Shakespeare. Butter wouldn’t melt?

A new report has claimed that the playwright William Shakespeare could have been a tax dodger and a “ruthless businessman”.

Researchers from Aberystwyth University have been looking into the Bard’s life as one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire and discovered that he didn’t always uphold the morals put forth in his plays.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at the Welsh university, commented: “There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable – while also writing plays about their plight to entertain them.”

One particularly harsh notion is the accusation that Shakespeare exploited the famine that gripped the nation during his lifetime. The academics claimed that he “stored grain, malt and barely for resale at inflated prices to neighbors and local tradesmen”. The profits from these sales were reportedly funneled into further land purchases.

While doing his best to profit from others’ hunger, it appears that this dark side of the Bard was also doing everything he could to “avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable”.

His approach may have been dubious, but it did allow Shakespeare to retire after a working life of just 24 years, suggesting his efforts were indeed profitable, however questionable his morals were.