William Shakespeare was born into a dying culture. In 1564 England was still reeling from the massive social dislocation called the Reformation. The religious and social world his parents knew as children had been destroyed by new ideas and government actions. Churches that had embodied much of the identity of Villages, guilds, and grieving families had been cleansed of their “superstitions” or dissolved altogether, along with the monasteries that had anchored the medieval system of salvation. Purgatory was officially gone, too, and with it much of the reason for social philanthropy. John Shakespeare, William's father, belonged to a generation caught between pre-Reformation culture and the culture that would emerge by the end of the century. Had he been asked what the future held for his son, he might well have shaken his head and said it was anyone's guess. He and his fellows had seen the world change with unimaginable rapidity. What would William see?