Was the movie shakespeare in love a true story?

Answer 1

It's based on fact, in a very general way. Luckily for the filmmakers, they had a lot of leeway, because very little is actually known about Shakespeare.

What's factual:

--Shakespeare DID have a wife in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and it's true that he didn't see her often and that he may not have been madly in love with her

--Playhouses WERE shut down due to the Plague (a number of times, actually)

--Many of the characters and acting groups are real: Burbage, the Lord Admiral's Men, Henslowe, (played by Geoffrey Rush), The Rose and The Curtain Theaters, Queen Elizabeth (obviously), Ned Alleyn (played by Ben Affleck), Kempe, Webster (the kid who played with the mouse--he became a famous playwright, and his plays were known for their blood/gore/darkness)

--Christopher Marlowe WAS more popular than Shakespeare at times

--Queen Elizabeth DID see some of his performances (Shakespeare also purpotedly wrote some for her, including The Merry Wives of Windsor.) The performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is typical of a court performance.

--Men DID play women's parts in plays at the time

--Christopher Marlowe DID die in a bar fight

----The set-up of the audience in the theater was pretty common for the time. The 'commoners' were left standing right in front of the stage (and they would indeed boo and/or throw rotten food etc. at 'bad' performances.) Nobility was seated in the balconies (or occasionally ON the stage)

--There was usually very little revenue from plays

--Staging was pretty sparse

What's not:

--Twelfth Night was not written right after Romeo and Juliet (as the film implies)

--Viola is a fictional character; so is Wessex, the man she is to marry

--Romeo and Juliet WAS NOT based in any way on events in Shakespeare's life. The story existed long before he was born.

--Monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth, did not attend public theatres. The plays came to them.

--There is almost universal agreement that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet after he joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men, not before as shown in the film.

As I said, there is actually very little known about Shakespeare (and some people even question whether or not the Shakespeare we know wrote all those works). There are numerous factual bits, insofar as we know anything about William Shakespeare--but the movie writers had a lot of freedom.

Answer 2

No, Shakespeare in Love is a fictional movie based on his life.

Answer 3

It's based on a real person, playwrite William Shakespeare. But most of the rest is a romantic fantasy. We simply don't know that much about him.

Answer 4

No