Shakespeare sourced his plots and characters from historical accounts and classical texts.
Main Shakespeare Sources:
Giovanni Boccaccio
This Italian prose and poetry writer published a collection of stories entitled the Decameron in the mid-fourteenth century. It is believed that, in parts, Shakespeare would have had to work from the original Italian.
Source for: All’s Well That Ends Well, Cymbeline and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Arthur Brooke
Although the plot behind Romeo and Juliet was well-known in Shakespeare’s time, it is believed that Shakespeare primarily worked from Brooke’s 1562 poem entitled The Tragical History of Romeos and Juliet.
Source for: Romeo and Juliet
Saxo Grammaticus
In around 1200 AD, Saxo Grammaticus wrote Gesta Danorum (or “Deeds of the Danes”) which chronicled Denmark’s Kings and told the story of Amleth – the real-life Hamlet! You will notice that Hamlet is an anagram of Amleth. It is believed that Shakespeare would have had to work from the original Latin.
Source for: Hamlet
Raphael Holinshed
Holinshed’s Chronicles records the history of England, Scotland, and Ireland and became Shakespeare’s primary source for his historical plays. However, it should be noted that Shakespeare did not set out to create historically accurate accounts – he reshaped history for dramatic purposes and to play into the prejudices of his audience
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