William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564,
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Eng.-died April 23, 1616,
Stratford-upon-Avon) British poet and playwright, often considered
the greatest writer in world literature. His earliest plays seem to
date from the late 1580s to the mid-1590s and include the comedies
Love's Labour's Lost, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the
Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream; history plays based on the
lives of the English kings, including Henry VI (parts 1, 2, and 3),
Richard III, and Richard II; and the tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The
plays apparently written between 1596 and 1600 are mostly comedies,
including The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much
Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It, and histories, including
Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), Henry V, and Julius Caesar. Approximately
between 1600 and 1607 he wrote the comedies Twelfth Night, All's
Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure, as well as the great
tragedies Hamlet (probably begun in 1599), Othello, Macbeth, and
King Lear, which mark the summit of his art. Among his later works
(about 1607 to 1614) are the tragedies Antony and Cleopatra,
Coriolanus, and Timon of Athens, as well as the fantastical
romances The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. He probably also is
responsible for some sections of the plays Edward III and The Two
Noble Kinsmen.