Shakespeare was born not at Stratford-on-Avon as told, but Stratford, one mile away from the Shottery village, the residence of his beloved wife Anne. Stratford was on the Upper-Avon and not on the Avon.

1. Indranil Sarkar
E-mail: indranil49@hotmail.com
Contact:03667286200

3. My revered teacher Dr.S.P.Sengupta had shown more than 80
spelling variations of Shakespeare in his invaluable book
‘Shakespeare’. It is because Shakespeare couldn’t pronounce his
name distinctly and as such each time the name changed.
Some of these are--Shappere, Shakespeare, Shakespere,
ShakeSpeare, Shakespear, shakSpeare, Shakspeare, Shakespore,
Shakesper, Shagspere, Shaksper, Shaxpur Shaxpere, Shayksper,
Shexpere, Shaxper, Shaxber, Shaxberd, Shakspur, Shackspere,
Shackspear, Sheakspear, Shakspear, Shaksperr, Shaksporre,
Shaykspeyr, Shakspeyr & Shaxbard.etc.

4.  William Shakespeare’s birth and death dates are same. He was born on
23rd April, 1564 and died on 23rd April, 1616.
 His parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden (Shakespeare).
They were illiterate. John Shakespeare was a Glover and ultimately
became the Mayor of Stratford on Avon.
 Shakespeare married at the age of 18.His wife Anne Hathaway was 8
years senior to him and was 3 months pregnant at the time of their
marriage.
 Shakespeare was born not at Stratford-on-Avon as told, but Stratford,
one mile away from the Shottery village, the residence of his beloved wife
Anne.
 Stratford was on the Upper-Avon and not on the Avon.

5. Shakespeare & Anne Hathaway

7. THE NEW
PALACE
Shakespeare’s family home in Stratford was called New Palace.
The house stood on the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel
Lane, and was apparently the second largest house in the
town.

8. Funny Criticism:-
In 1759, James Townley wrote a farce named “High Life Below stairs”.
There, a character asked, “Who wrote the plays of Shakespeare?”
Another character answered, “Oh, it’s Ben Jonson”.
The third character said, “No, no, it’s Finis.
Referring this, a number of critics started telling that the plays of
Shakespeare were actually written by Finis.
Now, the funny thing is, at the end of every Shakespearean play the
iconoclastic Bard wrote ‘Finis’; probably to mean ‘finished’ or
‘completed’.
But, how can a sensible reader help shivering in anguish when some
revered critics pass their sage verdict that the plays of Shakespeare
were actually written by Finis.
How funny!

9. Shakespeare possessed one tenth share
of The Globe Theatre.
The motto of the Globe Theatre was:
[ totus mundus agit histri onem ]
which means:-
The Globe burned to ashes on June 29, 1613.
It caught fire by a cannon shot during the
performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

11.  Some people believe that Shakespeare did not write his plays. The plays were
written by somebody else. The followers of Francis Bacon claim Bacon to be
the actual writer of Shakespearean plays. But the embracing and enchanting
quality of Shakespearean language which possess the unique quality of
enhancing 4 percent milk production to the cows is quite unthinkable of coming
from the pen of the strongly masculine, the wisest philosopher and the greatest
ever English essayist, Sir Francis Bacon.
 In order to prove Shakespeare’s magical superiority the Changeling Theatre
Company performed a scene from Shakespeare’ ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor
‘before the cows at the Pleasant Farm, near Maidstone, Kent in 2010. It
resulted 4% increase of milk production.
 The reverse effect would happen if Cows are compelled to listen Bacon’s
‘dispersed meditations’ in aphoristic style.
 News.UK.co on the 1st July, 2010. By Andrew Hough

12.  Shakespeare's works contain first-ever recordings of 2,035 English
words, including critical, frugal, excellent, barefaced, assassination,
and countless.
 Countless excellent phrases, now commonly used, occurred first in
Shakespeare, including ‘one fell swoop’, ‘vanish into thin air’, ‘play fast
and loose’, ‘be in a pickle’, ‘foul play’, ‘tower of strength’, ‘flesh and
blood’, ‘be cruel to be kind’, and ‘with bated breath’.
 According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Shakespeare wrote
about one-tenth of the most quotable quotations ever written or spoken
in English.
 Shakespeare is the most frequently quoted writer.

13.  Shakespeare used "dog" or "dogs" over two hundred times in his
works.
 He also was the first writer to use the compound noun "watchdog", in
The Tempest (1.2.390).
 Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare‘s plays.
 It occurs in Romeo and Juliet where both Romeo and Juliet commit
suicide, in Julius Caesar where both Cassius and Brutus die by
consensual stabbing, as well as Brutus’ wife Portia, in Othello where
Othello stabs himself, in Hamlet where Ophelia is said to have
"drowned" in suspicious circumstances, in Macbeth when Lady
Macbeth dies, and finally in Antony and Cleopatra where suicide occurs
an astounding five times (Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras and
Eros).

15. Shakespeare wrote altogether 154 sonnets. Shakespeare changed
the Petrarchan model of Sonnet i,e octave + sestet pattern; and
created the English pattern by modifying Surrey’s model i,e Three
quatrains + a couplet pattern.
But the most unique cases are his sonnet no.99 & no.126. These are
not of traditional 14 line sonnets but of 15(5+4+4+2=15)
&12(4+4+4=12) lined respectively.
The extra line in sonnet no.99 transforms the first quatrain to a
Cinquain, altering the rime scheme from ABAB to ABABA.
While in no.126 the final couplet is missing.
The two final sonnets 153 and 154 are nearly identical; 154 is
essentially a paraphrase of 153.

16.  It is said that Shakespeare was initially engaged as the attendant of
the ‘Horses’ in the Rose Theatre. This is simply a travesty of truth.
 The truth is, in Elizabethan time the main actors were called ‘Grooms’
and the minor actors were called ‘Horses’.
 And initially Shakespeare was in charge of training those minor
actors, not just looking after the ‘Horses’ in the stables’.
 What a dangerously disgraceful linguistic misinterpretation!
 There is no evidence for what Shakespeare did between 1585 and
1592, the period when he moved to London and began his writing
career.

17.  These are called the Lost years of the poet’s life.
 Thus, there is no record of how his career began or how
quickly he rose to fame. This has, however, raised several
legendary stories.
 According to one such legend, Shakespeare had come to India
and stayed first in a Keralian Brahmin family adopting the
name ViVian Sheshappa Ayer and then in a Muslim family
adopting the name Sheikh Pir.
 Surprisingly both the legends are still alive in Kerala.

18.  William Shakespeare created altogether 1222 immortal characters
including 76 unique female characters which is the highest number of
characters created by any author so far.
 The estimated size of Shakespeare’s vocabulary runs to as big as
25,000 words. Even Alfred Hart's recent conservative count of 17,677
gives Shakespeare a vocabulary twice the size of Milton's.
 No one before or since has so enriched the English language with
new words, or with so many words of Latin and Greek root.
 The number of words he used once and never used again comes to
fifty-percent more than are used in the entire Old Testament in the
King James translation.

19.  It is said that Shakespeare had to leave his native village because of a scandal of ‘Deer
poaching’ in which Thomas Lucy abused and even flogged him. But, history says that Thomas
Lucy did not have any ‘Reserve Forest’ as mentioned in the story. However, his grandson built
a small garden later on in which there was no deer, not even a hare.
 It was actually a land-dispute. Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare was sanctioned a plot
of land cutting a part from the estate of Thomas Lucy by the King. Lucy did not like it and
wanted to recover it by any means. By exploiting his position as the landlord, Lucy and his men
publicized the scandalous story. Shakespeare was at that time only 12.He felt humiliated and
wrote at least two poems---one ballad entitled “Lowsie Lucy” abusing Thomas Lucy which was
found stuck in the front door of Lucy’s garden at Charlecote Park. The first paragraph of it
was recalled by one Thomas Jones, a nonagenarian living in Worcestershire as such:
 www.pbs.org/shakespeare

20. ANPORTRAITFROM1588BELIEVEDTOBEOFAYOUNGWILLIAMSHAKESPEARE.IT
CANBEFOUNDINPETERACKROYD’S“SHAKESPEARE:THE
BIOGRAPHY”.
This story appears
in Adam Fox’s
excellent chapter
on ballads and libel
in his book Oral
and Literate
Culture in England
1500-
1700 (Oxford,
2000), pps. 299-
334.
Nicolas Rowe’s
account of
Shakespeare’s
early life can be
found in The
Works of Mr.
William
Shakespear (6
vols., London,
1709) and a more
detailed discussion
of the “lowsie Lucy”
legend may be
found in S.
Schoenbaum’s
Shakespeare’s
Lives (Oxford,
1991).

21. “LOWSIE LUCY
 “A parliamente member, a justice of the peace,
 At home a poore scarecrow, at London an asse.
 If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscalle it,
 Then Lucy is lowsie whatever befalle it:
 He thinkes himselfe greate,
 Yet an asse in his state,
 We allowe by his eares but with asses to mate.
 If Lucy is lowsie, as some volke miscalle it,
 Sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befalle it.”
https://balladed.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/the-tale-of-will-shakespeare-and-
lowsie-lucy

22. The second one named “Loss of Good Name” which was discovered on April,2010 reveals the
pangs and pains that young Willy felt at the incident.
[The noted Indian scholar and historian narrated the actual incident in a very lucid and clear
manner in his book ‘History of English Literature’ with a fine Bengali translation of ‘Lowsie Lucy’].i.s
“Loss of Good Name”
 Fram’d in the front of forlorn hope past all recovery,
I stayless stand, to abide the shock of shame and infamy.
My life, through ling’ring long, is lodg’d in lair of loathsome ways;
My death delay’d to keep from life the harm of hapless days.
My sprites, my heart, my wit and force, in deep distress are drown’d;
The only loss of my good name is of these griefs the ground.
And since my mind, my wit, my head, my voice and tongue are weak,
To utter, move, devise, conceive, sound forth, declare and speak,
Such piercing plaints as answer might, or would my woeful case,
Help crave I must, and crave I will, with tears upon my face,
Of all that may in heaven or hell, in earth or air be found,
To wail with me this loss of mine, as of these griefs the ground.
Help Gods, help saints, help sprites and powers that in the heaven do dwell,
Help ye that are aye wont to wail, ye howling hounds of hell;
Help man, help beasts, help birds and worms, that on the earth do toil;
Help fish, help fowl, that flock and feed upon the salt sea soil,
Help echo that in air doth flee, shrill voices to resound,
To wail this loss of my good name, as of these griefs the ground.
 E.O

23. LOSS OF GOOD NAME
 ‘In my puddling parvipension (in other words, humble opinion), the poem reveals the
Juvenility of Young Willy. He wrote it at the age of 12. E.O stands for William
Shakespeare. It’s a word puzzle created by the Bard’.said Michael Schoenfeldt
 May check the O.E.D. if you have any question!—i.s
 “Misattributed to the Earl of Oxford for centuries, may the world take note that this
poem’s author was correctly identified as William Shakespeare on the first day of April,
2011. It’s a bad poem, certainly. But for a twelve-year-old Shakespeare, it’s not that
bad. Fortunately, Shakespeare’s juvenilia (of which this is the earliest example) served
as exercises that enabled him to develop his true genius later”, added Michael
Schoenfeldt .
Links:
i.The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's poems ed. Michael Schoenfeldt.[Cambridge
University Press, 07-Oct-2010-Literary Criticism]

24.  Although Shakespeare is usually considered an Elizabethan playwright, much
of his greatest work was produced after James I took the throne. Thus,
Shakespeare could be more accurately considered Jacobean. And
historically, his literary career covered the reign of three kings of England.
 He is the worthiest son England, a true Briton with all the characteristics of a
Briton. So at last, we may conclude uttering the words of John Sterling,--
‘Though Shakespeare’s dust beneath our footstep lies
His spirit breathes amid his native skies!”
And finally, let us conclude once more, repeating the words of Robert
Graves(1895-1985):‘The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is
really very good - in spite of all the people who say he is very good’.

29. Nothing

30. Shakespeare in 21st century.