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Is this a portrait of William Shakespeare? That's what a botanist and historian thinks. The fact that the possibility has ignited such chatter is testament to the power and influence the greatest of English dramatists has had upon literature.
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The best-known picture of Shakespeare is this one, from the First Folio, published in 1623. Shakespeare died in 1616; it will be 400 years since his death next year.
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This statue of Shakespeare sits in front of the remains of St. Mary Aldermanbury parish in the City of London. The Bard, considered by many the greatest writer in the English language, wrote 38 plays and more than 100 sonnets.
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London's Globe Theatre, built in 1997, is a faithful recreation of an Elizabethan stage and sits several hundred yards from the site of the original Globe from Shakespeare's day. It stages a handful of Shakespeare plays each year.
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Shakespeare-related artifacts are tremendously rare and valuable. Here, Remy Cordonnier, librarian in the French town of Saint-Omer, displays a valuable Shakespeare First Folio, a collection of some of his plays dating from 1623. About 230 copies of the First Folio are known to exist in collections or in private hands around the world.
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Shakespeare's plays live on in hundreds of live productions staged each year around the world. Here, Paul Daneman and Eileen Atkins appear in "Richard III" at London's Old Vic Theatre in 1962.
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From Laurence Olivier's "Henry V" to Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," Hollywood has a long history of producing movie adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. "Shakespeare in Love," a fictionalized look at the Bard's creative muse, won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1998.
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Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, in central England. Tourism related to the playwright is a huge draw for the town, which celebrates Shakespeare's birth each April with parades and other events.
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A bust of Shakespeare sits in the Garrick Inn, which dates from the 1400s and is reputed to be the oldest pub in Stratford-upon-Avon.
London CNN  — 

The location of William Shakespeare’s London home where the playwright wrote “Romeo and Juliet” has been identified for the first time, according to new research.

Theater historian Geoffrey Marsh spent a decade meticulously researching the home of the English dramatist and poet by cross-referencing official records to pinpoint where exactly Shakespeare lived during the 1590s.

Marsh’s quest began after The Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in East London’s Shoreditch, was discovered in 2008. The historian wondered where Shakespeare was living when his plays were performed there, which predated The Globe as the playwright’s workplace.

It had previously been identified that the Shakespeare lived in Central London near Liverpool Street Station, then known as the parish of St. Helens, after he was listed on taxpayer records in 1597/98, but the exact location was never identified.

National Archives
The original 1598 St. Helens tax record. William Shakespeare's name can be seen at the bottom.

According to Marsh, evidence suggests Shakespeare had lived in a property overlooking the churchyard of St. Helens as a tenant of the Company of Leathersellers, a guild that organized the Elizabethan leather trade.

While erratic spelling made it a challenge to decipher and interpret the documents, Marsh was was able to analyze records that were “remarkably” preserved, stretching back to the 1550s.

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“The place where Shakespeare lived in London gives us a more profound understanding of the inspirations for his work and life,” said Marsh, who is also the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Department of Theatre and Performance.

“Within a few years of migrating to London from Stratford, he was living in one of the wealthiest parishes in the City, alongside powerful public figures, wealthy international merchants, society doctors and expert musicians.”

Paul Harries
Historian Geoffrey Marsh analyzed archives that dated back to the 1550s.

The historian added that living in a place like London would have “enhanced Shakespeare’s status as he developed his career, sought a family coat of arms and planned to buy an impressive and expensive house in Stratford.”