# Demo Entry By [LUKELL311](https://paragraph.com/@lukell311) · 2022-05-30 --- **William Shakespeare** ([bapt.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism) 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[\[a\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-2) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist.[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGreenblatt200511-3)[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBevington20021%E2%80%933-4)[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1997399-5) He is often called England's [national poet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_poet) and the "[Bard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bard) of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDobson1992185%E2%80%93186-6)[\[b\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-8) His extant works, including [collaborations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare%27s_collaborations), consist of some [39 plays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_plays),[\[c\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-9) [154 sonnets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_sonnets), three long [narrative poems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_poem), and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been [translated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_translations_of_works_by_William_Shakespeare) into every major [living language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_language) and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTECraig20033-10) He 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford-upon-Avon), [Warwickshire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwickshire). At the age of 18, he married [Anne Hathaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hathaway_\(wife_of_Shakespeare\)), with whom he had three children: [Susanna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Hall) and twins [Hamnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamnet_Shakespeare) and [Judith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Quiney). Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a [playing company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_company) called the [Lord Chamberlain's Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chamberlain%27s_Men), later known as the [King's Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Men_\(playing_company\)). 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portraits_of_Shakespeare), [his sexuality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_of_William_Shakespeare), [his religious beliefs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_William_Shakespeare) and whether the works attributed to him were [written by others](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question).[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShapiro2005xvii%E2%80%93xviii-11)[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchoenbaum199141,_66,_397%E2%80%93398,_402,_409-12)[\[10\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTETaylor1990145,_210%E2%80%93223,_261%E2%80%93265-13) Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613.[\[11\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambers1930a270%E2%80%93271-14)[\[12\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTETaylor1987109%E2%80%93134-15)[\[d\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-16) His early plays were primarily [comedies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_comedy) and [histories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_history) and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly [tragedies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_tragedy) until 1608, among them [_Hamlet_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet), [_Romeo and Juliet_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet), [_Othello_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello), [_King Lear_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear), and [_Macbeth_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth), all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGreenblatt200511-3)[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBevington20021%E2%80%933-4)[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWells1997399-5) In the last phase of his life, he wrote [tragicomedies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragicomedy) (also known as [romances](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_late_romances)) and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, [John Heminges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Heminges) and [Henry Condell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Condell), published a more definitive text known as the [First Folio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Folio), a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that included all but two of his plays.[\[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGreenblattAbrams20121168-17) Its Preface was a prescient poem by [Ben Jonson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Jonson) that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".[\[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGreenblattAbrams20121168-17) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia --- *Originally published on [LUKELL311](https://paragraph.com/@lukell311/demo-entry)*