EARLY LIFE
William Shakespeare was born in a half-timbered house in Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on April 23, Saint George's Day. He was baptized in the town's Holy Trinity Church on April 26, 1564.
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| William Shakespeare figure at Madame Tussauds Berlin | by Luke Rauscher |
His father, John Shakespeare, was a wool dealer and glover who became an alderman and bailiff. John Shakespeare was also a onetime Ale Taster for Stratford (not a job to be given up lightly!)
Shakespeare's father, prosperous at the time of William's birth, was prosecuted for participating in the black market in wool, and later lost his position as an alderman. Some evidence exists that both sides of the family had Roman Catholic sympathies.
William's mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a local wealthy farmer.
William was one of eight children, the eldest of four sons. Three brothers and a younger sister lived beyond childhood.
Little is known about Shakespeare’s early life. As the son of a prominent town official, William attended the local Stratford educational establishment, Kings New Grammar School, which may have provided an intensive education in Latin, grammar and literature.
The quality of Elizabethan era grammar schools was uneven and according to his friend Ben Jonson Shakespeare learnt "small Latin and less Greek."
William Shakespeare left Kings New Grammar School at the age of 17.
CAREER
According to John Aubrey's 1697 Brief Lives, Shakespeare started out as a country school teacher.
In 1585, five or six thousand English soldiers arrived in Flanders with the Earl of Oxford and Colonel Norris to take part in England’s impending war with Spain. Some have speculated that Shakespeare was among these soldiers. There is no prove but the battle scenes in his plays seem remarkably vivid.
Sometime between 1585 and 1592, Shakespeare set off for London to become an actor.
There is some evidence that Shakespeare was prosecuted by a certain Sir Thomas Lucy for poaching deer from his Stratford estate. The Landlord birched him. In return Shakespeare anonymously wrote lampoons about Lucy and when it was discovered the young son of the alderman was the author, this was a contributing factor in thim leaving Stratford for London. The wily writer later caricatured Lucy as Justice Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
By 1592, Shakespeare was well established in London’s theatrical world as an actor and playwright. His own acting abilities were not great. It is thought as an thespian he never reached a greater eminence than the ghost in Hamlet, but he was a hard working playwright producing three to four plays a year.
Shakespeare had his first work published, the narrative poem Venus And Adonis, on April 18, 1593.
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| Title page of the first quarto (1593) |
When he was a struggling writer Shakespeare managed to get as his patron the glamorous Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Venus and Adonis begins with a brief dedication to the Earl of Southampton, in which the poet describes the work as "the first heir of my invention."
Shakespeare's average annual income from writing plays was a sprightly £20. He earned approximately £8 a play.
Shakespeare made his name in Elizabethan society with his Sonnets but he only enjoyed slight esteem, indeed Edmund Spenser was the "Prince of Poets" in his time.
Shakespeare's friend Ben Jonson rated the sweet swan of Avon. He claimed he was "not of an age but of all time."
Shakespeare was a member of the popular theater troupe the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which later became the King’s Men. When the group built and operated the famous Globe Theater in London for their plays in 1599, Shakespeare became a partner.
Sermons were more popular than plays in Shakespeare's era. However theater going was gradually catching on and by 1600 an eighth of Londoners were going to the theater at least weekly.
At his peak Shakespeare was earning £200 a year from his plays, sonnets and the Globe Theater.
Shakespeare also made money from hoarding grain, and reselling at inflated prices during a period of famine. He used the profits for money-lending activity and was pursued by authorities for tax evasion and was prosecuted for in 1598 hoarding grain.
Shakespeare retired to Stratford in 1610, where he wrote his last plays, including The Tempest (1611) and The Winter’s Tale (1610-11).
The Globe Theatre burned down on June 29, 1613. Shakespeare lost much money in it, but he was still wealthy. He shared in the building of the new Globe.
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| The reconstructed Globe Theatre. By Steve Collis from Melbourne, Australia |
For the first two hundred years after his death, Shakespeare’s plays appeared in reduced form. Even in the 18th century the Bard's greatness wasn't recognized. Boswell quoted Dr Johnson as saying, "Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion."
At the dawn of the 19th century the critical assessment of Samuel Taylor Coleridge bought Shakespeare to the fore and the restoration of the original texts. Even then not everyone was happy: "I have tried lately to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me," wrote Charles Darwin the author of the intolerably dull Origin of the Species. The words "Kettle" and "pot" come to mind.
PLAYS
The plays written by William Shakespeare are recognized as being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature. Traditionally, the plays are divided into the genres of tragedy, history, and comedy.
Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the list of comedies plus Edward III has been added to the list of histories.
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| The Plays of William Shakespeare. By Sir John Gilbert, 1849. |
William Shakespeare’s first review in 1592 was a negative one in which he was criticized by the playwright Robert Greene for being an “upstart crow."
Alls Well that Ends Well The plot is based on one of the stories in Boccaccio's Decameron.
Anthony and Cleopatra Shakespeare's chief source for this play was Life of Anthony by Plutarch.
Shakespeare erroneously claimed Cleopatra played billiards when in Act 2 Scene 5 she says “come, let us to billiards”. The game wasn't adopted as a pastime until the fourteenth century.
As You Like It The play is set in Hampton, Forest of Arden a 200 square mile area north west of Stratford. Virtually a musical it had more songs in it, including the classic "Blow, blow thou Winter Wind," than any other Shakespeare play.
Famous quotations from As You Like It include: "Well said: that was laid on with a trowel"1:2. "And so from hair to hair we ripe and ripe. And from hour to hour, we not trot. And thereby hangs a tale" 2:7. "And all the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players" Also 2:7. "It is meat and drink to me to see a clown 5:1,
Comedy of Errors This was Shakespeare's shortest play with a mere 1778 lines and his only play in which no one kisses anybody.
Coriolanus Famous quotes include: "Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another mans will. Tis strongly wedged up in a blockhead." 2:3. "Your minds, preoccupied with what you rather must do. Than what you should made you against the grain to voice him consul. 2:3.
Cymbeline Dr Johnson wrote of Cymbeline. "To waste criticism upon unresisting imbecility, upon faults too evident for detection and too gross for aggravation." Despite Johnson's skepticism this was one of Shakespeare's most popular plays in the 19th century.
Hamlet was set in the actual Port Elsinore, Denmark and came from a large French work by Francois de Belleforest called Histories and Tragedies. This implies that Shakespeare could speak French as an English translation wasn't made until seven years after Hamlet was written.
Henry IV, Part 1 The character of Sir John Fallstaff was modeled on Sir John Oldcastle who was hanged in 1417 for being a Lollard.
Henry IV, Part 2 features the quote "He hath eaten me out of house and home." 2:1.
Henry V "The national anthem in five acts” includes the famous quote "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more."
Henry VI It is assumed by the style of Henry VI that Christopher Marlowe was a co-author of this one.three parted epic
The framework for all three parts of Henry VI were taken from Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed.
Henry VI includes the quotes: "Let's leave this town for they are hair brained slaves."Pt 1 1:2 and "The new made Duke that rules the roast." Pt 2 1:1.
King John includes the phrase "I beg cold comfort" 5:7.
Julius Caesar Shakespeare based Julius Caesar on Plutarch's description of Caesar's murder and the intrigues thereafter.
Although the play is named Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character.
Shakespeare makes an astonishing anachronism in Julius Caesar. He made a reference to a clock striking despite the fact that clocks didn't appear until 1000 years after Caesar's death.
In Julius Caesar Shakespeare coined the phrases "It's all Greek to me" (1:2). and "Right on" (3:2)
Other famous quotes include. "Beware the Ides of March" 1:2. "Cry havoc and let sup the dogs of war." 3:1. "Friends , Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."3:2.
King Lear was written in 1605, the year Shakespeare's source The True Chronicle History of King Lear was first published. Its first known performance was on St. Stephen's Day in 1606.
King Lear was banned in Britain from 1788-1820 as the government considered the play inappropriate in the light of King George III’s insanity.
Love Labour's Lost was written for Shakespeare's benefactor the Earl of Southampton.
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| Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre. By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham |
Love's Labour's Lost features the longest scene ((Act V, Scene II)) that Shakespeare ever wrote. Depending upon formatting and editorial decisions, it ranges from around 920 lines to just over 1000 lines. The First Folio records the scene at 942 lines.
The comedy also features (depending on editorial choices) the longest speech (in Act IV.) in all of Shakespeare's plays. With no omissions, the speech given by Berowne is 77 lines and 588 words.
Love's Labour's Lost also features the longest single word Shakespeare used in his plays. "Honorificabilitudinitatibus" (5:1) is a 27 letter word meaning "with honorablenesses". it is notable for being the longest English word in which vowels and consonants alternate.
Macbeth is the most produced play ever written, with a performance staged every four hours somewhere in the world.
Merry Wives of Windsor was written at the request of Elizabeth I. The English queen had so liked the character of Falstaff in Henry IV and Henry V that she asked for another play to show him in love.
Shakespeare acknowledged the popular songs of the day. The bard referred to the tune "Greensleeves" in The Merry Wives of Windsor. 2:1 & 5:5.
Famous quotes in The Merry Wives of Windsor include: "Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open." 2:2. "This is the short and long of it" Also 2:2. "I cannot tell what the dickens his name is." 3:2
A Midsummer Night's Dream was written for the wedding celebrations of a certain Thomas Hemage and The Countess of Southampton.
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| Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. By William Blake, c. 1786 |
William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello was presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London on November 1, 1604.
The play may be named Othello but Shakespeare’s title character has 237 fewer lines than his traitorous standard bearer Iago (1,097 lines to Othello’s 860). Only three Shakespeare characters have more lines: Hamlet, Richard III and Henry V.
The support role of Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV boasts 318 more words than the title role of his play Othello.
Famous quotes in Othello include: "In compliment extern tis not long after. But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve. 1:1. "When I spake of most disastrous chances of moving accidents by flood. of hair breadth escapes the imminent deadly breach. 1:4. "She was a wight, if ever such wight were. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer." 2:1.
In 1660 the first ever professional actress appeared as Desdemona in a production of Othello.
Richard II A performance was requested and paid for by an Earl of Essex supporter, on the day before Essex launched a rebellion against the crown. Queen Elizabeth I saw the play as a sinister portrait of herself in the deposed and murdered Richard. Consequently Richard II was banned during most of her reign. The full text did not appear until five years after her death.
Richard II includes the quote: "Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight". 1:1.
Richard III's famous quotes include. "Now is the winter of our discontent. Made glorious summer by this son of York"1:1. "Under our tents I play the eavesdropper. To hear it any mean to shrink from me."5:3. "A horse, a horse. my kingdom for a horse." 5:4.
One of the oldest performances of Richard II, in 1697, was by the crew of a British East India Company ship off the coast of Sierra Leone.
The first Shakespearean play presented in America was performed at the Nassau Street Theatre in New York City. The play was King Richard III.
Romeo and Juliet, The Bard's play about puppy love in the 12th century was based on the quarrels between rival families in Verona. Shakespeare's sources were an Italian novella and Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem The Tragical History of Romeus & Juliet.
The Taming of the Shrew Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me Kate is about a touring company's The Taming of the Shrew.
The Taming of the Shrew includes the quote "Why, how now daughter Katherine? In your dumps?"
Troilus and Cressida In the play Troilus asks “was this the face that launched above a thousand ships.” It is a reference to Shakespeare's friend Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus famous speech “was this the face that launched a thousand ships.”
Twelfth Night was titled thus as it was written for acting on the Twelfth Night revels.
The only hiccup in the whole of Shakespeare's works is featured in Twelfth Night. Appropriately enough Sir Toby Belch is the hicupee.
Quotes in Twelfth Night include "If music be the food of love, play on" 1:1. "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them."2:5.
The Tempest, Shakespeare's romantic comedy, was first presented by the King's Men before King James I and the English royal court at Whitehall Palace in London on November 1, 1611. It is thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone.
Quotes from The Tempest include: "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."2:2. "How can'st thou in this pickle" 5:1.
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| William Hogarth's painting of The Tempest ca. 1735. |
Titus Andronicus features Shakespeare's possibly most ridiculous scene where a mother finds she's eaten her sons in a pie. However in Shakespeare's lifetime this populist play was possibly the most performed one of all his works.
The Winter's Tale Shakespeare wrote this about a shipwreck on the coast of Bohemia despite the fact Bohemia has no coastline.
Though the general belief is that the Bard of Avon never travelled outside Britain, his accurate depictions of Italy throws up the argument that Shakespeare must have spent some time there. However, it can be safely assumed that he didn't get anywhere near Bohemia.
Shakespeare’s plays were not published during his lifetime. After his death, two members of the Bard's troupe, Heminge and Condell, collected copies of his plays and printed what is now called the First Folio (1623).
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| Title page of the First Folio, 1623. |
Shakespeare used over 30,000 words in his plays, many which he invented himself. He introduced some 3,000 words into the English language including "accommodation", "assassination", "obscene" and "submerged.” As a comparison, an educated 20th century person has a vocabulary of 15,000 words and the King James Bible has a vocabulary of 8000 words.
POETRY
A great lyricist, Shakespeare's plays contain songs such as "Sigh No More" and "Under the Greenwood Tree".
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets dedicated to a mysterious WH. They were written during a great plague and were circulated amongst colleagues of the Earl of Southampton. 1-126 addressed to a fair young man, 127-154 to a “dark lady”
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| Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets |
Sonnet no 18 features the famous lines:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may
And summers lease hath all too short a date.
The Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. They were first published in London on May 20, 1609, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
Shakespeare's rather naughty collection of poems Venus and Adonis were dedicated to his patron the Earl of Southampton. They became a best seller of the Elizabethan age shifting over 10,000 copies.
APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER
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| The 'Chandos portrait |
No one wrote anything about Shakespeare until 50 years after his death by which time all who knew him had passed away. The first actual story of his life wasn't written until a hundred years after his death.
Shakespeare left no words about himself so not a lot is known about the world's greatest ever writer though one can surmise that he was articulate, witty and good company. Ben Jonson referred to him as the "Sweet Swan of Avon" in a verse prefacing his first folio of plays (1623).
In addition, Shakespeare was probably well organised, ambitious and took pleasure in the status his prosperity gave him.
Assuming Shakespeare spoke in a typical Elizabethan accent, to our ears it would be a mixture of West Country and Irish.
The bawdy bard was very fond of innuendos. He was good at insults too like "He has not so much brain as earwax."
RELATIONSHIPS
On November 28, 1582, the 18-year-old William Shakespeare married the 26-year-old daughter of a yeoman farmer Anne Hathaway (1556-1623). Shakespeare paid a £40 bond for their marriage licence in Stratford-upon-Avon. Two neighbors of Anne, Fulk Sandalls and John Richardson, posted bond that there were no impediments to the marriage. There appears to have been some haste in arranging the ceremony: Anne was three months pregnant.
On May 26, 1583 Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, was baptized at Stratford. A son, Hamnet, and a daughter, Judith, were baptized soon after on February 2, 1585. Shakespeare bitterly mourned after Hamnet died at the age of 11.
Anne and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.
Susanna married a Dr John Hall and they lived happily ever after at Halls Croft, Stratford.
Shakespeare was not a faithful husband and it is thought he had an affair with the mysterious "Dark Lady" who featured in many of his sonnets. There are many theories as to who this mysterious not so whiter than white woman could be ranging from a prostitute called Lucy Negro to Mary Fitton a maid of honor at court.
A woman in the audience of Shakespeare’s play Richard III was smitten by the star actor of the day, Richard Burbage who was playing the king. She went backstage to arrange a rendezvous later that night. He was to knock three times on her door and say "It is I, Richard III" as a signal.
The wily William Shakespeare overheard and beat Burbage to the lady's door. He gave the knocks and passwords (possibly "Avon calling"), was admitted, and altogether charmed the lady. The pair were kissing and cuddling when Burbage arrived, and though he roared that he was the king, she would not let him in. Shakespeare put his head out of the window and quipped: "William the Conqueror comes before Richard III".
It is thought Shakespeare also fathered an illegitimate son, William Davenant (1606-68) by means of an Oxford lodging-house owner, Jane. Davenant later became Poet Laureate and was a true innovator introducing scene shifting, operatic music and actresses playing female parts to the English stage.
Today he has no living descendants.
Shakespeare was Godfather to one of Ben Jonson's children.
Shakespeare often met up with friends such as Ben Jonson at the Mermaid Tavern, Bread Street, Cheapside to drink canary wine, (a light, sweet wine from the Canary Islands) and swap witty stories.
BELIEFS
William Shakespeare did not have an especially religious upbringing, his Protestant father having been fined by the authorities for non-attendance at church.
Shakespeare kept his mouth shut about matters pertaining to religion, if indeed it meant much to him. It is thought the Bard possibly leaned towards Catholicism, at the time a dangerous inclination in England, as he used Catholic imagery in several of his plays including the return of the ghost from Purgatory in Hamlet. (Catholics believe there is a halfway house between heaven and earth where ones souls are cleansed whilst Protestants discount this teaching.)
A month before his death, Shakespeare wrote his will, which he concluded by saying, "I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour to be made partaker of life everlasting."
Shakespeare instructed that his tombstone to be inscribed:
"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones."
The Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were the most frequently quoted sources in Shakespeare's work. He quotes or alludes to passages from at least 42 books of the Bible; and phrases from the morning and evening prayers in the Book of Common Prayer are frequent. Of the books of the Bible, Shakespeare quoted from Matthew 151 times and from the Psalms 137 times.
ANIMALS AND NATURE
Shakespeare referred to the carnation as "The fairest Flower of the Season."
He didn't have such a high opinion of the lark. Shakespeare claimed in Romeo and Juliet it "sings so out of tune straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps."
It seems, Shakespeare wasn't fond of dogs either, as he doesn't have a kind word to say about pooches in any of his works. In one of the Bard's earliest plays, Two Gentlemen of Verona, a dog called Crab pees on the leading lady. Also several dogs are whipped in the work.
HOMES
Shakespeare's birthplace was Britain's first building acquired specifically for conservation. It was bought for £3,000 in 1847.
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| John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace. By John |
Shakespeare's wife, Anne was bought up in a thatch roofed cottage in Shottery just outside Stratford.
Shakespeare bought a mansion The New Place, Stratford (the second largest house in his home town) in 1597 for £120 and retired there in 1610.
Between 1597 and 1601, Shakespeare invested around £900 in property and land in and around Stratford. On his father's death, Shakespeare inherited the family home in Henley Street.
Shakespeare decamped to London without his family at the age of 24. His only known place of residence in London was as a tenant of Christopher Mountjoy, a French Huguenot tire-maker [a maker of ornamental headdresses] near Cripplegate.
In 1604, Shakespeare acted as a matchmaker for his landlord's daughter.
A few months before the Globe fire, Shakespeare bought as an investment a house in the fashionable Blackfriars district of London.
LAST YEARS, DEATH AND LEGACY
Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52 at New Place. It is alleged that he died from a cold brought on by a heavy drinking session with his friend Ben Jonson.
He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health".
Shakespeare shuffled off this mortal coil on the same day as another great renaissance writer, Cervantes.
Ben Jonson said on Shakespeare's death “I loved the man and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any.”
Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon, a privilege bestowed upon him not on account of his fame as a playwright, but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440 (a considerable sum of money at the time).
A bust of Shakespeare, placed by his family on the wall nearest his grave, shows him posed as writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust.
It was common in Shakespeare's time for graves in the chancel of the church to later be emptied with the contents removed to a nearby charnel house as room in the chancel was required. As a result, the inscription over his grave threatens a curse on anyone who moves his bones.
Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
But cursed be he that moves my bones.
Popular legend claims that unpublished works by Shakespeare may lie inside his tomb, but no-one has ever verified these claims, perhaps for fear of the curse included in the quoted epitaph.
Shakespeare's will, still in existence, bequeathed most of his property to Susanna and her daughter. He left small mementos to friends. The Bard mentioned his wife only once, leaving her his "second best bed" with its furnishings.
Much has been written about Shakespeare's odd bequest. There is little reason to think it was a slight. Indeed, it may have been a special mark of affection. The "second best bed" was probably the one they used. The best bed was reserved for guests. At any rate, his wife was entitled by law to one third of her husband's goods and real estate and to the use of their home for life.
Shakespeare grave at Holy Trinity Church is next to those of Anne Hathaway, and Thomas Nash, the husband of his granddaughter.
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| Shakespeare's grave By David Jones - originally posted to Flickr |
Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) was an English physician and writer, who wrote The Family Shakespeare, a censored version of the Bard’s works that he deemed acceptable for genteel women and children. The first edition was published in 1807, in four duodecimo volumes, containing 24 of the plays.
Bowdler's version removed unpleasant deaths, swearing and anything sexual from Shakespeare’s plays. It was hugely popular in the 19th century and his name inspired the verb ‘bowdlerise’ — to expurgate or cut out.
There are more than 20,000 pieces of music inspired by Shakespeare. Among the great musical works inspired by the Bard include: Provokfiev's music for his ballet, Romeo and Juliet, Verdi's operas, Macbeth and Othello and Elgar's symphony, Falstaff.
Here's a list of popular songs inspired by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare was voted Personality of the Millennium by listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today program on January 1, 1999.
Shakespeare is the most quoted author in the Oxford English Dictionary with 33,300 approximately references.
Shakespeare is the only Playwright to have had a production of his work performed in every country on Earth.
FUN SHAKESPEARE FACTS
It is thought that William Shakespeare was born on 23/4/1564 and he died on 23/4/1616. If you take the day of the months when Shakespeare was born and died and add them together (23+23=46), the total of 46 which was also Shakespeare's age when the King James Bible was completed. William Shakespeare is an anagram of "I like a Psalm." The 46th word from the beginning of Psalm 46 is "Shakes" and the 46th word from the end is "Spear".
Although Shakespeare’s works run to more than a million words, only 14 exist in his own handwriting: 12 of them are his signatures and the other two are ‘by’ and ‘me’.
In 1786, US founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited William Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Adams - who was big fan of the Bard - loved it; Jefferson thought they were overcharged for the tour.
In 1964 William Shakespeare became the first non-royal person shown on a UK postage stamp.
“William Shakespeare” is an anagram of “I am a weakish speller."
Shakespeare was the first to use the letter "U" to replace "you."
The longest word in any of Shakespeare's works is “honorificabilitudinitatibus,” which is in Love’s Labour’s Lost. It means “invincible glorious honorableness.”
Sources Daily Mail, Compton's Encyclopaedia, Christianity
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