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William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is conventionally regarded as the greatest English-language playwright of all time. Many of his plays are required reading in many U. S. school curriculums; those taught in schools often include [[Romeo and Juliet|The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet]], [[Macbeth|The Tragedy of Macbeth]] (the scottish play), [[A Midsummer Night's Dream]] and [[Hamlet|The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark]].

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is conventionally regarded as the greatest English-language playwright of all time. Many of his plays are required reading in many U. S. school curriculums; those taught in schools often include [[Romeo and Juliet|The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet]], [[Macbeth|The Tragedy of Macbeth]] (the scottish play), [[A Midsummer Night's Dream]] and [[Hamlet|The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark]].

Because Shakespeare's plays are so familiar, there are innumerable references to them in English literature. Sometimes his stories are recast into a different form. Audiences are expected to recognize the musical ''West Side Story'' as a retelling of ''Romeo and Juliet,'' and the classic science-fiction movie ''Forbidden Planet'' as a transformed version of ''The Tempest.'' The motion picture ''Shakespeare in Love,'' which won the 1998 Academy Award as Best Picture, while not historically accurate in detail, is enjoyed for capturing a sense of what Shakespeare's time and place may have been like.  

Because Shakespeare's plays are so familiar, there are innumerable references to them in English literature. Sometimes his stories are recast into a different form. Audiences are expected to recognize the musical ''West Side Story'' as a retelling of ''Romeo and Juliet,'' and the classic science-fiction movie ''Forbidden Planet'' as a transformed version of ''The Tempest.'' The motion picture ''Shakespeare in Love,'' which won the 1998 Academy Award as Best Picture is not a history or biography, but is enjoyed for evoking a sense of what Shakespeare's time and place must have been like.

 

The reverence in which Shakespeare is held, and the somewhat outdated language of his plays (which come from the same era as the King James translation of the Bible) should not obscure the fact that his plays were (and still are) fabulously successful commercial entertainment.  

He is also famous for his one hundred and fifty-four [[sonnets]], short poems written in a very strict rhyme scheme. The sonnets fall into series or sequences. Most of them are usually read as expressions of romantic or platonic love; some appear to be written to a married woman known in the sonnets as the "Dark Lady," some to a young man known as the "Fair Lord."

He is also famous for his one hundred and fifty-four [[sonnets]], short poems written in a very strict rhyme scheme. The sonnets fall into series or sequences. Most of them are usually read as expressions of romantic or platonic love; some appear to be written to a married woman known in the sonnets as the "Dark Lady," some to a young man known as the "Fair Lord."