Renaissance and Reformation Biographies | William Shakespeare Biography

April 23, 1564
Stratford-upon-Avon, England April 23, 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Playwright, poet

"What a piece of work is man!… The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"

Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2.

The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history. The crucial fact about his career is that he was a popular dramatist at a time when drama (a composition in verse or prose depicting conflicts through dialogue) was flourishing in England. Audiences drawn from a wide range of social classes were eager to reward his talents. Shakespeare's entire life was committed to the public theater, and he seems to have written nondramatic poetry only when enforced closings of the...