How Did Shakespeare Come Up With His Ideas?

Mainly through others! At least thirteen of his plays were written by someone else before he got there! Yes, some of his works are his own, but, far less than he is accredited for. In fact only five or six plays can be traced directly to him. In 1599 for instance, he wrote just four plays, 'Julius Caesar', 'Henry V', 'As You lIke It', and 'Hamlet'. Only the first one is his! The others were written well before his time, and Julius Caesar was taken from Lord North's 'Lives of the Noble Romans and Grecians' published a few years earlier. However, Shakespeare is not a sham, or a charlatan, he was writing furiously, as were everybody else! Marlowe, Beaumont, Fletcher, later Webster, all writing to please the English audiences that flocked to the theatres to see the new phenomenon, acting!