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Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare

3.94 · rating details · 31,433 ratings · 984 reviews

Critically acclaimed as one of Shakespeare's most complex and intriguing plays, Twelfth Night is a classic romantic comedy of mistaken identities. In recent years it has returned to the center of critical debate surrounding gender and sexuality. The introduction explores the multiple factors that make up the play's rich textual, theatrical, critical, and cultural hi...more
Critically acclaimed as one of Shakespeare's most complex and intriguing plays, Twelfth Night is a classic romantic comedy of mistaken identities. In recent years it has returned to the center of critical debate surrounding gender and sexuality. The introduction explores the multiple factors that make up the play's rich textual, theatrical, critical, and cultural history. Keir Elam surveys the play's production and reception, emphasizing the role of the spectator both within the comedy and the playhouse. He also discusses the themes of perspective and interpreting visual images, theatric and film adaptations of the play, and Twelfth Night's comedic elements, and provides individual analyses of Malvolio, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste, Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. Editorial craft, casting and the use of music are addressed in the appendices, which also include a list of abbreviations and references, a catalog of Shakespeare’s works and works partly by Shakespeare, and citations for the modern productions mentioned in the text, other collated editions of Twelfth Night, and other related reading. The Arden Shakespeare has developed a reputation as the pre-eminent critical edition of Shakespeare for its exceptional scholarship, reflected in the thoroughness of each volume. An introduction comprehensively contextualizes the play, chronicling the history and culture that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare at the time of its writing and performance, and closely surveying critical approaches to the work. Detailed appendices address problems like dating and casting, and analyze the differing Quarto and Folio sources. A full commentary by one or more of the play’s foremost contemporary scholars illuminates the text, glossing unfamiliar terms and drawing from an abundance of research and expertise to explain allusions and significant background information. Highly informative and accessible, Arden offers the fullest experience of Shakespeare available to a reader.

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Paperback, 350 pages

Published May 9th 2008 by Arden Shakespeare (first published 1602)

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Jan 30, 2011

Madeline rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare

I wish I could've seen what performances of this play were like in Shakespeare's time. Since women couldn't be on stage, men had to play the women's roles, which means that the guy playing Viola had to also dress up as a man while acting like a woman.
You have to wonder if the audience ever really knew what was going on. I'll bet you anything you like that some form of the following conversation took place in the Globe Theater at one point:
GROUNDLING 1: Wait, wasn't that guy playing ...more

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Sep 26, 2008

Trevor rated it

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Shelves: language

A few years ago I read a review of some film that had come out and I was sure I would never see – read the review almost carelessly while flicking through the arts section of the paper on a Saturday morning, no, I must have been clicking over The Age Home Page. The woman who wrote the review commented that whatever the film was had been based on Twelfth Night – which she considered that most ridiculous of Shakespeare’s plays – she really could not see how anyone could be bothered to reproduce t...more

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Jan 10, 2008

De'Shawn rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Shakespeare Lovers

Twelfth Night, a Romantic Comedy that was written by the late William Shakespeare has to be one of his best works. This romantic Comedy deals and relates to real life events, as people in life hides there identities so that others won't know there true inner self. For example, Viola played a character in the name of Cesario in Twelfth Night. She had true feelings for one Orsino but couldn't express her feelings because of her disguise being a man. Her disguise instead was to help Olivia hook up ...more

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Feb 27, 2010

Janelle Fernandez rated it

· review of another edition

The book Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare was an interesting book. It was a very funny play that will show everyone that love is crazy. I enjoyed reading this play because not only was all of the characters confused in the play they were in love. Twelfth Night being the night of fun and disguses makes this book interesting. This is beacause Shakespeare made love seem hard to get. When in reality love is really hard to get. Malvolio was a great character because people tend to be like him. Ev...more

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Dec 25, 2011

Boyu rated it

· review of another edition

I already watched the movie She's the Man (which for those of you that don't know is a hilarious movie based on Twelfth Night), so the storyline was not new to me. I already had the basics of what was going on and what would happen. So I guess you could say that I treated this play like a job that needed to be finished. That coupled with the fact that this genre wasn't what I usually go for (a.k.a young adult or just fantasy in general) and you get an extremely bored me flipping through the page...more

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Jan 20, 2009

Sheaa rated it

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Twelfth Night is a very good book. Shakespeare is a very talented man and has shown this greatly through this play. It has that people rarely see the things right in front of their eyes, and often this may be the most important thing. It showed me that love can come in many diffrent forms, and you should always expect the unexpected, their are people out their that will love you just for you and not for the material things you have and or the way you appear. It was a great comedy as well and was...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Kalah W rated it

· review of another edition

Twelfth Night by Williams Shakespeare was a great play to read. At times the play would get a bit confusing when it came to who was in love with whom, and what action was being done by which character because there was so much role playing with in the play. I feel as though Shakespeare did a great job with displaying the deceptive traits of every character and always finding a way to place another twist into the play,especially when Viola's secrete is discovered along with a surprise at the end ...more

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Jan 04, 2012

Aliyah M. rated it

· review of another edition

The play Twelfth Night was very interesting, it was surprising to see how a play that was written numerous years ago can still relate to every day life. It was also interesting to see the interactions and thoughts of the characters because every character is different from another. This play displays many themes that reoccur throughout the play. This play was very good at grabbing my attention because the author addressed many different issues in a way that did not arouse the readers,but allows ...more

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Jan 04, 2012

Nora Balan rated it

· review of another edition

Twelfth Night was an amazing play. I assumed that becuase it was in Shakespearean language I would not have quite enjoyed it. But i was wrong, with the side notes I understood a lot. I loved how you could relate Twelfth Night with modern times, it was as if Shakespeare knew that even thousands of years later people would act very similar to how people acted in his time. I really enjoyed the motif of hunger Shakespeare constantly used, espeially to explain Orsino's infatuton with Olivia. I think ...more

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Dec 28, 2011

Johmarie added it · review of another edition

The play was rather confusing throughout the first part of the book, but then I got a better understanding of it and figured out that the book was actually entertaining rather than boring or stupid. I finally got the true meaning of a romantic comedy. This book managed to touch all the subjects that a romantic comedy was and showed that one of the many arts of William Shakespeare is still an ongoing masterpiece in the modern world. From that point on, I always wanted to know what was going to h...more

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Dec 17, 2011

Esdaile rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: renaissance-drama

This play has a special place in my affection. I first got to know it when I was I think 11 and it was the school play. I loved it then and I love it now. Someone wrote somewhere that the entire story is "enthused with the spirit of love". Love is presented mostly as a form of madness and sickness but a sickness which we welcome. There is a close parallel between the plague (analogies and references to the plague run through the play). Hundreds of years later Thomas Mann wrote "De...moreThis play has a special place in my affection. I first got to know it when I was I think 11 and it was the school play. I loved it then and I love it now. Someone wrote somewhere that the entire story is "enthused with the spirit of love". Love is presented mostly as a form of madness and sickness but a sickness which we welcome. There is a close parallel between the plague (analogies and references to the plague run through the play). Hundreds of years later Thomas Mann wrote "Death in Venice" which also pays tribute to the parallels between love as sickness, love and death. At the same time there is the saving grace of a true love requited love, far rarer than unrequited love, nevertheless possible. For young people it is Shakespeare's unnerving depiction of unrequited love which harrows and offers sconsolation in this play. "I was not the first and shall not be the last". What Shakespeare called "the pangs of despised love" haunt this tale.
"That strain again! It had a dying fall:"

Anyone who has been sick from unrequited love will recognise him/her self in this play, will find some consolation in it too, for it is after all a comedy and at the end, which is death, which is the end of longing but also the reconciliation of hunter and hunted, lover and beloved, all is reconciled and all, or almost all forgiven and resolved

This takes place in a land of illusions-Illyrium. Cesario becomes Orsiono's (Orsino the "little bear", for that is what the word means in Italian, -baited by the hounds of love-in this play of illusions and delusions, disguise, false hopes, double entendres puns and metaphors abound and meanings behind meanings abound) "mistress and his fancy's queen". The obdurate Olivia retruns to life before completing the "seven years' bad luck" mourning her brother's death and Viola's own brother is saved miraculously from drowning. We know this is half fantasy, this side of Ilyrium such bliss cannot be. Only Malvolio swears revenge at the end of the play. Some commentators suggest that Malvolio incorporates the spirit of Puritanism and revolt against the principle of aristocracy in the name of republicanism and Godliness. Many other commentators reject this as fanciful but for me it rings true. Only half a century later the Puritans did rebel, exyecuted the Stuart King and imposed their new moral order on England banning among many other popular entertainments Christmas (and therefore presumably Twelfth Night celebrations) bear baiting and play acting. Truly Malvolio had his revenge. Puritanism is repeatedly dismissed as reactionary and "passé" only to retrun in a new guise with renewed vigour to banish, ban and purge again, taking many by surprise when it does so. Never in my wildest dreams for example, would I have imagined thirty years ago that Britain would have supinely accepted a ban on smoking in public houses. I am sure that Malvolio would have approved of that measure thoroughly.
"and thus the whirlgig of time brings in his revenges". (less)

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Dec 15, 2011

Karltz Max rated it

· review of another edition

"Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare is one of the most creative plays by Shakespeare due to the fact that it pried into serious matters of the modern day society and society in the 1700s but also had a bit of light comedy to keep the audience entertained. This play was interesting to read since it allowed readers to many different motifs such as masks/disguises, love/infatuation, and madness.

Through the masks/disguises the play brought to light the question of: Can we (...more

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Nov 02, 2011

Jillian rated it

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Shelves: classics

Alright, I'm starting to think that I only like Shakespeare's tragedies because I really haven't found any of these screwball comedies all that funny. Thank god for the notes because with all characters and mix-ups, I would be completely lost. For a much funnier version of this play, I will copy and paste a Goodreads review from a friend a made online. Her reviews are often better than the plays themselves:)

From Madeline:

I wish I could've seen what performances of this pl...more

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Oct 11, 2011

Jackie rated it

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The main characters in the story are Viola, Olivia, Duke Orsino, Sir Toby Belch, Malvolio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste and Sebastion.Sir Toby Belch wwas Oliva's uncle. Malvolio was Oliva's butler. He was tricked by Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste and Maria through a lover letter that oliva loved him. And he did ridiculous thing that the letter instructed him to do and he was considered crazy and sent away for a while.
This book is abut a rich countess named Oliva whose brother ...more

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Oct 10, 2011

Gill rated it

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Shelves: theater

Humor is the hardest thing to understand in a foreign language coming from a foreign culture. Shakespeare's language and times are foreign to us now although related to us. As a result it is much harder to read the comedies than it is to read the tragedies or the poetry. We don't get the jokes and have to rely much more on the notes in a good edition to explain them to us.

That said, when you see the play staged, the acting makes some of the humor come alive even where the specific word...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Chandra rated it

· review of another edition

One would think I would tire of Shakespeare's comedies. After all, it seems he has a collection of about five or six plot devices, and when writing any comedy, he grabs a few of these plot devices at random, sticks them in a blender, blends, and the pours out the plot, in the form of a not-always-well-thought-out plot smoothie.
One would be wrong. Because while the plots and characters can be fairly formulaic, the jokes are funny. In my opinion, anyway.
On the topic of Twelfth Night spec...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Rachel M. rated it

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This play is really complex because of all the double/mistaken identities, but that is the crux of the plot-it's what gives the play zest and humor. In short, this play is about the different manifestations of foolishness and insanity with regard to love. Yet it is also a tale about identity and male and female relationships. Even though there are many entaglements in the imaginary world of Ilyria, it is a world where problems are easily resolved and a world in which, according to Shakespeare, w...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Corinne rated it

· review of another edition

Knowing nothing about this play when I began, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the plot: shipwrecks, hidden identities, separated twins, love triangles (of course). Not to MENTION the yellow stockings, which had me laughing out loud. It's most certainly a comedy and, with other Shakespeare comedies, I must insist that whomever attempts it for the first time (if you are unfamiliar with Shakespeare) that they read the text along with a production. The comedic elements, especially, ...more

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Apr 05, 2011

Shaun rated it

· review of another edition

True story – I was finishing As You Like It in a park today and these two prostitutes approached me to offer their services. I smiled and said no thank you, and as they walked away one said to the other “did you notice he was reading Shakespeare? Ayyyye.” And there you have it, Shakespeare gets respect even from Mexican prostitutes.
About the play – I am a bit confused. This has to be Shakespeare´s most homoerotic play by a long shot. Women fall in love with women, men fall in love w...more True story – I was finishing As You Like It in a park today and these two prostitutes approached me to offer their services. I smiled and said no thank you, and as they walked away one said to the other “did you notice he was reading Shakespeare? Ayyyye.” And there you have it, Shakespeare gets respect even from Mexican prostitutes.
About the play – I am a bit confused. This has to be Shakespeare´s most homoerotic play by a long shot. Women fall in love with women, men fall in love with boys, friendship and sexuality walk a fine line between male characters. ¡Ora le! This play is almost as gay as RENT, if I may say so myself. In the end, Orsino continues to address Viola as her male persona even after he casually arranges their marriage. It seems as if he´s still sexually attracted to her male persona. Let me put it this way, I don´t really want to know what kind of lovin they´ll be making on the honeymoon but I think it´s going to be weird. Real weird. Like, here honey, take off that silly dress and put on some boy clothes before we make the beast with two backs.
Equally puzzling to me in this play is why certain characters love other characters. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to their love interests. Viola is all about the sleaze ball Orsino even she knows him by passing along love letters to Olivia and hearing him rant about the weakness of female love, and yet she falls for him. I want to emphasize this point for a second, Orsino is one of the biggest sleaze ball characters in Shakespeare. What the hell does she see in him? Olivia falls for Viola while she is loosely disguised as a boy, and there is clear sexual tension between them, so it´s like an undercover lesbian love thing going on. Then there is Antonio and Sebastian, which is a whole other complicated mess. Are they just good buddies or is there also sexual attraction? Easily argued either way really.
Maybe the point is this, there is no sense in love. That is exaggerated a bit in these plays, but maybe my man Bill is saying you´re not supposed to understand attraction between two people. Two people in love often is baffling to the outsider, but really who cares about the outsiders, love exists and there is no making sense of it. This is probably a good moral to walk away with in Mexico, as I watch stunningly beautiful women walking along side guys who look like they belong in an MC Beaner music video. Life is confusing man.

Quotes
My stars shine darkly over me: the malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper yours, therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. 2.1.3
Come what may, I do adore thee so, That danger shall seem sport, and I will go. 2.1.47
O time! Thou must untangle this, not I; It is too hard a knot for me to untie. 2.2.83
For women are like roses, whose fair flower Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour…As love doth give my heart; no woman´s heart So big, to hold so much; they lack retention. 2.4.55
I am ready to distrust mine eyes And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me 4.3.26
Come, boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mischief. 5.1.37
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Jan 26, 2011

Danny added it · review of another edition

Twelfth Night was an execellent read The book was very enjoyable. Despite like all other Shakespaere books its difficult langauge, it was very intresting and comical. The characters were very intresting, some were very funny while others were very emtional or odd, some were so smart they acted follish to fool the people around them.The plot of the story was very intresting how each character loved a completely different charcter and not until the end did they fall for the most completely unexpec...more

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Jun 12, 2011

Jeanette rated it

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Shelves: netterooski-challenge-2011, classics, four-star-fiction, plays, all-fiction

A Midsummer Night's Dream has long been my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. Twelfth Night has now moved into a strong second place. It has the funniest Fool of all his comedies I've read so far. And Maria! What a piece of work!

It would've been REALLY funny if Malvolio had found some dame who thought he WAS actually attractive with his yellow stockings and cross-garters and queer behavior. She could dress bizarrely as well, and they'd be together nerdily ever after.

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Oct 23, 2010

Tatiana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, classics

Read for my Brit. Lit. 224 course. After weeks quite literally in the Dark Ages, a Shakespeare comedy was a breath of much-needed lightness. Twelfth Night, or What You Will is about forbidden love and reckless love and love deceived. Also, mistaken identity, cross dressing, and gender struggle. And all of it is explored to hilarious end through schemes and shenanigans. (Yellow, cross-garted stockings will from now on elicit giggles from me.)

The plot can be summed up as: Orsino loves...moreRead for my Brit. Lit. 224 course. After weeks quite literally in the Dark Ages, a Shakespeare comedy was a breath of much-needed lightness. Twelfth Night, or What You Will is about forbidden love and reckless love and love deceived. Also, mistaken identity, cross dressing, and gender struggle. And all of it is explored to hilarious end through schemes and shenanigans. (Yellow, cross-garted stockings will from now on elicit giggles from me.)

The plot can be summed up as: Orsino loves Olivia, Malvolio loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario-Viola, Viola loves Orsino, and madness ensues. It made perfect sense to me that Olivia would fall for Cesario, who is Viola in eunuch disguise. Women want to be swept off their feet once and awhile. Cesario-Viola, in an attempt to convey Orsino's feelings for Olivia, ends up presenting himself too well.

Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house,
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night,
Hallow your name to the reverberated hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out "Olivia!"

The one relationship I didn't get was Orsino and Viola. I mean, Orsino is kind of average for a duke. He doesn't have much of a personality; his view on women is typical for the day. All he does in the play is pine for Olivia, though courts her from afar until it is too late. But as with all romantic comedies (and this has to be one of the first), everybody has to wind up happy and coupled and, if possible, married at the end. Except Malvolio, who draws the short straw.

How, I ask, did Olivia take Sebastian for Cesario-Viola? Yes, Sebastian and Viola are twins, but Sebastian wasn't the same in demeanor or speech as his sister. At all. But what guy is going to turn down a proposal from a pretty countess?

What reish is in this? How runs the stream?
Or I am mad, or else this is a dream.
Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep.

We also watched the film in class, but I think I got more enjoyment and laughs from reading the play. Though it did make me want to watch Shakespeare In Love again. Not-so-conincidentally, there's a Viola in that, too. (less)

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Oct 05, 2010

Nicholas Armstrong rated it

· review of another edition

Like many of Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night doesn't make much sense. I suppose I shouldn't hold that against the play, but I do. I understand that it says quite a great deal about gender roles and of what is really important but I think aside from questioning these ideas the play does nothing to answer anything.

Orsino is feminine in his love, Olivia manly in hers, and Viola is stuck as a man courting a female who wants to be a female courting a man. This is all very interestin...moreLike many of Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night doesn't make much sense. I suppose I shouldn't hold that against the play, but I do. I understand that it says quite a great deal about gender roles and of what is really important but I think aside from questioning these ideas the play does nothing to answer anything.

Orsino is feminine in his love, Olivia manly in hers, and Viola is stuck as a man courting a female who wants to be a female courting a man. This is all very interesting with several humorous ideas but the plot of the story makes no sense. Orsino, at the drop of a hat, decides to marry his servant, which says quite a great deal about the depth of his love and the depth of his character. Similarly, Olivia, who was wooed by Viola, marries Sebastian instead. This seems completely okay to her because, I suppose, they look the same. I don't rightly understand what any of this, the plot I mean, does to expand on ideas of genders except to muddle the whole thing up in the end and say that it doesn't matter. In the end the men end up with the women and vice versa and love, well, love kind of gets screwed doesn't it?

I'm not implying the love in any of Shakespeare's plays is realistic, although I think that one or two might count, but the one here is particularly ridiculous. Taking into account that there is supposed to be some great depth to the gender thing I'm not sure it really is answered. Perhaps Shakespeare simply thought it would be funny to have an effeminate man and a manly woman. Perhaps he just liked the idea of a boy, dressed as a girl, pretending to be a man. All of these elements are very comical, they are also completely absurd, but I don't think that that was his intention of he was putting on this performance for a collection of whores and thieves (as was often his crowd).

It would be fair to say that my opinion, in general, is that Shakespeare couldn't write a good plot. The man can spit out a good line but lines of wit and beauty have very little to do with the overall plotting of a thing. Really, how many later writers had completely unbelievable, ridiculous plots but were hailed because of their writing style? Ironically, it is the inverse that is now true. Try to find acclaim for a contemporary science fiction or fantasy author - it doesn't exist! Back then we cared about the form but not the content and now we are the exact opposite, but we make an exception if you were from the time before we changed our minds. Why it is that people can't simply stick to one idea of what is good or what is not is beyond me.

Anywho, the play is amusing, some of the lines are quite good, but overall it makes no sense Dues Ex Machina may as well be the name of it and the characters are one dimensional. Oh, and it's also Shakespeare. So I guess that makes all the shit disappear.(less)

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Jun 04, 2010

Rowland Bismark rated it

· review of another edition

Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night near the middle of his career, probably in the year 1601. Most critics consider it one of his greatest comedies, along with plays such as As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Twelfth Night is about illusion, deception, disguises, madness, and the extraordinary things that love will cause us to do—and to see.

Twelfth Night is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have an alternative title: the play is actually called Tw...more

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Feb 18, 2010

Billie Pritchett rated it

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Twelfth Night involves mistaken identity, drunkenness, playfulness, and love in idleness. Sebastian and his sister Viola are mistaken for one another. Sir Toby Belch and his friend Andrew are drunk most of the time and playing games. A serving woman named Maria isn't drunk, but plays games with the heart of a conceited serving man named Malvolio by making him believe that the woman he serves, Olivia, is in love with him. As for love in idleness, Malvolio is mad for Olivia (as mentioned), Duke Or...more

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Jan 22, 2010

Isabell Peters rated it

· review of another edition

Twelth Night was a very intersting book. This book cover most of lifes major motif and themes; such as love, jelously, and mistaken identity. It all start with a girl name viola who was in a ship wreck along with her twin brother. Viola landed in illyria where she diguise herself as a man name cesario. The only person who knows about her secret is the captin from the ship he also helps her. "Viola" starts to work for Orsino who, has her sending messages to. Olivia the woman he is deepl...more

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Jan 21, 2010

Dakeria Fulks rated it

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This play was very different from the other Shakespeare plays that I have read so far. I really enjoyed this one because it had to do with love and lust! The way everyone is disguised in this play makes the reader sit on the edge of there seat. It makes the person reading the book want to know what is to come next. I like books that keep me guessing about what is going to happen next and that is what this play did. It was exciting from beginning to end. What caught my eye the most in this play i...more

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Jan 21, 2010

Cleora added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Twelfth Night was a very confusing play when i first started out reading it in class. If i did not have a teacher there to clarify it i would have probably been completely confused. To me this book is full of love, tricks, and mislead trust. In Twelfth Night Olivia, a very wealthy young lady fell in love with a servant of her admirer. Her admirer was named Orsino and his servant who was slowly falling in love Orsino was named Cesario or Viola which ever one you may choose to call him or her beca...more

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Jan 06, 2010

Felishia added it · review of another edition

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy that takes place in Illyria written by William Shakespeare. Throughout the whole play, many characters disguise themselves so that they will not divulge their personality. Many complications start to arise when people start to fall in love with each other. Viola, who disguises herself as a man falls in love with Orsino but is unable to divulge her love because he thinks she is a man. She tries to give hints to Orsino about her love for him and who she really is...more

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Jan 06, 2010

Christina Benjamin rated it

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Twelfth Night is a play that involves many interesting characters and quandaries. One quandary that that appears several times through out this play is that people are oblivious to the fact that a person is truly in love with them. Viola is a woman that is mourning the death of her brother and in this situation she comes up with a plan to live as a man to be somewhat invisible to others. While she is living as a man she begins to work as a messenger for a count named Orsino. Orsino is trying t...more

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About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. 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. Hi...moreWilliam Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. 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.

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. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

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 about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, 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 did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
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