17 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Shakespeare

11. The original texts of Hamlet and King Lear have been lost

The first Shakespeare play you saw or heard about was probably Hamlet. Hamlet is about a young man whose father is a ghost and tells him to avenge him. It turns out that the boy’s uncle was the murderer, he then craftily kills him and avenges his father’s death. However, many historians believe that the version that we know is not the original version. There have been many documented revisions of the original texts of both Hamlet and King Lear.

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Ian McKellen as King Lear/ PHOTO: Simon Farrell


Researches and historians say that many monologues are missing from the original scripts. The characters have been modified to fit the more contemporary roles. It is possible that the original characters bore a striking resemblance to someone and were changed. One theory says, at one point the characters or script of these plays offended royalty or some high ranking official and were subsequently changed.

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PHOTO: Does This Typing Noise Make Me Sound Busy


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