The real texts would actually be more annoying than this (Picture: Mock-up)

Revenge should have no bounds, William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, but one ripped-off Gumtree user perhaps took the Bard’s words a bit too literally.

Edd Joseph, a graphic designer from Bristol, was left £80 out of pocket when a seller failed to deliver a PlayStation 3.

The 24-year-old decided to follow up this disappointment by sending the vendor the entire works of Shakespeare… by text.

Somehow Mr Joseph has already sent 22 plays including Macbeth and Othello, which took almost 18,000 texts.


William Shakespeare: Takes a long time to text his plays (Picture: Alamy)

‘It just occurred to me you can copy and paste things from the internet and into a text message,’ he told the Bristol Post.



‘It got me thinking, “what can I sent to him” which turned to “what is a really long book”, which ended with me sending him Macbeth.’

He explained that the Gumtree seller responded with abusive texts and phonecalls.

‘I tried to ask him if he was enjoying the plays, but he was very confused,’ Mr Joseph added. ‘I’m going to keep doing it. If nothing else I’m sharing a little bit of culture with someone who probably doesn’t have much experience of it.’