AdvertisementIn Shakespeare's Day, Hunger Tore Through England. His Plays Tell The TaleApril 23, 2016Anne BramleyfacebookEmailAn illustration depicts a scene from Shakespeare's Coriolanus, a play that opens with citizens armed with "staves, clubs, and other weapons" in protest against the city fathers they accuse of hoarding grain. In Shakespeare's day, food shortages tore through England — and the bard himself was fined for grain hoarding. (Nicolas Poussin/Wikimedia Commons)