Shakespeare facts

 Shakespeare facts

Interested in Shakespeare facts? We've researched long and hard to come up with a different spin on the great man - here's a range of little known facts about Shakespeare that's a work in progress...
 
William Shakespeare Facts: 1

William Shakespeares birthplace

Shakespeare's life lasted for fifty-two years. It is known that he was born in April 1564 and that he died on 23rd April 1616. We know that he was baptised on 26th April 1564 and scholars now believe that he was born on April 23rd . He therefore died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George's Day. How fitting that the great English writer is so closely identified with the patron saint of England!

William Shakespeare Facts: 2

 Shakespeare's grave

 Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He put a curse on anyone daring to move his body from that final resting place. His epitaph was:

Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

Though it was customary to dig up the bones from previous graves to make room for others, Shakespeare's remains are still undisturbed.


William Shakespeare Facts: 3

During his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets!

William Shakespeare Facts: 4

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52. He wrote on average 1 . 5 plays a year since he first started in 1589. His last play The Two Noble Kinsmen is reckoned to have been written in 1613 when he was 49 years old. When you think about it, it was amazing. While he was writing the plays at such a pace he was also conducting a family life, a social life and a full business life, running an acting company and a theatre. And he was practising his profession as an actor He was also writing poems. If he wrote at night he was doing it in poor lighting and using a quill and ink.


William Shakespeare Facts: 5

Few people realise that apart from writing thirty-seven plays and composing one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights, for example, Ben Jonson.

William Shakespeare Facts: 6

Almost four hundred years after Shakespeare's death there are 15 million pages referring to him on Google. There are 132 million for God, 2.7 million for Elvis Presley, and coming up on Shakespeare's heels, George W Bush with 14.7 million.

William Shakespeare Facts: 7

As an actor performing his own plays, Shakespeare performed before Queen Elizabeth I and later before James I who was an enthusiastic patron of his work

William Shakespeare Facts: 8


Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare's plays. It occurs in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus' wife Portia, in Othello where Othello stabs himself, in Hamlet where Ophelia is said to have "drowned" in suspicious circumstances, in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth dies, and finally in Antony and Cleopatra where suicide occurs an astounding five times (Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and Eros).


William Shakespeare Facts: 9

Shakespeare uses "dog" or "dogs" over two hundred times in his works. He was also the first writer to use the compound noun "watchdog", in The Tempest. See other words Shakespeare invented.


William Shakespeare Facts: 10

Shakespeare's works contain over 600 references to birds of all kinds, including the swan, bunting, cock, dove, robin, sparrow, nightingale, swallow, turkey, wren, starling, falcon, and thrush, just to name a few.

William Shakespeare Facts: 11

Macbeth is thought to be one of the most produced plays ever, with a performance beginning somewhere in the world every four hours!


William Shakespeare Facts: 12

London football club Tottenham were formed in 1882, and originally named after Harry Hotspur - one of Shakespeare's characters in Henry IV


William Shakespeare Facts: 13

Most academics agree that Shakespeare wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part One around 1589 to 1590 when he would have been around 25 years old. If you're 13 you'll think he was ancient, but if you're 26 you'll probably be thinking about where your life is going!