The relatively few facts we know about the world's greatest poet and dramatist, William Shakespeare, have made him an enigmatic figure. Some imaginative people have even concluded that he wasn't who he was after all (and why shouldn't he be Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, the Earl of Oxford and Queen Elizabeth I's by-blow all at once? Wake up sheeple.)
But what we do know about the man and his works is intriguing enough. Snap up these unconsidered trifles:
1. Shakespeare wasn't the only Shakespeare in the theatre.
His brother Edmund, sixteen years his junior, became an actor in London too, though without making much of a mark. His death at the age of twenty-seven was followed by a funeral in St Saviour's Church, Southwark, which was an expensive one - indicating a local relative with money. Which brings us to...
2. Shakespeare was a fat cat.
From his career in the theatre, which included acting, play-writing, and being a "sharer" in the profits of his company, Shakespeare amassed a comfortable fortune. By the age of 33 he was able to buy New Place, the second largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon. Later he bought property in London as well as Stratford. In his will he was able to bequeath to his second daughter Judith - not even his main beneficiary - the sum of three hundred pounds. Converting Elizabethan money is notoriously tricky, but £50,000 would about do it today. By contrast, his fellow playwright Thomas Dekker was in and out of debtors' prison his whole life. At his death in 1632 his widow renounced administration of his estate - meaning there was nothing to administer.
3. Shakespeare was a co-writer.
It was common for playwrights of Shakespeare's time to collaborate. Sometimes three or four writers would have a hand in a single play. While Shakespeare seems to have liked working alone, there are passages aplenty in the plays that were written by someone else. He worked with Thomas Middleton on Timon of Athens, and with John Fletcher on Henry VIII. As for some of the most famous parts of Macbeth - the witchy bits - it's likely they were Middleton's work too, bolted on to the play at a later date.
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