What killed the Bard? Tradition says his death was brought on by a night of heavy drinking. Scientific study now raises a different possibility.

Almost 400 years after he died, a final act has been added to the story of William Shakespeare.

Scientists now believe that the Bard died not of binge drinking, but cancer.

Ancient tittle-tattle in Stratford-upon-Avon had suggested that he fell into a fever after a heavy night on the town with old friend and fellow writer Ben Jonson.

But forensic tests normally used to convict criminals have discovered that he had a life-threatening tumour over his left eye.

The breakthrough came after researchers studied four images supposedly of Shakespeare, including his death mask, and a bust displayed at London's Garrick Club.

Each shows a growth on the left eyelid, which increases in size in the later pictures.

Doctors who have studied the images say that this is evidence of a slowly-growing cancerous tumour which could have caused Shakespeare's death in April, 1616, aged 52.

The death mask shows that it had grown so large that it was hanging over his eye.

The discovery came after an investigation by a German literature expert into whether the four images are actually of Shakespeare.

Amazing, isnÂ’t it, how we can now learn all sorts of things about the lives of those who lived in centuries past?

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