Where Did Shakespeare Die?
It is fairly well established that Shakespeare died on 23 April, 1616, his fifty-second birthday. From parish records we do know that he was buried three days later (exactly fifty-two years after his baptism). Local tradition has it that Shakespeare became ill after a bout of hard drinking with his fellow playwrights Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, possibly as a result from having caught a chill. But there is good cause to believe that Shakespeare was ill for some time prior to his death.
William Shakespeare died at the age of 52, on April 23, 1616. Based on the date of the Old Style, or Julian, calendar of his time. Based on the New Style, or Gregorian, calendar, the date is May 3, 1616. He was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford, and his gravestone bears an epitaph supposedly written by Shakespeare himself. It warns: Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.
