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This year marks four centuries since the death of William Shakespeare. That’s more than 400 years of Romeo wooing Juliet, Falstaff making merry with the Wives of Windsor and King Henry V rousing his band of brothers into battle on the eve of St Crispin’s Day.

Despite 400 years of scholarly study of his works, there is still a great deal we do not know about the Bard.

Mystery surrounds the important questions of whether he wrote all of his plays, who was the enigmatic Mr WH to whom he dedicated sonnets and, most importantly of all, was he a Scouser?

With plans for a new £19m Shakespearean theatre and college being mooted for Prescot - due to evidence coming to light that some of his earliest plays may have been staged at Knowsley Hall - and Jonathan Pryce bringing his Shylock to the Liverpool Playhouse to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, it is a good time to claim him for Merseyside.

And with his sense of humour, appreciation for a good night out on the ale and witty knack with words, we think he'd fit right in.

We’ve carefully studied the Complete Works to offer up this conclusive proof that Shakespeare was a Scouser (maybe).

10 times Shakespeare sounded like a Scouser:

1. Every time he says ‘la’

(Image: Jason Roberts)

Turns out, Shakespeare loves the word ' la '. Seriously, he can’t get enough of it. He is so fond of this phrase that even his female characters regularly slip it into conversation.

In Antony and Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen helps her lover suit up for battle with the words: ‘Sooth, la , I’ll help, thus it must be.’

Meanwhile, at the height of madness in Hamlet, Ophelia says to King Claudius: “Indeed, la , without an oath, I’ll make an end on’t!”

2. See also 'lads'

“News, lads ! our wars are done!” announces Third Gentleman in Othello.

3. When he’s being romantic

In Romeo and Juliet: “I would I were thy bird .”

4. When he’s feeling dismissive

See the Widow in All’s Well that Ends Well: “ As if his life lay on’t”. Or Diana in the same play: “ As if she sat in ’s heart.”

5. When he’s contemplating a Scousebrow

Is the phrase “‘Tis not your inky brows”, spoken by Rosalind in As You Like It, the first recorded mention of the Scousebrow phenomenon?

And in Winter’s Tale, he provides a handy how-to guide in the voice of Mamillius: “Yet black brows, they say/Become some women best, so that there be not/Too much hair there, but in a semicircle/Or a half-moon made with a pen.”

6. Whenever he’s not impressed

“There is no need of an such redress,” says the Earl of Westmoreland in Henry IV, part II.

7. See also ‘sound’

“Not sound , I say,” says Gardiner in Henry VIII.

8. Pretty much every time Antony speaks

He may be a Roman but at the very least, Marc Antony must have spent a bit of time on the Mersey’s shores - perhaps on a day trip if he was ever stationed at the fort at Deva (Chester). He is the Scousest of all Shakespeare’s characters, from the way he addresses Cleopatra - “Here me, queen ” - to how often he uses the word “ like ”.

9. When there’s booze about

Shakespeare’s characters tend to call beer “ ale ”, just like we do.

10. On public transport

Is the Duke of Clarence’s speech about “that grim ferryman” in Richard III actually a reference to a choppy trip on the Royal Daffodil rather than Charon who paddles souls across the River Styx to Hades?

So what do you reckon? Should we be claiming Shakespeare as one of our own? Let us know in the comments below.