Shakespeare biography has long circled a set of mysteries: Was he Protestant or secretly Catholic? Gay or straight? Loving toward his wife, or coldly dismissive?

The man left no surviving letters or autobiographical testimony.

But now, a researcher has uncovered nearly a dozen previously unknown records that shed clearer light on another much discussed side of the man: the social climber.

The documents, discovered by Heather Wolfe, the curator of manuscripts at the Folger

Shakespeare Library in Washington, relate to a coat of arms that was granted to Shakespeare’s father in 1596, attesting to his and his son’s status as gentlemen.

The documents suggest both how deeply invested Shakespeare was in gaining that recognition — a rarity for a man from the theater — and how directly he may have been drawn into colorful bureaucratic infighting that threatened to strip it away.

The new evidence “really helps us get a little bit closer to the man himself,” Ms. Wolfe said. “It shows him shaping himself and building his reputation in a very intentional way.”

The new documents also come with a nice bonus: they clearly refute skeptics who continue to argue that William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon was not actually the author of the works attributed to him.

Com base na leitura do texto e redigindo em português, atenda ao que se pede.

a) Cite dois aspectos indicativos do caráter misterioso da biografia de Shakespeare.

b) Em que reside a importância da descoberta, pela pesquisadora Heather Wolfe, de novos documentos relativos a um brasão de armas conferido ao pai de Shakespeare em 1596?