How Shakespeare's writing was influenced by his lead actor

The influence of one of Shakespeare's principal actors on many of the bard's plays has been revealed by an Oxford University academic. Bart van Es of Oxford University's Faculty of English Language and Literature has found that the writings of Robert Armin, who became lead comic actor in Shakespeare's company in the summer of 1600, shaped how Shakespeare portrayed fools and jesters in plays including King Lear , As You Like It , Troilus and Cressida , Twelfth Night and All's Well that Ends Well . van Es has published his findings in the Times Literary Supplement. 'As the only other published poet and playwright in Shakespeare's company, Robert Armin was the author who spent most time working with Shakespeare day to day, so it is odd that Armin's work is not included in Shakespeare source books and rarely quoted in introductions to Shakespeare's plays,' he said. 'Shakespeare almost certainly first became aware of Armin through his fame as a writer - the two men make an appearance in the literary record at around the same time in late 1592 - and it is clear that Shakespeare incorporated many of the features of Armin's characters into his plays after Armin joined his company. Robert Armin was best known for producing popular print ballads and poems. He wrote a compendium of 'fools' or jesters called Fool upon Fool , in which he described a series of jesters with a dark, irrational side, who are often violently punished by their masters.