The unexpected always happens.

Playwright and poet                          

Selected Works:

There is no authoritative record and many of the plays were performed many years before they were published, dates are speculative.

Dates in brackets indicate the date of first publication.

1590 (1598) Henry VI, Part I – Stationers' Register on 25 February 1598.
1590 (1594) Henry VI, Part II
1590 (1595) Henry VI, Part III – Parodied by Robert Greene in 1592.
1592 (1602) Richard III – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1592 (1623) The Comedy of Errors – If this is the same as the play titled "The Night of Errors", it was performed on 28 December 1594. Probably the "errors" in Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1593 (1594) Titus Andronicus – According to the first published edition, it was performed by a company that folded in early 1593. In 1594 Philip Henslowe referred to it as a "new" play. In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1593 (1623) Taming of the Shrew
1594 (1623) The Two Gentlemen of Verona – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays. The work may have been based on Bartholomew Yong's translation of Jorge de Montemayor's Diana, which was done in 1583 but not published until 1598.
1594 (1598) Love's Labour's Lost – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1591-1596 (1597) Romeo and Juliet – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1595 (1597) Richard II – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1595 (1600) A Midsummer Night's Dream – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1596 (1622) King John – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1596 (1600) The Merchant of Venice – Recorded at Stationers' Register on 22 July 1598. In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1597 Henry IV, Part I – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays.
1594-1597 (1603?) Love's Labour's Won – In Francis Meres' 1598 list of Shakespeare plays. In Christopher Hunt's August 1603 booklist. A lost play, though some scholars think it might simply be an alternative name for another of the plays, such as As You Like It, Much Ado, or All's Well That Ends Well.
1598 (1600) Henry IV, Part II
1599 (1600) Henry V – Chorus expresses hope for the Earl of Essex's Irish expedition of 1599.
1599 (1623) Julius Caesar – Mentioned by Thomas Platter the Younger in 1599.
1599 (1600) Much Ado About Nothing
1599 (1623) As You Like It – Stationers' Register in August 1600
1597-1600 (1602) The Merry Wives of Windsor
1599-1600 (1603) Hamlet – Stationers' Register in July 1602 describes it as “lately acted.”
1602 (1623) Twelfth Night
1602 (1609) Troilus and Cressida – Stationers' Register in February 1603.
1603 (1623) All's Well That Ends Well – No contemporary reference.
1603 (1622) Othello – Performed November 1604.
1603-06 (1608) King Lear – Stationers' Register in November 1607.
1603-06 (1623) Macbeth
1603 (1623) Measure for Measure – Court records show it was performed December 1604.
1606 (1623) Antony and Cleopatra – Stationers' Register in May 1608.
1607 (1623) Coriolanus
1607 (1623) Timon of Athens (probably revised by Thomas Middleton)
1608 (1609) Pericles Prince of Tyre (probably revised by George Wilkins) – Stationers' Register in May 1608.
1609 (1623) Cymbeline
1594-1610 (1623) The Winter's Tale
1611 (1623) The Tempesta                                                                                                                                                  

Mother Mary Arden
Father John Shakespeare
William was the third child of eight children and the eldest surviving son.
At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:
Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.                                                                  

Baptised 26 April 1564.
The date of his actual birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April.