William Shakespeare

Name: William Shakespeare

Occupation: Playwright and Poet

Birth date: April 23rd, 1564

Death date: April 23rd, 1616

Education: Kings New School

Place of Birth: Stratford Upon Avon, England

In total, Shakespeare wrote a total of 38 plays that survived but 18 of them were printed in this lifetime, including a Midsummer Night's Dream.  Many of his plays were very successful and of course, made it to the famous Globe Theatre where they were performed. The types of plays he wrote varied from Tragedies to Comedies to Histories, as well as poems (sonnets). Some tragedies he wrote were Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear; some comedies are MSND, As You Like It and The Merry Wives of Windsor; his best known poems are The Sonnets which were first published in 1609.

Shakespeare's plays first became published around 1594, with his tragedy Titus Andronicus. It appeared as a cheap, small pamphlet known as a quarto because of the way in which it was printed. Because none of Shakespeare's manuscripts survived, the printed texts are the only source of what he wrote and are the texts closest to Shakespeare's time. Some are thought to preserve either his working drafts (his foul papers) or his fair copies. Others are thought to record versions remembered by actors who performed the plays, providing information about staging practices in Shakespeare’s day.

I think Shakespeare is still very relevant today considering the prominent themes in his plays. For example, Romeo and Juliet features themes of gang culture, forced marriage, conflict, teen suicide etc whereas a Midsummer Nights Dream could be linked to gender inequality as well as forced marriage too.