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Key Takeaways:

In 1606, Shakespeare wrote King Lear , Macbeth , and Antony and Cleopatra while England faced two major crises: the deadly return of the plague and the fallout from the Gunpowder Plot.

Historians believe these real events shaped the darker themes in his tragedies, influencing everything from political paranoia in Macbeth to family fracture in Lear .

The 2025 film Hamnet , based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, revisits this same period of upheaval by imagining how Shakespeare’s personal life—including the loss of his son Hamnet—informed the emotional depth of his work.

William Shakespeare was no stranger to the task of plying his trade amid difficult conditions.

Shakespeare was working in London when the bubonic plague surfaced in 1592 and again i

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