The prominent English playwright William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died at the age of 52 on April 23, 1616. Most of the people living on Earth are probably familiar with the cultural and historical heritage of Shakespeare. Even those of us who are not keen on classical literature or theatrical art know about such immortal characters of Shakespeare's creations like Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, etc.
For more than three centuries, eminent directors continue to stage his plays on the best dramatic scenes of the world, in addition, they are still excellent material for creating film masterpieces and musical works. However, today we will consider other, less widely known aspects of the life and work of the famous playwright.
We present to you a list of the 10 most interesting facts about William Shakespeare: a biography and amazing stories from the life of a writer that influenced his work. Common myths and legends about this mysterious man.
10. The richest vocabulary
According to researchers and biographers of Shakespeare, his vocabulary averaged from 20 to 25 thousand wordsalthough at present even educated Englishmen use no more than 4,000 words in everyday speech.
Interestingthat the writer’s parents were not literate, and there is no reliable evidence to prove that the playwright himself has an education.
9. Hasty Marriage
At 18, Shakespeare married a woman eight years older than him, named Anne Hathaway.. Very little is known about her and the relationship between them, but the fact that Ann was pregnant when they got married and the age difference between the spouses made scientists suspect that this marriage was organized by her family in order to avoid the shame of an unplanned pregnancy.
8. Drug addiction
Anthropologist Francis Thackerey and his team of scientists assured that they found the remains of cannabis in eight tubes used by Shakespeare, as well as cocaine in two others. This is not unusual for that time, since marijuana was used to treat certain diseases, and hemp was one of the components in creating some types of paper and clothing.
In his sonnet 76, Shakespeare refers to “wonderful grass " ("Noted weed" in the original). This was also a cause for suspicion in the writer of drug addiction. Although the interpretation of this phrase has been discussed more than once, and not all scientists believe that we are talking specifically about narcotic substances.
7. Lost years
After the birth of their last two children, the twins Hamnet and Judith, little is known about Shakespeare's personal life. That's why, scientists call this period of the writer’s life “lost years” (1585 - 1592).
Legend has it that he fled to London, avoiding the charge of illegal deer hunting brought forward by a local craftsman named Thomas Lucy. They say that Shakespeare took revenge on Thomas Lucy by devoting him an insulting ballad.
Another story says that Shakespeare began his career as a playwright when he looked after the horses of theater owners.
6. His work influenced the theater and literature of the next generations.
It's obvious that Shakespeare’s plays had an unbelievable impact on world art and culture. His work was a turning point for theater and literature. Traces of its influence can be found from the XVII century among many authors, novelists, musicians, poets and artists, and even Sigmund Freud relied on Shakespeare's works for his psychological theories about human nature.
But, in addition, Shakespeare helped shape modern literary English. English, grammar, pronunciation and spelling were not as standardized as they are now.
Samuel Johnson, the author of the first important and complete dictionary of the English language, quotes Shakespeare on his pages more than any other author. Popular English phrases such as “with bated breath” or “foregone conclusion” are from Shakespeare’s pages.
5. Disputes about authorship
One of the most famous myths surrounding Shakespeare’s figure is one that claims that there really wasn’t a real William Shakespeare, and that the works attributed to him actually belong to another author (or authors) who for some reason decided to remain anonymous.
The charm that these conspiracy theories bring to the general public has led to their rapid spread and popularization of this myth. However, experts believe that this theory has no real justification. Arguments in defense of it include the fact that Shakespeare had neither education, nor aristocratic descent, nor knowledge of the habits of high society necessary to create his works.
Among the possible true authors, Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlow are mentioned.
4. Shakespeare's sexual orientation
Another aspect, the appearance of which was due to the lack of information and historical data on the life of the playwright, is a variety of legends regarding his sexual orientation. With the exception of his marriage to Anne Hathaway, little is known about Shakespeare's personal life.
Many researchers claim that he had novels with other women. Such theories arise mainly from his writings and the figure of the “dark lady” present in them, which appears more than once in his sonnets. Many of his biographers also tend to believe that Shakespeare was bisexual or homosexual..
Many believe that most of his sonnets were autobiographical and included references to his love for a young man whom he called the “just Lord”. Those who refute this theory believe that these works simply speak of a strong friendship between two men.
3. Intravital portraits and descriptions of appearance were not preserved
There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever ordered his portrait, and not a single written description of his appearance has survived.. After his death, when his popularity began to grow, many artists took care to portray him, but almost all of these portraits are purely creative.
Officially, only two of his portraits are recognized as legal, although they are also posthumous. One of them appears on the cover of his first collection, and the other is a sculpture adorning his memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon, dated 1623.
2. Catholic or Protestant?
To this day, it is not known for certain which Shakespeare adhered to religion - Catholicism or Protestantism.. Researchers are inclined to believe that he, like his father, was a parishioner of the Catholic Church, but carefully concealed this.
The thing is that in those days the Catholic faith in Protestant England was under the strictest ban. The Catholics, in order not to go to prison or to the block, had to carefully hide their faith and secretly attend church services.
1. Different versions of the origin of Shakespeare
Shakespeare's actual birth date unknown. It is only known that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and therefore some experts have calculated that his birth occurred three days before this date.
There is no direct evidence that this was true, but Shakespeare's biographers agreed that April 23 is Shakespeare's most likely birth date, as that would be a suitable day, given that he also died on April 23.