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Source: SuperScholar.org

Shakespeare in Pop Culture

Shakespeare is heralded as a foundational figure in

Psychology, sociology, political theory, business, medicine, and law

He’s one of the largest enablers of modern culture

For his 37 plays:

10 Tragedies

10 Histories

17 Comedies

154 Sonnets

884,647 words and 118,406 lines

Roughly 1/100 words we speak today was invented by Shakespeare

English words invented by Shakespeare: 1,700

Total number of English words in 2nd Edition Oxford English Dictionary: 171,476*

*though other dictionaries count more

Including: [9]

addiction

assassination

courtship

eyeball

luggage

impartial

swagger

tranquil

Only 16 modern rappers have used more unique words within their first 35,000 lyrics[2]

“I was not born under a rhyming planet”–Much Ado About Nothing

Outkast

MF Doom

E-40

Redman

Kool G Rap

Blackalicious

Ghostface Killah

Killah Priest

Roots

Wu-Tang Clan

RZA

CunninLynguists

Canibus

Kool Kieth

GZA

Aesop Rock

While the number of English speakers worldwide has grown from 5 million to 1.5 billion

Raising the rate of potential Shakespeare’s at any one time from 1 to 30.

Shakespeare has created many of our most lasting cultural types

Many of which we’ve adapted…

A Romeo is a persistent romancer and philanderer

A Hamlet over thinks and is indecisive

A lady Macbeth is a cut throat and ambitious female politician

Some of which have enduring legacies:

Supernatural characters started to become common in Elizabethan England

Arial, from The Tempest is a Fun-loving, mischievous being with extraordinary abilities

Hamlet’s father’s ghost as a call for revenge

Banquo, murdered by Macbeth, returns to haunt him

Puck–fairy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream– is a mischievous fairy of the woods

“Double, double, toil and trouble”

As seen in countless supernatural thrillers

Violence Always Sells

[causes of death in Shakespeare’s tragedies]

64 violent deaths in Shakespeare:

33 stabbed

7 poisoned

5 beheaded

2 broken hearts

2 hangings

2 baked into a pie

1 drowned

1 smothered by a pillow

1 lack of sleep

1 drops dead

1 snake bite

1 torn apart by mob

1 Eating hot coals

1 “disappearing”

1 thrown into a fire

1 indigestion

1 buried to neck and starved

1 cut into pieces

1 throws himself away

1 eaten by bear

But so does some straight up Shakespeare…

Number of movies inspired by Shakespeare plays:

Twelfth Night-1

King Lear -6

Romeo and Juliet – 6

Midsummer Night’s Dream – 5

Othello – 1

Macbeth – 4

Hamlet – 7

Taming of the Shrew – 3

The Tempest -3

Henry V – 2

Henry IV – 1

Richard III – 1

The Comedy of Errors – 1

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players

Citations: