威廉·莎士比亚出生于沃里克郡的埃文河畔斯特拉特福,并于1564年4月26日接受洗礼。他的父亲是手套制造商和羊毛商人,他的母亲玛丽·阿登(Mary Arden)是当地一个富裕地主的女儿。莎士比亚可能是在斯特拉特福德的文法学校接受教育的。1582年,他娶了安妮·海瑟薇,第二年生了一个女儿,1585年生了一对双胞胎。莎士比亚的戏剧生涯似乎开始于1590年左右。我们只知道他是张伯伦勋爵公司的一员,1603年詹姆斯一世继位后,该公司更名为国王公司。公司收购了伦敦南华克地区靠近泰晤士河的两家剧院——环球剧院和黑衣修士剧院的股权。莎士比亚的诗歌先于戏剧出版,1593年和1594年分别有两首诗发表,献给他的赞助人南安普敦伯爵亨利·沃瑟斯利。莎士比亚的大部分十四行诗可能也是在这个时期写成的。莎士比亚戏剧的记录始于1594年,直到1611年左右,他大约每年创作两部。 His earliest plays include Henry VI and Titus Andronicus. A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Richard II all date from the mid to late 1590s. Some of his most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s; these include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Antony & Cleopatra. His late plays, often known as the Romances, date from 1608 onwards and include The Tempest. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first collected edition of his works was published in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio'.