The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

About the Author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, to John Shakespeare, a glove-maker and local alderman, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, with his exact birth date traditionally observed as April 23. After receiving his education at the local grammar school, where he studied Latin grammar, literature, and rhetoric, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in November 1582. She was eight years his senior and three months pregnant with their first child, Susanna, who was born in May 1583. Twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585, though Hamnet died at age eleven. Little is documented about Shakespeare's life between the birth of his twins and his emergence as a playwright in London around 1592, a period scholars refer to as the 'lost years.' By 1592, he had established himself in London's theatrical world as both an actor and playwright, evidenced by a jealous reference from contemporary playwright Robert Greene. Shakespeare became a prominent member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men under James I's patronage), a leading theater company for which he wrote exclusively after 1594. As both shareholder and artist, he enjoyed commercial as well as critical success. Shakespeare's career coincided with the flourishing of the Renaissance in England and the transition from the Elizabethan to the Jacobean era. His surviving works include 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and several longer poems, composed primarily between 1590 and 1613. The first collected edition of his plays, known as the First Folio, was published posthumously in 1623 by his friends and fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell. Shakespeare's works span an extraordinary range of human experience, displaying unparalleled psychological insight, moral complexity, and linguistic innovation. His plays revolutionized every dramatic genre he touched—comedy, history, tragedy, and romance—while his poetry, particularly the sonnets, established new possibilities within strict formal constraints. He invented thousands of words and phrases that remain in common usage. After a successful career that made him a prosperous gentleman, Shakespeare retired to Stratford around 1613, though he continued to collaborate with other playwrights. He died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, where his grave bears the famous curse against moving his bones. His works have been translated into every major living language, performed more frequently than those of any other playwright, and studied extensively throughout the world, securing his legacy as a cultural icon of unparalleled influence.