I used to think it was the time period that Shakespeare wrote in that allowed him the tremendous freedom that his writing employs. In other words, it was due to the fact that things such as spellings and grammatical norms were yet to be standardized. But now I think it was more than that. Now I think it was the fact that he considered himself first and foremost a poet that allowed him to simply do as he wanted. If a noun being turned into a verb (a process referred to as conversion) could create the desired effect, then good. If a word had to be invented, fine. I've always felt that it was Shakespeare's example that led, at least in part, to the extraordinary flexibility and omnivorousness of English (which has by far the largest vocabulary of any language). Here's an excerpt from Antony and Cleopatra that features both conversion ("spaniel'd") and invention ("discandy"). (By the way, conversion can work in other ways, as well. It happens whenever one part of speech is used as another. One you hear a lot these days is, "My bad...") At this point, Antony thinks that he has been thoroughly betrayed by Cleopatra and abandoned by his followers, that Caesar has conquered him, and that his suicide is imminent:

O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:

Fortune and Antony part here; even here

Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts

That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave

Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets

On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd,

That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am:

O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,—

Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;

Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,—

Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,

Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.