Elizabethan Era

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Jacobean Era

Interesting Facts about Life of William Shakespeare

Other than what is found in a few church records and legal documents and in a few contemporary documents such as playgoers' diaries, most evidence of Shakespeare's life is circumstantial. Very little is known for certain. The following are ten points that were highly intriguing about William Shakespeare.


Shakespeare was born under the old Julian calendar, not the current Gregorian calendar that was created in 1582 and adopted in England in 1751. What was April 26 during Shakespeare's life would be May 3 on today's calendar.

Shakespeare's works contain over 600 references to birds of all kinds, including the swan, bunting, cock, dove, robin, sparrow, nightingale, swallow, turkey, wren, starling, and thrush.

Shakespeare never published any of his plays himself.

A conspiracy led to many thinking that he was gay, because many of his plays seemed to be inspired by love for a young man


Shakespeare is always referred to as an Elizabethan playwright, but as most of his most popular plays were written after Elizabeth's death he was actually more of a Jacobean writer. His later plays also show the distinct characteristics of Jacobean drama.

Women were not allowed to act in plays during Shakespeare's time, so in all of his plays, women's roles were performed by boys/young men.

There is no evidence for what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592, the period when he moved to London and began his writing career. Thus, there is no record of how his career began or how quickly he rose to fame.


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