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			{{Short description|English playwright and poet (1564–1616)}}
	{{Infobox Writer
	| name = William Shakespeare		{{Redirect|Shakespeare|other uses|Shakespeare (disambiguation)|and|William Shakespeare (disambiguation)}}
			{{featured article}}
	| image = Shakespeare.jpg
			{{pp-semi-indef}}
	| caption = The ], artist and authenticity unconfirmed (]).
			{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
	| birth_date = ]April 1564
			{{Use British English|date=June 2018}}
	| birth_place = ], ], ]
			{{Infobox person
	| death_date = ], ]
			| image = William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.jpg<!--Please see the talk page before making any changes to the portrait-->
	| death_place = ], ], ]
			| caption = {{nowraplinks|The ], likely depicting Shakespeare, {{circa|1611}}}}
	| occupation = ], ], ]
			| birth_date = {{circa|{{birth date|df=yes|1564|04|23}}}}
			| birth_place = ], Warwickshire, England
			| baptised = 26 April 1564
			| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1616|04|23|1564|04}}
			| death_place = Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
			| resting_place = ]
			| occupation = {{hlist|Playwright|poet|actor}}
			| era = {{hlist|]|]}}
			| works = ]
			| movement = ]
			| organisation = {{hlist|]|]}}
			| yearsactive = {{circa|1585–1613}}
			| spouse = {{marriage|]|1582}}
			| children = {{unbulleted list|]|]|]}}
			| parents = {{unbulleted list|]|]}}
			| module = {{Infobox writer |embed=yes
			| language = ]
			| genres = {{hlist|] (]|]|])}}{{hlist|Poetry (]|]|])}}
			}}
			| signature = William Shakespeare Signature.svg
	}}		}}
	<!---Please do NOT write that Shakespeare was born on 23 April; this is a tradition, not a fact (see the section of Shakespeare's life below)--->
			'''William Shakespeare''' ({{circa}} 23{{efn|The belief that Shakespeare was born on 23 April is a tradition and not a verified fact;{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=24–26}} see ] below. He was ] 26 April.}} April 1564 – 23 April 1616){{efn|Dates follow the ], used in England throughout Shakespeare's lifespan, but with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see ]). Under the ], adopted in Catholic countries in 1582, Shakespeare died on 3 May.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=xv}}}} was an English ], ] and ]. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the ] and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=11}}{{sfn|Bevington|2002|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Wells|1997|p=399}} He is often called ]'s ] and the "] of ]" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including ], consist of some ], ], three long ]s and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays ] into every major ] and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.{{sfn|Craig|2003|p=3}} Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
	{{Redirect|Shakespeare}}
			Shakespeare was born and raised in ], Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married ], with whom he had three children: ], and twins ] and ]. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and ] ("sharer") of a ] called the ], later known as the ] after the ascension of ] to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as ], ], ] and even certain ]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knapp |first=Alex |title=Yes, Shakespeare Really Did Write Shakespeare |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/10/19/yes-shakespeare-really-did-write-shakespeare/ |access-date=8 February 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208060921/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/10/19/yes-shakespeare-really-did-write-shakespeare/ |url-status=live }}</ref> as to whether the works attributed to him were ].{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=xvii–xviii}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=41, 66, 397–398, 402, 409}}{{sfn|Taylor|1990|pp=145, 210–223, 261–265}}
	'''William Shakespeare''' (] ] ] – died ] ])<ref>Dates use the Julian Calendar. Under the ], Shakespeare died on ].</ref> was an ] ] and ] widely regarded as the greatest ] of the ], as well as one of the greatest in ], and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.<ref> , , . Accessed Feb. 26, 2006.</ref> He wrote about thirty-eight plays and 154 ]s, as well as a variety of other ]s. Already a popular writer in his own lifetime, Shakespeare's ] became increasingly celebrated after his death and his work adulated by numerous prominent cultural figures through the centuries.<ref>. Accessed Feb. 26, 2006.</ref> In addition, Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the literature and history of the ].<ref> by Lois Potter, University of Delaware, accessed June 22, 2006, and , edited by Mary Foakes and Reginald Foakes, June 1998.</ref> He is often considered to be ]'s ]<ref> by Michael Dobson, Oxford University Press, 1995. Accessed Feb 26, 2006.</ref> and is sometimes referred to as the "] of ]" (or simply "The Bard") <ref>. Accessed Feb. 26, 2006.</ref> or the "Swan of Avon".<ref>, a poem by ]. Accessed Feb. 26, 2006.</ref>
			Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613.{{sfn|Chambers|1930a|pp=270–271}}{{sfn|Taylor|1987|pp=109–134}} His early plays were primarily ] and ] and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly ] until 1608, among them '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']'', all considered to be among the finest works in English.{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=11}}{{sfn|Bevington|2002|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Wells|1997|p=399}} In the last phase of his life, he wrote ] (also known as ]) such as '']'' and '']'', and collaborated with other playwrights.
	Shakespeare is believed to have produced most of his work between 1586 and 1616, although the exact dates and ] attributed to him are often uncertain. He is counted among the very few playwrights who have excelled in both ] and ], and his plays combine popular appeal with complex ], poetic grandeur and philosophical depth.
			Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, ] and ], two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the ], a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by ], a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".{{sfn|Greenblatt|Abrams|2012|p=1168}}
	Shakespeare's works have been translated into every major living language, and his plays are continually performed all around the world. In addition, many quotations and ]s from his plays have passed into ] in English and other languages. Over the years, many people have speculated about Shakespeare's life, raising questions about his ], religious affiliation, and the ].
	==Life==		==Life==
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]!-->		<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]! -->
			{{Main|Life of William Shakespeare}}
	{{main|Shakespeare's life}}
	===Early life===		===Early life===
			]'s house, believed to be ], in ]]]
	William Shakespeare (also spelled Shakspere, Shaksper, Shaxper, and Shake-speare, due to the fact that spelling in ] times was not fixed and absolute<ref>. Accessed 10/22/05.</ref>) was born in ] in April 1564, the son of ], a successful glover and alderman from ], and of ], a daughter of the ]. His birth is assumed to have occurred at the family house on Henley Street. Shakespeare's christening record dates to ] of that year. Because christenings were performed within a few days of birth, tradition has settled on ] as his birthday. This date provides a convenient symmetry because Shakespeare died on the same day, ] (] on the ]), in 1616.
			Shakespeare was the son of ], an ] and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from ] in ], and ], the daughter of an ].{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=14–22}} He was born in ], where he was ] on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, ].{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=24–26}} This date, which can be traced to ] and ], has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=24, 296}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=15–16}} He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=23–24}}
			Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the ] in Stratford,{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=62–63}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=53}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=xv–xvi}} a free school chartered in 1553,{{sfn|Baldwin|1944|p=464}} about a quarter-mile (400&nbsp;m) from his home. ]s varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic ] text was standardised by royal decree,{{sfn|Baldwin|1944|pp=179–180, 183}}{{sfn|Cressy|1975|pp=28–29}} and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin ] authors.{{sfn|Baldwin|1944|p=117}}
	Shakespeare probably attended ] in central Stratford. While the quality of Elizabethan-era grammar schools was uneven, the school probably would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and literature. It is presumed that the young Shakespeare attended this school, since as the son of a prominent town official he was entitled to do so for free (although his attendance cannot be confirmed because the school's records have not survived). At the age of eighteen, he married ], who was twenty-six, on ], ]. One document identified her as being "of Temple Grafton," near Stratford, and the marriage may have taken place there. Two neighbours of Anne posted bond that there were no impediments to the marriage. There appears to have been some haste in arranging the ceremony, presumably because Anne was three months pregnant.
			At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old ]. The ] of the ] issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=77–78}} The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester ] allowed the ] to be read once instead of the usual three times,{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=84}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=78–79}} and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, ], baptised 26 May 1583.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} Twins, son ] and daughter ], followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}
	]
	After his marriage, Shakespeare left few traces in the historical record until he appeared on the ] theatrical scene. Indeed, the late 1580s are known as Shakespeare's "lost years" because no evidence has survived to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London. On ], ], Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, was baptised at Stratford. Twin children, a son, Hamnet, and a daughter, Judith, were baptised on ], ]. Hamnet died in 1596.
			], from the 1602 book ''The book of coates and creasts. Promptuarium armorum.'' It features spears as a ] on the family name.{{efn|The ] is a silver falcon supporting a spear, while the motto is ''Non Sanz Droict'' (French for "not without right"). This motto is still used by ], in reference to Shakespeare.}}]]
			After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated ] 1588 and 9 October 1589.{{sfn|Bate|2008|p=314}} Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many ] stories. ], Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer ] in the estate of local squire ]. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=97–108}}{{sfn|Rowe|1709|pp=16–17, }} Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=144–145}} ] reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=110–111}} Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of ], a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.{{sfn|Honigmann|1998|p=1}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xvii}} Little evidence substantiates such stories other than ] collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.{{sfn|Honigmann|1998|pp=95–117}}{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=97–109}}
	===London and theatrical career===		===London and theatrical career===
			It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.{{sfn|Chambers|1930a|pp=287, 292}} By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright ] in his '']'' from that year:
	By 1592, Shakespeare was a playwright in London; he had enough of a reputation for ] to denounce him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his ''Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde'', supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes ], is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey." (The italicised line parodies the phrase, "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" which Shakespeare wrote in '']''.)
			<blockquote>...&nbsp;there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his ''Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide'', supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute ''Johannes factotum'', is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=213}}</blockquote>
	By late 1594, Shakespeare was an actor, writer and part-owner of a ], known as the ] — like others of the period, the company took its name from its aristocratic sponsor, in this case the ]. The group became popular enough that after the death of ] and the coronation of ] (1603), the new monarch adopted the company and it became known as the ]. Shakespeare's writing shows him to indeed be an actor, with many phrases, words, and references to acting, but there isn't an academic approach to the art of theatre that might be expected.<ref><u>The Facts About Shakespeare</u> by William Allan Neilson and Ashley Horace Thorndike, 1913 the Macmillan company</ref>
			Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words,{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=213}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as ], ], and Greene himself (the so-called "]").{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=176}} The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's '']'', along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, '']'' ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=213}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=151–153}}
	By 1596, Shakespeare had moved to the parish of St. Helen's, ], and by 1598 he appeared at the top of a list of actors in '']'' written by ]. Also by 1598, his name began to appear on the title pages of his plays, presumably as a selling point.
			Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks.{{sfn|Wells|2006|p=28}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=144–146}}{{sfn|Chambers|1930a|p=59}} After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at ], in ], only by the ], a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading ] in London.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} After the death of ] in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new ], and changed its name to the ].{{sfn|Chambers|1923|pp=208–209}}
	There is a tradition that Shakespeare, in addition to writing many of the plays his company enacted, and being concerned as part-owner of the company with business and financial details, continued to act in various parts, such as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Adam in ""]"", and the Chorus in ""]"".
			{{Quote box|align=right|quote=<poem>
	He appears to have moved across the Thames River to Southwark sometime around 1599. By 1604, he had moved again, north of the river, where he lodged just north of St Paul's Cathedral with a ] family named Mountjoy. His residence there is worth noting because he helped arrange a marriage between the Mountjoys' daughter and their apprentice Stephen Bellott. Bellott later sued his father-in-law for defaulting on part of the promised dowry, and Shakespeare was called as a witness.
			All the world's a stage,
			and all the men and women merely players:
			they have their exits and their entrances;
			and one man in his time plays many parts&nbsp;...
			</poem>
			|source=—'']'', Act II, Scene 7, 139–142{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=666}}
			}}
			In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the ], which they named the ]. In 1608, the partnership also took over the ]. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man,{{sfn|Chambers|1930b|pp=67–71}} and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, ], and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish ] in Stratford.{{sfn|Bentley|1961|p=36}}
	Various documents recording legal affairs and commercial transactions show that Shakespeare grew rich enough during his stay in London to buy a property in ] and own the second-largest house in Stratford, ].
			Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in ] editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the ]s.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}{{sfn|Kastan|1999|p=37}}{{sfn|Knutson|2001|p=17}} Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of ]'s ''Works'' names him on the cast lists for '']'' (1598) and '']'' (1603).{{sfn|Adams|1923|p=275}} The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's '']'' is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end.{{sfn|Wells|2006|p=28}} The ] of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after ''Volpone'', although one cannot know for certain which roles he played.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} In 1610, ] wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=200–201}} In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father.{{sfn|Rowe|1709|p=32}} Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in '']'', and the Chorus in '']'',{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=357}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxii}} though scholars doubt the sources of that information.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=202–203}}
	===Later years===
	]]]Shakespeare's last two plays were written in 1613, after which he appears to have retired to Stratford. He died on ] ], at the age of fifty-two, on the same date (though not same day for England was still functioning under the ]) as Spanish writer and poet ]. He also died on his birthday, if the speculation that he was born on April 23 is correct. He was married to Anne until his death and was survived by his two daughters, Susanna and Judith. Susanna married ], but there are no direct descendants of the poet and playwright alive today.
			Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of ], ], north of the River Thames.{{sfn|Hales|1904|pp=401–402}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=121}} He moved across the river to ] by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there.{{sfn|Hales|1904|pp=401–402}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=122}} By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of ] with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French ] named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=325}}{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=405}}
	Shakespeare is buried in the ] of ] in ]. He was granted the honour of burial in the chancel not on account of his fame as a playwright but for purchasing a share of the ] of the church for £440 (a considerable sum of money at the time). A ] placed by his family on the wall nearest his grave features a ] of him posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust.
			===Later years and death===
	He is believed to have written the ] on his tombstone:
			] in Stratford-upon-Avon]]
	:Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
	:To dig the dust enclosed here.
	:Blest be the man that spares these stones,
	:But cursed be he that moves my bones.''
			] was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by ], that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death".{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=476}}{{sfn|Wood|1806|pp=ix–x, lxxii}} He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, ] stated that after purchasing the lease of the ] in 1608 from ], the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were ], ], Shakespeare, etc.".{{sfn|Smith|1964|p=558}} However, it is perhaps relevant that the ] raged in London throughout 1609.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=477}}{{sfn|Barroll|1991|pp=179–182}} The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610),{{sfn|Bate|2008|pp=354–355}} which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time.{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=382–383}} Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=476}} In 1612, he was called as a witness in '']'', a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary.{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=326}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=462–464}} In March 1613, he bought a ] in the former ] priory;{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=272–274}} and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, ].{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=387}} After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} His last three plays were collaborations, probably with ],{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=375–378}} who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the ] burned down during the performance of '']'' on 29 June.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}
	==Works==
	===Plays===
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]!-->
	{{main|Shakespeare's plays}}
	A number of Shakespeare's plays have the reputation of being among the greatest in the ] and in ] literature. He wrote ], histories, ] and romances, which have been translated into every major living language {{fact}}, in addition to being continually performed around the world.
			Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52.{{efn|Inscribed in Latin on his ]: {{lang|la|AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR|italic=yes}} (In his 53rd year he died 23 April).{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}}} He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, ], the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted",{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1991|p=}}{{sfn|Rowse|1963|p=453}} not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and ]. Of the ]s from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."{{sfn|Kinney|2012|p=11}}{{efn|Verse by ] printed in the First Folio.{{sfn|Kinney|2012|p=11}}}}
	As was normal in the period, Shakespeare based many of his plays on the work of other playwrights and reworked earlier stories and historical material. For example, '']'' (c. 1601) is probably a reworking of an older, lost play (the so-called '']''), and '']'' is an adaptation of an earlier play, also called ''King Lear''. For plays on historical subjects, Shakespeare relied heavily on two principal texts. Most of the Roman and Greek plays are based on ]'s ''Parallel Lives'' (from the 1579 English translation by Sir ]<ref>. Accessed 10/23/05.</ref>), and the English ]s are indebted to ]'s 1587 ''Chronicles''.
			], where Shakespeare was baptised and is buried]]
			He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607,{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} and Judith had married ], a ], two months before Shakespeare's death.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=292–294}} Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=292–294}}
			Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=395–396}} The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying.{{sfn|Chambers|1930b|pp=8, 11, 104}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line.{{sfn|Chambers|1930b|pp=7, 9, 13}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=289, 318–319}} Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically.{{efn|], 1842, in his notes on '']''.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1991|p=}}}} He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=483}}{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=16}}{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|pp=145–146}} Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=301–303}}
	Shakespeare's plays tend to be placed into three main stylistic groups:
	* early comedies and histories (such as '']'' and '']'')
	* middle period (which includes his most famous tragedies, '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']'', as well as "]" such as ])
	* ] (such as '']'' and '']'').
	The earlier plays range from broad comedy to historical nostalgia, while the middle-period plays tend to be grander in terms of theme, addressing such issues as ], ], ], ], and ]. By contrast, his late romances feature redemptive plotlines with ambiguous endings and the use of ] and other fantastical elements. However, the borders between these genres are never clear.
	] (1623), the first collected edition of his plays]]		], the husband of his granddaughter]]
	Some of Shakespeare's plays first appeared in print as a series of ], but most remained unpublished until 1623 when the posthumous ] was published by two actors who had been in Shakespeare's company: ] and ]. The traditional division of his plays into tragedies, comedies, and histories follows the logic of the First Folio. It is at this point that stage directions, punctuation and act divisions enter his plays, setting the trend for further future editorial decisions. Modern criticism has also labelled some of his plays "]" or tragi-comedies, as they elude easy categorisation, or perhaps purposefully break generic conventions. The term "romances" has also been preferred for the later comedies.
			Shakespeare was buried in the ] of the ] two days after his death.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=306–307}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xviii}} The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:{{sfn|BBC News|2008}}
	There are many controversies about the ]. In addition, the fact that Shakespeare did not produce an authoritative print version of his plays during his life accounts for part of the ] often noted with his plays, which means that for several of the plays there are different textual versions. As a result, the problem of identifying what Shakespeare actually wrote became a major concern for most modern editions. Textual corruptions also stem from printers' errors, compositors' misreadings, or wrongly scanned lines from the source material. Additionally, in an age before standardised spelling, Shakespeare often wrote a word several times in a different spelling, contributing further to the transcribers' confusions. Modern scholars also believe Shakespeare revised his plays throughout the years, sometimes leading to two existing versions of one play.
			{{Verse translation
			|Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
			To digg the dvst encloased heare.
			Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones,
			And cvrst be he yͭ moves my bones.''{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}{{efn|In the scribal abbreviations ''ye'' for ''the'' (3rd line) and ''yt'' for ''that'' (3rd and 4th lines) the letter ''y'' represents ''th'': see '']''.}}
			|Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,
			To dig the dust enclosed here.
			Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
			And cursed be he that moves my bones.
			}}
			Some time before 1623, a ] was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to ], ], and ].{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=308–310}} In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the ], the ] was published.{{sfn|Cooper|2006|p=48}} Shakespeare has been commemorated in many ] around the world, including funeral monuments in ] and ] in ].{{sfn|Westminster Abbey|n.d.}}{{sfn|Southwark Cathedral|n.d.}}
			==Plays==
			{{Main|Shakespeare's plays|William Shakespeare's collaborations|Shakespeare bibliography}}
			]
			<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]! -->
			Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.{{sfn|Thomson|2003|p=49}}
			The first recorded works of Shakespeare are '']'' and the three parts of '']'', written in the early 1590s during a vogue for ]. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however,{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=9}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=166}} and studies of the texts suggest that '']'', '']'', ''],'' and '']'' may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=159–161}}{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=9}} His first ], which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's ],{{sfn|Dutton|Howard|2003|p=147}} dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the ].{{sfn|Ribner|2005|pp=154–155}} The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially ] and ], by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of ].{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=105}}{{sfn|Ribner|2005|p=67}}{{sfn|Bednarz|2004|p=100}} ''The Comedy of Errors'' was also based on classical models, but no source for ''The Taming of the Shrew'' has been found, though it has an identical plot but different wording as another play with a similar name.{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=136}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} Like ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'', in which two friends appear to approve of rape,{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=91}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|pp=116–117}}{{sfn|Werner|2001|pp=96–100}} the ''Shrew''{{'}}s story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.{{sfn|Friedman|2006|p=159}}
			], {{circa}}&nbsp;1786.]]
			Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=235}} '']'' is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=161–162}} Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic '']'', contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender ], which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=205–206}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=258}} The wit and wordplay of '']'',{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=359}} the charming rural setting of '']'', and the lively merrymaking of '']'' complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=362–383}} After the lyrical '']'', written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, '']'' and '']'', and '']''. ''Henry IV'' features ], rogue, wit and friend of Prince Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work.{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=150}}{{sfn|Gibbons|1993|p=1}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=356}} This period begins and ends with two tragedies: '']'', the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death;{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=161}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=206}} and '']''—based on Sir ]'s 1579 translation of ]'s '']''—which introduced a new kind of drama.{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=353, 358}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=151–153}} According to Shakespearean scholar ], in ''Julius Caesar'', "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=151}}
			], 1780–1785.]]
			In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "]" '']'', '']'', and '']'' and a number of his best known ].{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=85}}{{sfn|Muir|2005|pp=12–16}} Many critics believe that Shakespeare's tragedies represent the peak of his art. ] has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous ] which begins "]".{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=94}} Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, ] and Lear are undone by hasty errors of judgement.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=86}} The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|pp=40, 48}} In '']'', ] stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|pp=42, 169, 195}}{{sfn|Greenblatt|2005|p=304}} In '']'', the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter, ]. According to the critic ], "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty".{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=226}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=423}}{{sfn|Kermode|2004|pp=141–142}} In '']'', the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies,{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=43–46}} uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, ], to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn.{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=306}} In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, '']'' and '']'', contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic ].{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=444}}{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=69–70}}{{sfn|Eliot|1934|p=59}} Eliot wrote, "Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole ]."<ref>{{cite work| author=]| title=Tradition and the Individual Talent| year=1919| url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent| access-date=7 May 2024| archive-date=7 May 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240507175052/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent| url-status=live}}</ref>
			In his final period, Shakespeare turned to ] or ] and completed three more major plays: '']'', ''],'' and '']'', as well as the collaboration, '']''. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.{{sfn|Dowden|1881|p=57}} Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.{{sfn|Dowden|1881|p=60}}{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=123}}{{sfn|McDonald|2006|p=15}} Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, '']'' and '']'', probably with ].{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=1247, 1279}}
			===Classification===
			{{further|Chronology of Shakespeare's plays}}
			], {{c.|1849}}]]
			Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the ] of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as ], ], and ].{{sfn|Boyce|1996|pp=91, 193, 513.}} Two plays not included in the First Folio,{{sfn|Greenblatt|Abrams|2012|p=1168}} '']'' and '']'', are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both.{{sfn|Kathman|2003|p=629}}{{sfn|Boyce|1996|p=91}} No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.
			In the late 19th century, ] classified four of the late comedies as ], and though many scholars prefer to call them '']'', Dowden's term is often used.{{sfn|Edwards|1958|pp=1–10}}{{sfn|Snyder|Curren-Aquino|2007}} In 1896, ] coined the term "]" to describe four plays: '']'', '']'', ''],'' and '']''.{{sfn|Schanzer|1963|pp=1–10}} "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays."{{sfn|Boas|1896|p=345}} The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though ''Hamlet'' is definitively classed as a tragedy.{{sfn|Schanzer|1963|p=1}}{{sfn|Bloom|1999|pp=325–380}}{{sfn|Berry|2005|p=37}}
			===Performances===
			{{Main|Shakespeare in performance}}
			It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of ''Titus Andronicus'' reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xx}} After the ] of 1592–93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at ] and the ] in ], north of the Thames.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxi}} Londoners flocked there to see the first part of ''Henry IV'', ] recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest&nbsp;... and you scarce shall have a room".{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=16}} When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the ], the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at ].{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=6}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=125–131}} The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with ''Julius Caesar'' one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including ''Hamlet'', ''Othello,'' and ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=6}}{{sfn|Nagler|1958|p=7}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=131–132}}
			] on the south bank of the ] in ]]]
			After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the ] in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new ]. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of ''The Merchant of Venice''.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxii}} After 1608, they performed at the indoor ] during the winter and the Globe during the summer.{{sfn|Foakes|1990|p=33}} The indoor setting, combined with the ]<!--or perhaps ]?--> fashion for lavishly staged ], allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In ''Cymbeline'', for example, ] descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=454}}{{sfn|Holland|2000|p=xli}}
			The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous ], ], ] and ]. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ''Richard III'', ''Hamlet'', ''Othello'', and ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Ringler|1997|p=127}} The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ] in ''Much Ado About Nothing'', among other characters.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}{{sfn|Chambers|1930a|p=341}} He was replaced around 1600 by ], who played roles such as ] in ''As You Like It'' and the fool in ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|pp=247–249}} In 1613, Sir ] recorded that ''Henry VIII'' "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony".{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=1247}} On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=1247}}
			{{clear}}
			===Textual sources===
			]'', 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by ].]]
			In 1623, ] and ], two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the ], a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxvii}} The others had already appeared in ] versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxiv}} No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".{{sfn|Pollard|1909|p=xi}}
			] termed some of the pre-1623 versions as "]s" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|p=xxxiv}}{{sfn|Pollard|1909|p=xi}}{{sfn|Maguire|1996|p=28}} Where several versions of a play survive, each ]. The differences may stem from copying or ] errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own ].{{sfn|Bowers|1955|pp=8–10}}{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=xxxiv–xxxv}} In some cases, for example, ''Hamlet'', ''Troilus and Cressida,'' and ''Othello'', Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of '']'', however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the ''Oxford Shakespeare'' prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.{{sfn|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|pp=909, 1153}}
			==Poems==
			In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of ], Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, '']'' and '']''. He dedicated them to ]. In ''Venus and Adonis'', an innocent ] rejects the sexual advances of ]; while in ''The Rape of Lucrece'', the virtuous wife ] is raped by the lustful ].{{sfn|Roe|2006|p=21}} Influenced by ]'s '']'',{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=288}} the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust.{{sfn|Roe|2006|pp=3, 21}} Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, '']'', in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the ''Sonnets'' in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote ''A Lover's Complaint''. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects.{{sfn|Roe|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Jackson|2004|pp=267–294}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=289}} '']'', printed in Robert Chester's 1601 ''Love's Martyr'', mourns the deaths of the legendary ] and his lover, the faithful ]. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in '']'', published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.{{sfn|Roe|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=289}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}
	===Sonnets===		===Sonnets===
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article Shakespeare's sonnets!		<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article Shakespeare's sonnets!
	(unless it adds to the general understanding of the subject while maintaining brevity)}}-->		(unless it adds to the general understanding of the subject while maintaining brevity) -->
	{{main|Shakespeare's sonnets}}
	Shakespeare's ]s are a collection of 154 ]s that deal with such themes as ], ], and ]. All but two first appeared in the 1609 publication entitled ''Shakespeare's Sonnets''; numbers ] ("When my love swears that she is made of truth") and ] ("Two loves have I, of comfort and despair") had previously been published in a 1599 miscellany entitled '']''. The Sonnets were written over a number of years, probably beginning in the early 1590s.
			{{Main|Shakespeare's sonnets}}
	The conditions under which the sonnets were published are unclear. The 1609 text is dedicated to one "]", who is described as "the only begetter" of the poems in the dedication. It is unknown if the dedication was written by Shakespeare or Thomas Thorpe, the publisher. It is also unknown who this man was, although there are many theories, including those who believe him to be the ] featured in the sonnets. <ref> Hallet Smith, "Sonnets," ''The Riverside Shakespeare'', pp 1745-8. Houghton Mifflin 1974 </ref> In addition, it is not known whether the publication of the sonnets was even authorised by Shakespeare.
			]
			Published in 1609, the '']'' were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=178}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' in 1599, ] had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends".{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=180}} Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}} He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though ] believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".{{sfn|Honan|1998|p=180}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|p=}}
	===Other poems===
	In addition to his sonnets, Shakespeare also wrote several longer ]s, '']'', '']'' and ''].'' These poems appear to have been written either in an attempt to win the patronage of a rich benefactor (as was common at the time) or as the result of such patronage. For example, ''The Rape of Lucrece'' and ''Venus and Adonis'' were both dedicated to Shakespeare's patron, ].
			{{Quote box|align=right|quote=<poem>
	In addition, Shakespeare wrote the short poem '']''. The anthology ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' was attributed to him upon its first publication in 1599, but in fact only five of its poems are by Shakespeare and the attribution was withdrawn in the second edition.
			Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
			Thou art more lovely and more temperate&nbsp;...
			</poem>
			|source=—Opening lines from Shakespeare's ].{{sfn|Mowat|Werstine|n.d.}}}}
			The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, ], whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication.{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=268–269}} Critics praise the ''Sonnets'' as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=177}}
	==Style==		==Style==
			{{Main|Shakespeare's writing style}}
	], London.]]
	Shakespeare's works have been a major influence on subsequent theatre. Not only did Shakespeare create some of the most admired plays in ], he also transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through ], ], ], ], and ].<ref>''Shakespeare's Reading'' by Robert S. Miola, Oxford University Press, 2000.</ref> His poetic artistry helped raise the status of popular theatre, permitting it to be admired by intellectuals as well as by those seeking pure entertainment.
			Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama.{{sfn|Clemen|2005a|p=150}} The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in '']'', in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in '']'' has been described as stilted.{{sfn|Frye|2005|pp=105, 177}}{{sfn|Clemen|2005b|p=29}}
	Theatre was changing when Shakespeare first arrived in London in the late 1580s or early 1590s. Previously, the most common forms of popular English theatre were the ] ]s. These plays, which blend ] with ] and ], were ] in which the characters are ] moral attributes who validate the virtues of ]ly life by prompting the ] to choose such a life over evil. The characters and plot situations are ] rather than realistic. As a child, Shakespeare would likely have been exposed to this type of play (along with ]s and ]s).<ref>''Shakespeare's Reading'' by Robert S. Miola, Oxford University Press, 2000.</ref> Meanwhile, at the universities, academic plays were being staged based on ] ]s. These plays, often performed in ], used a more exact and academically respectable poetic style than the morality plays, but they were also more static, valuing lengthy speeches over physical action.
			]'' by ], 1795, is an illustration of two similes in ''Macbeth'':<poem>
	By the late 16th century, the popularity of morality and academic plays waned as the ] took hold, and playwrights like ] and ] began to revolutionise theatre. Their plays blended the old morality drama with academic theatre to produce a new ] form. The new drama had the poetic grandeur and philosophical depth of the academic play and the bawdy populism of the moralities. However, it was more ambiguous and complex in its meanings, and less concerned with simple moral allegories. Inspired by this new style, Shakespeare took these changes to a new level, creating plays that not only resonated on an emotional level with audiences but also explored and debated the basic elements of what it means to be human.
			"And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
			Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
			Upon the sightless couriers of the air."{{sfn|de Sélincourt|1909|p=174}}
			</poem>]]
			However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening ] of '']'' has its roots in the self-declaration of ] in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays.{{sfn|Brooke|2004|p=69}}{{sfn|Bradbrook|2004|p=195}} No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with '']'' perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles.{{sfn|Clemen|2005b|p=63}} By the time of ''Romeo and Juliet'', '']'', and '']'' in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.
	==Reputation==
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]!-->
	{{main|Shakespeare's reputation}}
	Shakespeare's reputation has grown considerably since his own time. During his lifetime and shortly after his death, Shakespeare was well-regarded but not considered the supreme poet of his age. He was included in some contemporary lists of leading poets, but he lacked the stature of ] or ]. After the ] stage ban of 1642–1660, the new ] theatre companies had the previous generation of playwrights as the mainstay of their repertory, most of all the phenomenally popular ], but also ] and Shakespeare. As with other older playwrights, Shakespeare's plays were mercilessly adapted by later dramatists for the ] with little of the reverence that would later develop.
			Shakespeare's standard poetic form was ], composed in ]. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the ], with the risk of monotony.{{sfn|Frye|2005|p=185}} Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as '']'' and '']''. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:{{sfn|Wright|2004|p=868}}
	Beginning in the late 17th century, Shakespeare began to be considered the supreme English-language playwright (and, to a lesser extent, poet). Initially this reputation focused on Shakespeare as a dramatic poet, to be studied on the printed page rather than in the theatre. By the early 19th century, though, Shakespeare began hitting peaks of fame and popularity. During this time, theatrical productions of Shakespeare provided spectacle and melodrama for the masses and were extremely popular. ] critics such as ] then raised admiration for Shakespeare to adulation or '']'' (from bard + idolatry), in line with the Romantic reverence for the poet as prophet and genius. In the middle to late 19th century, Shakespeare also became an emblem of English pride and a "rallying-sign", as ] wrote in 1841, for the whole ].
			{{blockquote|<poem>Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
	This reverence has provoked a negative reaction. In the 21st century most inhabitants of the ] encounter Shakespeare at school at a young age, and there is an association by some students of his work with boredom and incomprehension and of "high art" not easily appreciated by popular culture, an ironic fate considering the social mix of Shakespeare's audience. At the same time, Shakespeare's plays remain more frequently staged than the works of any other playwright and are frequently ]—including ] movies specifically marketed to broad teenage audiences.
			That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
			Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
			And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know
			Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well&nbsp;...</poem>
			|
			|''Hamlet'', Act 5, Scene 2, 4–8{{sfn|Wright|2004|p=868}}}}
			After ''Hamlet'', Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic ] described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical".{{sfn|Bradley|1991|p=91}} In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included ], irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length.{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=42–46}} In '']'', for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "...&nbsp;pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air&nbsp;..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense.{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=42–46}} The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.{{sfn|McDonald|2006|pp=36, 39, 75}}
	{{seealso|Timeline of Shakespeare criticism}}
			Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre.{{sfn|Gibbons|1993|p=4}} Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as ] and ].{{sfn|Gibbons|1993|pp=1–4}} He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama.{{sfn|Gibbons|1993|pp=1–7, 15}} As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In ], he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.{{sfn|McDonald|2006|p=13}}{{sfn|Meagher|2003|p=358}}
	==Speculations about Shakespeare==
	===Identity===
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]!-->
	{{main|Shakespearean authorship}}
	Over the years such figures as ], ] and ]<ref>in his work </ref> have expressed disbelief that the man from Stratford-upon-Avon actually produced the works attributed to him. Some of these claims necessarily rely on ] to explain the lack of direct historical evidence for them, although their advocates also point to evidentiary gaps in the orthodox history. Most professional scholars consider the argument baseless, and attribute the debate to the scarcity and ambiguity of many of the historical records of Shakespeare's life.
			==Legacy==
	], the 17th ], an English nobleman and intimate of Queen Elizabeth, became the most prominent alternative candidate for authorship of the Shakespeare canon, after having been identified in the 1920s. Oxford partisans note the similarities between the Earl's life, and events and sentiments depicted in the plays and sonnets. The principal hurdle for the ] is the evidence that many of the Shakespeare plays were written after their candidate's death, but well within the lifespan of William Shakespeare. ] is considered by some to be the most highly qualified to have written the works of Shakespeare. It has been speculated that Marlowe's recorded death in 1593 was faked for various reasons and that Marlowe went into hiding, subsequently writing under the name of William Shakespeare; this is called the ]. ] is another proposed author for the Shakespeare works. Besides having travelled to some of the countries in which the plays are set, he could also have read the Shakespeare sources in their original Greek, Italian, Hebrew, or French. He described himself as a "Concealed Poet" and was alive at the time of the publication of the ] in 1623. Arguments against Bacon include the suggestion that he had no time to write so many plays, and that his style is different from Shakespeare's.
			===Influence===
			{{Main|Shakespeare's influence}}
			], 1793–1794.]]
			Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of ], plot, ], and genre.{{sfn|Chambers|1944|p=35}} Until ''Romeo and Juliet'', for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.{{sfn|Levenson|2000|pp=49–50}} ] had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds.{{sfn|Clemen|1987|p=179}} His work heavily influenced later poetry. The ] attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic ] described all English verse dramas from ] to ] as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."{{sfn|Steiner|1996|p=145}} ], considered by many to be the most important English poet after Shakespeare, wrote in tribute: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment/ Hast built thyself a live-long monument."<ref>{{Cite web |author=Poetry Foundation |date=6 January 2023 |title=On Shakespeare. 1630 by John Milton |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46453/on-shakespeare-1630 |access-date=6 January 2023 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=6 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106172927/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46453/on-shakespeare-1630 |url-status=live }}</ref>
	A question in mainstream academia addresses whether Shakespeare himself wrote every word of his commonly accepted plays, given that collaboration between dramatists routinely occurred in the Elizabethan theatre. Serious academic work continues to attempt to ascertain the authorship of plays and poems of the time, both those attributed to Shakespeare and others.
			Shakespeare influenced novelists such as ], ], and ]. The American novelist ]'s soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his ] in '']'' is a classic ], inspired by ''King Lear''.{{sfn|Bryant|1998|p=82}} Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works, including ]'s ] and ]'s ballet ]. His work has inspired several operas, among them ]'s ], '']'' and ], whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays.{{sfn|Gross|2003|pp=641–642}} Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the ], while ]'s 1745 painting of actor ] playing Richard III was decisive in establishing the genre of theatrical portraiture in Britain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=David Francis |last2=Swindells |first2=Julia |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre 1737–1832 |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press|page=206}}</ref> The Swiss Romantic artist ], a friend of ], even translated ''Macbeth'' into German.{{sfn|Paraisz|2006|p=130}} The psychoanalyst ] drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.{{sfn|Bloom|1995|p=346}} Shakespeare has been a rich source for filmmakers; ] adapted ''Macbeth'' and ''King Lear'' as '']'' and ], respectively. Other examples of Shakespeare on film include ]'s ], ]'s '']'' and ]'s documentary '']''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lane |first=Anthony |date=25 November 1996 |title=Tights! Camera! Action! |magazine=] |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/11/25/tights-camera-action |access-date=3 February 2023 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203010308/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/11/25/tights-camera-action |url-status=live }}</ref> ], a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, directed and starred in ], ] and '']'', in which he plays ], which Welles himself called his best work.<ref>BBC Arena. ''The Orson Welles Story'' BBC Two/BBC Four. 01:51:46-01:52:16. Broadcast 18 May 1982. Retrieved 30 January 2023</ref>
	===Sexuality===
	<!--This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]!-->
	{{main|Sexuality of William Shakespeare}}
	]" of the sonnets.]]
	Homoerotic allusions in a number of his works have led commentators to contemplate Shakespeare's possible ]. While twenty-six of the ''Sonnets'' are love poems addressed to a married woman (the "]"), one hundred and twenty-six are addressed to a young man (known as the "]"). The amorous tone of the latter group, which focuses on the young man's beauty and the writer's devotion, has all along been interpreted as suggestive evidence for Shakespeare's being bisexual. For example, in 1954, ] wrote that the sonnets are "too lover-like for ordinary male friendship" (although he added that they are not the poetry of "full-blown ]") and that he "found no real parallel to such language between friends in the sixteenth-century literature."<ref></ref> Nonetheless, others interpret them as referring to intense ] rather than sexual love.
			In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now,{{sfn|Cercignani|1981|p=}} and his use of language helped shape modern English.{{sfn|Crystal|2001|pp=55–65, 74}} ] quoted him more often than any other author in his '']'', the first serious work of its type.{{sfn|Wain|1975|p=194}} Expressions such as "with bated breath" (''Merchant of Venice'') and "a foregone conclusion" (''Othello'') have found their way into everyday English speech.{{sfn|Johnson|2002|p=12}}{{sfn|Crystal|2001|p=63}}
	===Religion===
	In 1559, five years before Shakespeare's birth, the ] finally severed the ] from the ] after decades of uncertainty. In the ensuing years, extreme pressure was placed on England's Catholics to convert to the ] Church of England, and ] laws made Catholicism illegal. Some historians maintain that in Shakespeare's lifetime there was a substantial and widespread quiet resistance to the newly imposed faith.<ref>''The Shakespeares and ‘the Old Faith’'' (1946) by John Henry de Groot; ''Die Verborgene Existenz Des William Shakespeare: Dichter Und Rebell Im Katholischen Untergrund'' (2001) by Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel; ''Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare'' (2005) by Clare Asquith.</ref> Some scholars, using both historical and literary evidence, have argued that Shakespeare was one of these recusants, but this cannot be proven absolutely.
			Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the ];" ] was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dw.com/en/how-shakespeare-was-turned-into-a-german/a-19208040 |title=How Shakespeare was turned into a German |date=22 April 2016 |website=DW |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-date=3 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303064302/https://www.dw.com/en/how-shakespeare-was-turned-into-a-german/a-19208040 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20160422/unser-shakespeare-why-germans-are-so-obsessed-with-the-british-bard-shakespeare |title=Unser Shakespeare: Germans' mad obsession with the Bard |date=22 April 2016 |newspaper=The Local Germany |access-date=29 November 2019 |archive-date=3 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303064306/https://www.thelocal.de/20160422/unser-shakespeare-why-germans-are-so-obsessed-with-the-british-bard-shakespeare |url-status=live }}</ref> Actor and theatre director ] writes, "this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture – German, Italian, Russian – was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone."<ref>{{cite news |title=Simon Callow: What the Dickens? Well, William Shakespeare was the greatest after all... |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/simon-callow-what-the-dickens-well-william-shakespeare-was-the-greatest-after-all-7640214.html |access-date=2 September 2020 |work=The Independent |archive-date=14 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414052902/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/simon-callow-what-the-dickens-well-william-shakespeare-was-the-greatest-after-all-7640214.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
	There is evidence that members of Shakespeare's family were recusant Catholics. The strongest evidence is a tract professing secret Catholicism signed by ], father of the poet. The tract was found in the rafters of Shakespeare's birthplace in the ], and was seen and described by the reputable scholar ]. However, the tract has since been lost, and its authenticity cannot therefore be proven. John Shakespeare was also listed as one who did not attend church services, but this was "for feare of processe for Debtte", according to the commissioners, not because he was a recusant <ref>Mutschmann, H. and Wentersdorf, K., ''Shakespeare and Catholicism'', Sheed and Ward: New York, 1952, p. 401.</ref>.
			According to '']'', Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third ].<ref>{{cite web|title=William Shakespeare:Ten startling Great Bard-themed world records|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2014/4/william-shakespeare-turns-450-ten-startling-great-bard-themed-world-records-56900|website=Guinness World Records|date=23 April 2014}}</ref>
	Shakespeare's mother, ], was a member of a conspicuous and determinedly Catholic family in ] <ref>Peter Ackroyd, ''Shakespeare: The Biography''. Doubleday, 2005. p. 29</ref>. In 1606, William's daughter Susanna was listed as one of the residents of Stratford refusing to take Holy Communion, which may suggest Catholic sympathies.<ref> Peter Ackroyd, ''Shakespeare: The Biography''. Doubleday, 2005. p. 451</ref> Archdeacon ], an eighteenth century Anglican cleric, allegedly wrote of Shakespeare: "He dyed a Papyst".<ref> Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. (Accessed Dec. 23, 2005.)</ref> Four of the six schoolmasters at the grammar school during Shakespeare's youth were Catholic sympathisers <ref> Peter Ackroyd, ''Shakespeare: The Biography''. Doubleday, 2005. pp. 63–64 </ref>, and ], likely one of Shakespeare’s teachers, later became a ] <ref></ref>.
			===Critical reputation===
	While none of this evidence proves Shakespeare's own Catholic sympathies, one historian, Clare Asquith, has claimed that those sympathies are detectable in his writing. Asquith claims that Shakespeare uses terms such as "high" when referring to Catholic characters and "low" when referring to Protestants (the terms refer to their ]s) and "light" or "fair" to refer to Catholic and "dark" to refer to Protestant, a reference to certain clerical garbs. Asquith also detects in Shakespeare's work the use of a simple code used by the Jesuit underground in England which took the form of a mercantile terminology wherein priests were 'merchants' and souls were 'jewels', the people pursuing them were 'creditors', and the ] gallows where the members of the underground died was called 'the place of much trading'.<ref>''Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare'' (2005) by Clare Asquith.</ref> The Jesuit underground used this code so their correspondences looked like innocuous commercial letters, and Asquith claims that Shakespeare also used this code.<ref>''Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare'' (2005) by Clare Asquith.</ref>
			<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]! -->
			{{Main|Reputation of William Shakespeare|Timeline of Shakespeare criticism}}
			{{Quote box|align=right|quote=He was not of an age, but for all time.|source=—]{{sfn|Jonson|1996|p=10}}}}
	Needless to say, Shakespeare’s Catholicism is by no means universally accepted. The '']'' questions not only his Catholicism, but whether "Shakespeare was not infected with the ], which ... was rampant in the more cultured society of the Elizabethan age."<ref> Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. (Accessed Dec. 23, 2005.)</ref> ], of Harvard, suspects Catholic sympathies of some kind or another in Shakespeare and his family but considers the writer to be a less than pious person with essentially worldly motives {{fact}}. An increasing number of scholars do look to matters biographical and evidence from Shakespeare’s work such as the placement of young Hamlet as a student at ] while old Hamlet’s ghost is in ], the sympathetic view of religious life ("thrice blessed"), ] in "]", and sympathetic allusions to martyred English Jesuit ] in '']''<ref> by C. Richard Desper, Elizabethan Review, Spring/Summer 1995.</ref> and many other matters as suggestive of a Catholic worldview. However, these may have been continuations of old literary conventions rather than determined Catholicism just as the ] ballads continued to have friars in them after the Reformation.
			Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise.{{sfn|Dominik|1988|p=9}}{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=267}} In 1598, the cleric and author ] singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy.{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=265}}{{sfn|Greer|1986|p=9}} The authors of ] at ], numbered him with ], ], and ].{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=266}} In the ], ] called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", although he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art" (lacked skill).{{sfn|Jonson|1996|p=10}}
	Furthermore, Shakespeare's plays sometimes criticise Catholicism. The Porter's speech in '']'' has been read by some as a criticism of the ] of Father ] after it became topical in 1606 due to his execution. <ref>http://www.eastdonsc.vic.edu.au/home/pgardner/teaching/Macbeth_notes.html Elloway, D.R., ''An Introduction to Macbeth''</ref>
			Between ] of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below ] and Ben Jonson.{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=269}} ], for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic ] rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare".{{sfn|Dryden|1889|p=71}} He also famously remarked that Shakespeare "was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there."<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Dryden (1631–1700). Shakespeare. Beaumont and Fletcher. Ben Jonson. Vol. III. Seventeenth Century. Henry Craik, ed. 1916. English Prose |url=https://www.bartleby.com/209/534.html |access-date=20 July 2022 |website=www.bartleby.com |archive-date=20 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720101326/https://www.bartleby.com/209/534.html |url-status=live }}</ref> For several decades, Rymer's view held sway. But during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and, like Dryden, to acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of ] in 1765 and ] in 1790, added to his growing reputation.{{sfn|Grady|2001b|pp=270–272}}{{sfn|Levin|1986|p=217}} By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet,{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=270}} and described as the "] of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").{{sfn|Dobson|1992|pp=185–186}}{{efn|The "national cult" of Shakespeare, and the "bard" identification, dates from September 1769, when the actor ] organised a week-long carnival at Stratford to mark the town council awarding him the ] of the town. In addition to presenting the town with a statue of Shakespeare, Garrick composed a doggerel verse, lampooned in the London newspapers, naming the banks of the Avon as the birthplace of the "matchless Bard".{{sfn|McIntyre|1999|pp=412–432}}}} In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers ], ], ], and ].{{sfn|Grady|2001b|pp=272–74}}{{efn|Grady cites ]'s '']'' (1733); ] '']'' (1795); ]'s two-part pamphlet ''Racine et Shakespeare'' (1823–25); and ]'s prefaces to '']'' (1827) and '']'' (1864).{{sfn|Grady|2001b|pp=272–274}}}}
	==See also==
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	==Bibliography==
	Shakespeare's plays are traditionally organised into three groups: Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories. The following list separates the plays according to their classification in the ], the first published edition of Shakespeare's plays. Today, some of the comedies are usually considered as a separate subgenre, the ] or tragicomedies; these plays are highlighted with an asterisk (*).
			]'s garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in ], typical of many created in the 19th and early 20th centuries]]
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	===Comedies===
	{{main|Shakespearean comedies}}
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	*'']''* (not included in the First Folio)
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			During the ], Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher ], and the critic ] translated his plays in the spirit of ].{{sfn|Levin|1986|p=223}} In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation.{{sfn|Sawyer|2003|p=113}} "This King Shakespeare," the essayist ] wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible".{{sfn|Carlyle|1841|p=161}} The ] produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale.{{sfn|Schoch|2002|pp=58–59}} The playwright and critic ] mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "]", claiming that the new ] of ]'s plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.{{sfn|Grady|2001b|p=276}}
	{{col-3}}
			The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the ]. The ] and the ] in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director ] devised an ] under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic ] argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern.{{sfn|Grady|2001a|pp=22–26}} Eliot, along with ] and the school of ], led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for ] studies of Shakespeare.{{sfn|Grady|2001a|p=24}} Comparing Shakespeare's accomplishments to those of leading figures in philosophy and theology, ] wrote, "Shakespeare was larger than ] and than ]. He ''encloses'' us because we ''see'' with his fundamental perceptions."{{sfn|Bloom|2008|p=xii}}
	===Histories===
	{{main|Shakespearean histories}}
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			==Speculation==
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	===Tragedies===		===Authorship===
			<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]! -->
	{{main|Shakespearean tragedy}}
			{{Main|Shakespeare authorship question}}
	*'']''
			Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him.{{sfn|Shapiro|2010|pp=77–78}} Proposed alternative candidates include ], ], and ].{{sfn|Gibson|2005|pp=48, 72, 124}} Several "group theories" have also been proposed.{{sfn|McMichael|Glenn|1962|p=56}} All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a ], with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution,{{sfn|The New York Times|2007}} but interest in the subject, particularly the ], continues into the 21st century.{{sfn|Kathman|2003|pp=620, 625–626}}{{sfn|Love|2002|pp=194–209}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1991|pp=430–440}}
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	===Poems===
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	===Lost plays===		===Religion===
			{{Main|Religious views of William Shakespeare}}
	*'']''
			Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion,{{efn|For example, ], the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear—in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."{{sfn|Rowse|1988|p=240}}}} but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. ] uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the ], where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried.
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			Some scholars are of the view that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law.{{sfn|Pritchard|1979|p=3}} Shakespeare's mother, ], certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, ], found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity.{{sfn|Wood|2003|pp=75–78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|pp=22–23}} In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=416}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=41–42, 286}} In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter ] in Stratford.{{sfn|Wood|2003|p=78}}{{sfn|Ackroyd|2006|p=416}}{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1987|pp=41–42, 286}}
	===Apocrypha===
	{{main|Shakespeare Apocrypha}}
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	===Shakespeare on screen===
	{{main|Shakespeare on screen}}
	* ]
	* ]
			Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.{{sfn|Wilson|2004|p=34}}{{sfn|Shapiro|2005|p=167}}
	==Notes==
	<div class="references-small">
	<references />
	<!--READ ME!! PLEASE DO NOT JUST ADD NEW NOTES AT THE BOTTOM. See the instructions above on ordering. -->
	</div>
	==Further reading==		===Sexuality===
			<!-- This is a SUMMARY. Please don't add new information or details here, but instead at the main article ]! -->
			{{Main|Sexuality of William Shakespeare}}
			]
	*], ''Nothing Like The Sun'' (1964). Fictionalised biography
	*], '']'' (1970). Biography
	*], ''Will in the World'' (2004). Biography
	*], ''Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare'' (2005)
	*], ''Shakespeare Goes to Paris: How the Bard Conquered France'' (2005)
	*
	*], ''Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human'' (1999). Literary Criticism
	*], ''In Search of Shakespeare'' (2003) Historical background, BBC Books, ISBN 0-563-52141-4 (paperback). This work is a companion to the television series of the same title.
	*], ''Shakespeare: The Biography'' *(2005). Biography
	*], ''Shakespeare the Man'' (St. Martin’s Press, revised ed. 1988). Biography
	*], ''William Shakespeare, A Compact Documentary Life'' (Oxford U. Press, 1977). Biography
	*], ''The Well-Wrought Urn'' (Harvest, 1947). This collection of criticism contains a classic essay on ''Macbeth''.
	*], ''What Happens in Hamlet'' (Cambridge U. Press, 1970). Literary Criticism
	*], ''The Shakespearean Moment and Its Place in the Poetry of the 17th Century'' (Vintage, 1960).
			Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old ], who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical,{{sfn|Lee|1900|p=55}} and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love.{{sfn|Casey|1998}}{{sfn|Pequigney|1985}}{{sfn|Evans|1996|p=132}} The 26 so-called ] sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.{{sfn|Fort|1927|pp=406–414}}
	==External links==
	{{portal|name=Shakespeare|image=Shakespeare.jpg}}
	{{commons|William Shakespeare}}
	{{Wikisource author}}
	{{wikiquote}}
	{{wikibookspar|Study Guide|Shakespeare}}
	* includes the complete works, an advanced search function, a complete concordance, and some statistics about the works.
	*
	*
	*{{gutenberg author|id=William_Shakespeare|name=William Shakespeare}}
	*
	* at University of Guelph
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*
			===Portraiture===
	{{Shakespeare}}
			{{Main|Portraits of Shakespeare}}
			No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|first=Constance C.|last=McPhee|title=Shakespeare Portrayed|publisher=]|date=May 2017|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=10 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230910160150/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, re-paintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|title=Shakespeare Portrait Is A Fake|work=]|date=22 April 2005|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419034826/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1981|p=190}}
			Some scholars suggest that the ], which ] approved of as a good likeness,{{sfn|Cooper|2006|pp=48, 57}} and his ] provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/19/shakespeare-grave-effigy-believed-to-be-definitive-likeness|first=Dalya|last= Alberge|title='Self-satisfied pork butcher': Shakespeare grave effigy believed to be definitive likeness|work=]|date=19 March 2021|access-date=16 April 2024}}</ref> Of the claimed paintings, art historian ] concluded that the ] had "the strongest claim of any of the known contenders to be a true portrait of Shakespeare". After a three-year study supported by the ], the portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/02/arts.books|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|title=The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably|work=]|date=2 March 2006|access-date=15 April 2024}}</ref>
	{{Persondata
	|NAME=Shakespeare, William
			==See also==
	|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
			* ]
	|SHORT DESCRIPTION=] ] and ]
			* ]
	|DATE OF BIRTH=], ]
			* ]
	|PLACE OF BIRTH=], ], ]
			* '']''
	|DATE OF DEATH=], ]
			* '']''
	|PLACE OF DEATH=], ], ]
			* ]
			* ]
			==References==
			===Notes===
			{{notelist|30em}}
			===Citations===
			<!-- READ ME!! PLEASE DO ''not'' JUST ADD NEW NOTES AT THE BOTTOM. Use ref tags in the text. -->
			{{reflist|20em}}
			===Sources===
			:'''Books'''
			{{refbegin|30em}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: The Biography
			|last = Ackroyd
			|first = Peter
			|author-link = Peter Ackroyd
			|publisher = Vintage
			|year = 2006
			|location = London
			|isbn = 978-0-7493-8655-9
			|oclc = 1036948826
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeare00pete
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = A Life of William Shakespeare
			|url = https://archive.org/details/lifeofwilliamsha00adam_0
			|last = Adams
			|first = Joseph Quincy
			|author-link = Joseph Quincy Adams
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Boston
			|year = 1923
			|oclc = 1935264
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakspere's Small Latine & Lesse Greek
			|last = Baldwin
			|first = T.W.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Urbana
			|year = 1944
			|volume = 1
			|oclc = 359037
			|url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001112103
			|access-date = 5 May 2023
			|archive-date = 5 May 2023
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230505000357/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001112103
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's Theater: The Stuart Years
			|last = Barroll
			|first = Leeds
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Ithaca
			|year = 1991
			|isbn = 978-0-8014-2479-3
			|oclc = 23652422
			|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsplaguesh0000barr
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Soul of the Age
			|last = Bate
			|first = Jonathan
			|author-link = Jonathan Bate
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2008
			|isbn = 978-0-670-91482-1
			|oclc = 237192578
	}}		}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Marlowe and the English literary scene
			|last = Bednarz
			|first = James P.
			|pages = –105
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00chen_319
			|url-access = limited
			|editor-last = Cheney
			|editor-first = Patrick Gerard
			|year = 2004
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-511-99905-5
			|oclc = 53967052
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521820340
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: A Biographical Handbook
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearebiogr00bent
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Bentley
			|first = G.E.
			|author-link = Gerald Eades Bentley
			|year = 1961
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Haven
			|oclc = 356416
			|isbn = 978-0-313-25042-2
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Changing Styles in Shakespeare
			|last = Berry
			|first = Ralph
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-1-315-88917-7
			|oclc = 868972698
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare
			|last = Bevington
			|first = David
			|author-link = David Bevington
			|year = 2002
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-631-22719-9
			|oclc = 49261061
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeare0000bevi
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
			|last = Bloom
			|first = Harold
			|author-link = Harold Bloom
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1995
			|isbn = 978-1-57322-514-4
			|oclc = 32013000
			|url = https://archive.org/details/westerncanonbook00bloo
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
			|last = Bloom
			|first = Harold
			|author-link = Harold Bloom
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1999
			|isbn = 978-1-57322-751-3
			|oclc = 39002855
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|last = Bloom
			|first = Harold
			|author-link = Harold Bloom
			|title = King Lear
			|editor1-last = Heims
			|editor1-first = Neil
			|series = Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2008
			|isbn = 978-0-7910-9574-4
			|oclc = 156874814
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakspere and His Predecessors
			|last = Boas
			|first = Frederick S.
			|series = The University series
			|author-link = Frederick S. Boas
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1896
			|ol = 20577303M
			|hdl = 2027/uc1.32106001899191
			|oclc = 221947650
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists
			|url = https://archive.org/details/oneditingshakesp0000bowe
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Bowers
			|first = Fredson
			|author-link = Fredson Bowers
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Philadelphia
			|year = 1955
			|oclc = 2993883
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Dictionary of Shakespeare
			|last = Boyce
			|first = Charles
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Ware
			|year = 1996
			|isbn = 978-1-85326-372-9
			|oclc = 36586014
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare's Recollection of Marlowe
			|last = Bradbrook
			|first = M.C.
			|author-link = M. C. Bradbrook
			|pages = 191–204
			|title = Shakespeare's Styles: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Muir
			|editor1-last = Edwards
			|editor1-first = Philip
			|editor2-last = Ewbank
			|editor2-first = Inga-Stina
			|editor2-link = Inga-Stina Ewbank
			|editor3-last = Hunter
			|editor3-first = G.K.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-521-61694-2
			|oclc = 61724586
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth
			|last = Bradley
			|first = A.C.
			|author-link = A. C. Bradley
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1991
			|isbn = 978-0-14-053019-3
			|oclc = 22662871
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Language and Speaker in Macbeth
			|last = Brooke
			|first = Nicholas
			|pages = 67–78
			|title = Shakespeare's Styles: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Muir
			|editor1-last = Edwards
			|editor1-first = Philip
			|editor2-last = Ewbank
			|editor2-first = Inga-Stina
			|editor2-link = Inga-Stina Ewbank
			|editor3-last = Hunter
			|editor3-first = G.K.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-521-61694-2
			|oclc = 61724586
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = ''Moby-Dick'' as Revolution
			|last = Bryant
			|first = John
			|pages = –90
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00levi
			|url-access = limited
			|editor-last = Levine
			|editor-first = Robert Steven
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 1998
			|isbn = 978-1-139-00037-6
			|oclc = 37442715
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521554772
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History
			|last = Carlyle
			|first = Thomas
			|author-link = Thomas Carlyle
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1841
			|oclc = 17473532
			|ol = 13561584M
			|hdl = 2027/hvd.hnlmmi
			|title-link = On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation
			|last = Cercignani
			|first = Fausto
			|author-link = Fausto Cercignani
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1981
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811937-1
			|oclc = 4642100
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareswork0000cerc
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Elizabethan Stage
			|last = Chambers
			|first = E.K.
			|author-link = E. K. Chambers
			|volume = 2
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1923
			|oclc = 336379
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811511-3
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems
			|last = Chambers
			|first = E.K.
			|author-link = E. K. Chambers
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1930a
			|volume = 1
			|oclc = 353406
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811774-2
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems
			|last = Chambers
			|first = E.K.
			|author-link = E. K. Chambers
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1930b
			|volume = 2
			|oclc = 353406
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811774-2
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespearean Gleanings
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareangle0000cham
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Chambers
			|first = E.K.
			|author-link = E. K. Chambers
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1944
			|oclc = 2364570
			|isbn = 978-0-8492-0506-4
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Soliloquies
			|last = Clemen
			|first = Wolfgang
			|author-link = Wolfgang Clemen
			|translator-last = Scott-Stokes
			|translator-first = Charity
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1987
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35277-2
			|oclc = 15108952
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Dramatic Art: Collected Essays
			|last = Clemen
			|first = Wolfgang
			|author-link = Wolfgang Clemen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 2005a
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35278-9
			|oclc = 1064833286
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Imagery
			|last = Clemen
			|first = Wolfgang
			|author-link = Wolfgang Clemen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|edition = 2nd
			|year = 2005b
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35280-2
			|oclc = 59136636
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Searching for Shakespeare
			|last = Cooper
			|first = Tarnya
			|author-link = Tarnya Cooper
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Haven
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-0-300-11611-3
			|oclc = 67294299
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Of Philosophers and Kings: Political Philosophy in Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'' and ''King Lear''
			|last = Craig
			|first = Leon Harold
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Toronto
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-8020-8605-1
			|oclc = 958558871
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Education in Tudor and Stuart England
			|last = Cressy
			|first = David
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1975
			|oclc = 2148260
			|isbn = 978-0-7131-5817-5
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
			|last = Crystal
			|first = David
			|author-link = David Crystal
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2001
			|isbn = 978-0-521-40179-1
			|oclc = 49960817
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgeencyclo00crys
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769
			|last = Dobson
			|first = Michael
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1992
			|isbn = 978-0-19-818323-5
			|oclc = 25631612
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare–Middleton Collaborations
			|last = Dominik
			|first = Mark
			|publisher = Alioth Press
			|location = Beaverton
			|year = 1988
			|isbn = 978-0-945088-01-1
			|oclc = 17300766
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakspere
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakspere01dowdgoog
			|last = Dowden
			|first = Edward
			|author-link = Edward Dowden
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1881
			|oclc = 8164385
			|ol = 6461529M
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Introduction
			|last = Drakakis
			|first = John
			|pages = –25
			|title = Alternative Shakespeares
			|editor-last = Drakakis
			|editor-first = John
			|year = 1985
			|location = New York
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-416-36860-4
			|oclc = 11842276
			|url = https://archive.org/details/alternativeshake0000unse
			|url-access = limited
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|last = Dryden
			|first = John
			|author-link = John Dryden
			|title = Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
			|editor-last = Arnold
			|editor-first = Thomas
			|editor-link = Tom Arnold (literary scholar)
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1889
			|oclc = 7847292
			|ol = 23752217M
			|hdl = 2027/umn.31951t00074232s
			|isbn = 978-81-7156-323-4
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = A Companion to Shakespeare's Works: The Histories
			|last1 = Dutton
			|first1 = Richard
			|last2 = Howard
			|first2 = Jean E.
			|author-link2 = Jean E. Howard
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|volume = II
			|isbn = 978-0-631-22633-8
			|oclc = 50002219
			|year = 2003
			}}
			* {{Cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Romances: 1900–1957
			|last = Edwards
			|first = Phillip
			|pages = 1–18
			|series = ]
			|volume = 11
			|year = 1958
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-1-139-05291-7
			|oclc = 220909427
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521064244.001
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Elizabethan Essays
			|last = Eliot
			|first = T.S.
			|author-link = T. S. Eliot
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1934
			|oclc = 9738219
			|isbn = 978-0-15-629051-7
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Sonnets
			|last = Shakespeare
			|first = William
			|author-link = William Shakespeare
			|display-authors = 0
			|year = 1996
			|editor-last = Evans
			|editor-first = G. Blakemore
			|editor-link = G. Blakemore Evans
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|volume = 26
			|series = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-521-22225-9
			|oclc = 32272082
			|ref = {{harvid|Evans|1996}}
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/sonnets0000shak_s5k7
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Playhouses and players
			|last = Foakes
			|first = R.A.
			|author-link = R. A. Foakes
			|pages =
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama
			|editor1-last = Braunmuller
			|editor1-first = A.R.
			|editor2-last = Hattaway
			|editor2-first = Michael
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 1990
			|isbn = 978-0-521-38662-3
			|oclc = 20561419
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_m8d3
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = 'I'm not a feminist director but...': Recent Feminist Productions of ''The Taming of the Shrew''
			|last = Friedman
			|first = Michael D.
			|pages = 159–174
			|title = Acts of Criticism: Performance Matters in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
			|editor1-last = Nelsen
			|editor1-first = Paul
			|editor2-last = Schlueter
			|editor2-first = June
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Jersey
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-0-8386-4059-3
			|oclc = 60644679
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Art of the Dramatist
			|last = Frye
			|first = Roland Mushat
			|author-link = Roland Frye
			|year = 2005
			|location = London; New York
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35289-5
			|oclc = 493249616
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare and Multiplicity
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearemulti0000gibb
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Gibbons
			|first = Brian
			|year = 1993
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-511-55310-3
			|oclc = 27066411
			|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511553103
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Shakespeare Claimants: A Critical Survey of the Four Principal Theories Concerning the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays
			|last = Gibson
			|first = H.N.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35290-1
			|oclc = 255028016
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Modernity, Modernism and Postmodernism in the Twentieth Century's Shakespeare
			|last = Grady
			|first = Hugh
			|pages = –35
			|title = Shakespeare and Modern Theatre: The Performance of Modernity
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearemoder00bris
			|url-access = limited
			|editor1-last = Bristol
			|editor1-first = Michael
			|editor2-last = McLuskie
			|editor2-first = Kathleen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 2001a
			|isbn = 978-0-415-21984-6
			|oclc = 45394137
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare criticism, 1600–1900
			|last = Grady
			|first = Hugh
			|pages = 265–278
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare
			|editor1-last = de Grazia
			|editor1-first = Margreta
			|editor2-last = Wells
			|editor2-first = Stanley
			|editor2-link = Stanley Wells
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2001b
			|isbn = 978-1-139-00010-9
			|oclc = 44777325
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521650941.017
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
			|last = Greenblatt
			|first = Stephen
			|author-link = Stephen Greenblatt
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-7126-0098-9
			|oclc = 57750725
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Sixteenth/Early Seventeenth Century
			|series = The Norton Anthology of English Literature
			|volume = 2
			|editor1-last = Greenblatt
			|editor1-first = Stephen
			|editor1-link = Stephen Greenblatt
			|editor2-last = Abrams
			|editor2-first = Meyer Howard
			|editor2-link = Meyer Howard Abrams
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2012
			|isbn = 978-0-393-91250-0
			|oclc = 778369012
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare
			|last = Greer
			|first = Germaine
			|author-link = Germaine Greer
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1986
			|isbn = 978-0-19-287538-9
			|oclc = 12369950
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeare00gree
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Cymbeline
			|last = Shakespeare
			|first = William
			|author-link = William Shakespeare
			|display-authors = 0
			|editor1-last = Holland
			|editor1-first = Peter
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2000
			|isbn = 978-0-14-071472-2
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y8SQ3SJTIYsC
			|oclc = 43639603
			|ref = {{harvid|Holland|2000}}
			|access-date = 14 June 2023
			|archive-date = 29 August 2023
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230829192843/https://books.google.com/books?id=y8SQ3SJTIYsC
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: A Life
			|last = Honan
			|first = Park
			|author-link = Park Honan
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1998
			|isbn = 978-0-19-811792-6
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearelife00hona
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: The 'Lost Years'
			|last = Honigmann
			|first = E.A.J.
			|author-link = E. A. J. Honigmann
			|edition = Revised
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Manchester
			|year = 1998
			|url = {{google books|plainurl=y|id=rKMWPwtV7BoC}}
			|isbn = 978-0-7190-5425-9
			|oclc = 40517369
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language
			|last = Johnson
			|first = Samuel
			|author-link = Samuel Johnson
			|editor-last = Lynch
			|editor-first = Jack
			|publisher = Levenger Press
			|location = Delray Beach
			|year = 2002
			|orig-year = 1755
			|isbn = 978-1-84354-296-4
			|oclc = 56645909
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = To the memory of my beloued, The AVTHOR MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: AND what he hath left vs
			|last = Jonson
			|first = Ben
			|author-link = Ben Jonson
			|title = The First Folio of Shakespeare
			|editor-last = Hinman
			|editor-first = Charlton
			|editor-link = Charlton Hinman
			|location = New York
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 1996
			|orig-year = 1623
			|edition = 2nd
			|url = {{google books|plainurl=y|id=U7-iIzIF3-IC?hl}}
			|isbn = 978-0-393-03985-6
			|oclc = 34663304
			}}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare After Theory
			|last = Kastan
			|first = David Scott
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1999
			|isbn = 978-0-415-90112-3
			|oclc = 40125084
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Age of Shakespeare
			|last = Kermode
			|first = Frank
			|author-link = Frank Kermode
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-297-84881-3
			|oclc = 52970550
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare
			|editor1-last = Kinney
			|editor1-first = Arthur F.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2012
			|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qT6zl-Nyw8cC
			|isbn = 978-0-19-956610-5
			|oclc = 775497396
			|access-date = 14 June 2023
			|archive-date = 29 August 2023
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230829210414/https://books.google.com/books?id=qT6zl-Nyw8cC
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time
			|last = Knutson
			|first = Roslyn
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2001
			|isbn = 978-0-511-48604-3
			|oclc = 45505919
			|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511486043
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Life and Work: Being an Abridgment Chiefly for the Use of Students of a Life of A Life of William Shakespeare
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareslif01leegoog
			|last = Lee
			|first = Sidney
			|author-link = Sidney Lee
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1900
			|ol = OL21113614M
			|oclc = 355968
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Romeo and Juliet
			|last = Shakespeare
			|first = William
			|author-link = William Shakespeare
			|display-authors = 0
			|year = 2000
			|editor-last = Levenson
			|editor-first = Jill L.
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-19-281496-8
			|oclc = 41991397
			|ref = {{harvid|Levenson|2000}}
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Critical Approaches to Shakespeare from 1660 to 1904
			|last = Levin
			|first = Harry
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies
			|editor-last = Wells
			|editor-first = Stanley
			|editor-link = Stanley Wells
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 1986
			|isbn = 978-0-521-31841-9
			|oclc = 12945372
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00well
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Attributing Authorship: An Introduction
			|last = Love
			|first = Harold
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2002
			|isbn = 978-0-511-48316-5
			|oclc = 70741078
			|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511483165
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespearean Suspect Texts: The 'Bad' Quartos and Their Contexts
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareansus0000magu
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Maguire
			|first = Laurie E.
			|year = 1996
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-511-55313-4
			|oclc = 726828014
			|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511553134
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Late Style
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareslate0000mcdo
			|url-access = registration
			|last = McDonald
			|first = Russ
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-0-511-48378-3
			|oclc = 252529245
			|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511483783
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Garrick
			|last = McIntyre
			|first = Ian
			|year = 1999
			|location = Harmondsworth
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-14-028323-5
			|oclc = 43581619
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare and his Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy
			|last1 = McMichael
			|first1 = George
			|last2 = Glenn
			|first2 = Edgar M.
			|publisher = Odyssey Press
			|location = New York
			|year = 1962
			|oclc = 2113359
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Pursuing Shakespeare's Dramaturgy: Some Contexts, Resources, and Strategies in his Playmaking
			|last = Meagher
			|first = John C.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Jersey
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-8386-3993-1
			|oclc = 51985016
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Tragic Sequence
			|last = Muir
			|first = Kenneth
			|author-link = Kenneth Muir (scholar)
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35325-0
			|oclc = 62584912
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Stage
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearesstag0000nagl
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Nagler
			|first = A.M.
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Haven
			|year = 1958
			|isbn = 978-0-300-02689-4
			|oclc = 6942213
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = The Author, the Editor and the Translator: William Shakespeare, Alexander Chalmers and Sándor Petofi or the Nature of a Romantic Edition
			|last = Paraisz
			|first = Júlia
			|title = Editing Shakespeare
			|series = ]
			|volume = 59
			|pages = 124–135
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Cambridge
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-1-139-05271-9
			|oclc = 237058653
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521868386.010
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Such Is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare's Sonnets
			|last = Pequigney
			|first = Joseph
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Chicago
			|year = 1985
			|isbn = 978-0-226-65563-5
			|oclc = 11650519
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare Quartos and Folios: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare's Plays, 1594–1685
			|last = Pollard
			|first = Alfred W.
			|author-link = Alfred W. Pollard
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1909
			|oclc = 46308204
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Catholic Loyalism in Elizabethan England
			|last = Pritchard
			|first = Arnold
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Chapel Hill
			|year = 1979
			|isbn = 978-0-8078-1345-4
			|oclc = 4496552
			|url = https://archive.org/details/catholicloyalism0000prit
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare
			|last = Ribner
			|first = Irving
			|year = 2005
			|location = London
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35314-4
			|oclc = 253869825
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare and His Actors: Some Remarks on King Lear
			|last = Ringler
			|first = William Jr
			|pages = 123–134
			|title = In Lear from Study to Stage: Essays in Criticism
			|editor1-last = Ogden
			|editor1-first = James
			|editor2-last = Scouten
			|editor2-first = Arthur Hawley
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Jersey
			|year = 1997
			|isbn = 978-0-8386-3690-9
			|oclc = 35990360
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Poems: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Passionate Pilgrim, A Lover's Complaint
			|last = Shakespeare
			|first = William
			|author-link = William Shakespeare
			|display-authors = 0
			|editor-last = Roe
			|editor-first = John
			|year = 2006
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|series = ]
			|edition = 2nd revised
			|isbn = 978-0-521-85551-8
			|oclc = 64313051
			|ref = {{harvid|Roe|2006}}
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Some Account of the Life &c of Mr. William Shakespear
			|last = Rowe
			|first = Nicholas
			|author-link = Nicholas Rowe (writer)
			|orig-year = 1709
			|year = 2009
			|publisher = Pallas Athene
			|isbn = 9781843680567
			|url = https://archive.org/details/someaccountoflif0000rowe/mode/2up
			|url-access = registration
			|editor-last = Nicholl
			|editor-first = Charles
			|editor-link = Charles Nicholl (author)
			|ref = {{harvid|Rowe|1709}}
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare; A Biography
			|url = https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea00rows
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Rowse
			|first = A.L.
			|author-link = A. L. Rowse
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1963
			|ol = 21462232M
			|oclc = 352856
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: The Man
			|last = Rowse
			|first = A.L.
			|author-link = A. L. Rowse
			|publisher = ]
			|edition = Revised
			|year = 1988
			|isbn = 978-0-333-44354-5
			|oclc = 20527549
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare
			|last = Sawyer
			|first = Robert
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Jersey
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-8386-3970-2
			|oclc = 51040611
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Problem Plays of Shakespeare
			|url = https://archive.org/details/problemplaysofsh0000scha
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Schanzer
			|first = Ernest
			|year = 1963
			|location = London
			|publisher = ] and ]
			|oclc = 2378165
			|isbn = 978-0-415-35305-2
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = Pictorial Shakespeare
			|last = Schoch
			|first = Richard W.
			|year = 2002
			|title = The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage
			|url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00well_687
			|url-access = limited
			|pages = –75
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Stanton
			|editor2-first = Sarah
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-511-99957-4
			|oclc = 48140822
			|doi = 10.1017/CCOL0521792959.004
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: Records and Images
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = Samuel
			|author-link = Samuel Schoenbaum
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1981
			|isbn = 978-0-19-520234-2
			|oclc = 6813367
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|last = de Sélincourt
			|first = Basil
			|author-link = Basil de Sélincourt
			|year = 1909
			|title = William Blake
			|series = The Library of Art
			|location = London
			|publisher = ]
			|url = https://archive.org/details/williamblake007928mbp
			|hdl = 2027/mdp.39015066033914
			|ol = 26411508M
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = S.
			|author-link = Samuel Schoenbaum
			|year = 1987
			|edition = Revised
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|isbn = 978-0-19-505161-2
			|url = https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea0000scho
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Lives
			|last = Schoenbaum
			|first = Samuel
			|author-link = Samuel Schoenbaum
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 1991
			|isbn = 978-0-19-818618-2
			|oclc = 58832341
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareslive00scho_0
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
			|last = Shapiro
			|first = James
			|author-link = James S. Shapiro
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-571-21480-8
			|oclc = 58832341
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
			|last = Shapiro
			|first = James
			|author-link = James S. Shapiro
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 2010
			|isbn = 978-1-4165-4162-2
			|oclc = 699546904
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearesblac0000smit
			|url-access = registration
			|last = Smith
			|first = Irwin
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 1964
			|oclc = 256278
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Winter's Tale
			|url = https://archive.org/details/winterstale00shakgoog
			|last = Shakespeare
			|first = William
			|author-link = William Shakespeare
			|display-authors = 0
			|year = 2007
			|editor1-last = Snyder
			|editor1-first = Susan
			|editor2-last = Curren-Aquino
			|editor2-first = Deborah
			|location = Cambridge
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-521-22158-0
			|oclc = 76798206
			|ref = {{harvid|Snyder|Curren-Aquino|2007}}
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Death of Tragedy
			|last = Steiner
			|first = George
			|author-link = George Steiner
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New Haven
			|year = 1996
			|isbn = 978-0-300-06916-7
			|oclc = 36209846
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion
			|last = Taylor
			|first = Gary
			|author-link = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|year = 1987
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-19-812914-1
			|oclc = 13526264
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/williamshakespea0000well
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present
			|last = Taylor
			|first = Gary
			|author-link = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|publisher = ]
			|location = London
			|year = 1990
			|orig-year = 1989
			|isbn = 978-0-7012-0888-2
			|oclc = 929677322
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Samuel Johnson
			|last = Wain
			|first = John
			|author-link = John Wain
			|year = 1975
			|location = New York
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-670-61671-8
			|oclc = 1056697
			|url = https://archive.org/details/samueljohnson00wain
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Taylor
			|editor2-first = Gary
			|editor2-link = Gary Taylor (scholar)
			|editor3-last = Jowett
			|editor3-first = John
			|editor3-link = John Jowett
			|editor4-last = Montgomery
			|editor4-first = William
			|edition = 2nd
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2005
			|isbn = 978-0-19-926717-0
			|oclc = 1153632306
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/completeworks0000shak_f0m2
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: A Life in Drama
			|last = Wells
			|first = Stanley
			|author-link = Stanley Wells
			|year = 1997
			|location = New York
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-393-31562-2
			|oclc = 36867040
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearelifei0000well_y5p6
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare & Co: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story
			|last = Wells
			|first = Stanley
			|author-link = Stanley Wells
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 2006
			|isbn = 978-0-375-42494-6
			|oclc = 76820663
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespearecochr0000well
			|url-access = registration
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Orlin
			|editor2-first = Lena Cowen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-19-924522-2
			|oclc = 50920674
			|ref = none
			}}
			** {{cite book
			|chapter = Shakespeare's Influence
			|last = Gross
			|first = John
			|title = Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Orlin
			|editor2-first = Lena Cowen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-19-924522-2
			|oclc = 50920674
			}}
			** {{cite book
			|chapter = The Question of Authorship
			|last = Kathman
			|first = David
			|pages = 620–632
			|title = Shakespeare: an Oxford Guide
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Orlin
			|editor2-first = Lena Cowen
			|series = Oxford Guides
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-19-924522-2
			|oclc = 50920674
			}}
			** {{cite book
			|chapter = Conventions of Playwriting
			|last = Thomson
			|first = Peter
			|title = Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide
			|editor1-last = Wells
			|editor1-first = Stanley
			|editor1-link = Stanley Wells
			|editor2-last = Orlin
			|editor2-first = Lena Cowen
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Oxford
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-19-924522-2
			|oclc = 50920674
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare and Feminist Performance
			|last = Werner
			|first = Sarah
			|year = 2001
			|location = London
			|publisher = ]
			|isbn = 978-0-415-22729-2
			|oclc = 45791390
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance
			|last = Wilson
			|first = Richard
			|publisher = ]
			|location = Manchester
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-7190-7024-2
			|url-access = registration
			|url = https://archive.org/details/secretshakespear00wils
			|oclc = 55523047
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = The Plays of William Shakespeare with Notes of Various Commentators
			|editor-last = Wood
			|editor-first = Manley
			|year = 1806
			|volume = I
			|location = London
			|publisher = George Kearsley
			|oclc = 38442678
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|title = Shakespeare
			|last = Wood
			|first = Michael
			|author-link = Michael Wood (historian)
			|publisher = ]
			|location = New York
			|year = 2003
			|isbn = 978-0-465-09264-2
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeare00wood
			|url-access = registration
			|oclc = 1043430614
			}}
			* {{cite book
			|chapter = The Play of Phrase and Line
			|last = Wright
			|first = George T.
			|title = Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945–2000
			|editor-last = McDonald
			|editor-first = Russ
			|location = Oxford
			|publisher = ]
			|year = 2004
			|isbn = 978-0-631-23488-3
			|url = https://archive.org/details/shakespeareantho0000unse_z9v6
			|url-access = registration
			|oclc = 52377477
			}}
			{{refend}}
			:'''Articles and online'''
			{{refbegin|32em}}
			* {{cite journal
			|title = Was Shakespeare gay? Sonnet 20 and the politics of pedagogy
			|last = Casey
			|first = Charles
			|year = 1998
			|journal = College Literature
			|volume = 25
			|issue = 3
			|pages = 35–51
			|jstor = 25112402
			}}
			* {{cite journal
			|title = The Story Contained in the Second Series of Shakespeare's Sonnets
			|last = Fort
			|first = J.A.
			|pages = 406–414
			|date = October 1927
			|journal = ]
			|volume = III
			|series = Original Series
			|issue = 12
			|issn = 0034-6551
			|doi = 10.1093/res/os-III.12.406
			|via = ]
			}}
			* {{cite magazine
			|title = London Residences of Shakespeare
			|last = Hales
			|first = John W.
			|magazine = ]
			|location = London
			|publisher = John C. Francis
			|date = 26 March 1904
			|issue = 3987
			|pages = 401–402
			|url = https://archive.org/stream/p1athenaeum1904lond#page/400/mode/2up
			}}
			* {{cite journal
			|title = ''A Lover's Complaint'' revisited
			|last = Jackson
			|first = MacDonald P.
			|author-link = MacDonald P. Jackson
			|journal = Shakespeare Studies
			|volume = XXXII
			|issn = 0582-9399
			|editor-last = Zimmerman
			|editor-first = Susan
			|year = 2004
			|url = https://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+Lover%27s+Complaint+revisited.-a0125306072
			|via = ]
			|access-date = 29 December 2017
			|archive-date = 23 March 2021
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210323100406/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+Lover%27s+Complaint+revisited.-a0125306072
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite web
			|title = Sonnet 18
			|last1 = Mowat
			|first1 = Barbara
			|last2 = Werstine
			|first2 = Paul
			|website = Folger Digital Texts
			|publisher = ]
			|date = n.d.
			|access-date = 20 March 2021
			|url = https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/sonnet-18/
			|archive-date = 23 June 2021
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210623175149/https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/sonnet-18/
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite news
			|title = Bard's 'cursed' tomb is revamped
			|author = <!-- no byline -->
			|date = 28 May 2008
			|work = ]
			|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/7422986.stm
			|access-date = 23 April 2010
			|ref = {{harvid|BBC News|2008}}
			|archive-date = 15 September 2010
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100915013619/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/7422986.stm
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{Cite news
			|title = Did He or Didn't He? That Is the Question
			|author = <!-- no byline -->
			|newspaper = The New York Times
			|date = 22 April 2007
			|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/education/edlife/22shakespeare-survey.html
			|access-date = 31 December 2017
			|ref = {{harvid|The New York Times|2007}}
			|archive-date = 23 March 2021
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210323100407/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/education/edlife/22shakespeare-survey.html
			|url-status = live
			}}
			* {{cite web
			|title = Shakespeare Memorial
			|url = http://southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/tour/bill.htm
			|publisher = ]
			|access-date = 2 April 2016
			|url-status = dead
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192458/http://www.southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/tour/bill.htm
			|archive-date = 4 March 2016
			|ref = {{harvid|Southwark Cathedral|n.d.}}
			}}
			* {{cite web
			|title = Visiting the Abbey
			|publisher = ]
			|url = http://www.westminster-abbey.org/archive/visit-us/highlights/poets-corner
			|access-date = 2 April 2016
			|url-status = dead
			|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160403162702/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/archive/visit-us/highlights/poets-corner
			|archive-date = 3 April 2016
			|ref = {{harvid|Westminster Abbey|n.d.}}
			}}
			{{refend}}
			==External links==
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			{{Spoken Misplaced Pages|William Shakespeare (Spoken Article).ogg|date=11 April 2008}}
			;Digital editions
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			* complete works, with search engine and concordance
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			*
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			* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare}}
	]
			* {{Gutenberg author|id=65}}
	]
			* {{Internet Archive author|sname=William Shakespeare}}
	]
			* {{Librivox author|id=37}}
			;Exhibitions
	{{Link FA|he}}
			* an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time
			* from ]
			*
			* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923070227/https://www.bl.uk/people/william-shakespeare |date=23 September 2021 }} at the British Library
			;Music
	]
	]		* {{ChoralWiki|description=Works by William Shakespeare set to music: free scores}}
	]		* {{IMSLP|work=Category:Shakespeare, William|cname=Works by William Shakespeare set to music}}
	]
			'''Education'''
	]
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			* an online resource providing free educational resources on William Shakespeare and the Renaissance world. Activities are dyslexia friendly and suitable for all ages.
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Latest revision as of 17:45, 2 January 2025

English playwright and poet (1564–1616) "Shakespeare" redirects here. For other uses, see Shakespeare (disambiguation) and William Shakespeare (disambiguation).

William Shakespeare
The Chandos portrait, likely depicting Shakespeare, c. 1611
Born	c. (1564-04-23)23 April 1564 Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died	23 April 1616(1616-04-23) (aged 51–52) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Resting place	Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon
Occupations	Playwright poet actor
Years active	c. 1585–1613
Era	Elizabethan Jacobean
Organisations	Lord Chamberlain's Men King's Men
Works	Shakespeare bibliography
Movement	English Renaissance
Spouse	Anne Hathaway ​(m. 1582)​
Children	Susanna Hall Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney
Parents	John Shakespeare Mary Arden
Writing career
Language	Early Modern English
Genres	Play (comedy history tragedy) Poetry (sonnet narrative poem epitaph)
Signature

William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three 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 remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

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 ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in English. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) such as The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, who hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Life

Main article: Life of William Shakespeare

Early life

Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptised on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown but is traditionally observed on 23 April, Saint George's Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar: the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree, and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the "complaints bill" of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit from that year:

... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words, but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", clearly identify Shakespeare as Greene's target. As used here, Johannes Factotum ("Jack of all trades") refers to a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. After 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed at The Theatre, in Shoreditch, only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new King James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players:
they have their exits and their entrances;
and one man in his time plays many parts ...

—As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, 139–142

In 1599, a partnership of members of the company built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they named the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Extant records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that his association with the company made him a wealthy man, and in 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions, beginning in 1594, and by 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson's Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although one cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in Henry V, though scholars doubt the sources of that information.

Throughout his career, Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the same year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There, he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of women's wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Nicholas Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Samuel Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work. Retirement from all work was uncommon at that time. Shakespeare continued to visit London during the years 1611–1614. In 1612, he was called as a witness in Bellott v Mountjoy, a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613, he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614, he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall. After 1610, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright of the King's Men. He retired in 1613, before the Globe Theatre burned down during the performance of Henry VIII on 29 June.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted", not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: "We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went'st so soon / From the world's stage to the grave's tiring room."

He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616; the following day, Thomas Quiney, his new son-in-law, was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, both of whom had died during childbirth. Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family.

Shakespeare bequeathed the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna under stipulations that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare's direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one-third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yͭ moves my bones.

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Some time before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published. Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Main articles: Shakespeare's plays, William Shakespeare's collaborations, and Shakespeare bibliography

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare's earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it has an identical plot but different wording as another play with a similar name. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and audiences.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his most acclaimed comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects dominant Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing, the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, Part 1 and 2, and Henry V. Henry IV features Falstaff, rogue, wit and friend of Prince Hal. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar, "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's tragedies represent the peak of his art. Hamlet has probably been analysed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins "To be or not to be; that is the question". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, Othello and Lear are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In Othello, Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In King Lear, the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play...offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot. Eliot wrote, "Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum."

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.

Classification

Further information: Chronology of Shakespeare's plays

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed according to their folio classification as comedies, histories, and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, Prince of Tyre, are now accepted as part of the canon, with today's scholars agreeing that Shakespeare made major contributions to the writing of both. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.

In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them tragicomedies, Dowden's term is often used. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term "problem plays" to describe four plays: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet. "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may, therefore, borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though Hamlet is definitively classed as a tragedy.

Performances

Main article: Shakespeare in performance

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592–93, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV, Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest ... and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604, and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice. After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters. He was replaced around 1600 by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear. In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.

Textual sources

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. The others had already appeared in quarto versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".

Alfred Pollard termed some of the pre-1623 versions as "bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the others. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern editions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.

Poems

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on sexual themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

Sonnets

Main article: Shakespeare's sonnets

Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate ...

—Opening lines from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Style

Main article: Shakespeare's writing style

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.

However, Shakespeare soon began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—
And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well ...

— Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, 4–8

After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In Macbeth, for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "... pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air ..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting, and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare's mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Legacy

Influence

Main article: Shakespeare's influence

Shakespeare's work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events, but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes." John Milton, considered by many to be the most important English poet after Shakespeare, wrote in tribute: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment/ Hast built thyself a live-long monument."

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works, including Felix Mendelssohn's overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. His work has inspired several operas, among them Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff, whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites, while William Hogarth's 1745 painting of actor David Garrick playing Richard III was decisive in establishing the genre of theatrical portraiture in Britain. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular, that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature. Shakespeare has been a rich source for filmmakers; Akira Kurosawa adapted Macbeth and King Lear as Throne of Blood and Ran, respectively. Other examples of Shakespeare on film include Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet and Al Pacino's documentary Looking For Richard. Orson Welles, a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, directed and starred in Macbeth, Othello and Chimes at Midnight, in which he plays John Falstaff, which Welles himself called his best work.

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.

Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularised in Germany, and gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era;" Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce complete translations of Shakespeare's plays in any language. Actor and theatre director Simon Callow writes, "this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture – German, Italian, Russian – was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone."

According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. He is also the third most translated author in history.

Critical reputation

Main articles: Reputation of William Shakespeare and Timeline of Shakespeare criticism

He was not of an age, but for all time.

—Ben Jonson

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English playwrights as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. The authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower, and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", although he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art" (lacked skill).

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare". He also famously remarked that Shakespeare "was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there." For several decades, Rymer's view held sway. But during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and, like Dryden, to acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet, and described as the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal, and Victor Hugo.

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation. "This King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "bardolatry", claiming that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for post-modern studies of Shakespeare. Comparing Shakespeare's accomplishments to those of leading figures in philosophy and theology, Harold Bloom wrote, "Shakespeare was larger than Plato and than St. Augustine. He encloses us because we see with his fundamental perceptions."

Speculation

Authorship

Main article: Shakespeare authorship question

Around 230 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed. All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

Religion

Main article: Religious views of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare conformed to the official state religion, but his private views on religion have been the subject of debate. Shakespeare's will uses a Protestant formula, and he was a confirmed member of the Church of England, where he was married, his children were baptised, and where he is buried.

Some scholars are of the view that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when practising Catholicism in England was against the law. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by his father, John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. However, the document is now lost and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591, the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse. In 1606, the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford.

Other authors argue that there is a lack of evidence about Shakespeare's religious beliefs. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism, Protestantism, or lack of belief in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove.

Sexuality

Main article: Sexuality of William Shakespeare

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. Over the centuries, some readers have posited that Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical, and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love. The 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.

Portraiture

Main article: Portraits of Shakespeare

No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, re-paintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.

Some scholars suggest that the Droeshout portrait, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance. Of the claimed paintings, art historian Tarnya Cooper concluded that the Chandos portrait had "the strongest claim of any of the known contenders to be a true portrait of Shakespeare". After a three-year study supported by the National Portrait Gallery, London, the portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution.

See also

• Outline of William Shakespeare
• English Renaissance theatre
• Spelling of Shakespeare's name
• World Shakespeare Bibliography
• Shakespeare's Politics
• Shakespeare's sonnets
• Shakespeare's plays

References

Notes

1. The belief that Shakespeare was born on 23 April is a tradition and not a verified fact; see § Early life below. He was baptised 26 April.
2. Dates follow the Julian calendar, used in England throughout Shakespeare's lifespan, but with the start of the year adjusted to 1 January (see Old Style and New Style dates). Under the Gregorian calendar, adopted in Catholic countries in 1582, Shakespeare died on 3 May.
3. The crest is a silver falcon supporting a spear, while the motto is Non Sanz Droict (French for "not without right"). This motto is still used by Warwickshire County Council, in reference to Shakespeare.
4. Inscribed in Latin on his funerary monument: AETATIS 53 DIE 23 APR (In his 53rd year he died 23 April).
5. Verse by James Mabbe printed in the First Folio.
6. Charles Knight, 1842, in his notes on Twelfth Night.
7. In the scribal abbreviations ye for the (3rd line) and yt for that (3rd and 4th lines) the letter y represents th: see thorn.
8. The "national cult" of Shakespeare, and the "bard" identification, dates from September 1769, when the actor David Garrick organised a week-long carnival at Stratford to mark the town council awarding him the freedom of the town. In addition to presenting the town with a statue of Shakespeare, Garrick composed a doggerel verse, lampooned in the London newspapers, naming the banks of the Avon as the birthplace of the "matchless Bard".
9. Grady cites Voltaire's Philosophical Letters (1733); Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795); Stendhal's two-part pamphlet Racine et Shakespeare (1823–25); and Victor Hugo's prefaces to Cromwell (1827) and William Shakespeare (1864).
10. For example, A.L. Rowse, the 20th-century Shakespeare scholar, was emphatic: "He died, as he had lived, a conforming member of the Church of England. His will made that perfectly clear—in facts, puts it beyond dispute, for it uses the Protestant formula."

Citations

1. ^ Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 24–26.
2. Schoenbaum 1987, p. xv.
3. ^ Greenblatt 2005, p. 11.
4. ^ Bevington 2002, pp. 1–3.
5. ^ Wells 1997, p. 399.
6. Craig 2003, p. 3.
7. Knapp, Alex. "Yes, Shakespeare Really Did Write Shakespeare". Forbes. Archived from the original on 8 February 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
8. Shapiro 2005, pp. xvii–xviii.
9. Schoenbaum 1991, pp. 41, 66, 397–398, 402, 409.
10. Taylor 1990, pp. 145, 210–223, 261–265.
11. Chambers 1930a, pp. 270–271.
12. Taylor 1987, pp. 109–134.
13. ^ Greenblatt & Abrams 2012, p. 1168.
14. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 14–22.
15. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 24, 296.
16. Honan 1998, pp. 15–16.
17. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 23–24.
18. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 62–63.
19. Ackroyd 2006, p. 53.
20. Wells et al. 2005, pp. xv–xvi.
21. Baldwin 1944, p. 464.
22. Baldwin 1944, pp. 179–180, 183.
23. Cressy 1975, pp. 28–29.
24. Baldwin 1944, p. 117.
25. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 77–78.
26. Wood 2003, p. 84.
27. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 78–79.
28. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 93.
29. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 94.
30. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 224.
31. Bate 2008, p. 314.
32. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 95.
33. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 97–108.
34. Rowe 1709, pp. 16–17, .
35. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 144–145.
36. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 110–111.
37. Honigmann 1998, p. 1.
38. Wells et al. 2005, p. xvii.
39. Honigmann 1998, pp. 95–117.
40. Wood 2003, pp. 97–109.
41. Chambers 1930a, pp. 287, 292.
42. ^ Greenblatt 2005, p. 213.
43. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 153.
44. Ackroyd 2006, p. 176.
45. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 151–153.
46. ^ Wells 2006, p. 28.
47. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 144–146.
48. Chambers 1930a, p. 59.
49. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 184.
50. Chambers 1923, pp. 208–209.
51. Wells et al. 2005, p. 666.
52. Chambers 1930b, pp. 67–71.
53. Bentley 1961, p. 36.
54. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 188.
55. Kastan 1999, p. 37.
56. Knutson 2001, p. 17.
57. Adams 1923, p. 275.
58. Schoenbaum 1987, p. 200.
59. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 200–201.
60. Rowe 1709, p. 32.
61. Ackroyd 2006, p. 357.
62. ^ Wells et al. 2005, p. xxii.
63. Schoenbaum 1987, pp. 202–203.
64. ^ Hales 1904, pp. 401–402.
65. Honan 1998, p. 121.
66. Shapiro 2005, p. 122.
67. Honan 1998, p. 325.
68. Greenblatt 2005, p. 405.
69. ^ Ackroyd 2006, p. 476.
70. Wood 1806, pp. ix–x, lxxii.
71. Smith 1964, p. 558.
72. Ackroyd 2006, p. 477.
73. Barroll 1991, pp. 179–182.
74. Bate 2008, pp. 354–355.
75. Honan 1998, pp. 382–383.
76. Honan 1998, p. 326.
77. Ackroyd 2006, pp. 462–464.
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• Rowse, A.L. (1963). William Shakespeare; A Biography. New York: Harper & Row. OCLC 352856. OL 21462232M.
• Rowse, A.L. (1988). Shakespeare: The Man (Revised ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-44354-5. OCLC 20527549.
• Sawyer, Robert (2003). Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare. New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3970-2. OCLC 51040611.
• Schanzer, Ernest (1963). The Problem Plays of Shakespeare. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0-415-35305-2. OCLC 2378165.
• Schoch, Richard W. (2002). "Pictorial Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 58–75. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521792959.004. ISBN 978-0-511-99957-4. OCLC 48140822 – via Cambridge Core.
• Schoenbaum, Samuel (1981). William Shakespeare: Records and Images. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-520234-2. OCLC 6813367.
• de Sélincourt, Basil (1909). William Blake. The Library of Art. London: Duckworth & co. hdl:2027/mdp.39015066033914. OL 26411508M.
• Schoenbaum, S. (1987). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505161-2.
• Schoenbaum, Samuel (1991). Shakespeare's Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-818618-2. OCLC 58832341.
• Shapiro, James (2005). 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21480-8. OCLC 58832341.
• Shapiro, James (2010). Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-4162-2. OCLC 699546904.
• Smith, Irwin (1964). Shakespeare's Blackfriars Playhouse. New York: New York University Press. OCLC 256278.
• Snyder, Susan; Curren-Aquino, Deborah, eds. (2007). The Winter's Tale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22158-0. OCLC 76798206.
• Steiner, George (1996). The Death of Tragedy. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06916-7. OCLC 36209846.
• Taylor, Gary (1987). William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-812914-1. OCLC 13526264.
• Taylor, Gary (1990) . Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present. London: Hogarth Press. ISBN 978-0-7012-0888-2. OCLC 929677322.
• Wain, John (1975). Samuel Johnson. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-61671-8. OCLC 1056697.
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• Wells, Stanley (2006). Shakespeare & Co: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-375-42494-6. OCLC 76820663.
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Articles and online

• Casey, Charles (1998). "Was Shakespeare gay? Sonnet 20 and the politics of pedagogy". College Literature. 25 (3): 35–51. JSTOR 25112402.
• Fort, J.A. (October 1927). "The Story Contained in the Second Series of Shakespeare's Sonnets". The Review of English Studies. Original Series. III (12): 406–414. doi:10.1093/res/os-III.12.406. ISSN 0034-6551 – via Oxford Journals.
• Hales, John W. (26 March 1904). "London Residences of Shakespeare". The Athenaeum. No. 3987. London: John C. Francis. pp. 401–402.
• Jackson, MacDonald P. (2004). Zimmerman, Susan (ed.). "A Lover's Complaint revisited". Shakespeare Studies. XXXII. ISSN 0582-9399. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2017 – via The Free Library.
• Mowat, Barbara; Werstine, Paul (n.d.). "Sonnet 18". Folger Digital Texts. Folger Shakespeare Library. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
• "Bard's 'cursed' tomb is revamped". BBC News. 28 May 2008. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
• "Did He or Didn't He? That Is the Question". The New York Times. 22 April 2007. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
• "Shakespeare Memorial". Southwark Cathedral. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
• "Visiting the Abbey". Westminster Abbey. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.

External links

Library resources about
William Shakespeare

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By William Shakespeare

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Digital editions

• William Shakespeare's plays on Bookwise
• Internet Shakespeare Editions
• The Folger Shakespeare
• Open Source Shakespeare complete works, with search engine and concordance
• The Shakespeare Quartos Archive
• Works by William Shakespeare in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
• Works by William Shakespeare at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about William Shakespeare at the Internet Archive
• Works by William Shakespeare at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Exhibitions

• Shakespeare Documented an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time
• Shakespeare's Will from The National Archives
• The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
• William Shakespeare Archived 23 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library

Music

• Works by William Shakespeare set to music: free scores in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by William Shakespeare set to music: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Education

• Shakespeare at Home an online resource providing free educational resources on William Shakespeare and the Renaissance world. Activities are dyslexia friendly and suitable for all ages.

Legacy and criticism

• Records on Shakespeare's Theatre Legacy from the UK Parliamentary Collections
• Winston Churchill & Shakespeare – UK Parliament Living Heritage

v t e William Shakespeare
Plays	Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre ✻ The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen ✻ The Winter's Tale Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Histories King John Edward III ✻ Richard II Henry IV 1 2 Henry V Henry VI 1 ✻ 2 3 Richard III Henry VIII ✻ Early editions Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Related Problem plays Late romances Henriad Characters A–K L–Z Ghost character Chronology Performances Settings Scenes
Poems	Shakespeare's sonnets comparison to Petrarch A Lover's Complaint The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis
Apocrypha	Plays Arden of Faversham The Birth of Merlin Cardenio ✻† Double Falsehood Edmund Ironside Fair Em Locrine The London Prodigal Love's Labour's Won † The Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus The Puritan The Second Maiden's Tragedy Sejanus His Fall Sir John Oldcastle Sir Thomas More ✻ The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Lord Cromwell Thomas of Woodstock Ur-Hamlet † Vortigern and Rowena A Yorkshire Tragedy Poems The Passionate Pilgrim To the Queen
Life and works	Birthplace Bibliography Complete Works Translations Coat of arms Collaborations Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre Music New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style Will Grave
Legacy	Attribution studies Authorship question Bardolatry Festivals Gardens Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare and Star Trek Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien Works titled after Shakespeare Institutions Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Shakespeare Institute
Family	Anne Hathaway (wife) Susanna Hall (daughter) Hamnet Shakespeare (son) Judith Quiney (daughter) Elizabeth Barnard (granddaughter) John Shakespeare (father) Mary Arden (mother) Gilbert Shakespeare (brother) Joan Shakespeare (sister) Edmund Shakespeare (brother) Richard Shakespeare (grandfather) John Hall (son-in-law) Thomas Quiney (son-in-law)
✻ Shakespeare and other authors † Lost Category

Links to related articles

v t e Early editions of William Shakespeare's works Folios and quartos Foul papers List of Shakespeare plays in quarto Quarto Folio Bad quarto First Quarto First Folio Second Folio False Folio Early editors John Heminges Henry Condell Edward Knight Publishers Robert Allot William Aspley John Benson Edward Blount Cuthbert Burby Nathaniel Butter Philip Chetwinde Richard Hawkins Henry Herringman William Leake Richard Meighen Thomas Millington Thomas Pavier John Smethwick Thomas Thorpe Thomas Walkley John Waterson Andrew Wise Printers Edward Allde Thomas Cotes Thomas Creede George Eld Richard Field William Jaggard Augustine Matthews Nicholas Okes James Roberts Peter Short Valentine Simmes William Stansby Shakespearean tragedy v t e William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Stage adaptations The False One (c.1620) All for Love (1677) Opera Antony and Cleopatra (1966) Antony and Cleopatra (2022) On screen 1908 1913 1959 (TV) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) 1972 1974 (TV) Zulfiqar (2016; film) Related List of cultural depictions of Cleopatra Cultural depictions of Augustus Salad days Asp Thomas North Cleopatra (1912) Cleopatra (1917) Roman Tragedies (2007) Category v t e William Shakespeare's Coriolanus Characters Historical Caius Martius Coriolanus Menenius Agrippa Cominius Titus Lartius Sicinius Velutus Junius Brutus Tullus Aufidius Fictional Volumnia Virgilia Sources Roman Antiquities Parallel Lives Ab Urbe Condita Policraticus A Mervalious Combat of Contrarieties (William Averell) Adaptations Coriolanus (1953) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984; TV) Coriolanus (2011) Related Veturia Thomas North Roman Tragedies (2007) v t e William Shakespeare's Cymbeline Characters Cymbeline Queen Imogen Posthumus Leonatus Cloten Belarius Guiderius Arvirargus Jupiter Sources Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) The Decameron (c. 1353) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Adaptations Cymbeline (1982; TV) Cymbeline (2014) Related Shakespeare's late romances Philaster (c.1609) Deus ex machina Milford Haven v t e William Shakespeare's Hamlet Characters Hamlet Claudius Gertrude Ghost Polonius Laertes Ophelia Horatio Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Fortinbras The Gravediggers Yorick Soliloquies "To be, or not to be" "Mortal coil" "What a piece of work is a man" "Speak the speech" Words and phrases "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" "Thy name is" Terminology Dumbshow Induction Quiddity Substitution Sources Criticism Legend of Hamlet The Spanish Tragedy Ur-Hamlet Critical approaches Bibliographies Saxo Grammaticus House of Gonzaga Damon and Pythias Influence Common phrases from Hamlet Cultural references to Hamlet Cultural references to Ophelia Language of flowers Human skull symbolism Performances Moscow Art Theatre (1911–1912) Richard Burton (1964) On screen 1900 1907 1908 1912 1913 1917 1921 1935 1948 1954 1961 1964 1969 1974 1990 1996 2000 2011 Adaptations Films The Rest Is Silence (1959) The Bad Sleep Well (1960) Ophelia (1963) Johnny Hamlet (1968) One Hamlet Less (1973) The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet (1977) Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet Goes Business (1987) The Lion King (1994) Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) The Banquet (2006) Doubt (2009) Karmayogi (2012) Haider (2014) Hamlet A.D.D. (2014) Hemanta (2016) Ophelia (2018) The Lion King (2019) Novels Hamlet Had an Uncle (1940) Too, Too Solid Flesh (1989) Gertrude and Claudius (2000) Dating Hamlet (2002) The Dead Fathers Club (2006) Something Rotten (2007) Hamlet's Father (2008) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008) Plays Hamletmachine (1977) Dogg's Hamlet (1979) Fortinbras (1991) Musicals Rockabye Hamlet (1973) Television Hamlet (Australian TV, 1959) Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC, 1964) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (BBC, 1980) Hamlet (BBC 2, animated, 1992) Hamlet (BBC 2, 2009) Parodies 15-Minute Hamlet The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern I, Hamlet The Klingon Hamlet "Lyle the Kindly Viking" To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure "Tales from the Public Domain" The Skinhead Hamlet Songs "My Robin is to the greenwood gone" (16th century) "Pull Me Under" (1992) "Song for Athene" (1997) Opera/classical Hamlet (Thomas) Amleto (Faccio) Hamlet (Tchaikovsky) Tristia (Berlioz) Die Hamletmaschine (Rihm) Hamlet (Dean) In popular culture Films To Be or Not to Be (1942) A Performance of Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja (1973) To Be or Not to Be (1983) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) Last Action Hero (1993) Renaissance Man (1994) In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) War (2002) Hamlet 2 (2008) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) Three Days (of Hamlet) (2012) Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) Plays Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) Stage Blood (1974) I Hate Hamlet (1991) To Be or Not to Be (2008) Novels Hamlet, Revenge! (1937) Theatre of War (1994) "The Undiscovered" (1997) The Shakespeare Stealer (1998) Interred with Their Bones (2007) Hamnet (2020) Television "The Producer" (1966) "The Conscience of the King" (1966) "Born to Be King" (1983) "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" (2001) Slings & Arrows (2003) Video games Last Action Hero (1993) Hamlet (2010) Elsinore (2019) Books Asterix and the Great Crossing The Seagull Sharpe's Havoc Art Ophelia (Millais) Ophelia (Cabanel) Affe mit Schädel Ophelia (Waterhouse) Polish Hamlet. Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski The River Bank (Ophelia) Related Hamlet and Oedipus Hamlet and His Problems Hebenon Hamlet Q1 Ostalo je ćutanje The Chronicles of Amber "Symphony No. 65" (Haydn) The Hobart Shakespeareans Gertrude – The Cry Poor Murderer Something Rotten! Sons of Anarchy v t e William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Sources Parallel Lives Screen adaptations Julius Caesar (1914 film) Julius Caesar (1950 film) Julius Caesar (1953 film) The Spread of the Eagle (1963; TV) Julius Caesar (1970 film) BBC Television Shakespeare (TV) Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (TV) Inspired work La morte di Cesare (1788) The Assassination of Julius Caesar (Sullivan) Shakespeare Writing "Julius Caesar" (1907) Caesar (1937) Die Ermordung Cäsars (1959) Dead Caesar (2007) The Karaoke King (2007) Roman Tragedies (2007) Julius Caesar (overture, 1851) Zulfiqar (2016) Quotes "The dogs of war" "Et tu, Brute?" "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" "Greek to me" Related Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar Assassination of Julius Caesar Caesar's Comet Ides of March Battle of Philippi Me and Orson Welles (2008) Caesar Must Die (2012) Category v t e William Shakespeare's King Lear Characters King Lear Cordelia Goneril Regan Edmund The Fool Sources Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) The Mirror for Magistrates (1555) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) King Leir (1594) "Water and Salt" Related Llŷr Leir of Britain Cordelia of Britain Adaptations Plays The History of King Lear (1681) The Yiddish King Lear (1892) Safed Khoon (1907) Lear (1971) King Lear (1978) Novels La Terre (1887) A Thousand Acres (1991) Fool (2009) Operas Re Lear (Libretto only) (1896) Lear (1978) Vision of Lear (1998) Kuningas Lear (2000) Films King Lear (1910) King Lear (1916) Gunasundari Katha (1949) King Lear (1971 USSR) King Lear (1971 UK) Ran (1985) King Lear (1987) A Thousand Acres (1997) Gypsy Lore (1997) King Lear (1999) My Kingdom (2001) Lear Rex (TBA) Television King Lear (1953) BBC Television Shakespeare (1982) King Lear (1983) King of Texas (2002) Second Generation (2003) King Lear (2008) King Lear (2018) Story within a story The Dresser (1980 play) The Dresser (1983 film) The Dresser (2015 film) Other Tiriel (1789, poem) The Prince of the Pagodas (1957, ballet) The Tragedy of King Lear (screenplay) v t e William Shakespeare's Macbeth Characters Macbeth Lady Macbeth Banquo Macduff King Duncan Malcolm Donalbain Three Witches Fleance Lady Macduff Macduff's son Third Murderer Young Siward Inspirations Macbeth, King of Scotland Gruoch of Scotland Duncan I of Scotland Malcolm III of Scotland Donald III of Scotland Siward, Earl of Northumbria King James VI and I Sources Daemonologie (1597) The Witch (play) Holinshed's Chronicles Darraðarljóð Film 1908 1909 (French) 1909 (Italian) 1911 1913 1915 1916 1922 1948 Unfinished 1971 2006 2015 The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) accolades Television 1954 1960 US TV 1960 Australian TV 1961 1979 1982 1983 1992 2010 TV / film adaptations The Real Thing at Last (1916) Marmayogi (1951) Joe MacBeth (1955) Throne of Blood (1957) Marmayogi (1964) Macbeth (Verdi opera) (1987) Men of Respect (1990) Scotland, PA (2001) Makibefo (2001) Maqbool (2003) 2005 The Last King of Scotland (2006) Shakespeare Must Die (2012) Thane of East County (2015) Veeram (2016) Joji (2021) Plays Khwab-e-Hasti (1909) Voodoo Macbeth (1936) MacBird! (1967) uMabatha (1970) Macbett (1972) Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) MacHomer (1995) Just Macbeth! (2008) Sleep No More (2009) Dunsinane (2010) Sleep No More (2011) Operas Macbeth (1847, Verdi) discography Macbeth (1910, Bloch) Literary adaptations Wyrd Sisters (1988) The Last King of Scotland (1998) Macbeth (2018) Albums Music from Macbeth (1972) Macbeth (1990) Thane to the Throne (2000) Shakespeare's Macbeth – A Tragedy in Steel (2003) Lady Macbeth (2005) Art Pity (1795) The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (1795) Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers (1812 painting) Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889) Lady Macbeth (1905 sculpture) Scenes and speeches "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" (1823) Sleepwalking Scene (5.1) "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" Words and phrases "What's done is done" "Crack of doom" The Scottish Play Thane of Cawdor In popular culture Novels, film and theatre We Work Again Light Thickens The Deadly Affair Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine The Scottish Play Burke & Hare Television "A Witch's Tangled Hare" (1959, Looney Tunes) "The Bellero Shield" (1964, The Outer Limits) "The Movies" (1975, The Goodies) "Sense and Senility" (1987, Blackadder the Third) "Sleeping with the Enemy" (2004, The Simpsons) "The Coup" (2006, The Office) "Dial 'N' for Nerder" (2008, The Simpsons) "Four Great Women and a Manicure" (2009, The Simpsons) "The Shower Principle" (2012, 30 Rock) "The Understudy" (2014, Inside No. 9) Other Macbeth (Johann Strauss) The Scottish Play Piano Trios, Op. 70 (Ludwig van Beethoven) The Ruins of Cawdor House of Cards (UK, 1990) House of Cards (US, 2013–2018) Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury) v t e William Shakespeare's Othello Characters Othello Desdemona Iago Cassio Emilia Bianca Roderigo Brabantio Source Della descrittione dell’Africa (1550) by Leo Africanus "Un Capitano Moro" from Gli Hecatommithi (1565) by Cintio Stage adaptations The Duke of Milan (1623) Love's Sacrifice (1633) Masquerade (1835) Othello (1951) Catch My Soul (US; 1969) Catch My Soul (UK; 1970) Desdemona (2011) Opera and ballet adaptations Otello (1816; opera by Rossini) Otello (1887; opera by Verdi) Othello (1892; overture) The Moor's Pavane (1949; ballet) Othello (1998; ballet score) Bandanna (1999; opera) Films 1922 1951 1955 1965 1995 TV 1964 Australia 1981 1990 1994 2001 Film adaptations Jubal (1956) All Night Long (1962) Catch My Soul (1974) Kaliyattam (1997) O (2001) Souli (2004) Omkara (2006) Jarum Halus (2008) From Verdi Otello (1906; film) Othello Ballet Suite/Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1 (1967; ballet suite) Otello (1986; film) The Othello Syndrome (2008; album) Paintings Othello Phrases "Beast with two backs" Related Othello error Filming Othello Story within a story Carnival (1921 film) Carnival (1931 film) The Deceiver (1931) Men Are Not Gods (1936) A Double Life (1947) Saptapadi (1961) The Dresser (1980 play) The Dresser (1983 film) Goodnight Desdemona (1988) An Imaginary Tale (1990) Red Velvet (2012 play) The Dresser (2015 film) Related Cultural references to Othello v t e William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Characters Romeo Juliet Mercutio Tybalt Benvolio Friar Laurence Nurse Paris Rosaline Queen Mab Sources The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet Pyramus and Thisbe Palace of Pleasure Troilus and Criseyde Ephesiaca Ballets Romeo and Juliet (1938, Prokofiev) Romeo and Juliet (1962, Cranko) Romeo and Juliet (1965, MacMillan) Romeo and Juliet (1977, Nureyev) Romeo and Juliet (1965, Lavery) Radio and Juliet (2005) Romeo + Juliet (2007, Martins) Romeo and Juliet (2008, Pastor) Operas Romeo und Julie (1776, Benda) Giulietta e Romeo (1796, Zingarelli) Giulietta e Romeo (1825, Vaccai) I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830, Bellini) Gloria (1874, Cilea) Roméo et Juliette (1867, Gounod) A Village Romeo and Juliet (1907, Delius) Romeo und Julia (1940, Sutermeister) Romeo und Julia (1943, Blacher) Musicals The Belle of Mayfair (1906) West Side Story (1957) Once on This Island (1990) Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour (2001) Giulietta e Romeo (2007) & Juliet (2019) Classical Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1 (c. 1800) Roméo et Juliette (1839, Berlioz) Romeo and Juliet (1870, Tchaikovsky) On screen Films 1900 1908 1916 Metro 1916 Fox 1936 1940 1953 1954 1955 1964 1967 (TV) 1968 1978 (TV) 1992 (TV) 1996 2006 2013 TV series Ronny & Julia (2000) Skin (2003) Romeo × Juliet (2007) Romeo y Julieta (2007) Harina de otro costal (2010) Star-Crossed (2014) Romil & Jugal (2017) Still Star-Crossed (2017) A Infância de Romeu e Julieta (2023) Plays Romanoff and Juliet (1956) People's Romeo (2010) Romeo and Juliet (2013) Songs "Montagues and Capulets" (1935) "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" (1968) "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976) "Angelo" (1978) "Romeo and Juliet" (1978) "Romeo and Juliet" (1981) "Cherish" (1989) "Amor Prohibido" (1994) "Kissing You" (1996) "Starcrossed" (2004) "Peut-être toi" (2006) "Mademoiselle Juliette" (2007) "Love Story" (2008) "Love Me Again" (2013) Albums Romeo and Juliet (1968) Romeo + Juliet (1996) Romeo & Julia (2006) Tragic Lovers (2008) Star-Crossed (2021) Rosaline (2022) Literature Les Chouans (1829) The Wandering Jew (1844) The Stolen Dormouse (1941) The Faraway Lurs (1963) The Destruction of Faena (1989) Ronny & Julia (1995) Romiette and Julio (2001) New Moon (2006) Warm Bodies (2010) Art Romeo and Juliet: the Tomb Scene (1790) Romeo and Juliet (1978) Phrases A plague o' both your houses! A rose by any other name would smell as sweet Star-crossed Story within a story Nicholas Nickleby 1912 film 1947 film 1980 play 2001 film 2002 film The Picture of Dorian Gray 1910 film 1913 film 1915 film 1916 film 1917 German film 1917 Hungarian film 1945 film 1976 TV special 2009 film Harlequinade W Juliet "Nothing Broken but My Heart" Panic Button Bare: A Pop Opera Bolji život The Sky Is Everywhere Pay as You Exit The White Mercedes She Died a Lady "Moonshine River" Rendez-vous Fame "I Am Unicorn" The Frog Prince Molly Smart Girls Get What They Want Tumbleweeds "The Thief of Baghead" The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke Prince Charming Km. 0 Phileine Says Sorry Hamateur Night "Say You'll Be Mine" Into the Gauntlet Wandering Son K-On! Other Such Tweet Sorrow Romeo and Juliet effect Romeo and Juliet laws After Juliet "Upper West Side Story" (2012) Millennium Dome Show Inge Sylten and Heinz Drosihn Boys Don't Cry My Wedding and Other Secrets Donkey in Lahore Upside Down Letters to Juliet Sherlock Gnomes Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo v t e William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens Characters Timon Alcibiades Apemantus Sources Palace of Pleasure (1566) Adaptations Timon (1973) Timon of Athens (1981) Revisions The History of Timon of Athens the Man-hater (1677) Related Thomas Middleton v t e William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus Characters Titus Andronicus Tamora Aaron Lavinia Emperor Saturninus Marcus Lucius Sources Ab Urbe Condita (c.26 BC) Metamorphoses (c.AD 8) Thyestes (first century AD) Gesta Romanorum (late third century AD) Adaptations Titus Andronicus (1985; TV) Titus (1999) "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (2001; TV) The Hungry (2017) Related Peacham drawing Authorship question Themes "Titus Andronicus' Complaint" George Peele Philomela Thyestes Revenge play Grand Guignol Gorboduc (1561) Edmund Ironside (1590) Jan Vos Titus (soundtrack) v t e William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida Characters Trojans Priam Hector Deiphobus Helenus Paris Troilus Cassandra Andromache Aeneas Pandarus Cressida Calchas Helen Greeks Agamemnon Menelaus Nestor Ulysses Achilles Patroclus Diomedes Ajax Thersites Myrmidons Sources Troilus and Criseyde Troy Book Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye Adaptations The Face of Love (1954, TV) Troilus and Cressida (1981, TV) Related Trojan War Trojan War in popular culture Troilus and Cressida (Dryden play) Achilles and Patroclus Shakespearean problem play Shakespearean comedy v t e William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well Characters Bertram Countess of Roussillon Helen Rinaldo Lavatch Paroles King of France Lafeu Duke of Florence Widow Diana Mariana Sources The Decameron (c.1353) Palace of Pleasure (1566) Adaptations All's Well That Ends Well (1981; TV) Related Shakespearean problem play Diana Alazôn Bed trick v t e William Shakespeare's As You Like It Characters Rosalind Orlando Celia Jaques Touchstone Screen 1912 1936 Sollu Thambi Sollu (1959) 1978 (TV) 1991 1994 (TV) 2006 Related "All the world's a stage" v t e William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors Sources Menaechmi Amphitryon Apollonius of Tyre Opera and musicals Gli equivoci (1786) The Boys from Syracuse (1938) Pozdvižení v Efesu (1943) The Comedy of Errors (1976) The Bomb-itty of Errors (2000) Film/TV The Boys from Syracuse (1940) Bhranti Bilas (1963) Do Dooni Chaar (1968) Angoor (1982) The Comedy of Errors (1983; TV) Big Business (1988) Ulta Palta (1997) Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) Dam Dama Dam (1998) Ulta Palta (1998) Heeralal Pannalal (1999) Ambuttu Imbuttu Embuttu (2005) Baa Bega Chandamama (2008) Double Di Trouble (2014) Cirkus (2022) Related Gesta Grayorum (1688) v t e William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost Characters Costard Adaptations 1920 animated short 1973 opera TV, 1985 2000 film Related Love's Labour's Won Honorificabilitudinitatibus Nine Worthies The School of Night Robert Tofte The Princess (poem; 1847) v t e William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure Characters Angelo Sources Hecatommithi by Cinthio Promos and Cassandra by George Whetstone Theatrical adaptations The Law Against Lovers (1662) Das Liebesverbot (1834) Round Heads and Pointed Heads (1936) Desperate Measures (2004) Film adaptations Measure for Measure (1943) Measure for Measure (1979; TV) Measure for Measure (2020) Related Thomas Middleton Mariana (Tennyson) Mariana in the South (Tennyson) Bletting Bed trick Shakespearean problem play Mariana (Millais) v t e William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice Characters Shylock Antonio Bassanio Portia Jessica Sources Gesta Romanorum Il Pecorone The Jew of Malta On screen 1914 1916 1923 Shylock (1940) 1953 1961 1969 1980 (TV) 2004 Music Incidental music: Shylock (1889) Opera: Le marchand de Venise (1935); The Merchant of Venice (1982) Musical: Shylock (1987) Adaptations Serenade to Music (1938) The Merchant (1976) Shylock (1996) Yasser (2001) The Maori Merchant of Venice (2002) Related "All that glitters is not gold" "Between you and I" "The quality of mercy" v t e William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor Characters Falstaff Mistress Quickly Ancient Pistol Bardolph Robert Shallow Corporal Nym Film/Television The Merry Wives of Windsor (1950) Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor (1953) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1982; TV) Opera/Musical Falstaff (1799) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1849) Falstaff (1893) Sir John in Love (1929) Lone Star Love (2004) Related "You Banbury cheese!" Herne the Hunter Il Pecorone v t e William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Characters Lovers Theseus and Hippolyta Oberon and Titania Hermia and Lysander Helena and Demetrius Mechanicals Nick Bottom Peter Quince Francis Flute Robin Starveling Tom Snout Snug Others Puck Egeus Philostrate Productions Film 1935 1959 1968 1999 2017 Television 1969 1981 1992 2016 Stage 1970 Adaptations Film A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909, silent) Wood Love (1925) Dream of a Summer Night (1983) Get Over It (2001) A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002) Midsummer Dream (2005) Were the World Mine (2008) 10ml Love (2012) Strange Magic (2015) Literature A Midsummer Tempest (1974) Lords and Ladies (1992) A Midsummer Night's Gene (1997) A Midsummer's Nightmare (1997) The Great Night (2011) Music A Midsummer Night's Dream (1842, Mendelssohn) "Wedding March" Three Shakespeare Songs (1951) Symphony No. 8 (1992, Henze) Il Sogno (2004) Opera The Fairy-Queen (1692) Pyramus and Thisbe (1745) Puck (1949) A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960, opera) The Enchanted Island (2011) Stage The Triumph of Beauty (1646, masque) St. John's Eve (1852, play) The Park (1983, play) The Donkey Show (1999, musical) The Dreaming (2001, musical) The Lovers (2022, musical) Comics The Sandman: Dream Country (1991) Auberon Faerie Titania Art Hermia and Lysander The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania and Bottom Ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962) The Dream (1964) Television "Fascination" (1994, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1994, ShakespeaRe-Told) A Midsummer's Nightmare (2017) Related Love-in-idleness Pyramus and Thisbe (8 CE) Dead Poets Society (1989) The Apartment (1996) Wicker Park (2004) v t e William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing Characters Beatrice Don Pedro Dogberry Hero Adaptations Screen 1984 (TV) 1993 2005 (TV) 2012 Opera Béatrice et Bénédict (1862) Much Ado About Nothing (opera) (1901) Musical Much Ado (1995) The Boys Are Coming Home (2005) Adaptations The Law Against Lovers (1662) Dil Chahta Hai (2001) Imogen Says Nothing (2017) Anyone but You (2023) Related Dogberryism "Curiosity killed the cat" Pleaching v t e William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre Characters John Gower Diana Sources Confessio Amantis (1390) The Pattern of Painful Adventures (1576) Adaptations Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1984; TV) Related George Wilkins Shakespeare's late romances Shakespeare apocrypha Apollonius of Tyre The Pattern of Painful Adventures (2008; radio) First water The Porpoise v t e William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Characters Kate Petruchio Bianca Minola Christopher Sly Stage adaptations The Woman's Prize (c1611) Catharine and Petruchio (1754) Las bravías (1896) Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung (1872) Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato (1927) Kiss Me, Kate (1948) The Taming of the Shrew (1953) Ukroshchenye Stroptivoy (1957) Christopher Sly (1963) Direct adaptations 1908 1929 1962 (TV) 1967 1980 (TV) 1994 (TV) Other adaptations Daring Youth (1924) You Made Me Love You (1933) Second Best Bed (1938) The Taming of the Shrew (1942) Enamorada (1946) Kiss Me Kate (1953) Abba Aa Hudugi (1959) Gundamma Katha (1962) Manithan Maravillai (1962) McLintock! (1963) Arivaali (1963) Kiss Me Kate (1968) Pattikada Pattanama (1972) The Taming of the Scoundrel (1980) Nanjundi Kalyana (1989) Banarasi Babu (1997) 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) O Cravo e a Rosa (2000; TV) Deliver Us from Eva (2003) The Taming of the Shrew (2005; TV) Frivolous Wife (2008) 10 Things I Hate About You (2009; TV) Isi Life Mein...! (2010) Related The Taming of the Shrew in performance The Taming of the Shrew on screen Shrew (stock character) Vinegar Girl (2016) v t e William Shakespeare's The Tempest Characters Prospero Miranda Ariel Caliban Sycorax Ferdinand Gonzalo Stephano Sources A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight Decades of the New World Montaigne's Essays Ovid's Metamorphoses (Of Cannibals) Erasmus's Naufragium Commedia dell'arte Sea Venture Films 1908 1911 1960 1963 1979 1980 1992 2010 Adaptations Music Three Shakespeare Songs (Vaughan Williams) The Tempest (Sullivan) The Tempest (Sibelius) The Tempest (Tchaikovsky) The Tempest (ballet) (Nordheim) "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (1982) Screen Yellow Sky (1948) Forbidden Planet (1956) Tempest (1982) The Journey to Melonia (1989) Prospero's Books (1991) The Tempest (1998) Shakespeare's Shitstorm (2020) Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (2022-2023) Painting Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest (c, 1736-1738, Hogarth) Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1850, Millais) Musicals Beach Blanket Tempest Return to the Forbidden Planet Amaluna Plays The Tempest (Dryden) The Sea Voyage The Mock Tempest (1674 Duffet) Une Tempête (1969 Césaire) The Sea (play) (1973) I'll Be The Devil (2008) Opera The Tempest (1756 Smith) Die Geisterinsel (libretto 1796) Die Geisterinsel (1798 Reichardt) Die Geisterinsel (1805 Zumsteeg) Der Sturm (1955 Martin) Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1991 Nyman) The Tempest (Adès 2004) The Enchanted Island (2011 Sams) Poetry and prose fiction "Caliban upon Setebos" (Browning) "The Sea and the Mirror" (Auden) Indigo (Warner) A Midsummer Tempest (Anderson) Island (Rogers) Hag-Seed (Atwood) Video Games The Book of Watermarks (1999) Phrases "Ariel's Song" "Full fathom five" "Sea change" "What's past is prologue" Sculpture The Tempest (1966) v t e William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Characters Viola Orsino Olivia Sebastian Malvolio Maria Sir Toby Belch Sir Andrew Aguecheek Feste On screen 1933 1955 1966 (TV) 1970 (TV) 1980 (TV) 1986 1988 (TV) 1992 (TV) 1996 Musical Your Own Thing (1968) Music Is (1976) Play On! (1997) Illyria (2004) All Shook Up (2004) Adaptations Kanniyin Kathali (1949) Just One of the Guys (1985) Motocrossed (2001) She's the Man (2006) Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009) Opera Viola (unfinished) v t e William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona Characters Valentine Proteus Julia Silvia Launce Speed Crab Sources The Boke Named the Governour (1531) Los Siete Libros de la Diana (1559) Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit (1578) The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1580) Theatrical adaptations Two Gentlemen of Verona (1971) Screen adaptations A Spray of Plum Blossoms (1931) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (TV; 1983) Related Proteus Jorge de Montemor Stuart Draper "An Sylvia" (1826) Shakespeare in Love (1998) The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002) v t e William Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen Characters Theseus Hippolyta Emilia Pirithous Palamon Arcite Hymen Lafeu Artesius Valerius Jailer Doctor Gerald Nell Timothy Sources "The Knight's Tale" The Canterbury Tales Related Shakespeare apocrypha Shakespeare's late romances John Fletcher Creon William Davenant Stoolball The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn (1613) v t e William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale Characters Leontes Perdita Florizel Sources The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c.1580) Pandosto (1588) Oberon, the Faery Prince (1611) Adaptations The Winter's Tale (1910) The Winter's Tale (1967) The Winter's Tale (1981) "The Winter's Tale" (1994) Stage works Hermione (1872 opera) Perdita (1897 opera) The Winter's Tale (2014 ballet) The Winter's Tale (2017 opera) Shakespearean history v t e William Shakespeare's King John Characters King John Queen Eleanor Prince Henry Blanche of Castile Earl of Essex Earl of Salisbury Earl of Pembroke Lord Bigot Philip Faulconbridge King Philip of France Louis the Dauphin Lady Constance Arthur Cardinal Pandulf Hubert Sources Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) The Troublesome Reign of King John (c.1589) Adaptations King John (1899) Said-e-Havas (1936) The Life and Death of King John (1984; TV) Related King Johan Cultural depictions of John, King of England Anglo-French War (1213–1214) v t e William Shakespeare's Edward III Characters English Edward III Queen Philippa Edward the Black Prince Earl of Salisbury Countess of Salisbury Earl of Warwick Sir William Montague Earl of Derby Lord Audley Lord Percy Robert of Artois Lord Montfort French King John II of France Prince Charles Prince Philip Duke of Lorraine King of Bohemia Scottish King David of Scotland Sir William Douglas Sources Froissart's Chronicles (c.1370) Palace of Pleasure (1566) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Related Shakespeare apocrypha Thomas Kyd George Peele Robert Greene Hundred Years' War Battle of Halidon Hill Siege of Calais Battle of Crécy Battle of Poitiers v t e William Shakespeare's Henriad (c. 1595–99) Richard II Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V Characters Ancient Pistol Bardolph Charles VI Corporal Nym Doll Tearsheet Falstaff Fluellen Henry IV Henry V Prince Hal Owain Glyndŵr Owen Glendower Poins Nell Quickly Richard II Robert Shallow Sources Holinshed's Chronicles The Famous Victories of Henry V (c. 1585) Thomas of Woodstock (c. 1593) Related plays The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597) Sir John Oldcastle (1599) Falstaff's Wedding (1760) On screen Richard II King Richard II (1954; TV) An Age of Kings (1960; TV) The Life and Death of King Richard II (1960; TV) King Richard the Second (1979; TV) Richard the Second (2001) The Hollow Crown: Richard II (2012; TV) Henry IV, Part 1 An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fourth, Part I (1979; TV) The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 1 (2012; TV) The King (2019) Henry IV, Part 2 An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fourth, Part II (1979; TV) The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Part 2 (2012) The King (2019) Henry V Henry V (1944) An Age of Kings (1960; TV) Chimes at Midnight (1966) Henry the Fifth (1979; TV) Henry V (1989) The Hollow Crown: Henry V (2012) The King (2019) Related music Falstaff (1913) At the Boar's Head (1925) Suite from Henry V (1963) v t e William Shakespeare's first historical tetralogy Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 Richard III Characters and events 1 Henry VI Henry VI Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Duke of Exeter Lord Talbot Duke of Bedford Richard, Duke of York Bishop of Winchester Earl of Suffolk Duke of Somerset (conflation of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset) Earl of Warwick Earl of Salisbury John Talbot Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (conflation of Sir Edmund Mortimer and Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March) Sir John Fastolf Charles the Dauphin Joan la Pucelle Margaret of Anjou Reignier, Duke of Anjou Duke of Alençon Bastard of Orléans Duke of Burgundy Jacques d'Arc Siege of Orléans Battle of Patay 2 Henry VI Henry VI Queen Margaret Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Richard, Duke of York Earl of Salisbury Earl of Warwick Cardinal of Winchester Duke of Suffolk Duke of Buckingham Jack Cade Duke of Somerset (conflation of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset) Duchess of Gloucester Edward Plantagenet Richard Plantagenet Lord Clifford Young Clifford Margery Jourdayne Lord Saye Lord Scales First Battle of St Albans Peasants' Revolt 3 Henry VI Henry VI Queen Margaret Richard, Duke of York Earl of Warwick Edward IV Richard, Duke of Gloucester George, Duke of Clarence Edward, Prince of Wales Lord Clifford Lady Grey Montague Earl of Oxford Duke of Somerset (conflation of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset and Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset) Lord Hastings Sir William Stanley Earl of Northumberland Duke of Exeter Duke of Norfolk Earl of Westmorland Lord Rivers Edmund, Earl of Rutland Henry, Earl of Richmond Louis XI of France Bona of Savoy Prince Edward Earl of Pembroke Lord Stafford Lord Bourbon Battle of Towton Battle of Barnet Battle of Wakefield Second Battle of St Albans Battle of Tewkesbury Richard III Richard III Duke of Buckingham Queen Elizabeth Duchess of York Queen Margaret Lady Neville George, Duke of Clarence Edward IV Lord Hastings Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond Sir William Catesby Sir Richard Ratcliffe Lord Rivers Marquis of Dorset Sir James Tyrrell Lord Richard Grey Prince Edward Richard, Duke of York Earl of Warwick Countess of Salisbury Duke of Norfolk Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of York Earl of Surrey Sir Thomas Vaughan Sir Christopher Robert Brackenbury Lord Lovel Ghost of Henry VI Ghost of Edward, Prince of Wales Lord Mayor of London Earl of Oxford Sir James Blunt Sir William Brandon Bishop of Ely Sheriff of Wiltshire Wars of the Roses Princes in the Tower Battle of Bosworth Field On screen Tetralogy An Age of Kings (1960; TV) The Wars of the Roses (1965; TV) BBC Television Shakespeare (1983; TV) The Hollow Crown Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Richard III (2016; TV) Richard III The Life and Death of King Richard III (1912) Richard III (1955) "The Foretelling" (1983; TV) "King Richard III" (1994; TV) Richard III (1995) Looking for Richard (1996) Richard III (2007) Sources The Mirror for Magistrates (1559) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Richardus Tertius (1580) The Spanish Tragedy The True Tragedy of Richard III (c.1590) Historical context Hundred Years' War Wars of the Roses House of Plantagenet House of York House of Lancaster Related "Let's kill all the lawyers" "Even a worm will turn" The Tragical History of King Richard the Third (1699) David Garrick as Richard III (1745) v t e William Shakespeare's Henry VIII Characters Henry VIII Cardinal Wolsey Queen Katherine Anne Bullen Duke of Buckingham Thomas Cranmer Stephen Gardiner Lord Chamberlain Duke of Norfolk Duke of Suffolk Earl of Surrey Cardinal Campeius Capucius Thomas Cromwell Lord Sands Lord Abergavenny Lord Chancellor Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Lovell Henry Guildford Nicholas Vaux Anthony Denny Dr. Butts Garter King-of-Arms Sources Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe (1558) Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) Adaptations Henry VIII (1911) The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight (1979) Related John Fletcher Cultural depictions of Henry VIII Cultural depictions of Anne Boleyn Globe Theatre Category v t e William Shakespeare's family tree   Direct ascendants and descendants of William Shakespeare are shown with a blue background   Shakespeare's siblings are shown with a red background   Anne Hathaway and ascendants are shown with a yellow background   People related to Shakespeare only through marriage are shown with a green background   Relations whose identity is not known are shown with a dashed border Years given are usually approximate and typically reflect baptismal and burial years, rather than birth and death. For remarriages, the number in parentheses after the name indicates the order of the marriages. Richard Shakespeare (1490–before 1561) (unknown) (unknown) Robert Arden (died 1556) John Shakespeare (c. 1531–1601) Mary Arden (c. 1537–1608) (unknown) (1) Richard Hathaway (–1581) Joan Hathaway (2) (–1599) Joan (1558–1558) Margaret (1562–1563) Gilbert Shakespeare (1566–1612) Joan Shakespeare (1569–1646) William Shakespeare (1564–1616) Anne Hathaway (1555–1623) Anne (1571–1579) Richard (1574–1613) Edmund Shakespeare (1580–1607) John Hall (1575–1635) Susanna Hall (1583–1649) Judith Quiney (1585–1662) Thomas Quiney (1589–1662) Hamnet Shakespeare (1585–1596) Thomas Nash (1) (1593–1647) Elisabeth Barnard (1608–1670) John Barnard (2) (1604–1674) Shakespeare Quiney (1616–1617) Richard Quiney (1618–1639) Thomas Quiney (1620–1639) Sources Chambers, E. K. (1930). William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. Vol. I 11–12, 18, Vol. II 8–9. OCLC 353406. Schoenbaum, S. (1977). William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 292. ISBN 0195051610. v t e Portraits, sculptures and memorials to William Shakespeare Portraits Chandos portrait Droeshout portrait Disputed Ashbourne portrait Cobbe portrait Flower portrait Sanders portrait Sculptures Shakespeare's funerary monument Heminges and Condell Memorial Statues Central Park, New York Leicester Square, London British Library Memorials Boydell Shakespeare Gallery Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare v t e The "Beaumont and Fletcher" Canon Francis Beaumont John Fletcher Philip Massinger Nathan Field William Shakespeare James Shirley Thomas Middleton William Rowley John Ford Ben Jonson George Chapman John Webster Plays (some attributions conjectural) Beaumont The Knight of the Burning Pestle The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn Beaumont and Fletcher The Woman Hater Cupid's Revenge The Coxcomb Philaster The Captain The Maid's Tragedy A King and No King Love's Pilgrimage The Scornful Lady The Noble Gentleman Fletcher The Faithful Shepherdess The Woman's Prize Valentinian Bonduca Monsieur Thomas The Mad Lover The Chances The Loyal Subject Women Pleased The Humorous Lieutenant The Island Princess The Pilgrim The Wild Goose Chase A Wife for a Month Rule a Wife and Have a Wife Fletcher and Massinger †Barnavelt The Little French Lawyer The False One The Double Marriage The Custom of the Country The Lovers' Progress The Spanish Curate The Prophetess The Sea Voyage The Elder Brother †A Very Woman Fletcher and others with Beaumont & Massinger Thierry and Theodoret Beggars' Bush Love's Cure with Massinger & Field The Honest Man's Fortune The Queen of Corinth The Knight of Malta with Field Four Plays, or Moral Representations, in One with Shakespeare †Henry VIII The Two Noble Kinsmen with Shirley The Night Walker Wit Without Money with Rowley The Maid in the Mill with Massinger, Chapman & Jonson Rollo, Duke of Normandy with Massinger, Ford & Webster The Fair Maid of the Inn Others The Nice Valour (Middleton) Wit at Several Weapons (Middleton & Rowley) The Laws of Candy (Ford) The Coronation (Shirley) Performance and publication English Renaissance theatre King's Men Beaumont and Fletcher folios Humphrey Moseley Humphrey Robinson Related †The History of Cardenio (Shakespeare & Fletcher?) †Double Falsehood (possibly based on Cardenio) † = Not published in the Beaumont and Fletcher folios

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