Shakespeare

Between 1600 and 1610, he produced some of his best-known works, including “Hamlet,“ “Othello,“ “King Lear,“ and “Macbeth.“

According to one professor, readers return to Shakespeare’s plays, not for his storylines, but to learn how things unfold. In the process, they often use his plays to understand why humans act the way they do.

Most of his plays were written for the stage, so it took his admirers to compile the play texts posthumously in 1623. This became the famous “First Folio,” the basis of Shakespeare’s literary posterity.

Yale critic Harold Bloom believed the Bard transformed the way humanity understood itself, a thesis laid out in his book "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human."

Old, Middle, and Modern English are three distinct language eras. A speaker of Modern English wouldn’t be able to understand Old or Middle English.

Robert Greene was a respected writer during Shakespeare’s time as an actor-playwright who famously dismissed the young upstart, accusing him of plagiarism and criticizing his ability to write blank verse.

Shakespeare’s works have been used to interpret moments in US history, from the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and Lincoln’s frequent quotations of “Macbeth,” to the use of Shakespeare in nationwide classrooms today.

Beyond his famous plays, Shakespeare penned 154 sonnets, including the well-known romantic ode “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” He also wrote two long poems as well as several minor pieces.

Shakespeare’s plays are primarily written in blank verse, a consistent meter without any rhyme scheme. The mode is common in epic poems like Homer’s Iliad or John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” though the specific meters vary.

A sonnet is a rigid poetic form from the Renaissance, featuring 14 lines, a consistent meter (or beat) and rhyme scheme, and a noticeable thematic shift known as a "volta." Shakespeare popularized a form featuring three four-line stanzas and a rhyming couplet, departing from the Petrarchan two-part structure of eight- and six-line stanzas.