The Works of William Shakespeare. Edited by Henry Irving and Frank A. Marshall. With numerous illustrations by Gordon Browne. Volume 5

Most of what is known about William Shakespeare's life derives either from legal records or from spurious anecdotes. (Differing accounts of one eight-year period list his occupation as soldier, stable-boy, schoolmaster, and thief). Regardless of how he began, he ended as a playwright "not of an age, but for all time"; his influence is as strongly felt today as it was four centuries ago.