Para1 William Shakespeare, son of the businessman John Shakespeare, was born a commoner. But in October of 1596, the Shakespeare family became gentry, the class of people just below nobility. This means Shakespeare could have signed Gent. or Gentleman after his name, not that such a signature exists. The College of Arms granted a coat of arms to John Shakespeare after an initial application in the 1570s, when John was thriving as a civic figure in Stratford-upon-Avon. The application was approved just two months after William Shakespeare had lost his son Hamnet, the only male heir in his family to whom the arms could descend. The grant was approved on the basis of the “faithefull and approved service to H7 King Henry VII, who reigned from 1485–1509” performed by John’s great-grandfather and because John Shakespeare himself had “maryed the daughter and one of the heyrs of Robert Arden of Wellingcote” (Wolfe), referring to Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden. Scholars generally accept that William must have nudged the College of Arms to take action on the petition made by his father some two decades before.

Para2The coat of arms designed for the Shakespeare family in heraldic language is described as follows on the Shakespeare Documented website:

Gould, on a Bend, Sable, a Speare of the first steeled argent. And for his crest or cognizaunce a falcon, his winges displayed Argent, standing on a wreath of his coullers.

Para3In other words, the Shakespeare coat of arms was designed as gold in color with a black diagonal band across the shield and a silver-tipped spear on the shield as well. The cognizance, or distinguishing mark of the arms, would be a falcon with silver wings spread out in flight, standing on a wreath of the Shakespeare family colors. The family motto “Non sanz droict”, meaning “not without right”, is often included with the coat of arms. The two spears, on the shield and clutched in the falcon’s claws, could be considered a pun on the name Shakespeare.

Scholars have long accepted that the man from Stratford, William Shakespeare, is the author of the plays published under his name both during his lifetime and after his death. The debate over the coat of arms between some officials in the College of Arms adds weight to that conclusion. One of the members of the College of Arms, Ralph Brooke, objected to the grant of arms to “Shakespeare the player”, although the application was initially made on behalf of John Shakespeare and was granted in 1596. Brooke’s objections, voiced in 1602, and which also reference other London tradesmen’s applications, have been researched by Heather Wolfe, curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library and co-creator of the Shakespeare Documented website. The coat of arms, which appears in four separate manuscripts compiled before William Shakespeare’s death in 1616, along with other evidence of Shakespeare as a player, ensure certainty that the man from Stratford is the author of the plays that bear his name.