William Shakespeare Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: William Shakespeare
OCCUPATION: Playwright, Poet
BIRTH DATE: c. April 23, 1564
DEATH DATE: April 23, 1616
EDUCATION: King's New School
PLACE OF BIRTH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
PLACE OF DEATH: Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Nickname: "Bard of Avon"
Nickname: "Swan of Avon"
AKA: Shakspere
AKA: Will Shakespeare
Nickname: "The Bard"

Best Known For

William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time.

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William Shakespeare

APA Style

William Shakespeare. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 03:08, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323.

Harvard Style

William Shakespeare. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 [Accessed 25 May 2013].

MLA Style

"William Shakespeare." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 03:08 http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323.

MHRA Style

"William Shakespeare," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 [accessed May 25, 2013].

Chicago Style

"William Shakespeare," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 (accessed May 25, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

William Shakespeare [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323.

Bluebook Style

William Shakespeare, http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 (last visited May 25, 2013).

AMA Style

William Shakespeare. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323. Accessed May 25, 2013.

What seems to be true is that William Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th century. Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for William Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century,

new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.