Here at Pearson’s, it’s obvious we love everything about the Renaissance period – the fashion, the history, the art. We are also huge fans of Renaissance theatre. We’ve seen many versions of plays by the great English Renaissance playwrights like Christopher Marlow, Ben Jonson, and, of course, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is arguably one of the world’s most well-known playwrights, and with good reason. His plays are generally considered some of the best examples of theatre ever. Despite the popularity of his work, his life’s story isn’t as ubiquitous. Rather than give you a full biography of his life, we pulled together some interesting facts about “The Bard” that you might not know!

• Though he wrote some plays while Elizabeth was queen, he is mainly considered a Jacobean writer.
• Astronomers must be fans of Shakespeare – most of the moons that orbit Uranus are named for characters in his plays!
• Even though he was incredibly prolific, Shakespeare did stop writing plays for a time and concentrated on writing sonnets. He only did this, however, because The Plague had caused many playhouses to shut down.
• If there are any Trekkies reading this, you will be pleased to learn that two of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, have been translated into the fictional language of Klingon.