William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, 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 in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised on 26 April 1564. Thought to have been educated at the local grammar school, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he went on to have three children, at the age of eighteen, before moving to London to work in the theatre. Two erotic poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were published in 1593 and 1594 and records of his plays begin to appear in 1594 for Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI. Shakespeare's tragic period lasted from around 1600 to 1608, during which period he wrote plays including Hamlet and Othello. The first editions of the sonnets were published in 1609 but evidence suggests that Shakespeare had been writing them for years for a private readership.

Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He 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.

(The portrait details: The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. NPG1, © National Portrait Gallery, London)

Barbara A. Mowat (1934-2017) was the Director of Research Emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, consulting editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and editor (with Paul Werstine) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works. Her major fields of research interest included Shakespeare’s dramatic romances, early modern printed dramatic texts, and Shakespeare’s reading practices. She received an M.A. degree in English literature from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in English literature from Auburn University, and Doctorates of Humane Letters from Amherst College, St. Johns University, and Washington College. Before coming to the Folger, she was Hollifield Professor of English Literature at Auburn University and then Dean of the College at Washington College. She served as president of the Shakespeare Association of America, president of the Southeast Renaissance Conference, chair of the MLA committee on the New Variorum Shakespeare, and was a member of the advisory board of the International Shakespeare Conference.

Paul Werstine is professor of English at King’s University College at Western University, a member of the graduate faculty at the University, editor (with Barbara A. Mowat) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works, and general editor (with Richard Knowles of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada--Reno) of the New Variorum Shakespeare, published by the Modern Language Association, for which he is preparing the volume on Romeo and Juliet. He has written extensively about the transmission of early modern English dramatic texts in manuscript and into print, and about the history of editing Shakespeare, including Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and The Editing of Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2012). Dr. Werstine holds an M.A. degree in English literature from Western University and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of South Carolina.