Surprising Facts About Shakespeare

Whether you love or hate his work, the words and phrases of William Shakespeare have made their way into the common English Language and his plays have been performed on stage more times than any other playwright. Much of his life, though, is still a bit of a mystery and some people even doubt that Shakespeare even wrote his own words. It’s also a fact about William Shakespeare that he disappeared completely between the years of 1585 and 1592. Some people say he was acting on stage in London, others believe he went travelling around Europe, but there is no written record at all of his whereabouts in those years. Here are six more facts about Shakespeare that you might find surprising.

His family were illiterateThe first Shakespeare fact that you might find surprising is that, despite the man himself being one of the greatest writers of all time, none of his family could read or write. There is documented evidence that his father couldn’t write his own name and it is believed that his mother was illiterate too. What is, even more, surprising is that Shakespeare’s own children are thought to have been illiterate as well.

He was not an Elizabethan playwrightShakespeare is often referred to as an Elizabethan playwright but it would be more accurate to call him a Jacobean playwright. Although the bard did indeed write plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, most of his popular plays were actually written during the reign of King James I.

He did not write all the words to his own playsWhile some people believe that Shakespeare didn’t write any of his own works at all, it is almost certain that he would not have written all the words of his plays himself. Many of the witches’ scenes in Hamlet, for example, were written by ‘assistants’, which was a common practice for playwrights of that time.

He didn’t expect his work to last beyond his own lifetimeAlthough we still study his works today, it is a fact about William Shakespeare, that he never thought that his plays would be anything more than entertainment for the people of his time. He didn’t even bother publishing any of plays in print; that didn’t happen until after his death. He was only really concerned with writing plays that would be the Elizabethan equivalents of box office hits.

We don’t know how to spell Shakespeare’s nameNo one is really certain how Shakespeare spelled his own name because he changed the spelling himself on the various documents that historians have found with his signature on. To make matters, even more, confusing, the writer often abbreviated his name on letters and other documents as well.

He invented new words and phrasesWhen there wasn’t already a word in the dictionary that could convey what Shakespeare was trying to say, he just invented his own, or he joined words together to form new ones. There are over 1700 words in the modern English dictionary that were invented by Shakespeare including; lacklustre, eyeball, birthplace, luggage and bedroom.

Many of the facts about William Shakespeare that we do know are still debated today. You can find more fascinating facts about Shakespeare here.