1. The actors who acted out William Shakespeare's plays used real swords in the plays. True
One cannot be 100% sure that William Shakespeare allowed all of his life long plays' actors to use all real props for example a giant sword. But if we look at the best known Shakespeare play stage, the Globe Theater, then yes, for most of the plays the actors used real weapons and props including swords.
The props in earlier stages of the Globe Theater started out as easily movable objects such as：
Swords and daggers, goblets and plates, chairs and stools, candles and torches, blood soaked handkerchiefs, writing materials, manuscripts, bottles of wine or ale, whips, books, blankets, helmets, armor, false jewels, crowns, skulls and bones, animal furs, flags and banners, caskets and containers, flowers and petals...etc
As time went by larger items were being used in the Theater such as:
Benches, beds, thrones, cave, barrels, well, tables, canon...etc
One of the most famous props is the canon. Canons were introduced as Globe Theater props. The cannons were situated inside the roof, in the attic above the ''Heavens.'' The cannons were used to create a dramatic special effect such as heralding great entrances especially in the plays which were about an event in history. The cannon was loaded with gunpowder and wadding and this particular Globe Theater prop led to the fire of 1613 which led to the total destruction of the Globe Theater within 2 hours.
Special effects were very big at the time too. The imaginative use of the Globe Theater props led to some exciting and dramatic performances at the Globe Theater. The cannon, flying entrances, blood, fireworks, music and even live animals were all added.
2. Shakespeare wrote tragedies, comedies, and histories. True
Shakespeare wrote many tragedies such as Antony and Cleopatra & Romeo and Juliet; comedies such as As You Like It & Love's Labour's Lost; histories such as King John, Richard II, Henry IV (part 1 & 2) & Henry V.
3. How did Shakespeare come up with story ideas? Answer:
Shakespeare found nature an inspiration, and peoples' different reactions to love and life. Whole most stories in those days finished with a 'happily ever after,' Shakespeare realized that a total opposite could happen, so Shakespeare explored the many ways a romance story could end.
The ideas for Shakespeare's plots were almost all taken from earlier stories, poems or plays. The English histories as well as the semi-historical King Lear and Macbeth were drawn from Holinshed's Chonicles. The story of Romeo and Juliet was a poem written by Arthur Brooke in 1562. Hamlet was probably based on an earlier play which was itself based on a story by Saxo Grammaticus. We have an alternate Taming of the Shrew which is very similar to Shakespeare's. Roman historians provided the source for Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
Nowadays we tend to think that it was the stories which Shakespeare created, so that he deserves credit for any story of a brother of a king who murders the king and marries the widow. This is not so. Shakespeare created words for these people to say, which words showed them to be much morecomplex than any characters created beforehand and most created since.
From:
1. http://www.globe-theatre.org.uk/globe-theatre-props.htm
2. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/
3. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/romeojuliet/context.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-shakespeares-the-tempest-based-on.htm
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plots/
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