Interesting Facts about Shakespeare
15. Shakespeare lived to 52. It is known that he was born in April 1564 and that he died on 23rd April 1616.
14. Shakespeare’s father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.
13. Wrote 154 sonnets.
12. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.
11. Shakespeare did not go to college.
10. More than 80 spelling variations are recorded for Shakespeare's name, from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.”
9. William Shakespeare is one of the most revered poets and playwrights of all time.
8. William Arden, a relative of Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden, was arrested for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed!
7. Shakespeare was Catholic
6. Shakespeare invented the word "assassination".
5. Shakespeare is the most translated author ever. His work is read in at least 80 languages, including Chinese, Italian, Armenian, Bengali, Tagalog, Uzbek and Krio (spoken by freed slaves in Sierra Leone).
4. Often times a rhyming couplet in Shakespeare’s plays symbolize weirdness and the infantile, as well as evokes a satanic air.
3. The only thing Shakespeare left to his wife in his will was the second best bed in the house. Yes his will read, ‘“I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture”. The “furniture” refers to the linen for the bed.
2. Many facts of his life are unknown and are referred to as Lost Years.
1. Shakespeare had seven siblings. They were: Joan (1558); Margaret (1562); Gilbert (1566); Joan II (1569); Anne (1571); Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580).
Related Content:
