Shakespeare by the Numbers

Some raw data I found interesting ...

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays.

2 additional plays, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III, are gaining acceptance as part of the “canon.”

Hamlet is the longest play, with 4,024 lines.

The Comedy of Errors is the shortest, at 1,787.

The mean is Measure for Measure at 2,891 lines.

By my reckoning, a live performance of a Shakespearean play proceeds at about 750-850 lines per hour.

Shakespeare wrote just shy of a million words, around 990,000 or so, in his 39 plays. (I’ve read how-to authors flatly state that you need to write a million words or so until you “find your voice.” So he’s almost there ...)

He was born in 1564 and died 52 years later, in 1616. Although it can’t be proven beyond doubt, tradition has it he was born on the same day he would later die, April 23.

All 37 to 39 plays were written, as best can be ascertained, within a 24 year period, from 1589 to 1613.

Will, at age 18, married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway.

Shakespeare had 3 children: Susanna when he was 19; twins Judith and Hamnet a year later. His son, Hamnet, died at age 12 when Will was 32. Man, that’s young to be a father, let alone to bury your child. But it was not uncommon in Elizabethan England.

6 authenticated signatures of the Bard exist to this day, each one with a different spelling:
- William Shackper
- William Shakspear
- William Shakspea
- William Shackspere
- Willm. Shakspere
- William Shakspeare
Interestingly, none reflect the current accepted spelling of his name. (At first, I found this Elizabethan fluidity of spelling to be maddening, but now I’m quite enamored of it. The triumph of the right hemisphere over the left!)

Shakespeare used about 28,000 different words in his plays. Compare this to the 7,500 to 10,000 words the average man or woman of today uses. On that statistic alone word lovers all over the globe need to read and study the Bard.

In addition to 37, 38, or 39 plays, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. They are usually referred to by their numbers.

The top 5 “wordiest” characters in Shakespeare are: Hamlet (1,422 lines), Richard III (1,124), Iago (1,097), Henry V (1,025), and Othello (860). The top 14 speakers are all male characters. Rosalind, from As You Like It, is the first female, at number 15 on the list, with 668 speaking lines.

Shakespeare also wrote 6 other poems, generally longer and of a more “epic” nature than the 154 sonnets.

The Hopper averages 3.375 hours reading a Shakespearean play, spread out over 3.5 days.


(Most of the above data taken from The Shakespeare Book of Lists by Michael LoMonico)