William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor, remembered as England's national poet. From Stratford-upon-Avon, he married Anne Hathaway at eighteen; his life in 1585–1592 is almost undocumented. By 1592 he was established in London, where Robert Greene called him an upstart crow.

From 1594 he wrote for and part-owned the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who built the Globe in 1599 and became the King's Men in 1603. From about 1589 he moved from histories and comedies to tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, and romances such as The Tempest.

He retired to Stratford around 1613 and died on 23 April 1616, leaving his wife his second best bed. His daughter Susanna inherited; his granddaughter Elizabeth died childless in 1670, ending his direct line. In 1623 fellow actors published the First Folio of 36 plays; Ben Jonson hailed him as for all time.