William Shakespeare

1564 – 1616

Literature

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is 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 extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Contemporaries

Tokugawa Ieyasu

52 yr overlap

Miguel de Cervantes

52 yr overlap

Galileo Galilei

52 yr overlap

Johannes Kepler

45 yr overlap

Akbar the Great

41 yr overlap

Elizabeth I

39 yr overlap

Caravaggio

39 yr overlap

Sir Francis Drake

32 yr overlap

René Descartes

20 yr overlap

Oliver Cromwell

17 yr overlap

Rembrandt

10 yr overlap

Suleiman the Magnificent

2 yr overlap

Their World