William Shakespeare is the greatest of all playwrights and poets of all times. Not much is known of his life. He was probably the son of a businessman and was born in 1564 in Stradford-upon-Avon. He probably attended the local grammar school and got a classical education. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and had 3 children. Little is known of his life before 1592, when he appeared as a playwright in London. Soon he became an actor playing supporting roles like the ghost in «Hamlet». In 1599 Shakespeare became a part owner of the Globe Theatre in London.

     Shakespeare’s work as a playwright is subdivided into 3 periods. Written in the first period, Shakespeare’s plays are mostly history plays like «Henry VI», and comedies with strong elements of farce. His masterpiece of this period is «Romeo and Juliet».

     In the second period Shakespeare wrote a number of comedies where he moved away from farce towards romance. In the third period, after 1600, appeared his major tragedies – «Hamlet», «Othello». They presented a clear opposition of order to chaos, good to evil.

     Shakespeare was a great poet and would be well known for his poetry alone. His major achievement as a poet is his sonnets, first published in 1609. A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines, with a moral at the end. The sonnets are addressed to some «W.H.», and to mysterious «Dark Lady of Sonnets». The sonnets deal with the great themes of love, friendship, death, change and immortality. Shakespeare looks at his own poetry as a means of immortality. Shakespeare’s sonnets are excellent. They are full of harmony and music; they praise love, friendship and beauty, though there is no sentimentality in them.