Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 47

by Tucker Brooke

Layout 2

 

XLVII. BURIAL OF EDMUND, SHAKESPEARE’S BROTHER (1607).

Entries in burial register, St. Saviour’s Church, Southwark, December 31, 1607.

1607  Decemb. 31 Edmond Shakespeare, a player, in the Church.

Burials, December, 1607. 31. Edmund Shakspeare, a player, buried in the Church with a forenoon knell of the great bell, xx s. (Sexton’s Note.)

Note. St. Saviour’s was the church nearest the Globe Theatre; in it the dramatists Fletcher and Massinger were later buried. Edmund Shakespeare was in his twenty-eighth year when he died. He appears to have attained no distinction as a player, but the records above indicate that he was interred with unusual dignity and expense.