William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an 16th and 17th century English playwright who lived from 1564 to 1616 CE, born in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire. He flourished under the patronage of contemporary monarchs Elizabeth I and James I, and became a favourite of the people. He has endured to become the world's most famous and performed playwright, and arguably the most famous author in the world. His plays are still performed and studied to this day in many different countries, and have been subject to innumerable adaptions and scholarly study. He wrote 39 knowns plays, 154 known sonnets and two known long narrative poems.

Shakespeare is also responsible for inventing or popularizing dozens of famous phrases and quotes which have become commonplace in the English language.

Why he has become so successful is a matter of great debate, and the whole answer is probably too complex to put into a fandom article. His plays defied convention of the time, and the wit and clever plots of the plays made him popular both with the working-class and with nobles.

Shakespeare was born to the Ardens, a family of Warwickshire landowners, in 1564. He is believed to have written his first play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, between 1589 and 1593, and from then produced 14 more comedies, 10 (or 11) histories, and 12 tragedies.

Shakespeare tragically died in 1616, aged 52. It is generally believed he died of a fever contracted from excessive drinking. He left most of his estate in his will to his daughter Susanna Hall, but also famously left his "second best bed" to his wife Anne Hathaway, an action that has invited speculation.

His plays
Shakespeare's plays are commonly divided into three categories, comedies, tragedies and histories.

The comedies are witty, humorous and often mocking plays, often featuring love affairs. The tragedies typically feature great rivalry between people, and a protagonist being caught up in other character's quarrels, usually with negative consequences for those characters. The histories are non-fiction, and feature real events and people. They all follow the lives of various kings of England.

There are also two "lost plays", plays mentioned in sources of the time, but not surviving, with it being disputed whether they existed.

Shakespeare wrote some of his plays alone, but many of them he cowrote with various other lesser-known playwrights of the time, such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, George Peele and Thomas Middleton. However in the plays he cowrote he probably wrote by far the largest amount.

Here is a list of his plays below, divided into comedies, tragedies, histories and lost plays (plays marked "disputed" may not have been written by Shakespeare but are believed to have been):

Comedies:

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Merry Wives of Windsor

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Comedy of Errors

Measure for Measure

The Taming of the Shrew

As You Like It

All's Well that Ends Well

The Merchant of Venice

Twelfth Night

The Tempest

The Winter's Tale

Pericles, Prince of Tyre (disputed)

The Two Noble Kinsmen (disputed)

Tragedies:

Othello

Troilus and Cressida

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

Antony and Cleopatra

Coriolanus

Timon of Athens

Titus Andronicus

Cymbeline

King Lear

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

Histories:

Edward III (disputed)

King John

Richard II

Henry IV, Part 1

Henry IV, Part 2

Henry V

Henry VI, Part 1

Henry VI, Part 2

Henry VI, Part 3

Richard III

Henry VIII

Lost Plays:

Love's Labours Won

Cardenio