Ten interesting facts about

William Shakespeare

Fact 1: 

Shakespeare lived to 52. 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!

Fact 2:

Shakespeare had seven siblings. They were: Joan (1558); Margaret (1562); Gilbert (1566); Joan II (1569); Anne (1571); Richard (1574) and Edmund (1580). 

Fact 3:

Shakespeare married his wife Anne Hathaway when he was 18. 

Fact 4:

Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had three children together – a son, Hamnet, who died in 1596, and two daughters, Susanna and Judith. 

Fact 5:

Shakespeare died a rich man. He made several gifts to various people but left his property to his daughter, Susanna. 

Fact 6:

Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stradford-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.

So, his grave is still undisturbed.

Fact 7:

Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the English language – after the various writers of the Bible.

Fact 8:

During his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets! This means an average 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. His last play The Two Noble Kinsmen is reckoned to have been written in 1613 when he was 49 years old. 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.

Fact 9:

Few people realize that apart from writing Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights. During his life Shakespeare performed before Queen Elizabeth I and, later, before James I who was an enthusiastic patron of his work.

Fact 10:

Shakespeare’s profession was acting. He is listed in documents of 1592, 1598 and 1603 as an actor. There is evidence that he played the ghost in Hamlet and Adam in As you like it.

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