8-3ShakespearesRoles

What Parts did Shakespeare write for himself his Plays? Prepared by Za'Novia McKinley The First Folio of 1623 includes a page listing "." Heading the list is Shakespeare himself; this page and those that follow record some of the information about the actors and their lives. The son of James Burbage, he first appears in the records of a dispute involving his father's playhouse, the Theatre. He inherited the friars theatre and with his brother Cuthbert owned a half interest in the Globe. Although he did not achieve the financial success of Shakespeare or Alleyn, Richard did manage to leave his heirs a modest estate of 300 pounds.
 * Richard Burbage** (1568-1619) was the leading actor in the Lord Chamberlain's - King's Men, playing the dramatic leads, including Richard III, Hamlet, Lear and Othello. He may have begun his career as early as 1584; ten years later he rivaled Edward Alleyn as the greatest English tragedian. He continued to perform until his death in 1619.

What parts did Shakespeare himself play?
Tradition and recent scholarship based on computer analysis of the language in Shakespeare's plays by Donald Foster -- suggest that Shakespeare played relatively minor parts in his own plays, mainly the parts of older men. Here is a list of the parts that Foster proposes, arranged in alphabetical order of the plays (there are some missing because evidence is inconclusive):
 * // All's Well That Ends Well: // The King || // As You Like It: // Adam and Corin ||
 * // The Comedy of Errors: // Egeon || // Coriolanus: // Menenius ||
 * // Hamlet: // The Ghost || // Henry the Fifth: // The Chorus and Mountjoy ||
 * // Henry the Fourth, Part One: // King Henry || // Henry the Fourth, Part Two: // King Henry and Rumour ||
 * // Henry the Sixth, Part One: // Bedford || // Henry the Sixth, Part Two: // Suffolk ||
 * // Julius Caesar: // Flavius || // King John: // King Philip ||
 * // A Midsummer Night's Dream: // Theseus || // The Merchant of Venice: // Morocco, Messenger, and the Duke ||
 * // Much Ado About Nothing: // The Messenger and the Friar || // Othello: // Brabantio ||
 * // Pericles: // Gower || // Richard the Second: // Gaunt and the Gardener ||
 * // The Taming of the Shrew: // The Lord (Induction) || // Timon of Athens: // The Poet ||