We may take it as unquestionable fact that William was born at Stratford in 1564, and had children born to him there in 1583 and 1585. Between 1564 and the date of his acquisition of New Place in 1597 there is no recorded fact which establishes his continuous abode there. It is of course likely enough that some part of the years between 1571 and 1577 is to be filled up with attendance at the Free School. The gossip of people who lived two or three generations after the poet's death and knew nothing of him in the years of his retirement interposes some foolish and contradictory tales of his apprenticeship, which presumably lasted for the seven years from 1577 to 1584, and therefore should have overlapped his marriage year. If he lived at Stratford for twenty-one years at least, there should be a likelihood that in his writings, so full of Warwickshire scenes in his early plays, there would be some incidental allusions to a place with which he had so many associations. There are none to Stratford, next to none to any place near it. Only by constrained exegesis can any passage be tortured into an allusion to Stratford which might not equally well be referred to any other place.