{"id":3969,"date":"2015-04-29T15:45:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T11:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2015-05-01T11:28:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T07:28:58","slug":"things-you-didnt-know-about-william-shakespeare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/things-you-didnt-know-about-william-shakespeare\/","title":{"rendered":"Things You Didn\u2019t Know About William Shakespeare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

Image source: npg.org.uk<\/p><\/div>\n

1. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Shakespeare wrote close to a 1\/10 of the most quoted lines ever written or spoken in English.What\u2019s more, according to the Literary Encyclopaedia, Shakespeare is the second most quoted English writer after the writers of the Bible.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language.\u00a0Estimations of his vocabulary range from 17,000 to 29,000 words \u2013 at least double the number of words used by the average conversationalist.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Shakespeare never published his plays.\u00a0They are known today only because two of his fellow actors \u2013 John Hemminges and Henry Condell \u2013 recorded and published 36 of them posthumously under the name The First Folio, which is the source of all Shakespeare books published.<\/p>\n

\"Shakespeare

Image source: wikipedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

4.\u00a0Copyright didn\u2019t exist in Shakespeare\u2019s time, so there was a thriving trade in copied plays.\u00a0To help counter this, actors got their lines only once the play was in progress, often in the form of cue acting where someone backstage whispered them to the person shortly before he was supposed to deliver them.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Aside from writing 38 plays and composing 154 sonnets, Shakespeare was also an established actor.\u00a0He performed in many of his own plays as well as those of his contemporaries, such as Ben Jonson.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u201cWilliam Shakespeare\u201d is an anagram of \u201cI am a weakish speller\u201d, \u201cI\u2019ll make a wise phrase\u201d, \u201cLame Swahili speaker\u201d and \u201cHear me as I will speak\u201d.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0The moons of Uranus are named after Shakespearean characters.\u00a0The moons were originally named in 1852 after magical spirits from English literature. The International Astronomy Union subsequently developed the convention to name all further moons of Uranus (of which there are 27) after characters in Shakespeare\u2019s plays or Alexander Pope\u2019s The Rape of the Lock.<\/p>\n

\"The

Image source: daviddarling.info<\/p><\/div>\n

8.\u00a0Shakespeare had close connections with King James I.\u00a0The King made the actors of Shakespeare\u2019s company \u2018Grooms of Chamber\u2019, in response Shakespeare changed the company\u2019s name from the \u2018Lord Chamberlain\u2019s Men\u2019 to the \u2018King\u2019s Men\u2019. The new title made Shakespeare a favourite with the King and in much demand for Court performances.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Unlike most artists of his time, Shakespeare died a very wealthy man with a large property portfolio.\u00a0He was a brilliant businessman \u2013 forming a joint-stock company with his actors meaning he took a share in the company\u2019s profits, as well as earning a fee for each play he wrote.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0There are more than 80 variations recorded for the spelling of Shakespeare\u2019s name.\u00a0In the few original signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelt his name \u201cWillm Shaksp,\u201d \u201cWilliam Shakespe,\u201d \u201cWm Shakspe,\u201d \u201cWilliam Shakspere,\u201d \u201dWillm Shakspere,\u201d and \u201cWilliam Shakspeare\u201d. There are no records of him ever having spelt it \u201cWilliam Shakespeare\u201d, as we know him today.<\/p>\n

\"There

Image source: public.wsu.edu<\/p><\/div>\n

11.\u00a0The original Globe Theatre came to a premature end in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII, when a cannon set light to the thatched roof.\u00a0Within two hours the theatre was burnt to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1614.<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0The Royal Shakespeare Company sells more than half a million tickets a year for Shakespeare productions at their theatres in Stratford-on-Avon, London and Newcastle.<\/p>\n

13.\u00a0Nobody knows Shakespeare\u2019s true birthday. It\u2019s celebrated on April 23 \u2013 three days before his baptism, which was recorded on April 26, 1564.\u00a0However, as Shakespeare was born under the old Julian calendar, what was April 23 during Shakespeare\u2019s life would actually be May 3 according to today\u2019s Gregorian calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Shakespeare wrote …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[731],"tags":[1591,57,193,182,234,199,187,1226,166,325,795],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whichbookwouldyouread-bookoftheweek-themes-themeoftheweek-quotes-inspirationalquotes","tag-april-2015","tag-books","tag-elt","tag-english-book-in-georgia","tag-for-students","tag-for-teachers","tag-interesting-fact","tag-interesting-people","tag-learn","tag-theme-of-the-week","tag-william-shakespeare","cat_731"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}