3. To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning bedtime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es
And dupp'd the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
Hamlet 4.5
4. Good morrow, friends. Saint
Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple
now?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4.1
6. The Comedies with most uses of the
word ‚love:‛
Love’s Labor’s Lost 62
Much Ado About Nothing 71
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 79
As You Like It 82
Two Gentleman of Verona 104
7. The Tragedies with the most uses of the
word ‚love:‛
King Lear 43
Hamlet 50
Troilus and Cressida 52
Othello 66
Romeo and Juliet 94
38. None of Shakespeare’s plays in
his own handwriting exist
today. We only have several of
his signatures on some
documents, but some scholars
believe this passage from the
play, The Book of Sir Thomas
Moore, is in his handwriting.
39. Shakespeare wrote 37 or 38 plays
They are divided by modern editors
into four categories:
13 Comedies
10 Tragedies
10 Histories
5 Romances
40. The Quartos
Shakespeare’s plays began to be
printed in 1594 as small, cheap
pamphlets called quartos because of
the way they were printed. Eighteen of
Shakespeare’s plays had appeared in
quarto editions by the time of his death
in 1616. He had nothing to do with
their publication.
41. The first Folio was
published in 1623, 7
years after
Shakespeare died.
It contained 35
plays. Three more
(Pericles, Two
Noble Kinsmen,
and Troilus and
Cressida were
attributed to him
later.
Some of what
modern editors
now call
Romances
were listed
under the
either
Comedies or
Tragedies in
the First Folio.
42. More than 80 spelling variations
are recorded for Shakespeare's
name, from “Shappere” to
“Shaxberd.
43. In the few signatures that have survived, Shakespeare
spelled his name:
“Willm Shaksp,”
“William Shakespe,”
“Wm Shakspe,”
“William Shakspere,”
”Willm Shakspere,” and
“William Shakspeare”
—but never “William Shakespeare
44. Almost four hundred years after Shakespeare's
death there are 152 million pages referring to him
on Google.
45. Question #1
Suicide occurs thirteen times in Shakespeare's plays.
Which play has the most suicides?
A. Antony and Cleopatra
B. Julius Caesar
C. Othello
D. Romeo and Juliet
48. Macbeth is thought to be one of the most produced
plays ever, with a performance beginning somewhere
in the world every four hours.
49. Shakespeare’s plays have a vocabulary of
some 17,000 words, four times what a welleducated English speaker would have.
Shakespeare used 29,066 different words out of
884,647 words in all.
Scholars have speculated that Shakespeare
coined somewhere around 1,500 words.
50. A to Z: Some words first used by Shakespeare
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
advertising
bandit
critic
dickens
epileptic
film
gossip
hush
investment
jig
kissing
luggage
manager
N.
O.
P.
Q.
R.
S.
T.
U.
V.
W.
X.
Y.
Z.
numb
obscene
puke
quarrelsome
rant
shooting star
torture
undress
varied
wild-goose chase
Xantippe
yelping
zany
57. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
• He was a schoolteacher.
• He was a deer poacher.
• He was a Catholic.
58. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
59. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
He helped write the King James Bible.
60. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
He helped write the King James Bible.
He was unhappily married.
61. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
He helped write the King James Bible.
He was unhappily married.
He was Italian and fled Italy to avoid the Inquisition.
62. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
He helped write the King James Bible.
He was unhappily married.
He was Italian and fled Italy to avoid the Inquisition.
During the “lost years” he visited Italy.
63. Myths about Shakespeare’s Life
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
He was a schoolteacher.
He was a deer poacher.
He was a Catholic.
He was a Jew.
He helped write the King James Bible.
He was unhappily married.
He was Italian and fled Italy to avoid the Inquisition.
During the “lost years” he visited Italy.
He was an Arab named “Sheikh Speare.”
65. The long and the short of it…
Plays Ranked by Length: the Longest
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Hamlet – 4042 lines
Coriolanus – 3752 lines
Cymbeline – 3707 lines
Richard III – 3667 lines
Antony and Cleopatra – 3552 lines
Othello – 3551 lines
Troilus and Cressida –3531 lines
King Lear – 3487 lines
The Winter’s Tale – 3348 lines
Henry IV, Part 2 – 3326 lines
66. Question #2
Which Shakespeare play is the shortest?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Macbeth
The Comedy of Errors
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Tempest
67. The long and the short of it…
Plays Ranked by Length: the Shortest
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The Comedy of Errors – 1787 lines
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 2192 lines
The Tempest – 2283 lines
The Two Gentlemen of Verona – 2288 lines
Macbeth – 2349 lines
Pericles – 2459 lines
Timon of Athens – 2488 lines
Titus Andronicus – 2538 lines
Julius Caesar – 2591 lines
Twelfth Night – 2591 lines
68. Who has the most lines?
1. Hamlet – 1,422
2. Richard III – 1,124
3. Iago (Othello) – 1,097
4. Henry V – 1,025
5. Othello – 860
6. Vincentio (Measure for Measure) – 820
7. Coriolanus – 809
8. Timon of Athens – 795
9. Antony (Antony and Cleopatra) – 766
10. Richard II --753
69. Shakespeare used over 75 different words for sexual
intercourse including:
Backtrick
Business
Juggling
Husbandry
Night-work
Sport
Tillage
Tick-tack
Tumble
Voyage
