ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), an English poet, playwright and actor, is regarded as the world’s greatest English-language writer.

The body of Shakespeare’s surviving work consists of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and several other poems. His plays have been translated into all major living languages and are performed throughout the world more frequently than those of any other playwright.

Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer and co-owner of the theater company “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men,” later known as “The King’s Men.” In 1599, several actors from the company founded their own theater on the south bank of the Thames and called it the Globe.

Shakespeare wrote most of his works between 1590 and 1613. His early works were mostly comedies and histories, genres he brought to a high level of perfection by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote tragedies until around 1608. During this period, Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth were created, plays considered among the greatest works of world theater. In his later period, he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights.

Shakespeare was a highly respected poet and playwright during his lifetime, but his reputation did not reach its present scale until the 19th century. The Romantics particularly emphasized his genius, while the Victorians celebrated him almost as an idol. Since the 20th century, Shakespeare’s timeless and ever-relevant works have been continuously performed in various cultural and political contexts around the world.

All of Shakespeare’s works have been translated into Serbian.

Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet (1593), Titus Andronicus (1594), Julius Caesar (1599), Troilus and Cressida (1601–1602), Hamlet (1602), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606), Antony and Cleopatra (1607), Coriolanus (1608), Timon of Athens (1608).

Comedies: Love’s Labour’s Lost (1590), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591), The Comedy of Errors (1593–1594), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1594), The Merchant of Venice (1595), The Taming of the Shrew (1596), Much Ado About Nothing (1599), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), Twelfth Night (1599–1600), As You Like It (1600), All’s Well That Ends Well (1602–1604), Measure for Measure (1604), Pericles (1608), Cymbeline (1610), The Winter’s Tale (1610), The Tempest (1611).

Historical dramas: King Henry VI (1591), King Richard III (1593), King Richard II (1594), King John (1594), King Henry IV (1596–1597), King Henry V (1599), King Henry VIII (1612).

Poems: Sonnets (written between 1595 and 1599, published in 1609), Venus and Adonis (1593), The Rape of Lucrece (1594), The Passionate Pilgrim.