William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.
Shakespeare’s extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Hamlet
As You Like It
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Romeo and Juliet
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Twelfth Night
If music be the food of love, play on.
Romeo and Juliet
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Macbeth
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.
The Merchant of Venice
The quality of mercy is not strain’d, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.
Hamlet
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.
Julius Caesar
Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
The Merchant of Venice
The eyes of youth are ever fixed on novelty.
As You Like It
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
As You Like It
Sweet are the uses of adversity.