History Main / ShakespeareInFiction

* In the HorusHeresy novels he is mentioned a couple times as 'Shakespire'. In Prospero burns it's revealed they only believe he wrote three plays.

* Turtledove also wrote ''Ruled Britannia'', a novel set in an AlternateUniverse where the Spanish Armada conquered England. Ten years later, Shakespeare is writing plays under the Spanish occupiers, but is simultaneously contracted by both them and the English resistance to write plays to either commemorate the dying King Philip or inspire rebellion against him. In the end he chooses the latter, and his play ''Boudicca'' sparks a revolution. Published under the slogan "To be free, or not to be free?"

** FridgeBrilliance: Shakespeare spelled his name a million different ways when he was alive. There wasn't really any standardization of spelling at the time.

* ''No Bed For Bacon'', a humorous novel that may have inspired ''ShakespeareInLove'' takes a HistoricalHilarity approach to the period. It makes reference to the authorship controversy by inverting it. Rather than Bacon writing Shakespeare's plays, Shakespeare helps write Bacon's essays in addition to his play-writing work.

* ''No Bed For Bacon'', a humorous novel that may have inspired ''ShakespeareOfLove'' takes a HistoricalHilarity approach to the period. It makes reference to the authorship controversy by inverting it. Rather than Bacon writing Shakespeare's plays, Shakespeare helps write Bacon's essays in addition to his play-writing work.

* In TheNeverendingStory by Michael Ende, three knights stroll along with Bastian, singing "When That I was and a Little Tiny Boy" (which we know from TwelfthNight), which they learned from a previous human visitor to Fantasia/Fantastica, "name of Shexper, or something of the sort."

* Shakespeare in ''IrregularWebcomic'' is an office worker who writes ''HarryPotter'' SelfInsertFic in his spare time. His officemates include Mercutio, a TedBaxter, and Ophelia, who has a crush on him but doesn't quite get his interests.

** The episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]" is centered around the first (and only) performance of ''Love's Labours Won''. Among other references, it has a pub named the Elephant that Shakespeare frequents (''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.
** In the Fourth Doctor episode ''City of Death'', the Doctor is shown reading a manuscript of ''Hamlet'', and claiming that he helped compose the famous 'To be or not to be' speech.

* The ''ThursdayNext'' novels by Jasper Fforde are set in an alternate England where great literature is as popular and divisive as pop music or football; one of the common con scams the Literary Detectives have to investigate is people with alleged copies of Shakespeare's "lost works" ''Cardenio'' and ''Love's Labour's Won''. There are also "Will-Speak" machines, tacky arcade gadgets with a bust of Shakespeare similar to the fortune-telling ones from our world, and at one point the Goliath Corporation attempts to produce new Shakespeare plays by cloning the man thousands of times over and putting them all at typewriters - a reference to the old idea that a troupe of monkeys on typewriters will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare.

* Shakespeare sometimes shows up in ''DinosaurComics'', talking in all lowercase and [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1199 using Old English incorrectly]].

* In Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami, his name was spelled "[[RougeAnglesOfSatin Shakespeer]]", he spoke in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, and he was [[YouFailHistoryForever The King of England]]. When threatened, he talks in "Pomes". They are painful.

* In Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami, his name was spelled "[[RougeAnglesOfSatin Shakespeer]]", he spoke in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, and he was [[YouFailHistoryForever The King of England. When threatened, he talks in "Pomes". They are painful.

** Shakespeare has also appeared several times in the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, including the audio ''The Kingmaker'' and the Missing Adventures novel ''Empire of Glass'' (which also features Marlowe).

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* ''Ruled Britannia'' by HarryTurtledove is about an England where the Spanish Armada succeeded. Ten years later, Shakespeare is writing plays under the Spanish occupiers, but is simultaneously contracted by both them and the English resistance to write plays to either commemorate the dying King Philip or inspire rebellion against him. In the end he chooses the latter, and his play ''Boudicca'' sparks a revolution. Published under the slogan "To be free, or not to be free?"

* In the ''BlackAdder'' TimeTravel special for the Millennium, ''Blackadder Back And Forth'', Blackadder knocks out Shakespeare for being indirectly responsible for "[[KennethBranagh Ken Branagh]]'s endless, uncut, four-hour version of ''{{Hamlet}}''".

:: He later returns and apologises.

*** One EighthDoctorAdventures novel has the Doctor mention that he "[[HoYay loved Shakespeare]]", get embarrassed, and correct that to "loves Shakespeare" (connoting he's just a fan of Shakespeare's work instead), then recite Hamlet's "[[BlatantLies man delights not me]]" speech [[RaisedByWolves as a way of changing the topic]].

:: [[spoiler: He later returns and apologises.]]

** [[spoiler: He later returns and apologises.]]

[[AC:Fanfiction]]
* In [[LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami]], his name was spelled "[[RougeAnglesOfSatin Shakespeer]]", he spoke in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, and he was [[YouFailHistoryForever The King of England. When threatened, he talks in "Pomes". They are painful.

* In [[Fanfic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami]], his name was spelled "[[RougeAnglesOfASatin Shakespeer]]", he spoke in YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe, and he was [[YouHailHistoryForever The King of England. When threatened, he talks in "Pomes". They are painful.

* Shakespeare is the main character in ''Nothing Like the Sun'' by Anthony Burgess ([[AClockworkOrange yes, that Anthony Burgess]]). Set in [[TheDungAges the Dung Ages]] but with a mostly believable plot, it is centred around the Fair Lord and the Dark Lady (following the theories that she was actually black and that the Fair Lord was the Earl of Southampton). Ironically, ''Dead Man in Deptford'', written by the same author about Christopher Marlowe, is the better book.

** The episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]" is centered around the first (and only) performance of ''Love's Labours Won''. Among other references, it has a pub named the Elephant that Shakespeare frequents (''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.

** Shakespeare has also appeared several times in the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, including the audio ''The Kingmaker'' and the novel ''Empire of Glass'' (which also features Marlowe).
*** One Eighth Doctor Adventures novel has the Doctor mention that he "[[HoYay loved Shakespeare]]", get embarrassed, and correct that to "loves Shakespeare" (connoting he's just a fan of Shakespeare's work instead), then recite Hamlet's "[[BlatantLies man delights not me]]" speech [[RaisedByWolves as a way of changing the topic]].
*** The novel ''Theatre of War'' has a group of archaeologists uncover a theatre whose archive includes several famous lost plays, including ''Love's Labour's Won'' (though we don't get any details, because everybody's more interested in a lost masterpiece from the 23rd century).