Shakespeare's Son Hamnet Dies

1596

William Shakespeare's eleven-year-old son Hamnet was buried in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church. The playwright was in London. Scholars have argued ever since about whether this grief echoes through Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and the late romances. Shakespeare never had another son. The plays he wrote afterward, including King John and Hamlet, have been searched for traces of paternal grief ever since.