet by the age of twenty-eight he had definitely acquired a reputation as an author sufficient to excite the jealousy of his rivals.