William Shakespeare’s father has been credited with saving priceless paintings that were hidden in an historic chapel in Stratford-upon-Avon. John Shakespeare was Bailiff of the town during the Reformation under King Henry VIII, and was ordered to remove them from the Guild Chapel. Rather than destroying them as often happened, he painted over them with whitewash. The Heritage Lottery Fund has given a £100,000 grant so the images can be restored and put back on public display, according to BBC.

Some Facts about Shakespeare

Few people realize that apart from writing his numerous plays and sonnets, Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights.

There is evidence that he played the ghost in Hamlet and Adam in As You Like It. During his life, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays, 154 sonnets and a number of poems that we know of. In addition there are a number of “lost plays” and plays that Shakespeare collaborated on. This means Shakespeare wrote an average 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589.

Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language.

Estimations of his vocabulary range from 17,000 to a dizzying 29,000 words — at least double the number of words used by the average conversationalist.

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). Shakespeare has inspired lots of films in Hollywood, Bollywood, and beyond

Western films:

West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins) – Romeo and Juliet

Kiss Me, Kate (George Sidney) – The Taming of the Shrew

Forbidden Planet (Nicholas Nayfack) – The Tempest

My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant) – Henry IV parts 1 and 2

Gnomeo and Juliet (Kelly Asbury) – Romeo and Juliet

Looking for Richard (Al Pacino) – Richard III

Bollywood:

Omkara, Maqbool, Haider (all by Bhardwaj) – Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet

Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram-Leela (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) – Romeo and Juliet

Japan:

Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa) – Macbeth

Ran (Akira Kurosawa) – King Lear

Shakespeare invented lots of expressions that we still use today

• Here’s a selection of popular expressions.
• ‘Heart of gold’ (Henry V)
• ‘Wild-goose chase’ (Romeo and Juliet)
• ‘Faint-hearted’ (Henry IV part I)
• ‘Brave new world’ (The Tempest)
• ‘Break the ice’ (The Taming of the Shrew)
• ‘For goodness’ sake’ (Henry VIII)
• ‘Foregone conclusion’ (Othello)
• ‘Love is blind’ (The Merchant of Venice)

(Agencies)