Has anybody noticed that according to Microsoft Word, Shakespeare was a terrible speller?

Languages change over time and with regions.

Modern American English is notably different from modern UK English, and neither are the same as they were centuries ago.
Considering that Shakespeare died *well* before America was even founded AND spoke a different dialect, it comes as no great surprise.

Word has two English dictionaries, one for the UK and one for the US. If you use the UK dictionary, it will be friendlier to Shakespeare... but they would need a Really Old version of the dictionary to make all the red squigglies go away.

Shakespeare was a terrible speller because he lived in a time before a standardised dictionary had been produced, consequently there was no right or wrong way to spell. He even spelt his own name in several different ways.

He was a terrible speller, he couldn't even get his name right most of the time, and the majority of words he used were made up. He was a storyteller and a playwright, not an author

I haven't bothered to check, but that wouldn't surprise me, at all.

Turn off Spellcheck, continue to driveith Thyselfith Crazy.

1) This is no surprise. It would also probably consider the author of the following book a terrible speller:
"Đe Feminin` Monarķi` - or 'đe histori of bee's. Shewing đeir admirable natur`, and propertis; đeir generation and colonis; đeir government, loyalti, art, industri; enemi's, vvars, magnanimiti, &c. Togeđer with đe riħt ordering of đem from tim` to tim`: and đe sweet` profit arising đer`of. Written out of experienc`'"
In fact, the author of this book, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was probably one of the best spellers of his time...


2) "Charl(e)s Butler (c. 1559 – 1647), vicar of Wootton St Lawrence (Hants.,), is a somewhat undercelebrated English genius - scholar, schoolmaster, grammarian, theologian, naturalist, musical theorist and early proponent of English spelling reform - the earliest on record - whose life spanned the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I.
His book, Đe Feminin` Monarķi` - or 'đe histori of bee's. Shewing đeir admirable natur`, and propertis; đeir generation and colonis; đeir government, loyalti, art, industri; enemi's, vvars, magnanimiti, &c. Togeđer with đe riħt ordering of đem from tim` to tim`: and đe sweet` profit arising đer`of. Written out of experienc`' - was first published in 1609. It was republished in 1634, the year of the first meeting of the Académie Française. The book's first edition was revolutionary for Natural history, being the first known natural history of bees, in a century which, in the period starting from his latter years, proved to be arguably the most revolutionary in English history. The third edition of 1634 was also revolutionary for spelling reform, being the earliest recorded publication in a reformed English spelling system.
In his English grammar of the previous year (1633), Butler had condemned the vagaries of traditional English spelling and proposed the adoption of a system whereby 'men should write altogeđer according to đe sound now generally received' - the founding principle of the century-old but now threatened(?) Simplified Spelling Society.
An early contemporary of Newton, Descartes and Leibniz, Butler is one of the earliest and least known founders and pace-setters of modern science in an era scarred by the effects of superstition."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charls_Butler


3) As far as I know, we often use a translation to read Shakespeare, please compare these two versions:

"As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion,—bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps me rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home unkept: for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox?"
Source and further information:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It/Act_I

"As I remember Adam, it was vpon this fashion
bequeathed me by will, but poore a thousand
Crownes, and as thou saist, charged my brother
on his blessing to breed mee well: and
there begins my sadnesse: My brother Iaques he keepes
at schoole, and report speakes goldenly of his profit:
for my part, he keepes me rustically at home, or (to speak
more properly) staies me heere at home vnkept: for call
you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs
not from the stalling of an Oxe?"
Source and further information:
http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/gu002244.pdf


4) "Shakespeare's English, in spite of the calamitous cries of high school students everywhere, is only one linguistic generation removed from that which we speak today. Although the Elizabethan dialect differs slightly from Modern English, the principles are generally the same. There are some (present day) anomalies with prepositional usage and verb agreement, and certainly a number of Shakespeare's words have shifted meanings or dropped, with age, from the present vocabulary. Word order, as the language shifted from Middle to Early Modern English, was still a bit more flexible, and Shakespeare wrote dramatic poetry, not standard prose, which gave some greater license in expression. However, Elizabethan remains a sibling of our own tongue, and hence, accessible."
Source and further information:
http://www.bardweb.net/language.html

Shakespeare spoke and wrote 17th century English, Word checks 21st century English. They are different languages, though there is a lot of crossover. Shakespeare was probably a rotten driver and a very slow typist. But he spoke to the people of his time in their language.