Mmm-hmm. And I don't understand why all these people can't believe that a man who ended up putting on performances for royalty (and slanting Macbeth to flatter royalty) could never, ever know anything about court life. It's absurd!

I think it's very easy to rework a myth or to twist history (again, a la Macbeth into something else). So what's their argument? That a working-class man couldn't possibly dream up all the world's a stage?

You make a really good point in that his stories are hardly anything new, even for that time. But the genius was in his words and God forbid a normal man ever demonstrate anything like that.