Shakespeare not quite the man we thought: study

LONDON - The Associated Press

Hoarder, moneylender, tax dodger - it’s not how we usually think of William Shakespeare. But we should, according to a group of academics who say the Bard was a ruthless businessman who grew wealthy dealing in grain during a time of famine. “Shakespeare the grain-hoarder has been redacted from history so that Shakespeare the creative genius could be born,” researchers from Aberystwyth University say in a paper.

Jayne Archer, a lecturer in medieval and Renaissance literature and her colleagues Howard Thomas and Richard Marggraf Turley combed through historical archives to uncover details of the playwright’s parallel life as a grain merchant and property owner in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon whose practices sometimes brought him into conflict with the law.

“Over a 15-year period he purchased and stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to his neighbors and local tradesmen,” they wrote, adding that Shakespeare “pursued those who could not (or would not) pay him in full for these staples and used the profits to further his own money-lending activities.”

He was pursued by the authorities for tax evasion, and in 1598 was prosecuted for hoarding grain during a time of shortage.