1. Shakespeare was born on April 23 1564 and died April 23 1616 aged 52. He was born and also died on the 23 April.
2. Shakespeare was baptised on April 26 1564 in Stratford upon Avon just three days before the Stratford Parish register recorded an outbreak of the plague.
3. On 30th November 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Whateley. Anne Whateley could be a scribal error for Anne Hathaway. She was 3 months pregnant at the time.
4. Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway was 8 years older.
5. Shakespeare was also an actor, but it is supposed that he played mostly the unassuming parts such as the ghost in Hamlet, to allow him more time to write.
6. Although Shakespeare is usually considered an Elizabethan playwright, much of his greatest work was produced after James 1 took to the throne. Shakespeare can be described as a Jacobean.
7. Many of Shakespeare’s plays are based on others earlier plays, histories and poems. This was common place at the time as copy write didn’t exist.
8. Within the few signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelt his name: “Willm Shaksp,” “William Shakespe,” “Wm Shakspe,” “William Shakespere,” “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” but never “William Shakespeare.”
9. In Shakespeare’s time theatres had no curtain and used little or no scenery. Playwrights described the setting within the text of the performance.
10. Elizabethan theatre goers could purchase apples and pears to eat during the show. These snacks were often thrown at the actors by dissatisfied members of the audience.
11. In 1603 Shakespeare’s company became the official player for King James I and renamed themselves “The Kings Men.”
12. The Globe theatre burned to the ground on June 29th 1613, set fire by a canon shot during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII.
13. Shakespeare’s work contained first ever recordings of 2,035 English words including: critical, frugal, excellent, bare faced, assassination and