Mary Shakespeare Mary Shakespeare Mary Shakespeare, née Arden, (c. 1537–1608) was the mother of William Shakespeare. She was the daughter of Wilmcote gentleman farmer Robert Arden, a cadet of the Arden family prominent in Warwickshire since before the Norman Conquest. She was the youngest of eight daughters, and when her father died in 1556 she inherited land at Snitterfield and Wilmcote from her father as a dowry. The house was left to her stepmother Agnes Hill. Richard Shakespeare, the father of John Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer on land owned by her father in Snitterfield. As the daughter of Richard's landlord, she
The Plays of William Shakespeare by the Shakespeare scholar William Warburton. On 1 June 1756, Johnson reprinted his "Miscellaneous Observations" but attached his "Proposal" or "Proposals for Printing, by Subscription, the Dramatick Works of William Shakespeare, Corrected and Illustrated". On 2 June 1756, he signed a contract to edit an eight-volume set of Shakespeare's writings including a preface, and on 8 June 1756 Johnson printed his "Proposal", now called "Proposals for an Edition of Shakespeare". The "Proposal" sold subscriptions for Johnson's future edition at the cost of two guineas, the first paid before and the second upon printing. When Johnson achieved scholarly renown for his