William Shakespeare,

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

Biographical note

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer the English language has ever seen. Whether you agree with that or not, he is certainly the most quoted author of all time. His output of 37 plays, 154 sonnets and sundry other poems is extraordinary by any measure.

The plays are conventionally divided into the Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. The list here adopts the additional subdivision of Romances used by many collections. It should be noted that the term "Comedy" had a somewhat different meaning in Shakespeare's day, and the Comedies often feature morally dubious plots by today's standards