What is William Shakespeare?
{{Use British English|date=February 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = William Shakespeare | image = Shakespeare.jpg | caption = The [[Chandos portrait]] (held by the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London) | birth_date = between<br/> 24 April 1563 and<br/> 23 April 1564 | birth_place = | death_date = 23 April 1616 <br/>(aged 52) | death_place = Stratford-upon-Avon, England | resting_place = [[Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon]] | occupation = {{hlist|Dramatist|poet|actor}} | era = {{unbulleted list|[[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]]|[[Jacobean era|Jacobean]]}} | movement = [[English Renaissance]] | known_for = A dramatist who wrote 38 known dramas | yearsactive = {{circa}} 1592{{spnd}}1613 | spouse = {{marriage|[[Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare)|Anne Hathaway]]|1582}} | children = {{unbulleted list|[[Susanna Hall]]|[[Hamnet Shakespeare]]|[[Judith Quiney]]}} | father = [[John Shakespeare]] | mother = [[Mary Shakespeare|Mary Arden]] | signature = William Shakespeare Signature.svg }} [[File:Detroit Publishing Company - Shakespeare's Memorial Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, England.jpg|thumb|260x260px|''Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare's Memorial Theatre opened in 1879 and burned down in 1926. It was replaced by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.'']] '''William Shakespeare''' ({{circa}} 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an [[English people|English]] [[dramatist]], [[poet]], and theatre actor. He wrote 40 known [[Play (theatre)|plays]] (with about half of them considered [[Comedy|comedies]]) and two long [[poems]] in his [[lifetime]]. He lived in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], in [[Warwickshire]], England. His plays are still performed today. He is often [[wikt:quote|quote]]d in modern writing. Shakespeare wrote his works between approximately 1592 and 1