Shakespeare quiz

5. It's Always Been a Midsummer Destination

Because of its open-air aspect, The Globe has always been a fair-weather destination for watching a performance. Back in Shakespeare's time, the company would move indoors to perform during winter. The same is true today, with winter performances taking play in the adjoining Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. But tours of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which offer a wealth of insights into the theatre as it was in The Bard's time and as it operates today, are available year round. They are free with a London Pass.

2) IT'S A RELATIVELY SHORT SHAKESPEARE PLAY

Coming in at 17,121 words, Macbeth is actually one of Shakespeare's shorter plays and around half the length of Hamlet.

1. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Stands 400 Years and Only Yards Away From the Original

Completed in 1997, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is third Globe Theatre to have been built on the Southbank of the Thames. The original Globes were located just a street further back from the river. The original theatre was constructed in 1599, and was destroyed by fire in 1613. It was rebuilt a year later, but turned into tenement buildings in 1644 after puritanical fears about stage plays meant London theatres were forced to close in 1642.

8. They Used to Flag Up the Genre

Different flags were used to signpost what kind of play was being performed that day. Flying high above the theatre, they were a good way of advertising the genre of the performance, or notifying prospective theatre-goers of a last-minute cancellation. This was true of many Elizabethan theatres. Black flags were raised for tragedy plays. Red ones announced history plays. Comedies were signalled by the flying of white flags. So that's why they didn't put on my one man show, The Tragic Life of a Very Funny Person Who Lived a Billion Years Ago. It wasn't that it was a steaming pile of pretentious nonsense. It was a question of flags. Of course!

6. Shakespeare Referenced The Globe in His Work

Henry V mentions "this wooden O," in the play of the same name. Prospero speaks of "the great globe itself," in a pivotal moment during The Tempest. It makes sense that he would. Firstly, as a tribute to a place that was so important to him. Also, there's something particularly engaging and inclusive about someone on stage referring to the place where all the players and the crowd are assembled—"Good evening, Glastonbury!"

10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.

How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.

2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.

In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter eight years his senior. Instead of the customary three times, the couple's intention to marry was only announced at church once—evidence that the union was hastily arranged because of Anne's eyebrow-raising condition. Six months after the wedding, the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Little is known about the relationship between William and Anne, besides that they often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his "second-best bed" in his will.

7. And Might Have Paraphrased Its Motto

It is said—although sources are pretty thin on the ground—that the motto of the Globe was Totus mundus agit histrionem, meaning 'The whole world is a playhouse.' This is remarkably similar to the famous phrase from As You Like It: "All the world is a stage."

4) KING JAMES I WAS A BIG INFLUENCE

King James I of England (King James VI of Scotland) was the monarch at the time of writing and also a patron of Shakespeare's acting group, The King's Men. It is believed that the Witches in the play were added to please James, who had a long fascination with witchcraft and published a book on the subject called Daemonologie. Influential though he was, James was general represented as far less popular than his predecessor Elizabeth I and the backdrop of the Gunpowder Plot against him in 1605 gives a window into the mood of superstition and political tension at the time the play was written

9. They Built It Along the Lines of the Coliseum in Rome (Just a Bit Smaller)

Many Elizabethan playhouses were. The tiered seating areas ring around the stage. In the past, they could hold up to 3000 spectators, but now spectators get a little more wiggle room for when legs start twitching around Act Four. Those watching from 'The Pit', the standing area at the foot of the stage, were (not very respectfully) nicknamed 'groundlings'. These were the cheaper than cheap seats. So cheap that they weren't seats at all. But you could watch plays from the pit for just a penny. In Shakespeare's Globe Theatre—the theatre that stands today—this is still the most affordable place from which to watch a performance. Nowadays, you can get tickets for as little as a fiver.

3. Shakespeare's parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were.

Nobody knows for sure, but it's quite likely that John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read or write, as was often the case for people of their standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have argued that John's civic duties would have required basic literacy, but in any event he always signed his name with a mark. William, on the other hand, attended Stratford's local grammar school, where he mastered reading, writing and Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.

8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring—or so we think.

Our notion of William Shakespeare's appearance comes from several 17th-century portraits that may or may not have been painted while the Bard himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most famous depictions, known as the Chandos portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear. Even back in Shakespeare's time, earrings on men were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists. The fashion may have been inspired by sailors, who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral costs in case they died at sea.

6. We probably don't spell Shakespeare's name correctly—but, then again, neither did he.

Sources from William Shakespeare's lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from "Shappere" to "Shaxberd." In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard never spelled his own name "William Shakespeare," using variations or abbreviations such as "Willm Shakp," "Willm Shakspere" and "William Shakspeare" instead. However it's spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words "schakken" ("to brandish") and "speer" ("spear"), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person.

6) Widely known as simply The Scottish Play due to being considered bad luck, those appearing in stage versions of Macbeth...sorry...

The Scottish Play, would be required to perform a ritual to prevent anything bad happening on stage. Although there are many different versions of the ritual, one of the most common is to run around the theatre building, turn around three times, spit, and then ask permission to re-enter. A simplified version consists of walking three times in a circle anti-clockwise, using a curse word and then spitting. Thoroughly confusing stuff indeed, which begs the question - which version is the correct one? And if there is only one correct version, all are other versions null and void from banishing bad luck?

2. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Was Rebuilt to be as Similar to the Original Globe as Possible

The Third Globe—what is known as Shakespeare's Globe Theatre—was designed to be as close to Globes One and Three as possible. A great deal of research went into the shape and layout of the original theatres, and the type of wood and building techniques used. It is made of the same wood—green oak—the original builders would have used, and the timbers are fixed together using wooden pegs. Of course, modern health and safety measures had to incorporated into the design, including the lining of the thatched roof with fire-retardant material.

1) MACBETH WAS LOOSELY BASED ON A REAL KING

The character Macbeth was loosely based on Mac Bethad mac Findláich, a King of Scotland in the 11th century. There are some key differences between Shakespeare's story and the reality though and, where the Bard portrays Macbeth's reign as short and bloody, the real king was generally perceived to be quite a successful and fair ruler, reigning from 1040 until 1057.

4. Shakespeare Was Part-Owner of the Theatre

The family of Richard Burbage, the company's leading actor, had built The Theatre at Shoreditch, but didn't have the money to lease a site for the new playhouse. So they asked for investment from some members of the company. William Shakespeare became a 12.5% shareholder in the Globe Theatre, paying £10 for his share. Now they just needed someone to write some hugely popular plays so they could get bums on the seats and returns on their investment...

3. Building the Original Globe Was a Drama in Itself

The original Globe was built by the theatre company Shakespeare was in, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later known as the King's Men). It was erected using timbers recycled from The Theatre in Shoreditch, the first playhouse to put on Shakespeare's work. Their old landlord, a Mr Allen, wouldn't say 'recycled'. He'd prefer the word 'stolen'. The story goes that Mr Allen refused to renew their lease for the land The Theatre stood on. So the company—including Shakespeare—armed with daggers and cudgels, snuck onto Allen's land while he was away for Christmas. They took all the main timbers and stored them in a yard north of the Thames.

1. Shakespeare's father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.

The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the borough's official "ale taster," meaning he was responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors. The next year he took another big step up the social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened to be his father's former boss. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran into legal problems for reasons that remain unclear.

3) THE PLAY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED 7 YEARS AFTER SHAKESPEARE'S DEATH

Though Macbeth may have been performed as early as 1606, it wasn't published until 7 years after Shakespeare's death as part of his First Folio (1623). This was collated by his actor friends John Herminge and Henry Condell and contained 36 of his plays, 18 of which hadn't been printed before and might not have survived otherwise.

4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592.

To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins' baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an "upstart crow." The insult suggests he'd already made a name for himself on the London stage by then. What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven "lost" years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician's estate.

5) Although the three witches are referred to as "The Weird Sisters" throughout, Shakespeare meant anything but "strange".

Weird, taken from the Anglo-Saxon word "wyrd" means "fate" or "destiny", referring to the sisters ability to tell the future.

7. Shakespeare's epitaph wards off would-be grave robbers with a curse.

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52—not bad for an era when the average life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years. We may never know what killed him, although an acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a Stratford church. Intended to thwart the numerous grave robbers who plundered England's cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones." It must have done the trick, since Shakespeare's remains have yet to be disturbed.

5. Shakespeare's plays feature the first written instances of hundreds of familiar terms.

William Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words "fashionable" ("Troilus and Cressida"), "sanctimonious" ("Measure for Measure"), "eyeball" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and "lackluster" ("As You Like It"); and the expressions "foregone conclusion" ("Othello"), "in a pickle" ("The Tempest"), "wild goose chase" ("Romeo and Juliet") and "one fell swoop" ("Macbeth"). He is also credited with inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, which have become common over the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and Titania, which have not).

9. North America's 200 million starlings have Shakespeare to thank for their existence.

William Shakespeare's works contain more than 600 references to various types of birds, from swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The starling—a lustrous songbird with a gift for mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia—makes just one appearance, in "Henry IV, Part 1." In 1890 an American "bardolator" named Eugene Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare's oeuvre but absent from the United States. As part of this project, he released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York's Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the highly adaptable species has taken over the skies, becoming invasive and driving some native birds to the brink of extinction.

10. Henry VIII Burnt Down Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Woah! You clicked on it! A history-related bit of clickbait. AHAHAHA GOTCHA! Alright, sorry, this site doesn't work like that. It wasn't that Henry VIII burnt down Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. He did a lot of terrible things in his time. But he was dead near 20 years before Shakespeare was born. On June 29th 1613, during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, some small cannon were fired, with no balls inside them, but using real gunpowder. The thatched roof caught alight. The whole thing burned down in around an hour. No one was hurt. But one man's trousers caught fire. Luckily, someone close to him threw some beer over the flames. So, those were our Shakespeare's Globe Theatre facts. But before you exit this blog (pursued by a bear), take a look at our guide to taking the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre tour here. It's free with The London Pass.