History Main / ShakespeareInFiction

* The Creator/RolandEmmerich film ''Film/{{Anonymous}}'' ([[Website/FourChan no relation]]) involves the theory that the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare's plays. William Shakespeare shows up as a {{Jerkass}} [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade hack actor who steals credit for Oxford's work and killed Marlowe]]. The film was trashed critically upon release.

* In ''Series/GoodOmens2019'', the scenes showing Aziraphale and Crowley's friendship developing over the millennia includes them seeing a poorly-attended performance of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' at the Globe, with Shakespeare exhorting his actors to carry on even though the audience pit is almost deserted. Aziraphale loves it; Crowley says he prefers the comedies, but agrees to miracle it into a success as a favour to the angel.

* In ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'', Shakespeare appears in the third book.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', he makes a deal with Dream -- he's given writing ability, and in return Dream will get two plays from him (which end up being ''Theatre/TheTempest'' and ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''). Hamnet dies after being captivated by the real world version of Titania, and it's implied that this leads to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (and Shakespeare's ability to write a death that made the audience cry). It's hinted that ''The Tempest'' is a bit of vanity on Dream's part; "We are such stuff as dreams are made on," etc. Prospero has a lot in common with Morpheus... Dream wanted ''The Tempest'' to end the way it did because, ''unlike'' Prospero, he will never be able to abandon magic and leave his own "island".
* In ''ComicBook/KillShakespeare'' Hamlet is asked by Richard III to kill a wizard who may or may not be real: William Shakespeare, who is worshiped throughout the country.
* Ralf König's ''Jago'' tells, among other things, how Shakespeare came to write ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' in a complicated plot that also heavily borrows from ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', involving three witches and an ambitious actor who will stop at nothing to play Jago. The play originally was going to be called ''Öthellü, the Turk of Istanbul'', but because Gus Phillips is infatuated with a black sailor, the lead character is changed to a moor. Shakespeare himself is in a deep funk because the two objects of his affection, the Earl of Southampton and Emilia Bassano, have fallen for each other. König helpfully provides endnotes pointing out his historical and literary allusions and quotes.
* In ''ComicBook/Marvel1602: [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Fantastick Four]]'', Shakespeare is kidnapped by Otto von Doom to record his voyage to Atlantis.
* In ''[[ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer The Testament of William S.]]'', Shakespeare is a posthumous character. The story is set in 1958 and is an investigation about the mystery surrounding Shakespeare's real authorship of his works. [[spoiler: It turns out that William Shakespeare is actually the collective pen-name of two friends, an English peasant named William Shake (who became the official face of their duo) and an Italian aristocrat named Guillermo Da Spiri. Since his family forbade him to befriend this kind of commoners, Da Spiri couldn't use his real name to sign their plays, thus the pen-name "William Shake-Speare" ("Guillermo" being the Italian equivalent of "William"). It's also revealed that "Shakespeare" simulated his death in 1616 and fled England with his friend Da Spiri, living in Italy under a fake identity for a couple of decades..]]
* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strip "A Groatsworth of Wit" (by Gareth Roberts, who also wrote "The Shakespeare Code") has the Elizabethan playwright Robert Greene (a colleague of Shakespeare, who wrote a pamphlet attacking his plays) travel to the 21st century, where he's horrified to learn that the upstart actor he was so disparaging of is thought of as the greatest playwright of the age, whereas he's just barely remembered as the guy who said ItWillNeverCatchOn.
* One of the members of ''Deathwatch'', Creator/PaulCornell's Elizabethan take on ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'', is a familiar-looking playwright called Will, who nobody takes seriously as a writer.

* ''[[Literature/ThePrometheanAge Ink and Steel]]'' and ''Hell and Earth'' by Creator/ElizabethBear are an urban fantasy duology with Shakespeare and Marlowe as protagonists. They start with Marlowe's (apparent) death, and much is made of the ([[ShownTheirWork very real]]) Marlowe references in ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''. Interestingly, Hamnet's death in these books is ''also'' the Puck's fault--this may be a ShoutOut to ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]]''.

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* ''My Name Is Will'' by Jess Winfeld (of the Reduced Shakespeare Company), in which a young Shakespeare is a character-- and so is Willie Shakespeare Greenburg, a 21st century grad student and shrooms mule trying to prove Shakespeare was a secret Catholic. It... must be read to be believed; it's rather a [[WidgetSeries Weird Shakespeare Nerd Thing]].

* In ''Series/GoodOmens'', the scenes showing Aziraphale and Crowley's friendship developing over the millennia includes them seeing a poorly-attended performance of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' at the Globe, with Shakespeare exhorting his actors to carry on even though the audience pit is almost deserted. Aziraphale loves it; Crowley says he prefers the comedies, but agrees to miracle it into a success as a favour to the angel.

* In the LightNovel/FateApocrypha project, Shakespeare is summoned as the Caster Servant of the Red Faction. A master of story writing, Shakespeare's main desire is to witness a grand tale of unparalleled beauty. Since he never was an actual magic-user of any type, he has very little ability in direct combat; however, he can effectively power up his Master, and his skills and Noble Phantasms can be deadly if used properly.

* ''Series/UpstartCrow'', a comedy series written by Creator/BenElton and starring Creator/{{David Mitchell|Actor}} as Shakespeare, revolves around his early career before he really hits it off. Complete with numerous ItWillNeverCatchOn moments, adventures curiously similar to his later works which end up inspiring him in a completely different direction, and an inversion of the UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that someone else wrote Shakespeare's plays.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode "The Shakespeare Code"]] is centered around the first (and only) performance of ''Love's Labours Won'' (which turns out to have been destroyed because Shakespeare was manipulated into writing it as a summoning ritual for a group of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s). Among other references, it has a pub named the Elephant that Shakespeare frequents (''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' has an inn of the same name). It plays Shakespeare as akin to a rock star of the Middle Ages with a genius-level intellect. Martha Jones turns out to be the Dark Lady of the sonnets. They also play with Shakespeare's suspected bisexuality (i.e, he hits on both Martha and the Doctor).

* ''The Shakespeare Secret'' by J. L. Carrell. My God, The Shakespeare Secret. The ''entire fricking plotline'' is based around Shakespeare!

* ''A Cry of Players'' by William Gibson[[note]](no, [[NamesTheSame not]] [[Creator/WilliamGibson that one]])[[/note]] is about Shakespeare leaving Stratford to become an actor.

* Shakespeare's marriage was of at best questionable happiness (because he only left his wife his "second best bed" in his will, and because he spent most of his life in London while she was in Stratford-upon-Avon). His wife gave birth less than nine months after their marriage, so it's often presented as a ShotgunWedding. [[Administrivia/JustifyingEdit It's worth mentioning that Shakespeare scholars dispute both these factoids]]: apparently the second-best bed was the bed a couple would typically sleep in (the best was kept for guests - like the best dinner plates) and under the laws of the time, the wife would automatically inherit a large share of the estate. As for the marriage, Shakespeare and his wife had been formally engaged for a number of months before the marriage ceremony and at the time, engaged couples were seen as married in all but name. (This crops up as an important plot point in ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure''.)

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', he makes a deal with Dream--he's given writing ability, and in return Dream will get two plays from him (which end up being ''Theatre/TheTempest'' and ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''). Hamnet dies after being captivated by the real world version of Titania, and it's implied that this leads to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. (And Shakespeare's ability to write a death that made the audience cry). It's hinted that ''The Tempest'' is a bit of vanity on Dream's part; "We are such stuff as dreams are made on," etc. Prospero has a lot in common with Morpheus... Dream wanted ''The Tempest'' to end the way it did because, ''unlike'' Prospero, he will never be able to abandon magic and leave his own "island".

* In ''Comicbook/{{Marvel 1602}}: [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Fantastick Four]]'', Shakespeare is kidnapped by Otto von Doom to record his voyage to Atlantis.

* Shakespeare's marriage was of at best questionable happiness (because he only left his wife his "second best bed" in his will, and because he spent most of his life in London while she was in Stratford-upon-Avon). His wife gave birth less than nine months after their marriage, so it's often presented as a ShotgunWedding. [[Administrivia/JustifyingEdit It's worth mentioning that Shakespeare scholars dispute both these factoids]]: apparently the second-best bed was the bed a couple would typically sleep in (the best was kept for guests - like the "company dinner service") and under the laws of the time, the wife would automatically inherit a large share of the estate. As for the marriage, Shakespeare and his wife had been formally engaged for a number of months before the marriage ceremony and at the time, engaged couples were seen as married in all but name. (This crops up as an important plot point in ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure''.)