Coriolanus depicts a famine created and exploited by rich merchants and politicians to maximise the price of food and includes the lines: 'They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain.'

It has now emerged that as Shakespeare wrote the play at the height of the 1607 food riots, he was himself hoarding grain.

As one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire, he was ideally placed to push prices up and then sell at the top of the market.

Ms Archer worked with Richard Marggraf Turley, a professor in the department, and Howard Thomas, a professor of plant science, to study Shakespeare's life as a businessman and owner of arable farmland and pasture at a time when Europe was suffering famines.

They found documents in the court and tax archives showing he was repeatedly dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and was threatened with jail for evading tax payments.

In a paper, the academics wrote: 'Over a 15-year period Shakespeare purchased and stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to neighbours and local tradesmen.

'In February 1598 he was prosecuted for holding 80 bushels of malt or corn during a time of shortage. He pursued those who could not pay him in full for these staples and used the profits to further his own money-lending activities ...

'Profits were channelled into land purchases. He also acquired tithes on local produce, including "corn, grain and hay", allowing him to cream off the profits from others' manual work.

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