William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon".
During his lifetime, Shakespeare wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets.[1] Among his plays, he wrote The Merchant of Venice[2] and A Midsummer Night's Dream.[3] The former featured a Jewish villain, partially inspired by the execution of Roderigo Lopez, the Jewish chief physician of Queen Elizabeth I, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1594 for attempting to poison the Queen.[2]
In addition to his plays and sonnets, Shakespeare also contributed hundreds of new words into the English language.[1]
Trivia
- In 1603, John Dee, the former consultant of Queen Elizabeth I, attended a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe Theatre in London. The following year, he sent a letter to Elizabeth Jane Weston, recommending her to watch the play, saying that he thought she would "find the subject matter of this play prevalent to [her] liking." Elizabeth and her husband, Johannes Leo, would subsequently attend a performance of the play at Vladislav Hall in Prague.[3]
- In the database entry for Oak Island, Shaun Hastings claimed that Francis Bacon had used William Kidd's "Money Pit" to store the original documents proving that he wrote the works of William Shakespeare, although Shaun quickly admitted that it was not true.[4]
- The name of one of Ezio Auditore's repressed genetic memories, Love's Labour's Lost, was based on Shakespeare's play, Love's Labour's Lost.[5]
- The name of one of Jacob Frye's genetic memories, Much Ado About Drinking, was a reference to Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing.[6]