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Who Was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King's Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.

Known throughout the world, Shakespeare's writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.

There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work - the plays, poems and sonnets - and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When Was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare's birthday.

Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road.

Family

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.

Before Shakespeare's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare's childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.

Being a public official's child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work (and even about whether or not Shakespeare really existed).

Wife and Children

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.

Shakespeare's Lost Years

There are seven years of Shakespeare's life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.

One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire.

It's generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.

The King's Men

By the early 1590s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.

Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King's Men following the crowning of King James I in 1603. From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.

Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE FACT CARD

Actor and Playwright

By 1592, there is evidence Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.

The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers' Register (a guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare: "...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene's way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594).

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family.

It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it's believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.

Globe Theater

By 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater.

In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Shakespeare's Writing Style

Shakespeare's early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters.

However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

William Shakespeare's Plays

While it's difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare's plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.

Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England's aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night's Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.

Works after 1600: Tragedies and Tragicomedies

It was in Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.

Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

In Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Other plays written during this period include All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles and Henry VIII.

When Did Shakespeare Die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.

The exact cause of Shakespeare's death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed." This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close.

However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistress - the marital bed - and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests.

Did Shakespeare Write His Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon - men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration - as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare's works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.

Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society (founded in 1957) put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare."

The Oxfordians cite de Vere's extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.

They contend that Stratford's New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare's authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare's life doesn't mean his life didn't exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and King John.

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King's Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King's Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare's writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years.

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John Shakespeare - William's father - lived and worked in the house known today as Shakespeare's Birthplace. John married Mary Arden in about 1557 and William was born in 1564, the third of their eight children.

In 1568 John became the Mayor of Stratford, which was the highest elective office in the town. It was because of his father's status as Mayor that William was privileged enough to have attended the local grammar school to begin his education.

In 1582, at the age of 18, William married Anne Hathaway. The young couple continued to live with his parents in the Birthplace. It is where their own children, Susanna, Judith and Hamnet were born.

John Shakespeare died in 1601 and being the eldest surviving son, William inherited the house. William leased the small, two-room cottage adjoining the main house to his sister, Joan Hart. The remainder of the family home was also leased and became an inn, called the Maidenhead. It was later renamed the Swan and Maidenhead Inn, which remain in operation until 1847. When Shakespeare died in 1616 he left the property to his elder daughter Susanna, and when she died she left it to her only child, Elizabeth.

Although she married twice, Elizabeth had no children. When she died in 1670 the house passed to a descendant of Joan Hart. The Hart family owned the property until 1806 when it was sold to Thomas Court, a butcher. The whole property was put up for sale in 1846, following the death of Court's widow.

In order to save the building where William Shakespeare was born a public campaign was launched, supported by Charles Dickens. The property was purchased at auction by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1847 for £3,000. We have cared for it ever since.

For the official guidebook of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust visit our online shop.

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Visit William Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK and explore Shakespeare's childhood world, right where it all began.

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The Mystery Between Stratford and London

by J. M. Pressley, SRC Editor

Shakespeare Fun Fact

Although no direct descendants of William Shakespeare survived past the seventeenth century, there are still descendants alive today of his sister, Joan Hart.

William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in the history of Western literature. His plays have been performed for over 400 years. Yet we know very little about Shakespeare as a person. Only a few records have survived over the centuries, like the date of his christening, some legal documents, and his last will and testament. If Shakespeare wrote any letters to his friends or kept manuscript copies of the plays he wrote, no one has ever found them. We don't even have evidence that Shakespeare owned any books.

One of the biggest mysteries about William Shakespeare, however, is that he completely disappears for more than seven years. When he was 21 years old, Shakespeare was married with three children and living in the small town of Stratford in England. Seven years later, he was living in London as resident playwright and part owner of a theater company. Nobody knows just what Shakespeare was doing for all those years in between.

In fact, the first attempt at any kind of coherent biography wasn't until 1709, nearly a century after Shakespeare had died. Much of the source material by then consisted of anecdotes and gossip rather than any documented evidence. Compounding the problem, all of Shakespeare's direct line died well before the eighteenth century, leaving neither descended heirs nor family lore to help round out our knowledge of the man.

The earliest and most common tale was related around 1616 by a clergyman in Gloucestershire by the name of Richard Davies. According to Davies, Shakespeare was known to poach deer and rabbits on the property of local landowner Sir Thomas Lucy, who "who oft had him whipped and sometimes imprisoned." Rowe elaborated that Shakespeare eventually left Stratford to avoid Lucy's punishment. Rowe even says that Shakespeare lampooned Lucy in a ballad, and there are those that believe Justice Shallow of The Merry Wives of Windsor is based largely upon Shakespeare's supposed tormentor. There is no evidence, though, that any of it ever happened, and most scholars do not believe the story credible.

In the late 1600s, John Aubrey's Brief Lives spoke of Shakespeare as a schoolmaster in rural England for at least part of those years. This story is considered more believable since it comes from the son of an actor who had been in Shakespeare's theater company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It also helps to explain how Shakespeare may have gotten more education between leaving Stratford and arriving in London. However, there is no documentary evidence to support this tale, either.

In 1985, noted scholar E. A. J. Honigmann put forth a startling new theory in his work Shakespeare: The Lost Years. Based on some admittedly circumstantial documentary evidence, he proposes that Shakespeare served a wealthy Catholic family in Lancashire, and that Shakespeare was likely a recusant Catholic himself, which may have prompted his departure from Stratford. The theory hinges on the reference to a "William Shakeshafte" in the will of Alexander Hoghton, in which there is also mention of costumes and musical instruments. Honigmann's premise remains a theory, albeit an intriguing one, in the absence of definitive proof.

This period continues to be the subject of much speculation. Other popular-if apocryphal-tales have Shakespeare leaving Stratford with a traveling troupe of actors, or working as a soldier, law clerk, butcher, glover, scrivener, or merchant. One story even puts a young Shakespeare in London, holding horses outside of theaters for patrons. These are overwhelmingly tall tales with roughly the same legitimacy as George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Only Shakespeare knows for certain what happened during his "Lost Years," and he didn't leave behind any clues.

Sources

Bevington, David, ed. The Complete Works of Shakespeare—5th ed. New York: Longman, 2003.

Honigmann, E. A. J. Shakespeare: The "Lost Years". Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985.

Schoenbaum, Sam. William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Wood, Michael. In Search of Shakespeare. London: BBC Books, 2005.

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Shakespeare Resource Center - Shakespeare's Lost Years

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William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in the history of Western literature. His plays have been performed for over 400 years. Yet we know very little about Shakespeare as a person. One of the biggest mysteries about William Shakespeare is that he completely disappears for more than seven years.

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Shakespeare the Actor and Playwright
We know very little about Shakespeare's life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the "lost years." The lost years fall into two periods: 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582. The second period covers the seven years of Shakespeare's life in which he must have been perfecting his dramatic skills and collecting sources for the plots of his plays. "What could such a genius accomplish in this direction during six or eight years? The histories alone must have required unending hours of labor to gather facts for the plots and counter-plots of these stories. When we think of the time he must have spent in reading about the pre-Tudor dynasties, we are at a loss to estimate what a day's work meant to him. Perhaps he was one of those singular geniuses who absorbs books. George Douglas Brown, when discussing Shakespeare, often used to say he knew how to 'pluck the guts' out of a tome" (Neilson 45).

No one knows for certain how Shakespeare first started his career in the theatre, although several London players would visit Stratford regularly, and so, sometime between 1585 and 1592, it is probable that young Shakespeare could have been recruited by the Leicester's or Queen's men. Whether an acting troupe recruited Shakespeare in his hometown or he was forced on his own to travel to London to begin his career, he was nevertheless an established actor in the great city by the end of 1592. In this year came the first reference to Shakespeare in the world of the theatre. The dramatist Robert Greene declared in his death-bed autobiography that "There is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country." After Green's death, his editor, Henry Chettle, publicly apologized to Shakespeare in the Preface to his Kind-Heart's Dream:
About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many papers in sundry booksellers' hands, among other his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter written to divers play-makers is offensively by one or two of them taken, and because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they willfully forge in their conceits a living author....With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if I never be. The other, whom at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that, as I have moderated the heat of living writers and might have used my own discretion (especially in such a case, the author being dead), that I did not I am as sorry as if the original fault had been my fault, because myself have seen his demeanor no less civil than he excellent in the quality he professes. Besides, the diver of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing that approves his art.

Such an apology indicates that Shakespeare was already a respected player in London with influential friends and connections. Records also tell us that several of Shakespeare's plays were popular by this time, including Henry VI, The Comedy of Errors, and Titus Andronicus. The company that staged most of the early productions of these plays was Pembroke's Men, sponsored by the Earl of Pembroke, Henry Herbert. The troupe was very popular and performed regularly at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Most critics conclude that Shakespeare spent time as both a writer and an actor for Pembroke's Men before 1592.

The turning point in Shakespeare's career came in 1593. The theatres had been closed since 1592 due to an outbreak of the plague and, although it is possible that Shakespeare toured the outlying areas of London with acting companies like Pembroke's Men or Lord Strange's Men, it seems more likely that he left the theatre entirely during this time to work on his non-dramatic poetry. The hard work paid off, for by the end of 1593, Shakespeare had caught the attention of the Earl of Southampton.

Southampton became Shakespeare's patron, and on April 18, 1593, Venus and Adonis was entered for publication. Shakespeare had made his formal debut as a poet. The dedication Shakespeare wrote to Southampton at the beginning of the poem is impassioned and telling, "phrased with courtly deference" (Rowse 74):
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD.
RIGHT HONORABLE,

I KNOW not how I shall offend in dedicating my
unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will
censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a
burden only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account
myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle
hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if
the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be
sorry it had so noble a god-father, and never after ear so
barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest.
I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your
heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish
and the world's hopeful expectation.

Your honour's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Although there is no concrete proof that Shakespeare had a long and close friendship with Southampton, most scholars agree that this was the case, based on Shakespeare's writings, particularly the early sonnets.

Shakespeare returned to the theatre in 1594, and became a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, formally known as Lord Strange's Men. The manuscript accounts of the treasurer of the royal chamber in the public records office tells us the following:
To William Kempe, William Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage, servants to the Lord Chamberlain, upon the council's warrent dated at Whitehall xv die Marcij 1594 for two several comedies or interludes showed by them before her Majesty in Christmas time last past, viz; upon St. Stephan's day and Innocent's day, xiiij li. vj s. viij d. and by way of her Majesty's reward...
This is proof that Shakespeare had performed with the Chamberlain's Men before Elizabeth I on several occasions. As payment for their performance the actors each received 10 pounds. During his time with the Chamberlain's Men Shakespeare wrote many plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, King John, and Love's Labour's Lost. As G.E. Bentley points out in Shakespeare and the Theatre, Shakespeare had by this time become immersed in his roles as actor and writer. He was "more completely and more continuously involved in theatres and acting companies than any other Elizabethan dramatist. [Shakespeare is] the only one known who not only wrote plays for his company, acted in the plays, and shared the profits, but who was also one of the housekeepers who owned the building. For seventeen years he was one of the owners of the Globe theatre and for eight years he was one of the housekeepers of the company's second theatre, the Blackfriars, as well" (Rowse 128). During the years Shakespeare performed with the Chamberlain's Men, before their purchase of the Globe in 1599, they played primarily at the well-established theatres like the Swan, the Curtain, and the Theatre. The troupe would also give regular performances before Elizabeth I and her court, and tour the surrounding areas of London. Some important events in Shakespeare's personal life also take place during this time period.

The Shakespeares finally received a coat of arms 1596 (see "Shakespeare's Parents" for more information on the coat-of-arms), and on August 11 of the same year, Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, died at the age of eleven. Shakespeare no doubt returned to Stratford for the burial, although we have no documented proof. In 1597, Shakespeare purchased the second largest house in Stratford: New Place. The house stood at the corner of Chapel Lane and Chapel Street, north of the Guild Chapel and right across from the very school he attended in his youth. He bought it from William Underhill for the low price of 60 pounds, and below is the actual deed (translated from the original Latin) transferring New Place from Underhill to Shakespeare on May 4, 1597:
Between William Shakespeare, complainant, and William Underhill, deforciant [wrongful occupier, supposed by the legal fiction on which the fine method of transfer was based to be keeping the complainant out of his rightful property], concerning one dwelling house, two barns, and two gardens with their appurtenances in Stratford-on-Avon, in regard to which a plea of agreement was broached in the same court: Namely, that the said William Underhill acknowledged the said tenements with their appurtenances to be the right of W. Shakespeare as being those which the same William Shakespeare has by gift of the said W. U., and remitted and waived claim to them from himself and his heirs to the said W.S. and his heirs forever....and agreement the same W.S. has given the foresaid W./U. sixty pounds sterling (Brooke 21).
Many theorize that Shakespeare renewed his interest in Stratford only after the death of Hamnet and that, for the many years he was away in London, he neglected his family back home. However, it is just as likely that he made frequent yet unrecorded trips to Stratford while he was trying to find success in London.

How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda.Shakespeare as Actor and Playwright. Shakespeare Online. 12 Nov. 2000. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareactor.html >.

References
Brooke, Tucker. Shakespeare of Stratford. New Haven: Yale UP, 1926.
Neilson, Francis. Shakespeare and the Tempest. New Hampshire: Richard C. Smith Inc., 1956.
Rowse, A.L. Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

The Shakespeare Sisterhood - A Gallery
Worst Diseases in Shakespeare's London
Preface to The First Folio

Shakespeare's Pathos - General Introduction
Shakespeare's Portrayal of Childhood
Shakespeare's Portrayal of Old Age
Shakespeare's Attention to Details
Shakespeare's Portrayals of Sleep

Publishing in Elizabethan England
What did Shakespeare drink?
Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
Publishing in Elizabethan England

Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day
Entertainment in Elizabethan England
London's First Public Playhouse
Shakespeare Hits the Big Time Shakespeare the Man. London: Macmillan, 1973.

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More Resources

The Ghost in his Own Hamlet
Scholars believe Shakespeare might have played the title role in Edward I (a play by Edward Peele) in 1593. It is also assumed that Shakespeare played many roles in a variety of his own plays, including Macbeth (King Duncan), As You Like It (Adam), Henry IV (King Henry), and Hamlet (the Ghost of Hamlet's father). Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, mentioned that Shakespeare's role as "the Ghost in his own Hamlet" was "the top of his performance." Read on...

More to Explore
Shakespeare's Ancestry
Shakespeare's Parents
Shakespeare's Birth
Shakespeare's Sibings

Shakespeare's Education
Shakespeare's Lost Years
Shakespeare's Marriage

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A Striking Allusion... Shakespeare's sonnets, a collection of his personal thoughts not intended for publication, help us understand Shakespeare the man. Sonnet 111 reveals Shakespeare's feelings about his role in the public eye:

O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds.
"The allusions in this Sonnet to Shakespeare's profession as an actor are not to be doubted. To this cause the poet attributes his errors. Poverty, compelling him to gain a livelihood by catering for public entertainment, was the source of his faults and of the scandal which they had occasioned. He would fain, at almost any cost, purify himself from the stain. He deserves to be pitied by his friend, rather than to be blamed." Thomas Tyler. Read on...

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Shakespeare's Children
Shakespeare's Death
Shakespeare's Burial

Was Shakespeare Italian?
How Many Plays Did Shakespeare Write?
What Did Shakespeare Look Like?

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Hamlet and the Players... In Act 2, Scene 2 of Hamlet (lines 312-349), Shakespeare takes his audience out of Denmark briefly, to allude to some pressing matters in Elizabethan London. Many believe that these are Shakespeare's personal feelings about the state of the Elizabethan theatre at the time. Do you think Shakespeare is using Hamlet to voice his own disdain? Read on...

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Shakespeare's Religion
Shakespeare's Contemporaries: Top Five Greatest
Shakespeare's Audience: The Groundlings
Four Periods of Shakespeare's Life

Shakespeare's Language
Words Shakespeare Invented
Shakespeare's Reputation in Elizabethan England

Shakespeare at the Globe
Shakespeare's Impact on Other Writers
Quotations About William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Boss: The Master of Revels

Daily Life in Shakespeare's London
Life in Stratford (structures and guilds)
Life in Stratford (trades, laws, furniture, hygiene)
Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read?

Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L]
Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z]
An Elizabethan Christmas
Clothing in Elizabethan England

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shakespeare's acting troupes globe acting shakespeare thespian stratford acting shakespeare

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We know very little about Shakespeare's life during two major spans of time, commonly referred to as the "lost years." The lost years fall into two periods: 1578-82 and 1585-92. The first period covers the time after Shakespeare left grammar school until his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November of 1582.

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Information about each of the most famous names and type of theatre in the Elizabethan era have been described in this section including the Globe, the Theatre, Newington Butts, the Curtain Elizabethan Theatre, the Rose Theatre, the Swan Theatre, the Fortune Elizabethan Theatre, the Boars Head , the Bear Garden, the Bull Ring and the Hope Elizabethan Theatre.
Map showing the location of London Elizabethan Theatres - The Inn-yards, Amphitheatres and Playhouses
A useful Elizabethan London Map has been provided in the Elizabethan Theatre section in which all of the famous Elizabethan theatres have been highlighted.

Elizabethan Theatre Sections
Additional information is available about each of the 12 Amphitheatres, 8 Playhouses and 6 Inn-yards via the Elizabethan Theatres link.

Click here if you need more detailed facts and information about the
Globe Theatreand William Shakespeare

James Burbage - Famous Elizabethan Theatre Entrepreneur
James Burbage was the famous theatrical entrepreneur who was responsible for the introduction of the theatre in London including the Globe Theatre. Learn about this important man in his biography.
Elizabethan Theatre Facts
Looking for fast facts about the theater? Check out the fast, interesting, important and even little known facts about the theater. The section covering Elizabethan Theatre Facts includes a wealth of information about the Elizabethan Theatre.
Elizabethan Theatre Costume
What type of costumes did the Elizabethan actors wear? Women were not allowed on the stage - boy actors played the parts of women and wore some very uncomfortable costumes and life threatening make-up..
Elizabethan Actors and Acting Troupes
Everyone has heard of William Shakespeare but who were the other Elizabethan actors? Why were Acting Troupes formed, how many were there and who were their patrons?
Elizabethan Theatre - the Plays and Playwrights
What plays were written and produced and who were the playwrights?
The Globe Theatre
The history of the Globe Theatre, the construction and design of the theatre. William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre
Elizabethan Theatre
Comprehensive information about the Elizabethan theatre during the times of William Shakespeare.

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Information about each of the most famous names and type of theatre in the Elizabethan era have been described in this section including the Globe, the Theatre, Newington Butts, the Curtain Elizabethan Theatre, the Rose Theatre, the Swan Theatre, the Fortune Elizabethan Theatre, the Boars Head , the Bear Garden, the Bull Ring and the Hope Elizabethan Theatre.

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Words Shakespeare Invented
The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. Below is a list of a few of the words Shakespeare coined or adapted, hyperlinked to the play and scene from which it comes. When the word appears in multiple plays, the link will take you to the play in which it first appears. For a more in-depth look at Shakespeare's coined words, please click here.

** Please note that the table below gives both a sample of words Shakespeare coined and words he adapted. For example, "elbow" was a noun before Shakespeare, but he turned it into a verb. There are many books on the subject and etymological dictionaries if you want a list of only words coined. **

For more words that Shakespeare coined please see the Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Dr. Ernest Klein (1966) or Shakespeare-lexicon: A Complete Dictionary of All the English Words, Phrases and Constructions in the Works of the Poet by Alexander Schmidt (1902). For words Shakespeare used only once, please see The Once Used Words in Shakespeare by James Davie Butler (1886).
How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda.Words Shakespeare Invented. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html >.

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More Resources

Shakespeare's Reputation in Elizabethan England
Quotations About William Shakespeare
Portraits of Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sexuality
Shakespeare's Boss: The Master of Revels
Hamlet Essays and Study Guide

Macbeth Essays and Study Guide
Othello Essays and Study Guide
Romeo and Juliet Essays and Study Guide
Julius Caesar Essays and Study Guide

Top 10 Shakespeare Plays
Shakespeare's Metaphors and Similes
Shakespeare's Blank Verse
Elements of Comedy

How many plays did Shakespeare write?
Shakespeare Timeline
Edward Alleyn (Actor)
William Kempe (Actor)

What is Tragic Irony?
Characteristics of Elizabethan Tragedy

Did You Know?
Shakespeare was familiar with seven foreign languages and often quoted them directly in his plays. His vocabulary was the largest of any writer, at over twenty-four thousand words. According to James Davie Butler, "the total vocabulary of Milton's poetical remains is more nearly seventeen than eighteen thousand (17,377); and that of Homer, including the hymns as well as both Iliad and Odyssey, is scarcely nine thousand. Five thousand eight hundred and sixty words exhaust the vocabulary of Dante's Divina Comedia." ( The Once Used Words in Shakespeare)

More to Explore
The Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays
Establishing the Order of the Plays
Settings of Shakespeare's Plays by Location
Historical Settings of Shakespeare's Plays by Date

Shakespeare in Old English?
Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers
Daily Life in Shakespeare's London

Life in Stratford (structures and guilds)
Life in Stratford (trades, laws, furniture, hygiene)
Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read?

Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L]
Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z]
An Elizabethan Christmas
Clothing in Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
Publishing in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare's Audience
Religion in Shakespeare's England

Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day
Entertainment in Elizabethan England
London's First Public Playhouse

Shakespeare's Boss
Shakespeare's Audience
Shakespeare Hits the Big Time

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The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original.

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NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler.

For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare.

I compiled these from multiple sources online in 2003. Each of these words and compounds supposedly is not known to have appeared in print prior to the publication of Shakespeare's works. For this reason, people claim that Shakespeare invented these words.

How many of these are true coinages by "the Bard", and how many are simply the earliest written attestations of a word or words already in use, I can't tell you. The ones that seem real are new forms of words already in the language. Words like "advertising", "assassination", "bedazzled", "consanguineous", "dishearten", "enmesh", "eventful", "eyesore", "lackluster", "moonbeam", outbreak", "quarrelsome", "radiance", "reclusive", "seamy-side", "stealthy", "submerge", "time-honored", "undervalued", "unmitigated", "unreal", "well-read", "watchdog", and "whirligig" would have been meaningful to the audience.

A few words are first attested in Shakespeare and seem to have caused extra problems for the typesetters. This suggests they are really coined by Shakespeare. One example is "denote".

The popular book Coined by Shakespeare acknowledges that it is presenting first attestations rather than certain inventions. For example, "alligator" appeared for the first time in print as an English word in "Romeo and Juliet", but it has Spanish antecedents, and only the terminal "-r" seems to be new with Shakespeare. "Puke" appears as a vulgar term for vomiting in the near-contemporary "Duchess of Malfi", and it seems well-known; so Shakespeare's use in "As You Like It" seems more likely just a first attestation. The region of Dalmatia is as old as the Roman Empire, and obviously Shakespeare did not coin the adjectival form.

Words like "anchovy", "bandit", and "zany" are just first attestations of loan-words. By contrast, in "Troilus and Cressida", Shakespeare seems to have been having fun introducing new forms of old words, even though "orgulous" and "deracinate" never did catch on.

Right now I'm in the process of referencing these. I would like to hear from anyone who knows for certain about any item on this page.

I stand corrected; one of my sources misattributed "fool's paradise" to Romeo and Juliet though it appears in Tyndale's Bible and probably earlier.

abstemious (The Tempest -- a Latin word that meant "to abstain from alcoholic drink" was generalized to sexual behavior as well)

academe (Love's Labour's Lost; this is just an English form of "Academy", the Greek for Plato's grove)

accommodation (Othello)

accused (n.) (Richard II -- first known use as a noun, meaning person accused of a crime)

addiction (Henry V / Othello)

admirable (several; seems unlikely)

advertising (adj.)(Measure for Measure; in context, means "being attentive"; the noun was already in use)

aerial (Othello)

alligator (Romeo and Juliet; Spanish "aligarto" was already in use in English)

amazement (13 instances; first known use as a noun)

anchovy (I Henry IV; first attestation in English of the Spanish word for dried edible fish)

apostrophe ("apostrophas")(Love's Labour's Lost; seems to be a well-known word already)

arch-villain (Measure for Measure / Timon of Athens)

to arouse (2 Henry VI / Hamlet; "rouse" was the usual form)

assassination (Macbeth; "assassin" was already in use and derives from "hashish eater")

auspicious (several; "auspice" was a Roman practice of fortune-telling by bird flight)

bachelorship (I Henry VI)

backing (I Henry VI; this is just a pun on a known word)

bandit (II Henry VI, actually "bandetto", the first attestation in English of a familiar Italian word for people "banned", i.e., outlaws)

barefaced (in the sense of "barefaced power") (Macbeth)

baseless (in the sense of fantasy without grounding in fact) (The Tempest)

beached (several, merely means "possessing a beach")

bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew)

bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream, merely means a place to sleep on the ground)

belongings (Measure for Measure)

to besmirch (Henry V)

birthplace (Coriolanus; first attestation)

to blanket (King Lear; first use as a verb)

bloodstained (I Henry IV)

blusterer (A Lover's Complaint)

bold-faced (I Henry VI)

bottled (Richard III)

bump (Romeo and Juliet; first attestation of onomopoeic word)

buzzer (Hamlet; means gossipper)

to cake (Timon of Athens, first attestation as a verb)

to castigate (Timon of Athens)

to cater (As You Like It; from coetous, a buyer of provisions)

clangor (3 Henry VI / 2 Henry IV)

to champion (Macbeth; first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight for another)

circumstantial (As You Like It / Cymbeline; first attestation in the sense of "indirect")

cold-blooded (King John; first use to mean "lack of emotion")

coldhearted (Antony and Cleopatra)

compact (several; seems to have been a common word)

to comply (Othello)

to compromise (The Merchant of Venice, several of the histories; seems to have been already in use)

to cow (Macbeth; first use in English of a Scandinavian verb)

consanguineous (Twelfth Night; "consanguinity" was already in use)

control (n.) (Twelfth Night)

countless (Titus Andronicus / Pericles)

courtship (several, seems unikely)

critic (Love's Labour's Lost; Latin term)

critical (not in today's sense) (Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

cruelhearted (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Dalmatians (Cymbeline)

dauntless (Macbeth)

dawn (I Henry IV, King John; first use as a noun, the standard had been "dawning")

day's work (several, must have been a common expression)

deafening (II Henry IV; in the sense of a noise that is loud but does not produce real deafness)

to denote (several; already a word in Latin)

depository (???)

discontent (Richard III / Titus Andronicus; the verb was in use but this is the first attestation as a noun)

design (several, seems unlikely)

dexterously (Twelfth Night)

dialogue (several, seems already familiar)

disgraceful (I Henry VI; means "not graceful")

dishearten (Henry V)

to dislocate (King Lear, refers to anatomy)

distasteful (Timon of Athens)

distracted (Hamlet / Measure for Measure; seems possible)

divest (Henry V / King Lear; probably already in use as referring to a royal title)

domineering (Love's Labour's Lost; from a Dutch word)

downstairs (I Henry IV, supposedly first use as an adjective)

droplet (Timon of Athens)

to drug (Macbeth; first use as a verb)

to dwindle (I Henry IV / Macbeth, seems already familiar as a term for body wasting)

to educate (Love's Labour's Lost)

to elbow (King Lear; first use as a verb)

embrace (I Henry VI; first use as a noun)

employer (Much Ado about Nothing)

employment (several, obviously familiar)

engagement (several, seems simply the first attestation)

to enmesh (Othello)

to ensnare (Othello)

enrapt (Troilus and Cressida)

enthroned (Antony and Cleopatra)

epileptic (King Lear; first use as an adjective, though the noun was old)

equivocal (Othello / All's Well that Ends Well; first use as adjective, though the verb "to equivocate" was familiar)

eventful (As You Like It)

excitement (Hamlet / Troilus and Cressida; both times as plural; first use as a noun)

expedience (several, supposedly first use as noun)

exposure (several, supposedly first use as noun)

eyeball (The Tempest)

eyedrops (II Henry IV; means "tears")

eyesore (The Taming of the Shrew)

fanged (Hamlet, first attestation)

farmhouse (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

far-off (several, seems already familiar)

fashionable (Timon of Athens / Troilus and Cressida)

fathomless (not today's sense) (Troilus and Cressida)

fitful (Macbeth)

fixture (not current sense) (Merry Wives of Windsor / Winter's Tale)

flawed (King Lear; first use as an adjective)

flowery (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

foppish (King Lear)

fortune-teller (The Comedy of Errors)

to forward (I Henry IV; first use as a verb)

foul-mouthed (several, seems already familiar)

freezing (Cymbeline)

frugal (several; "frugality" was already in common use)

full-grown (Pericles)

gallantry (Troilus and Cressida)

generous (several, obviously already known)

gloomy (several, "to gloom" was a verb)

glow (several; the word had originally meant red-and-warm)

gnarled (Measure for Measure; alteration of knurled which was a standard word for bumpy)

go-between (several, seems familiar)

to gossip (The Comedy of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar friends)

gust (III Henry VI, seems already familiar and was an Old Norse word)

half-blooded (King Lear)

hint (Othello, first use in today's sense)

hob-nails (I Henry IV, alleged; seems already familiar)

hobnob (Twelfth Night; older term was "hab, nab", and not in today's sense)

homely (several, seems already familiar)

honey-tongued (Love's Labour's Lost)

hoodwinked (already known from falconry)

hostile (several, seems like a word that is already familiar)

hot-blooded (The Merry Wives of Windsor / King Lear)

housekeeping (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

howl (several, clearly familiar)

to humor (Love's Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)

hunchbacked (can't find)

to hurry (Comedy of Errors, first attestation as verb)

ill-tempered (can't find)

immediacy (King Lear, first use as noun)

impartial (2 Henry IV)

to impede (Macbeth, first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)

import (several, and not used in the modern sense)

immediacy (King Lear, first attestation as a noun)

importantly (Cymbeline, first attestation as an adverb)

inaudible (All's Well that Ends Well; "audible" was already in use)

inauspicious (Romeo and Juliet)

indistinguishable (not in today's sense)(Troilus and Cressida)

inducement (several, seems unlikely)

investment (II Henry IV, not in present sense)

invitation (The Merry Wives of Windsor; signifies "flirting")

invulnerable King John / Hamlet / The Tempest; first attestation for the negative; Coriolanus has unvulnerable)

jaded (several, seems already a term of contempt)

Judgement Day (I Henry VI; usual term had been "Day of Judgement")

juiced (Merry Wives of Windsor; first attestation as an adjective)

kissing (several, first attestation of the participle, though surely not its first use)

lackluster (As You Like It)

ladybird (Romeo and Juliet)

to lament (several, seems already familiare)

to lapse (several, first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)

to launder (first use as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)

laughable (The Merchant of Venice)

leaky (Antony and Cleopatra / The Tempest)

leapfrog (Henry V; first attestation but seems unlikely as a coinage)

lonely (several, seems unlikely)

long-legged (can't find)

love letter (can't find)

to lower (several, seems already known)

luggage (first use as noun)

lustrous (Twelfth Night / All's Well that Ends Well)

madcap (several, attestation as adjective; the noun had become popular just before)

majestic (several, first use as adjective)

majestically (I Henry IV; first attestation as adverb)

malignancy (Twelfth Night, seems possible)

manager (Love's Labour's Lost / Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as noun)

marketable (As You Like It; first use as adjective)

militarist (All's Well that Ends Well)

mimic (Midsummer Night's Dream)

misgiving (Julius Caesar; first use as noun, though "to misgive" was in common use)

misplaced (several, seems unlikely)

to misquote (1 Henry IV; not in the present sense)

money's worth (Love's Labours Lost)

monumental (several, seems unlikely)

moonbeam (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

mortifying (Merchant of Venice / Much Ado About Nothing)

motionless (Henry V)

mountaineer (Cymbeline; the sense is "hillbilly")

multitudinous (Macbeth)

neglect (several, obviously already known)

to negotiate (Much Ado about Nothing / Twelfth Night; verb from the Latin)

new-fallen (Venus and Adonis / I Henry IV)

new-fangled (Love's Labour's Lost / As You Like It)

nimble-footed (several, seems already a familiar expression)

noiseless (King Lear / All's Well that Ends Well)

to numb (King Lear, first attestation as a transitive verb)

obscene (several; straight from Latin)

obsequiously (first use of the adverb; comes from "obsequies", or funeral rites)

outbreak (Hamlet, first attestation as a noun)

to outdare (I Henry IV)

to outgrow (can't find)

to outweigh (can't find)

over-cool (II Henry IV)

overgrowth (can't find)

over-ripened (II Henry VI ;first-use of the familiar compound)

over-weathered The Merchant of Venice)

overview (can't find)

pageantry (Pericles Prince of Tyre)

pale-faced (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

to pander (several; was already a proverb)

pedant (several, seems already in common use for a stuffy teacher)

perplex (King John / Cymbeline)

perusal (Sonnets / Hamlet; first use as a noun)

to petition (Antony and Cleopatra / Coriolanus; first use as a verb)

pious (several, seems very unlikely)

posture (several, seems known)

premeditated (several; first attestation of the adjective, though the noun was in use)

priceless (???)

Promethean (Othello / Love's Labour's Lost)

protester (not today's sense) (Julius Caesar)

published (2 Henry VI)

puking (As You Like It)

puppy-dog (King John / Henry V)

on purpose (several; seems very unlikely)

quarrelsome (As You Like It / Taming of the Shrew)

questing (As You Like It; first use of the gerund)

in question (several, seems already in use)

radiance (several; first use as noun)

to rant (The Merry Wives of Windsor / Hamlet; loan-word from Dutch or previously-unattested English word?)

rancorous (2 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Richard III, all early plays, seems unlikely)

raw-boned (I Henry VI)

reclusive (Much Ado about Nothing; first use as adjective)

reinforcement (Troilus and Cressida / Coriolanus; seems already in use)

reliance (???)

remorseless (several, first attestation of this form)

reprieve (several, obviously already in use)

resolve (several, obviously already in use)

restoration (King Lear)

restraint (several, seems already familiar)

retirement (II Henry IV; refers to military retreat; first use as noun)

revolting (several, obviously already familiar)

to rival (King Lear; first attestation as verb; noun was well-known)

rival (Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as adjective, noun was well-known)

roadway (II Henry IV; first attestation of the compound)

rumination (As You Like It; first use as noun)

sacrificial (Timon of Athens; not today's usage)

sanctimonious (Measure for Measure / Tempest)

satisfying (Othello / Cymbeline)

savage (several; the word was obviously already in use)

savagery (King John / Henry V; first use as this form)

schoolboy (Julius Caesar / Much Ado about Nothing)

scrubbed (The Merchant of Venice)

scuffle (Antony and Cleopatra; first use as noun, though the verb was familiar)

seamy-side (Othello)

to secure (II Henry VI; first use as a verb; the adjective was well-known)

shipwrecked (Pericles Prince of Tyre, seems unlikely)

shooting star (Richard II; first known use of the phrase)

shudder (Timon of Athens; first use as a noun; verb already well-known)

silk (alleged; obviously not Shakespeare's)

stocking (obviously not Shakespeare's)

silliness (Othello)

skim milk (I Henry IV; first use of the familiar term)

to sneak (Measure for Measure; supposed first use of the verb)

soft-hearted (2 Henry VI / 3 Henry VI; first use of the familiar phrase)

spectacled (Coriolanus; not in today's sense)

splitting (II Henry VI; first use as adjective)

sportive (Richard III / Comedy of Errors / All's Well that Ends Well; supposed first use)

to squabble (Othello; supposed first use, as with "to swagger")

stealthy (Macbeth; first use as adjective)

stillborn (can't find, obviously not Shakespeare's)

to submerge (Antony and Cleopatra)

successful (Titus Andronicus, seems dubious)

suffocating (Othello; supposed first use as a descriptor)

to sully (I Henry VI)

superscript (Love's Labour's Lost)

to supervise (Love's Labour's Lost; also Hamlet but not in today's sense)

to swagger (II Henry IV, others; in context this seems to be already a well-known word)

switch (first use to mean "twig")

tardily (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of adverb)

tardiness (King Lear; "tardy" as adjective was well-known)

threateningly (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of the adverb)

tightly (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first use as an adverb)

time-honored (Richard II)

title page (can't find; seems unlikely)

to torture (several; first use as a verb)

traditional (Richard III; first use as adjective)

tranquil (Othello; "tranquility" was an old word)

transcendence (All's Well that Ends Well; first attestation of the noun)

tongue-tied (III Henry VI / Julius Caesar / Troilus and Cressida; seems first attestation of a phrase already in use)

unaccommodated (King Lear)

unaware (Venus and Adonis; first use as an adverb; the adjective was not yet in use)

to unclog (Coriolanus, first use as a negative)

unappeased (Titus Andronicus)

unchanging (The Merchant of Venice)

unclaimed (As You Like It; not in today's sense)

uncomfortable (Romeo and Juliet)

to uncurl (???)

to undervalue (The Merchant of Venice)

to undress (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

unearthly (Winter's Tale)

uneducated (Love's Labour's Lost, seems possible)

ungoverned (Richard III / King Lear)

to unhand (Hamlet)

unmitigated (Much Ado about Nothing)

unpublished (King Lear; in the sense of "still unknown")

unreal (Macbeth, first use of the negative)

unsolicited (Titus Andronicus / Henry VIII; supposed first use of the form)

unswayed (Richard III; not in today's sense, but "is the sword unswung?")

unwillingness (Richard III / Richard II)

upstairs (I Henry IV; supposedly first use as an adjective)

urging (Richard III / Comedy of Errors; first attestation as a noun

useful (several, seems already familiar)

varied (Love's Labour's Lost, others)

vastly (Rape of Lucrece, not present sense)

viewless (Measure for Measure; means "invisible")

vulnerable (Macbeth; used in today's sense)

watchdog (The Tempest; first use of the phrase)

well-behaved (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

well-bred (II Henry IV; first use of the familiar compound)

well-read (I Henry IV)

whirligig (Twelfth Night)

to widen (???)

widowed (Sonnet 97 / Coriolanus; first use as an adjective)

worn out (Romeo and Juliet / 2 Henry IV; seems unlikely)

worthless (III Henry VI, several others; seems just a first attestation)

yelping (I Henry VI; first attestation of this adjectival form)

zany (Love's Labour Lost; simply a loan-word from Italian commedia dell'arte)

Click here for some words which Shakespeare evidently coined but which did NOT pass into common use. They include "affined", "to articulate" (in the sense of "to negotiate"), "attasked", "cadent" (in the sense of "dripping"), "to beetle", "bubukles", "co-marts", "co-mates", "congreeing", "conspectuities", "crants" (a borrowing for "flower crowns"), "credent", "dispunge", "enactures", "to force" (meaning "to reinforce"), "fracted", "to friend" (thanks to social media, now a mainstream word again! -- there ar earlier attestations), "germins", "immediacy" (meaning immediate authority from), "immoment", "impair" (adjective for impure), "incarnadine", "incorpsed" (incorporated), "indigest" (disordered), "intrenchant" (incapable of being cut), "irregulous", "jointing", "mered", "mirable", "mistempered", "operant", "oppugnancy", "palmy", "out-crafted", "out-villained", "out-tongued", "plantage", "primogenitive", "primy", "propugnation", "relume", "reprobance", "rigol", "rooky", "roted", "rubious", "smilets", "to stell", "stellèd", "supplyment", "unsisting", and "virgined" (held securely).

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NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler. For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés.

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patrons theatre shakespeare england shakespeare's queen elizabeth bad manners daily life london

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shakespeare education in elizabethan london

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Exploring Shakespeare's relationship with Queen Elizabeth.