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back-cast wrote:William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[a] was an English poet and playwright, now widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[2]

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. He travelled to London sometime between 1585 and 1592 and began a successful career as an actor, writer, and part-owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later known as the King's Men). It appears he retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive and considerable speculation has been poured into this void,[3] including questions concerning his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were actually written by others.[4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, producing plays, such as Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime; and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day; but his reputation would not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed his artistry; and George Bernard Shaw mocked the nineteenth-century reverence for Shakespeare among Victorians as "bardolatry".[5] In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today, constantly performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world

Rowe was the first biographer to pass down the tradition that Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death;[53] but retirement from all work was uncommon at that time,[54] and Shakespeare continued to visit London.[53] He died on 23 April 1616,[55] and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607,[56] and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare’s death.[57]

In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna.[58] The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".[59] The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying.[60] The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare’s direct line.[61] Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation.[62] Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.[63]

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.[64] Sometime before 1623, a monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil.[65]

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