He is the greatest writer of all time yet 400 years after his death aged 52 on April 23, 1616 we still know very little about William Shakespeare .
We like to think of our national treasure as a clean-living family man and all-round genius but some reckon he was nothing of the sort.
If we believe the theories, the Bard had either two wives or was actually in the closet. Some say he didn’t write his own work, and that his masterpieces may have been penned by a woman.
What’s more, we are still not sure what he even looked like.
In a bid to solve the mysteries of Shakespeare, we investigate his darkest secrets....
Did he even write his plays?
Shakespeare was too stupid and low-class to write Hamlet or King Lear , or so one theory goes. The prime suspect here is Christopher Marlowe, a rival playwright who was also born in 1564.
Read more:
Some go so far as to suggest that Marlowe actually faked his death in 1593 and continued writing as Shakespeare. Coincidentally, the Bard’s first plays appeared on stage around the same time.
But there are some 80 others in the frame too, including aristocrat Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Sir Francis bacon. Another theory is that the plays were by a team of writers – an idea backed by British Oscar winner Mark Rylance. “There is a genius at work,” he said, “but it’s not Shakespeare. A lot of other people were gathered around those plays.”
Was he a love rat?
He may have created some of the great romantic verses but it seems the Bard wasn’t necessarily a man of his words. There’s evidence he two-timed wife Anne Hathaway.
The other woman was Anne Whately, whose name appeared in a register in Worcester, where a marriage licence had been issued for her and Shakespeare.
Though they never wed, some academics believe she was the love he wanted to marry.
Instead, he felt compelled to do right by Hathaway, who was pregnant with the first of his three children when he wed her in 1582. It’s also claimed Hathaway was another of the true authors of his works.
Was he a woman?
The revelation that a woman had written Shakespeare’s plays would have rocked his society to its foundations.
Amelia Bassano Lanier, a poet in Queen Elizabeth’s court who featured in some of Shakespeare’s sonnets as “The Dark Lady”, is the name in the frame.
She was around at the same time as the Bard, was a gifted writer and had the upper-class knowledge to be able to tackle the subjects he wrote about. In particular, the plays show an understanding of Hebrew and many are based in Italy, tying in with her coming from a London-based family of Jewish Venetians.
Was he gay?
Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets seem to hint strongly that he liked men as much, if not more than, women. He dedicated many sonnets to a “fair youth”.
Professor Michael Dobson of Birmingham University’s Shakespeare Institute says: “The categories of ‘straight’ and ‘gay’ didn’t exist in the same way then. He couldn’t have been gay or straight in our terms. So I don’t think it’s a crazy theory.
“The sonnets give plenty of evidence of finding young men sexy. And the ‘Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day’ sonnet was written to a man.” And actor Sir Ian McKellen said: “I’d say Shakespeare slept with men. The complexity in his comedies with cross-dressing and disguises is immense. He obviously enjoyed sex with men as well as women.”
Was he a feminist?
Long before we had Germaine Greer, the world had William Shakespeare encouraging women to burn their bras and demand equality... or so the theory goes. And there’s a lot of evidence to suggest the Bard believed women were equal to men.
Lady Macbeth, for example, was the real power behind the throne and Cleopatra managed to split the Roman Empire by seducing Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra.
“Shakespeare would have written more powerful parts for women too but he only had a theatre company filled with men,” says Prof Dobson.
“The women had very small roles – Lady Macbeth only actually appears in about four scenes. But they are incredible scenes.”
Was he a Catholic?
In an era when Elizabeth reinstalled Protestantism as the nation’s official faith, being Catholic was best kept secret. And that’s what many believe Shakespeare did.
His plays are filled with references backing this theory. Even the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, says the Bard was probably a papist. During the famous “To be or not to be” speech in Hamlet, he is said to take a swipe at Elizabeth’s persecution of Catholics in the Reformation. The lines refer to “the oppressor’s wrong” and the “insolence of office”.
Was he a pothead?
Anyone who has seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream might be forgiven for thinking Shakespeare was high when he wrote it. And there is indeed some indication that he may have smoked pot.
Researchers discovered a pipe in Shakespeare’s garden with traces of cannabis in it. As racy as it sounds, cannabis was probably considered just a different type of tobacco in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Read more:
Prof Dobson said he would not be surprised if it was true that the Bard had dabbled in drugs, adding: “He was respectable but he was also very bohemian and on the fringe.”
What did he look like?
There’s consensus that the Bard had a neat beard and long hair – but so did most Elizabethan men. The trouble is there are over 100 different sketches and paintings of him.
Many can’t be authenticated, others were exposed as forgeries and there is no definitive portrait or written description of him.
Just two images are likely to be accurate. The first is on the front of his First Folio of Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies from 1623, the other is the sculpture on his memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon.
But only last year historian Mark Griffiths uncovered what he believes to be the only illustration of him made while he was alive. It features in a 16th century book, The Herball, and shows Shakespeare with a fuller but shorter head of hair and beard, sporting movie-star good looks.