While we may all feel that we know about the life and times of the famous William Shakespeare, there are many myths surrounding the life of the great playwright and poet. Check out the information below :-

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1. While William Shakespeare was said to have been born on 26th April 1564, this was actually the date he was baptised and nobody knows his true date of birth. It is thought that he was actually born on 23rd April, as children were normally baptised 3 days after their birth, but there is no evidence of this.

2. William Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was a money lender who appeared in court after it was found he was charging interest rates of between 20% and 25% to his customers.

3. William Shakespeare never actually published any of his plays and they only came to light after his death on 23rd April 1616.

4. Even now there are many people around the world who do not believe that William Shakespeare wrote his own plays.

6. William Shakespeare is rumoured to have had an illegitimate son by the name of William Davenant.

7. Even though there are literally thousands of pictures of William Shakespeare in the world today, nobody really knows what he looked like as his portrait was never painted when he was alive!

8. All of William Shakespeare’s grandchildren are dead and there are no direct descendants alive today.

9. Even though he died in the 17th Century, his plays were not recognised until the 19th century when the Victorians picked up on his works.

11. William Shakespeare first coined the word “assassination”.

12. William Shakespeare wrote his first play when he was 25 years of age, although he never attended university.

13. The famous bard has written 154 sonnets in total.

14. Even back in 1609 the great bards work was being copied and in 1609 action was taken against the illegal copying of his work.

15. William Shakespeare wrote a play by the name of “Cardenio” although there is no record of its content and there are fears that the play has been lost forever.

17. William Shakespeare was a successful property investor who doubled the value of his very first investment at the age of 18.

18. There has been constant speculation that William Shakespeare was homosexual, with the bard leaving a number of clues in many of his plays.

19. In his will William Shakespeare left his “second best bed” to his wife and all of his vast fortune to his first child Susanna.

20. Many of William Shakespeare’s plays see the controversial subject of racism crop up – something which often goes unnoticed by many observers.