How Did Shakespeare Die?

2026-06-01

Causes of death were not recorded in parish registers in early 17th-century England, with one exception: plague fatalities. William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, and the reason he died is not documented anywhere from that time.

What the Record Shows

He was 52 years old. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on 25 April 1616, and the burial date is recorded in the parish register. Nothing else about his death is.

A month before he died, on 25 March 1616, he signed his will. He described himself in it as "in perfect health & memorie, god be praysed." This was a standard legal phrase for the period, not a medical report. The will was itself a revision of an earlier draft made in January of that year.

His signature on the will appears shakier than earlier examples, though there are only six surviving signatures in total, which limits what any comparison can tell us.

The John Ward Story

John Ward, who became vicar of Stratford in 1662, noted in his diary that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."

Ward wrote this approximately fifty years after Shakespeare's death. He was not a contemporary witness. The story circulated in Stratford but cannot be corroborated by any document from Shakespeare's own time.

What Probably Happened

A serious outbreak of typhus, called the "new fever" by contemporaries, was circulating in Stratford in the spring of 1616. Several other people in the town died during the same period.

A fever of some kind is the most plausible explanation available. Whether it was typhus, influenza, or something else cannot be confirmed from surviving sources.

His Will and the Second-Best Bed

Shakespeare's will, signed a month before his death, left the bulk of his estate to his elder daughter Susanna and her husband, the physician John Hall. His wife Anne received "my second best bed with the furniture," where furniture meant the curtains and bedding.

This has been read as a deliberate slight for four centuries. Infrared and X-ray analysis by a team from the National Archives established that the clause was inserted into the will as a late addition, apparently close to his death. The second-best bed was typically the marital bed in an Elizabethan household; the best was reserved for guests.

Anne was also protected by dower law, which automatically entitled her to one-third of the income from Shakespeare's estates for life. No will could remove that entitlement.

Where He Is Buried

His grave is inside the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted a chancel burial because he held the position of lay rector, which carried a financial obligation to the church.

His grave slab carries a four-line epitaph, widely believed to have been composed by Shakespeare himself, that curses anyone who disturbs his remains: "Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here." A ground-penetrating radar scan conducted in 2016 suggested his grave may have been disturbed at some point and his skull removed, though no physical excavation has confirmed it.

Anne Hathaway was buried beside him in August 1623, seven years after his death.