William Shakespeare

Introduction & Top Questions
Shakespeare the man
- Life
  - Early life in Stratford
  - Career in the theatre
  - Private life
  - Sexuality
- Early posthumous documentation
  - The tributes of his colleagues
  - Anecdotes and documents
Shakespeare the poet and dramatist
- The intellectual background
- Poetic conventions and dramatic traditions
  - Changes in language
  - Shakespeare’s literary debts
- Theatrical conditions
- The dating of Shakespeare’s plays
- Publication
Shakespeare’s plays and poems
- The early plays
  - Titus Andronicus
  - The early romantic comedies
  - The early histories
- The poems
- Plays of the middle and late years
  - Romantic comedies
  - Completion of the histories
  - Romeo and Juliet
  - The “problem” plays
  - Julius Caesar
  - The tragedies
  - The romances
  - Collaborations and spurious attributions
Shakespeare’s sources
Understanding Shakespeare
- Questions of authorship
- Linguistic, historical, textual, and editorial problems
- Literary criticism
  - Seventeenth century
  - Eighteenth century
  - Romantic critics
  - Twentieth century and beyond
    - Increasing importance of scholarship
    - Historical criticism
    - New Criticism
    - New interpretive approaches
    - Feminist criticism and gender studies
    - Deconstruction
Chronology of Shakespeare’s plays

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's First Folio

William Shakespeare explained in five questions

Learn about William Shakespeare's early boyhood and path to London to become a playwright and actor

Timber-framed birthplace home of William Shakespeare with leaded windows and a red-tiled roof in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

See an illustrated manuscript of 16th-century coats of arms, including commentary on whether Shakespeare is worthy of one

Interactive: A Tour of the Rebuilt Globe Theatre

Open copy of Shakespeare's First Folio showing the title page with an engraved portrait of William Shakespeare and a facing page with a poem titled To the Reader.

Historical map of London around 1600 highlighting the locations of major theatres such as The Globe, The Rose, The Swan, The Fortune, and The Curtain, along with city walls, administrative areas, halls, and other buildings used as theatres. The map shows the River Thames at the bottom and marks notable city features, streets, and neighborhoods, with theatres indicated by red squares.

At a Glance

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare summary

Timber-framed birthplace home of William Shakespeare with leaded windows and a red-tiled roof in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

William Shakespeare Timeline

Olivia Hussey as Juliet and Leonard Whiting as Romeo in a dramatic scene from the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, with Juliet leaning back in anguish beside Romeo's lifeless body.

William Shakespeare’s Important Works

Related Questions

William Shakespeare — William Shakespeare William Shakespeare, detail of an oil painting attributed to John Taylor, c. 1610. The portrait is called the “Chandos Shakespeare” because it once belonged to the duke of Chandos.

William Shakespeare

English author

Also known as: Bard of Avon, Swan of Avon, William Shakspere

Written by

Terence John Bew SpencerAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026 •History

William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon) was a poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet. He is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. (Read: The Shakespeare Authorship Question) Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers, but no writer’s living...

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