Think you know Shakespeare? Think again . . .Was a real skull used in the first performance of Hamlet? Were Shakespeare's plays Elizabethan blockbusters? How much do we really know about the playwright's life? And what of his notorious relationship with his wife? Exploring and exploding 30 popular myths about the great playwright, this illuminating new book evaluates all the evidence to show how historical material--or its absence--can be interpreted and misinterpreted, and what this reveals about our own personal investment in the stories we tell.

Introduction 1Myth 1 Shakespeare was the most popular writer of his time 6Myth 2 Shakespeare was not well educated 11Myth 3 Shakespeare's plays should be performed in Elizabethan dress 18Myth 4 Shakespeare was not interested in having his plays printed 26Myth 5 Shakespeare never traveled 34Myth 6 Shakespeare's plays are politically incorrect 40Myth 7 Shakespeare was a Catholic 47Myth 8 Shakespeare's plays had no scenery 54Myth 9 Shakespeare's tragedies are more serious than his comedies 60Myth 10 Shakespeare hated his wife 66Myth 11 Shakespeare wrote in the rhythms of everyday speech 72Myth 12 Hamlet was named after Shakespeare's son 80Myth 13 The coarse bits of Shakespeare are for the groundlings; the philosophy is for the upper classes 86Myth 14 Shakespeare was a Stratford playwright 94Myth 15 Shakespeare was a plagiarist 99Myth 16 We don't know much about Shakespeare's life 106Myth 17 Shakespeare wrote alone 113Myth 18 Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical 119Myth 19 If Shakespeare were writing now, he'd be writing forHollywood 125Myth 20 The Tempest was Shakespeare's farewell to the stage 130Myth 21 Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary 137Myth 22 Shakespeare's plays are timeless 143Myth 23 Macbeth is jinxed in the theater 150Myth 24 Shakespeare did not revise his plays 156Myth 25 Boy actors played women's roles 163Myth 26 Shakespeare's plays don't work as movies 169Myth 27 Yorick's skull was real 175Myth 28 Queen Elizabeth loved Shakespeare's plays 183Myth 29 Shakespeare's characters are like real people 190Myth 30 Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare 196Coda 202Further Reading 207Index 211