In 1611 Shakespeare, after a flurry of writing, which has been termed his greatest period, left London. In that ten-year period from 1599 to 1609, he wrote Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, Othello, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Anthony and Cleopatra. His last works, written between 1609 and 1613 were Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter' Tale, and The Tempest. It was then, his fingers blackened over the years from continually dipping a quill pen in the inkpot, that Shakespeare retired from the theater.

Hamnet Shakespeare's Death

In 1596, fifteen years before Shakespeare left London, Hamnet Shakespeare died. He was eleven years old. The reason is unknown, but we can safely assume that Shakespeare grieved deeply for his only male heir. The lines spoken by Constance in King John, which the playwright wrote the following year, no doubt referred to Shakespeare's anguish at losing his only son:

Some critics have suggested that in the play Hamlet, when Hamlet talks to his father's ghost at the beginning of the play, it is a psychological inversion of Shakespeare talking to his son's ghost.

Coat of Arms

The same year as Hamnet's death, the College of Heralds granted Shakespeare's father a dream that had long been denied to him: the Elizabethan status symbol, a coat of arms. The petition was granted for “good and loyal service” rendered to the Crown. The rough draft of the petition has a drawing of the family crest featuring a falcon with a spear in its claw, and the family motto, Non Sanz Droit (Not Without Right). Shakespeare inherited the title in 1601, at his father's death. He could now write “gentleman” after his name.