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

William 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.

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.



About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of William 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 speare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.