100 Fascinating William Shakespeare Facts

1. William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist.
2. His exact date of birth is unknown, but he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and death on April 23, 1616, is traditionally observed on April 23.
3. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in the middle of England.
4. Shakespeare wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems.
5. His plays are traditionally divided into three categories: comedies, tragedies, and histories.
6. Some of his most famous plays include “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Othello,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
7. Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
8. His sonnets are considered a form of the Shakespearean sonnet and are also referred to as the English sonnet.
9. He invented over 1,700 words that we use today, including “assassination,” “courtship,” “lonely,” and “bedroom.”
10. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26. They had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith.
11. Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11, which many speculate influenced his writing.
12. Shakespeare’s plays are set in many locations, some as varied as France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Scotland.
13. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres.
14. He was part of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors, for which he wrote during most of his career.
15. The Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, burned down during a performance of “Henry VIII” in 1613.
16. He was a prolific writer, and his plays show a great knowledge of human behavior, which was gained from a wide range of activities and interests.
17. Some of his plays, like “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet,” have been made into films multiple times.
18. Shakespeare is known for his ability to shift between comedy and tragedy within the same play.
19. He created some of the most unforgettable characters in literature, like Lady Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, and Hamlet.
20. Shakespeare’s early classical and Italianate comedies, like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Merchant of Venice,” contain a tight structure and convey a lighter tone than his later works.
21. Shakespeare’s work has been performed in numerous countries and languages.
22. The First Folio, a collection of his plays, was published in 1623, seven years after his death.
23. Although Shakespeare’s plays were popular during his lifetime, his literary reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century.
24. He used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, known as blank verse, in his plays.
25. Some of Shakespeare’s phrases, like “all that glitters is not gold” and “parting is such sweet sorrow,” have become common sayings today.
26. Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language.
27. Some scholars speculate that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic, outlawed in his time.
28. The exact cause of Shakespeare’s death is unknown, as his health was not documented at the time.
29. Shakespeare left most of his estate to his eldest daughter, Susanna, with the stipulation that it pass down the direct female line.
30. His last play, “The Two Noble Kinsmen,” was likely written in 1613, three years before his death.
31. Some of his plays, notably “The Tempest” and “As You Like It,” end with direct appeals to the audience for applause.
32. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were not published during his lifetime. The plays that stayed unprinted were, presumably, too popular for the printer to wait to publish.
33. Even though he is widely regarded as the finest writer in English history, little is known about Shakespeare’s personal life.
34. He has inspired other writers, including Goethe, Dickens, Joyce, and Tolstoy.
35. A Romantic legend that Shakespeare fled Stratford for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching is now generally discredited.
36. Though more is known about Shakespeare’s life than those of most other Elizabethan and Jacobean writers, few personal biographical facts survive, which is unsurprising in the light of his social status as a commoner.
37. The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Stratford-upon-Avon and performs his plays in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan Theatre on the banks of the River Avon.
38. He lived during the Elizabethan era and the Jacobean era, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
39. Two of his plays, “Hamlet” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” have been translated into Klingon.
40. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust owns and cares for the five houses in Stratford associated with Shakespeare.
41. There are only six authenticated portraits of William Shakespeare.
42. Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the English language – after the writers of the Bible.
43. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were published in editions of varying quality during his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare’s, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published the “First Folio,” a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare’s.
44. It is believed he wrote most of his sonnets in the 1590s during a period of closure of theatres because of the plague.
45. Some of Shakespeare’s signatures have survived on legal documents; his spelling of his name was somewhat variable, but no version spelled it “William Shakespere.”
46. He was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation didn’t rise to its current heights until the 19th century.
47. The romances are a group of late-stage plays including “Pericles,” “Cymbeline,” “The Winter’s Tale,” and “The Tempest,” which critics describe as tragicomedies.
48. Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation.
49. Some scholars believe that Shakespeare was a member of the “School of Night,” a group of freethinkers led by the Elizabethan poet and notorious atheist Christopher Marlowe.
50. Some scholars suggest that Shakespeare may have written less than half of the dialogue in “Henry VIII,” attributing the rest to his collaborator, John Fletcher.
51. Despite the commercial success of his early plays such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare was not considered a serious dramatist until the release of his historical dramas, such as “Julius Caesar” and “Henry V.”
52. Shakespeare’s early classical and Italianate comedies, like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Merchant of Venice,” are often described as some of his best early work.
53. Shakespeare’s work, particularly his plays, have been the subject of numerous film and stage adaptations.
54. The “Chandos” portrait is the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare. This piece is named after its owner, James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. It is housed in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
55. Shakespeare’s family home is still standing in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is a dedicated museum and performance space where visitors can learn more about his life.
56. The exact order of the composition and performances of Shakespeare’s plays is difficult to prove—and therefore often disputed.
57. Some of Shakespeare’s plays—like “The Comedy of Errors”—are derived from Plautus’s work, which Shakespeare likely read in Latin, as it was not available in English translation.
58. Despite its title, Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” is considered a tragedy, not a history play.
59. At the time of his death, there were still some plays Shakespeare had written that had not yet been published, including “Macbeth,” “Antony and Cleopatra,” and “The Tempest.”
60. The epitaph on Shakespeare’s monument in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, which could have been composed by him, warns against moving his bones, which was a common practice in that period when space needed to be created for newer graves.
61. Some of Shakespeare’s most popular plays during his lifetime were “Henry IV Part 1,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Merchant of Venice,” “Hamlet,” and “As You Like It.”
62. There are no records of any significant tributes to Shakespeare by his fellow actors and writers at the time of his death.
63. Some Shakespeare scholars argue that parts of “Macbeth” were not written by Shakespeare, citing the inconsistency of the writing compared to his other works.
64. Shakespeare’s texts frequently shift from verse to prose, often in the same line, indicating different contexts and characters.
65. In “Twelfth Night,” Shakespeare introduced a character named Malvolio, which means “ill-will” in Italian—a fitting name for a character who tries to spoil other characters’ fun.
66. Although he is often attributed with writing in Old English, Shakespeare actually wrote in Modern English—the same English that we use today, albeit an early version of it.
67. In addition to writing plays, Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights.
68. It’s believed that Shakespeare had to sell his publishing rights to his plays because he needed the money.
69. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shakespeare did not go to university.
70. Several of Shakespeare’s plays, including “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “The Tempest,” are believed to have been influenced by his study of Montaigne’s “Essais.”
71. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has held a Shakespeare play every year since 1935, making it one of the oldest and largest professional non-profit theaters in the United States.
72. Shakespeare’s Globe, the replica of the original theater, is located about 230 meters from the site of the original theater and was opened to the public in 1997.
73. A vocabulary of just over 17,000 words (including inflections) is used in Shakespeare’s works, compared to an average vocabulary of 3,000 words in everyday English usage.
74. “Titus Andronicus” features the most deaths in any of Shakespeare’s plays, with a total body count of fourteen.
75. While we think of Shakespeare as a playwright, in his own time he was also known as a poet. His first two published works were the narrative poems “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594).
76. Shakespeare’s plays were not immediately revered as masterpieces. His early plays were viewed as less sophisticated than those of his contemporaries such as Christopher Marlowe.
77. Shakespeare’s shortest play is “The Comedy of Errors.” It is only a third of the length of his longest play, “Hamlet.”
78. “Much Ado About Nothing” is one of only two Shakespeare plays that are original plots, not adaptations of pre-existing stories.
79. Even though they’re from Italian “novelle,” plays like “Othello” and “Merchant of Venice” feature several plot points that can’t be traced back to any known source.
80. Shakespeare’s plays often express views on the monarchy and the balance of power within England’s class system, but he was careful to not express these ideas too explicitly, as theatre was heavily censored during his time.
81. He is often credited with having a profound influence on literature, theater, poetry, and the English language itself.
82. Oxford University Press published a collection of Shakespeare’s works that included collaborations with other writers, officially making him a co-author for works such as “Henry VI, Part 1.”
83. No one knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592. This period, known as the “Lost Years,” has sparked as much controversy about Shakespeare’s life as any period.
84. The epitaph carved into Shakespeare’s tomb includes a curse against moving his bones. This was fulfilled during restoration of the church in 2008 when it was generally agreed that his grave should not be disturbed.
85. “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) is a fictionalized account of Shakespeare’s life in 1593, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
86. The Royal Shakespeare Company performs not only Shakespeare’s plays, but also the works of other playwrights of his era, modern classics, and new works.
87. The King’s Men was the company of actors Shakespeare belonged to for most of his career, which was named so after King James I ascended the throne (previously it was The Lord Chamberlain’s Men).
88. “Twelfth Night” is traditionally believed to have been written for the close of the Christmas season, which is “Twelfth Night,” or January 5.
89. Despite being one of the most important writers in English literature, Shakespeare’s spelling of his own name varied, and he never spelled it “Shakespeare,” preferring variations like “Shakspere” and “Shaxberd.”
90. Shakespeare’s influence on English literature can be seen in the fact that every year hundreds of new editions of his plays, poems, and sonnets are published, and his works are performed around the world.
91. Many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into operas, including “Otello” and “Falstaff” by Giuseppe Verdi, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Benjamin Britten.
92. Shakespeare’s daughter Judith married a vintner, Thomas Quiney, and they had three children. None of the descendants survived to adulthood, ending the Shakespeare direct line.
93. In his will, Shakespeare famously left his “second-best bed” to his wife Anne Hathaway, which has led to much speculation about the nature of their marriage.
94. The phrase “Green-eyed monster” comes from Shakespeare’s play “Othello” and is a metaphor for jealousy.
95. Shakespeare’s plays have inspired many other works of art, such as the musical “West Side Story,” which is based on “Romeo and Juliet,” and “The Lion King,” which is based on “Hamlet.”
96. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, an independent charity, manages the five Shakespeare heritage sites in Stratford-upon-Avon, and promotes the study and enjoyment of his work, life and times.
97. The original Globe Theatre burned down in 1613 during a performance of “Henry VIII” when a theatrical cannon misfired and ignited the building’s thatch.
98. Shakespeare’s play “The Phoenix and the Turtle” is considered one of the most enigmatic of all his works, due to its symbolic use of the titular phoenix and turtle dove.
99. Although he was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, Shakespeare’s reputation did not ascend to its current heights until the 19th century.
100. Despite his many accomplishments, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the details of Shakespeare’s life, with numerous theories and debates about everything from his sexuality to the authorship of his plays and poems.

Originally posted 2023-09-20 21:42:34.

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