William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. After choosing marriage over university at eighteen, he went on to become the indispensable dramatist of the theater company Lord Chamberlain’s Men. In the five-year span of 1599 to 1604, Shakespeare wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, and Othello. Playwright Ben Jonson, his contemporary, said Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time!”