It is too hard to engage readers but seems like William Shakespeare had master this trick. Today world’s most famous play Romeo Juliet, is known to everyone. He is one of the biggest names in English Literature. Shakespeare was not only a dramatist but a poet, and actor and English playwright. He is often known as greatest English poet. From the year 1585 to 1613 Shakespeare had written enough plays, poems, sonatas that could easily win the hearts of people. Though his style of writing is too old but still he writings are quoted in modern writing. To know more about Shakespeare read these interesting Shakespeare facts.

You should definitely know these fun facts about Shakespeare

Exact Date of Birth Is Not Known

Shakespeare exact date of birth is not known yet. Though he was baptized on 26^th April 1564. So historians believe his date of birth must be before 26^th April.

Birth Place

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon located in Warwickshire, England. The same place where he spent his adulthood also.

He Worked in an Acting Company

There is no doubt that Shakespeare was a multi-talented person. He worked as an actor in a men acting company. “The Chamberlain’s Men” was the name of the company.

National Poet

Shakespeare has worked so much for English Language that he is known as the National Poet of England. Many people known him as “Bard of Avon”.

Only Writer whose Plays Translated In Many Languages

Shakespeare’s work is admired by almost every country. Due to this reason all his work is translated in major languages.  

Introduction of New Words in English Language

Well, Shakespeare’s vocabulary is not like that of an ordinary person. His vocabulary is 4 times more than an average man. He is known for introducing thousands of new words and phrases in the English language.

The Word Swagger

In 1590 Shakespeare was the one who first used the word “swagger” in his writing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Different Kinds of Play

Many writers remain confined to specific topics but Shakespeare’s work is of different genres like comedies, tragedies and histories.

His Plays Are Taught All Over the World

If you are a student of English literature than you must have studied Shakespeare’s play. Because his plays are among the best plays in English Literature. That’s the reason why these plays are taught all over the world.

Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway

Shakespeare was 8 years younger than her wife Anne. At the time of marriage Shakespeare was only 18 years old.  Anne was already pregnant before marriage. That’s why they married quickly. After marriage Shakespeare had three children. Their names were Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. Shakespeare’s one child Hamnet died at the age of 11. Some people believed that he died of bubonic plague.

Mysterious Period

From year 1585 to 1592 there is no historic record of Shakespeare life. Nobody know what he was doing during this time. There are many mysteries surrounding his life. After these years Shakespeare got fame as a playwright and dramatist. Some theories explained that he was a soldier or might be a law clerk. Generally this period is known as the “Lost Years”.

Bubonic Plague Survivor

The Black Death or bubonic plague was a pandemic bacterial infection that caused many deaths in England. In one of his plays, Shakespeare wrote about the Bubonic plague. Though many of his siblings, three sisters and one brother died because of infection but Shakespeare luckily survived it. Many historians think that Shakespeare’s son Hamnet also encountered bubonic plague.

Total Number of His Works

Shakespeare gave so much to English Language. He wrote 37 plays, some authorship, 154 sonnets, phrases and two poems.

Siblings

Shakespeare had two older sisters and four younger brother. In total he had seven siblings. Their names were Margaret, Anne, Joan, Richard, Gilbert, Edmund and another Joan who died at the age of 2 months only. 

World Famous Play “Romeo & Juliet”

In 1562, a poem “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and luliet” written by Arthur Brooke became an inspiration for Shakespeare to write the play. It became the most performed play. This play was written by Shakespeare in early of his career. A tragic story of two lovers whose death reunite their feuding families.

Some of His Finest Works

Shakespeare had  written mostly comedy and historic content as his early work. It was in year 1608, when he started writing tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. These all plays have their own special place in English Literature being some of the finest works.

One of Shakespeare’s Relatives was executed

William Arden was Shakespeare’s maternal. He somehow disrespected Queen Elizabeth I by plotting against her which caused him being arrested and then executed on the Tower of London.

He didn’t belong to a poor family

Shakespeare was son of Mary Shakespeare and John Shakespeare. His father shifted from Snitterfield to Startford just before 1532. At that time he was a glover and a tanner of leathers. However, with the passage of time his business grew and he started to work in wool farms. Later, he took part in elections and also got selected for various civic positions.

Queen Elizabeth was also his fan

Shakespeare work was as modern years back as it is today. His work even impressed Queen Elizabeth I and James I. Both were fans of Shakespeare’s work. He even performed before them in royal court.

Does he collaborated with other playwright

Yes! In his last years he collaborated with other writers and playwright. He also wrote romantic plays in last years of his life.

His name spelled wrong many times

Despite being such a good writer people find it hard to write correct spelling of his name. There are almost 80 variations of his name’s spellings. While in some original signature discovered by historians he spelled his name Shakespeare as “William Shakspere”, “William Shakspeare”, “Willm Shakesp”, “Wm Shakespe”, “Willm Shakspere”.

No one known him as a Writer in his town

It sounds really weird but people of Stratford know him as a business owner. Even in 17^th century when everyone in London recognized him as a playwright still people in his hometown were unaware of his success.

Shortest Play

If I say a play contains 1,770 lines only, would you consider it a short play. For a great writer like Shakespeare the shortest play he wrote was “The Comedy of Errors”.

Light was not easily available

It was not really easy to write such great plays, sonnets and poems in Shakespeare’s time. Writer used to write in daytime because candles were expensive at that time.

Shakespeare’s Last Play

Shakespeare wrote his last play when he was 49 years old. It is believed that his last play “The Two Nobel Kinsmen” was written in 1613.

His Vocabulary range was amazing

Shakespeare gave many new words to the English Language. With the introduction of 3,000 new words to the language his own vocabulary range was of 29,000 words.

His Children didn’t Attend Any School

Shakespeare was so knowledgeable but still his children didn’t attended any school. All were illiterate.

In Shakespeare’s Plays the role of Women was also performed by men

The role of both gynic in play’s script were performed by men because in those days females don’t like to socialize. People didn’t accept them as actor.

His theatre contained amazing effects

Shakespeare’s famous theatre “The Globe” where all his plays were originally performed contained many special effects such as smoke, fire, wires used for lifting actors.

Fire Cannon Cost the theatre much

Fire cannon was one of the special effect in The Globe theatre. Being a dangerous effect, the cannon once strike with the roof of theatre causing it to burn completely.

Longest Play

Many of us think that Romeo & Juliet was his longest play. But Hamlet containing 4,042 was the longest play of Shakespeare.

Plays with Verses only

Probably you may know about Shakespeare’s two plays written entirely in verses. These are “Richard II” and “King John”. While in other plays more than half of the text that feature prose.

The cause of his death

The cause of his death is not known yet. Though some historians believe that he must be died of typhoid. Moreover, there is no one alive from his family tree today not a single descendant.

Quite a wealthy person

As compared to other actors or playwright of his time Shakespeare was wealthy of all. His will showed that he was the owner of quite big pieces of land.

Longest words in his plays

Shakespeare introduced new long words in his plays. One of the longest words used in his works is “Love’s Labor Lost”. Another word from his play “honorificabilitudinitatibus” means “invincible glorious honorableness”.

The word “Love”

Would you accept that the word “Love appeared” more than 100 times in his famous play Romeo & Juliet?

He referred birds so many times

That’s right. Shakespeare mentioned birds so often in his plays. He didn’t referred to a single bird every time in his plays but stated almost 600 species of birds.

Who host Shakespeare’s works today

MIT hold the right to keep all the works of Shakespeare on an official site named “shakespeare.mit.edu”. The data is on this site since 1993.

Tricks to get his readers attention

Shakespeare used the technique of “functional shift” to get readers attention. He intentionally made grammatical mistakes before writing key points to get reader’s attention.

Most of his sonnets were about love

Shakespeare wrote about 154 sonnets. Out of these 126 were about love. Shakespeare wrote all these sonnets for “fair youth”.

Leo Tolstoy didn’t like him

Leo Tolstoy didn’t like Shakespeare’s work he even called him an “average author”. What are your thoughts about it?

Shakespeare Programming Language

Have you ever seen a software code look like a play? Well, there is a programming language in which the code look like a Shakespeare play. It is called Shakespeare programming language.

Handwriting

Shakespeare’s handwriting was so illegible that a normal person cannot even read it. Scholars find it really difficult to understand what he had written.

Second Biggest House

Shakespeare’s home was located on the corner of the Chapel Street and Chapel Lane. His family home known as New Place was the second biggest house of the town.

Gold Hoop Earing

Wearing gold hoop earring was a gentleman look in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. That’s why Chandos portrait, which is the most famous portrait of Shakespeare, shown him wearing a gold earring on his left ear.

Name of Uranus Moon

It might sound strange but Uranus 27 moons are named after the characters present in Shakespeare plays.

What Shakespeare left for his wife

Before death Shakespeare distributed several gifts among his family members but in his will he gave just a second best bed with furniture to his wife. According to the will, all the property was given to her daughter.

Shakespeare never published his work

Would you believe Shakespeare never published his work? His work was published seven years after his death. His first work was published in 1623 and it was named “First Folio”.

Grave robbers stole his skull

Though many people believe it is false but recent study carried out for research on archaeology. The researchers conclude that there was no skull in the grave. Skull was stolen by grave robbers.

His grave marker Says

Shakespeare advised these lines before his death to be written on his grave. The words inscribed on his grave are; “curst be he that moves his bones”.   

John Keats Inspiration

Even John Keats was inspired by Shakespeare so much that he thought keeping a sculpture of Shakespeare on his desk would make him more creative.

Weird Fact

With so much fame still nobody knows from where his career started. How he gained fame quickly?

Did you enjoy reading these amazing Shakespeare facts?