I Speak Shakespeare! Sort of...

William Shakespeare - actor, playwright, author, poet, and much more - has transformed the entirety of the English language today and theatre culture. No other writer, in any language, can rival the appeal Shakespeare has enjoyed nor how much of an impact his endeavors have projected on the cultural influences today. Before today, I only had superficial knowledge regarding the Shakespeare's history and his works; but after a guided tour throughout important locations of Shakespeare's life, I have gleaned substantial and eye-opening information about his life.

Bust of Shakespare in Saint Mary Aldermanbury Garden
(Not actually in memorial to W.S.)

Okay, while I may not speak Shakespeare's English, with words such as "hath" and "thy," many of the words we use today are in thanks to William Shakespeare! His words and phrases have become so familiar that it is sometimes with a start that we realize we have been speaking Shakespeare when we utter cliche phrases such as "one fell swoop" or words such as v. "torture," "circumstantial" and "unreal." He invented over 1,700 words that are still used in contemporary English! Wow! According to the guide, Shakespeare knew ~30,000 words (2x more than a lawyer at the time). His work of Hamlet contained 4,700 completely different words throughout the literary work (more than 2x the amount of different words found in the Bible)!

This tree is found in a space
where W.S. would write down
his thoughts in tranquility

Despite the thousands of words written, it was kind of surprising to know how reserved William Shakespeare was during his life. A couple of the reasons why is because he was a secret Catholic and was in the shadows with his sexuality (Bisexual). Despite this, many of his works illustrated secret messages describing Catholic characters with more positive illustrations and having 4/5 of his [romantic] works referenced towards a man, respectively. A specific work where the latter is exemplified in his poem, Venus and Adonis. Published in 1593, it tells the story of the goddess of love, Venus, attempting to seduce Adonis, an extremely handsome young man.  I enjoyed learning these aspects about his life as these are some of the only ways I can relate to William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare praying in Church