Most quoted writer in English-speaking and world history, according to Oxford English Dictionary survey.

Sometimes referred to as the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard")

Words on gravestone: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear / To dig the dust enclosed here / Blest be the man that spares these stones, / And curst be he that moves my bones."

Patron Henry Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, believed by many to be the male subject of Shakespeare's love sonnets.

Ben Jonson, contemporary dramatist, dismissed Shakespeare's style and learning as, 'small Latin and less Greek'

There is in fact comparatively little known about the life of William Shakespeare considering how his work was revered both in his own lifetime and through the centuries. There is much speculation about Shakespeare's life, even debating whether someone else wrote some or all of his plays and poetry.

He was born around 1564 in Stratford upon Avon, UK. He wrote about thirty-eight plays, a collection of sonnets and a variety of other poems. The chronology of much of Shakespeare's writing is often disputed amongst scholars, but he produced most of his work between 1586 and 1616.

His plays are often divided into groups as he excelled in all forms from comedy to tragedy, history plays and sonnets. Many of the characters in his plays are extremely complex, such as Hamlet for example, and he writes with poetic grandeur and philosophical depth.

Shakespeare's works have been translated into every major living language, and his plays are continually performed all around the world.