Use Literary Reference Center to find biographical entries on Shakespeare using the following technique:
Encyclopedia of European Social History
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
Europe, 1450-1789 by 
Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
Women and Gender in Medieval Europe
Women in the Middle Ages
Consult multiple encyclopedias - consider the specific context of Shakespeare and the Renaissance
Substitute alternate keywords to find relevant entries. For example,
All Things Shakespeare
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre
British and Irish Literature and Its Times
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras (2004) by 
Shakespeare on Masculinity by 
Shakespeare, Trauma and Contemporary Performance by 