97 Fun Facts About Shakespeare

In which English town was William Shakespeare born?

Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town in Warwickshire, was Shakespeare's birthplace in 1564; he retired there and died there in 1616.

Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, twin of Judith, died in 1596 at what age?

Hamnet was 11 when he died of unknown causes and was buried on 11 August 1596; his twin sister Judith lived on until 1662.

What did Shakespeare pointedly leave his wife in his will?

He signed the will within a month of his death, opening it by describing himself as in 'perfect health'; scholars still argue whether the bequest was a snub or a tender reference to the marital bed.

How many children did William Shakespeare have?

Three: Susanna, born 1583, and the twins Hamnet and Judith, born 1585. Only the daughters reached adulthood, and the line ended when Susanna's daughter Elizabeth died childless.

Which two monarch-named eras of England’s history did Shakespeare write across?

Elizabethan and Jacobean: he began writing under Elizabeth I by 1592 and continued into the reign of James I, who made his company the King's Men in 1603.

Alongside some 39 plays and three long narrative poems, how many sonnets did William Shakespeare leave behind?

154 sonnets survive; scholars think he wrote them across his career for a private readership, alongside some 39 plays and three long narrative poems.

Which candlelit London playhouse did Shakespeare's company take over for winters in 1608?

Blackfriars, an indoor theatre lit by candles, came to the King's Men in 1608; its intimate, wealthier audience suited the masque-like effects of late plays such as The Tempest.

In what year did the First Folio gather Shakespeare's plays into one volume?

It appeared in 1623, seven years after his death, and preserved 18 plays that had never been printed before.

William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, held what profession?

Glover was John Shakespeare's trade: he made and sold gloves, and also held civic posts including alderman and bailiff, the equivalent of mayor.

Which rival playwright called Shakespeare an 'upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers' in 1592?

The jibe in Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit is the first surviving reference to Shakespeare's London career, and it parodies a line from Henry VI, Part 3.

Which of Shakespeare's tragedies features a Danish prince seeking revenge for his father's murder?

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, detailing Prince Hamlet's quest for revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who murdered his father and married his mother.

Which London playhouse did Shakespeare's company build for itself in 1599?

Members of Shakespeare's company built it themselves on the south bank of the Thames, and tradition gives it the motto Totus mundus agit histrionem, 'all the world plays the actor'.

In what year were Shakespeare's sonnets first published together in a quarto?

1609: the publisher Thomas Thorpe entered 'Shake-speares Sonnets' in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609, and the quarto appeared that year with its dedication to 'Mr. W.H.'.

Which character in one of Shakespeare's tragedies drowns after going mad?

Polonius's daughter loses her mind after her father is killed and drowns while hanging flower garlands from a willow over a brook.

Which of Shakespeare's history plays features a notoriously villainous king with a physical deformity?

Richard III is a history play portraying the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent downfall of the titular king, who is often depicted as hunchbacked.

Which playwright succeeded Shakespeare at the King's Men and likely co-wrote his last three plays?

John Fletcher, who became the King's Men's chief playwright, co-wrote Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost Cardenio with Shakespeare around 1613; The Two Noble Kinsmen was omitted from the First Folio.

Which of these is often classed as one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays'?

Shakespeare's problem plays, including Measure for Measure, are characterized by their complex ethical dilemmas, dark humor, and endings that are not entirely satisfying.

Who was William Shakespeare's wife?

Anne Hathaway was 26 to Shakespeare's 18 when they married in November 1582; she outlived him and lies buried beside him in Stratford.

Which play's love quadrangle of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena is muddled by fairies?

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies, known for its magical forest setting and intertwined romantic plots.

A misfiring stage cannon set Shakespeare's playhouse ablaze in 1613 during a performance of which play?

Henry VIII, then billed as All Is True: a cannon fired for the king's entrance ignited the Globe's thatch on 29 June 1613, and the theatre was rebuilt in 1614 with a tiled roof.

Where do Rosalind, Celia and Orlando take refuge after leaving Duke Frederick's court?

The Forest of Arden, where the banished Duke Senior holds a rustic court; there Rosalind, disguised as the youth Ganymede, tests Orlando's love in As You Like It.

Which play features a shipwreck, identical twins and mistaken identities in Illyria?

Twins Viola and Sebastian are parted by the shipwreck, and Viola's disguise as a boy tangles everyone's love lives.

What device is at work when the audience knows a heroine only took a sleeping potion, but her lover thinks she is dead?

Dramatic irony: the audience knows Juliet has only drunk a sleeping potion, so Romeo's grief over her 'corpse' in the Capulet tomb carries a dread the character cannot feel.

Who is the main antagonist in Shakespeare's 'Othello'?

Iago is one of Shakespeare's most cunning and manipulative villains, driving the tragic events of Othello through his deceit and jealousy.

Which play features the line, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players"?

This famous monologue, known as 'The Seven Ages of Man,' is delivered by the melancholy Jaques in 'As You Like It,' reflecting on the stages of human life.

What was the name of the acting company Shakespeare was a part of, later known as the King's Men?

Shakespeare was a shareholder and primary playwright for The Lord Chamberlain's Men, which became The King's Men in 1603 under the patronage of King James I.

Which Shakespeare play, set partly at Portia's Belmont, turns on a 'pound of flesh' bond?

The Merchant of Venice is a controversial play that explores themes of justice, mercy, and prejudice through the story of Shylock and Antonio.

What do the three witches prophesy for Banquo, a general in King Duncan's army?

Banquo is told he will not wear the crown himself but will father a line of kings, a promise that later drives the new king to have him murdered.

In drama, what is the term for a speech in which a character alone on stage speaks their thoughts aloud?

A soliloquy lets a character speak their thoughts aloud, typically alone on stage, and Shakespeare used the device to reveal motivations and feelings.

Which Shakespeare play features the bickering lovers Beatrice and Benedick?

Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice and Benedick swear off love until their friends trick each into believing the other is secretly smitten, while Don John's slander nearly wrecks Hero and Claudio's wedding.

Why did Shakespeare publish the poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece in 1593-94?

The theatres were closed by plague from 1592 to 1594, so Shakespeare turned to narrative poetry, dedicating both Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to the Earl of Southampton.

Which of Shakespeare's tragedies concludes with the deaths of the titular lovers from feuding families?

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless tragedy about two young lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their warring families in Verona.

In The Tempest, which Algerian witch, Caliban's mother, ruled the island before Prospero arrived?

Sycorax, banished from Algiers while pregnant with Caliban, never appears on stage; Prospero recalls that she imprisoned Ariel in a cloven pine and her magic could not release him.

Which First Folio category holds Shakespeare's plays about English kings such as Henry V?

Histories: the First Folio sorted the plays into comedies, histories and tragedies; its ten histories run from King John to Henry VIII and cover the Wars of the Roses.

What is the traditional number of acts in a Shakespearean play?

Most of the plays follow a five-act structure inherited from classical drama, though the act divisions were largely imposed by later editors rather than marked in the earliest printed texts.

Which of these literary figures is NOT considered a contemporary of Shakespeare?

While Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and Edmund Spenser were prominent writers during Shakespeare's lifetime, John Milton's major works came later in the 17th century.

Which play features the character Falstaff, a boisterous, cowardly, and often drunken knight?

Sir John Falstaff is one of Shakespeare's most iconic comedic creations, a companion to Prince Hal who also turns up in Henry IV, Part 2 and as a would-be seducer in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

What is the common meter used in Shakespeare's blank verse?

Iambic pentameter: five iambs per line, ten syllables in an unstressed-stressed rhythm (da-DUM da-DUM), the backbone of both the plays and the sonnets.

In which Shakespeare play does a banished Roman general lead the Volscians against Rome?

Coriolanus: Caius Martius, honoured for taking the Volscian city of Corioli, is banished from Rome for his contempt of the plebeians and joins Aufidius to lead the Volscians against the city.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 at what age?

52: born in April 1564 and traditionally on 23 April, so he died on or about his 52nd birthday and was buried in Stratford two days later, on 25 April 1616.

What is the full title of the play often referred to simply as 'The Scottish Play'?

Out of superstition in theatre, 'Macbeth' is often referred to by euphemisms like 'The Scottish Play' rather than its actual title.

Which Shakespeare play involves two sets of identical twins?

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's earliest and shortest plays, a farce driven by slapstick humor and the mix-ups caused by two sets of identical twins.

In Hamlet, which Queen of Denmark marries Claudius, her late husband's brother, to her son's disgust?

Gertrude's hasty remarriage appals her son the prince, and she dies in the final scene after drinking from a poisoned cup meant for him.

Which of these plays is considered a 'romance' or 'tragicomedy' rather than a pure tragedy or comedy?

Shakespeare's romances, like The Winter's Tale, often feature elements of both tragedy and comedy, with a focus on themes of forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation.

Which Shakespeare play is set during the later years of the Trojan War?

Troilus and Cressida follows the Iliad from Achilles' sulking to Hector's death; it was added to the First Folio so late that it is missing from the volume's catalogue of plays.

Which Shakespearean monarch divides his realm among his daughters by how lavishly they praise him?

King Lear is a powerful tragedy about an aging monarch who misjudges his daughters' affections, leading to his madness and the destruction of his family.

Which Shakespearean play is set in ancient Britain and features a Roman invasion?

Cymbeline is a tragicomedy set in ancient Britain during the reign of King Cymbeline, involving a Roman invasion, mistaken identities, and a magical potion.

Which character delivers the 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears' speech?

Mark Antony delivers this famous speech at Caesar's funeral in 'Julius Caesar,' skillfully swaying the Roman populace against the conspirators.

Which bloody revenge play is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy?

Titus Andronicus, printed in 1594 with a title page naming three companies that had already staged it; its gore was long held against it until a 20th-century revival of interest.

What was the maiden name of Shakespeare's mother, Mary?

Arden: Mary Arden came from a prosperous landowning family at Wilmcote, near Stratford; her surname matches the Warwickshire Forest of Arden that gave As You Like It its setting.

Shakespeare's exact birthday is unknown; on what date in 1564 was he baptised?

The 23 April birthday is a later tradition, chosen partly because it is also St George's Day and the date of his death.

Which Stratford church holds Shakespeare's grave, with its curse on anyone who moves his bones?

Holy Trinity Church, on the Avon in Stratford, holds his grave in the chancel; a share in the parish tithes bought in 1605 made him a lay rector entitled to burial there.

What was the name of the large Stratford house Shakespeare bought in 1597?

New Place, the second-largest house in Stratford, was bought by Shakespeare in 1597 with his theatre earnings; he retired there and died there in 1616.

What did the Rev. Francis Gastrell, tired of tourists, destroy at Shakespeare's old home in 1756?

Three years later he demolished the house itself, and furious townsfolk are said to have driven him out of Stratford.

The Latin epitaph on Shakespeare's church monument compares him 'in art' to which Roman poet?

Virgil: the monument's Latin line 'Iudicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem' likens him to Nestor in judgement, Socrates in genius and Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) in art.

Shakespeare's last direct descendant, granddaughter Elizabeth Barnard, died in which year?

1670: Elizabeth Barnard died childless that February despite two marriages, so Shakespeare's bloodline ended 54 years after his death.

Shakespeare's most famous stage direction has a character exit pursued by what?

A bear: 'Exit, pursued by a bear' in The Winter's Tale, as Antigonus abandons the infant Perdita on the coast of Bohemia and is chased to his death.

Which rival playwright hailed Shakespeare as 'not of an age, but for all time'?

Ben Jonson, in his poem prefacing the 1623 First Folio, a generous tribute from a rival who elsewhere grumbled that Shakespeare should have 'blotted a thousand' lines.

Two fellow actors compiled the 1623 First Folio: Henry Condell and who?

John Heminges, who with Condell was a sharer in the King's Men; Shakespeare's will left each of them 26 shillings and 8 pence to buy a mourning ring.

How many plays were printed in the First Folio?

36 plays, 18 of them never printed before; without the Folio, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar would probably have been lost.

Which numbered poem of the 1609 quarto opens 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'

Its twist is that the poem, not the young man, is what actually achieves immortality.

Who engraved the famous frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare for the First Folio?

Martin Droeshout, a young engraver of Flemish descent, made the stiff copperplate portrait; Ben Jonson's facing verse 'To the Reader' says the graver had 'hit his face' well.

Which 1957 musical, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut as lyricist, recasts Romeo and Juliet's feud as the Jets versus the Sharks?

West Side Story moves Verona to Manhattan's Upper West Side, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighbourhood, in the mid-1950s.

Shakespeare's company built its 1599 playhouse from the timbers of which Shoreditch venue?

The Theatre, Shoreditch's 1576 playhouse: carpenter Peter Street and the players dismantled it over Christmas 1598 while landlord Giles Allen was away, and reused the timbers for the Globe.

In what year did the Long Parliament shut all of London's playhouses?

1642: on 2 September the Long Parliament ordered the playhouses closed as the Civil War began; the second Globe was pulled down in 1644 to make way for tenements.

Which American actor-director founded the modern reconstruction of Shakespeare's Bankside playhouse?

Sam Wanamaker, the American actor-director who founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust in 1970; he died in 1993, four years before the thatched reconstruction opened in 1997 with Henry V.

Which star actor of Shakespeare's company created the title roles in his great tragedies?

His father James built London's first successful permanent playhouse, so he grew up in the business.

Which courtier does the Prince of Denmark stab through a curtain while he eavesdrops?

The prince assumed it was the king hiding behind the arras; the blunder sends Ophelia into madness and Laertes into revenge.

Whose skull does the Prince of Denmark hold while recalling 'a fellow of infinite jest'?

Yorick, the late king's jester, whose skull the gravedigger turns up in Act 5; Hamlet recalls him as 'a fellow of infinite jest', and the image became shorthand for theatre itself.

Which forest must 'come to Dunsinane' before the Scottish usurper can be defeated?

Birnam Wood: Malcolm's soldiers cut boughs from the trees at Birnam to hide their numbers as they march on Dunsinane, so the apparition's prophecy comes true in a very literal way.

Which lieutenant of Antony describes Cleopatra as a woman of 'infinite variety'?

Enobarbus, whose 'Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety' is the play's great portrait of Cleopatra; he later deserts to Octavius and dies of shame when Antony sends his treasure after him.

Which roguish pedlar picks pockets at the sheep-shearing feast in Bohemia?

Autolycus, the ballad-selling rogue of The Winter's Tale, shares his name with the master thief of Greek myth, a son of Hermes and maternal grandfather of Odysseus.

Shakespeare took the plot of his Scottish tragedy from which 1587 history of Britain?

The same book supplied his English history plays, the Lear story and Cymbeline, though he freely rewrote the facts.

Which Franciscan secretly marries the Verona lovers, hoping to reconcile their families?

Friar Laurence, who also brews Juliet's sleeping potion; Friar John is the same play's messenger whose letter never reaches Romeo, while Friar Francis and Friar Lodowick belong to other plays.

Who kills Mercutio in a street duel, provoking Romeo's fatal revenge?

Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, kills Mercutio under Romeo's arm; Romeo had refused the fight because Tybalt had just become his kinsman by marriage, then slays him in revenge.

The prologue to the Verona tragedy coined which phrase for doomed lovers?

Star-cross'd: the Prologue's 'a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life' rests on the belief that the stars govern human fates; 'fortune's fool' is a different Romeo line.

In Othello, which gift from the Moor to Desdemona is taken by Iago and planted as 'proof' of her affair?

A handkerchief, the first gift Othello gave her, is found by Emilia and handed to her husband Iago, who leaves it in Cassio's lodgings.

Which 1994 Disney film borrows its uncle-usurper plot from the Danish tragedy?

The Lion King (1994): Scar murders his brother Mufasa and seizes the throne, and the young heir Simba, urged by his father's ghost, returns to reclaim it, echoing Hamlet's Claudius plot.

Othello's plot was borrowed from a 1565 novella by which Italian writer?

Cinthio (Giovanni Battista Giraldi), whose Gli Hecatommithi of 1565 supplied the tale; in it the ensign lusts after Disdemona himself and the Moor is never given a name.

Edward de Vere, a favourite of anti-Stratfordians as the 'real' author, held which earldom?

Oxford: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, overtook Francis Bacon as the favourite alternative candidate after J. Thomas Looney's 1920 book 'Shakespeare' Identified.

Whose 1681 rewrite of the Lear tragedy gave it a happy ending and a romantic subplot?

Nahum Tate's 1681 History of King Lear lets Cordelia survive and marry Edgar; his version held the stage until the 1830s.

Before his exile on the island, what title did Prospero hold?

Duke of Milan: Prospero's brother Antonio usurped the dukedom twelve years before the play begins, with help from Alonso, King of Naples, and set Prospero and Miranda adrift.

Portia's suitors must choose between three caskets: gold, silver and which metal?

Lead: Bassanio chooses the humble lead casket and wins Portia; the Prince of Morocco had already failed with gold and the Prince of Arragon with silver.

Which moneylender delivers the 'Hath not a Jew eyes?' speech?

The speech is often read as a plea for common humanity, even as its speaker insists on his pound of flesh.

In Julius Caesar, who warns 'Beware the ides of March'?

A soothsayer calls the warning from the crowd during the feast of Lupercal; Caesar dismisses him as 'a dreamer' and later ignores Calpurnia's nightmares too.

Which play, probably co-written with George Wilkins, was left out of the First Folio?

Pericles, Prince of Tyre was omitted from the First Folio and only joined the collected works in the 1664 issue of the Third Folio; editors credit Shakespeare with roughly Acts 3 to 5.

Shakespeare's Roman plays drew on whose 1579 English translation of Plutarch's Lives?

North worked from a French version rather than the Greek, and Shakespeare sometimes lifted his phrasing almost word for word.

Puck gives which Athenian weaver the head of a donkey?

Nick Bottom the weaver is 'translated' with an ass's head by Puck, and the enchanted fairy queen Titania promptly falls in love with him, ears and all.

Oberon's magic juice is pressed from which flower, turned purple by Cupid's arrow?

Love-in-idleness, a folk name for the wild pansy: Oberon says Cupid's bolt fell on a 'little western flower, before milk-white, now purple with love's wound', and Puck fetches it in Act 2.

A forged letter tricks the steward Malvolio into wearing stockings of what colour?

Yellow: the letter forged by Maria tells Malvolio that Olivia loves yellow stockings and cross-gartering, when in fact she abhors the colour and detests the fashion.

How many of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets are addressed to the young man?

126: Sonnets 1 to 126 address the fair young man; the remaining 28 concern the so-called Dark Lady, and two of those (138 and 144) had already appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599.

'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers' is said by a follower of which rebel?

Jack Cade, leader of the 1450 Kentish rising in Henry VI, Part 2; the line belongs to his follower Dick the Butcher and is often misremembered as Shakespeare's own opinion.

Petruchio woos the headstrong Katherina in which Italian university city?

Padua: Lucentio arrives there to study at its famous university but disguises himself as a Latin tutor to court Bianca, while Petruchio comes from Verona to tame her sister Katherina.

The hunchbacked king cries 'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!' at which 1485 battle?

The night before, he is visited by the ghosts of his victims, each telling him to 'despair and die'.

The French Dauphin sends Henry V what mocking gift, implying he is a frivolous youth?

Tennis balls: Henry answers that he will turn the Dauphin's balls 'to gun-stones', and the invasion of France follows.

Henry V's 'band of brothers' speech before Agincourt is delivered on which saint's feast?

St Crispin's Day, 25 October: Agincourt was fought on that date in 1415, and Henry promises his 'happy few' that the feast will be remembered 'from this day to the ending of the world'.

Cleopatra takes her own life with the bite of which creature?

An asp, smuggled in a basket of figs by a clown; Cleopatra calls it 'the pretty worm of Nilus', and her maid Charmian dies from a second one after her.