Student Question
Did William Shakespeare return to Stratford after moving to London and when? When did he die?
Quick answer:
William Shakespeare likely returned to Stratford after his career in London, but details are scarce. He stopped writing plays around 1612 and is believed to have returned to Stratford by 1613. He died in 1616. Theories for his return include dissatisfaction with London life or health issues, such as vision loss. His retirement coincides with the burning of the Globe Theatre and perhaps mirrors Prospero's farewell in "The Tempest."
Bad news on this one is that, like most questions about Shakespeare's biography, we don't have any hard and fast answers. All we have are the very, very basics of his life story. So we do know that he was born in Stratford in 1564, and we know that he married Anne Hathaway, when he was only 18 (the marriage license we have is dated 27 November, 1582). After that, we're not quite sure at what point he left for London.
But we do know he arrives in London somewhere around 1585-1592 (the intervening gap is often called 'The Lost Years', precisely because we don't know what happened!) and quickly establishes himself as a writer with the Lord Chamberlain's Men (who, later, under James I, become the King's Men).He didn't, unfortunately, leave us a biography, or detailed biographical information to go on.We only know from dating his plays the approximate...
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sequence of his writing lifetime.
We think, though there's no hard evidence, that Shakespeare returned to Stratford toward the end of his life. No plays are attributed to him after 1612, and although there is some evidence of him spending time in London, we presume he was living in Stratford with his wife and children. He died in 1616.
Why did he retire? Did he even retire? We just don't know. Yet, perhaps, if you have a look at the epilogue to 'The Tempest', in which Prospero bids farewell to his art, you might be able to suggest (though, again, without any actual evidence) that this play represents Shakespeare's own farewell to the stage.
Hope it helps!
There are different arguments as to why he returned to Stratford after spending nearly 20 years in London.
While some sources claim that he might have just gotten fed up with the ever-growing and ultra busy London life, others might claim that there is no official explanation.
Yet, as recently as 2008 an article was published stating that a new theory has arisen where Shakespeare might have started losing his vision.
As a rationale to this idea is that, coincidentally, he had also stopped writing for quite some time- he may have considered this a cue for considering retirement, and hence he returned to Stratford in 1613, the same year when his co-property (The Globe Theatre) also burned down in a suspiciously convenient fire. He died three years later in 1616. Coincidentally too, this was the same year of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, Shakespeare's Spanish counterpart, author of "Don Quijote"