Shakespeare By The Numbers: 64 violent deaths, 1,700 new words, 1,800 movie credits

William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (10 tragedies, 10 histories, 17 comedies) and 154 Sonnets — 884,647 words in all.
He is said to have invented 1,700 words in the English language, including

addiction
assassination
courtship
eyeball
luggage
impartial
swagger
tranquil

The 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

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Number of books sold

~ 4 billion

Number of films made

1,875 movie credits, plus 48 not yet release, including 420 feature films and TV-movie versions of complete Shakespeare scripts.
Hamlet: 79 versions
Romeo and Juliet: 52
Macbeth: 36



The above information was collected from the following sources:

But Shakespeare is best appreciated for his words, not the numbers. 

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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