shakespeare

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Titania sleeps (Midsummer's Night Dream) by Frank Cadogar Cowper, 1928

SHAKESPEARE CURIOSITIES AND ODDITIES

The longest word in all Shakespeare is: "honorificabilitudinitatibus" which means: "honorableness."

Shakespeare invented the word "puke" among thousands of others.

It's estimated that he used between 25,000 and 29,000 different words in his plays and poems.

Throughout Shakespeare's lifetime, his name was spelled as Shagsbere,Shaxpere, Shakesspeare, Shakspeare and Shakespeare. According to English orthography there are 4000 ways to spell it. (Scheackespyrr and Schaeaxpierre being two possibilities).

During Elizabethan times at The Globe, rehearsal time was minimal.Actors learned their parts in about a week; a leading man might have to memorize 800 lines a day and sometimes learn and retain over 25 different roles a year.

There was no producer or director then; the actors were in complete control of the production. and the plays belonged to the acting company and not the playwright. Shakespeare didn't own or have the right to publish any of his own plays.