Spelling of Shakespeare's name
The spelling of William Shakespeare's name has varied over time. It was not consistently spelled any single way during his lifetime (1564–1616), including by Shakespeare himself, in manuscript or in printed form; historians note that this was not unusual for documents in the Elizabethan era. After his death, the name was spelled variously by editors of his work, and there was no fixed spelling until well into the 20th century. The standard spelling of the surname as "Shakespeare" was the most common published form in Shakespeare's lifetime, but it was not one of the inconsistent variations used in his own handwritten signatures.
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