Shakespeare's Legacy and his Life as a Playwright

William Shakespeare was an actor, playwright, poet, and theater-owner. His Active Years as a Playwright and Poet were between 1589 – 1614. In those 25 years, he wrote between 38-40 plays, mostly as sole-author, a few plays in collaboration with other playwrights. Shakespeare also wrote 154 Sonnets plus numerous other poems.

He wrote consistently about 2-3 plays a year during his early and mature years, excepting the time when the London theatres were closed due to the Plague.

Think about just his plays. 38 plays in 25 years. That is 2-3 a year. Shakespeare would generally write a comedy or two, then a history play, then a tragedy or two. This is not just a numerically impressive feat, 2-3 plays a year, but also illustrates how comfortable he was writing in all genres and in all manner of play. He didn't just write comedies. He didn't just write epic stories of royalty or famous people. He didn't just write tragedies. He wrote all three types of plays, and in each play, he showed various sides of human nature, just as the playwrights of Greece and Rome had done before him. He was as good at writing romantic comedies as he was writing histories and tragedies.

Shakespeare gave England two history cycles on English Kings. He wrote plays about famous Romans, from Julius Ceasar, Anthony and Cleopatra, to Coriolanus. He wrote numerous plays set in Greece. He also wrote tragedies based on the Greeek and Roman models on more contemporary historical figures, such as Macbeth and King Lear. Shakespeare's Comedies are also still widely performed and enjoyed by audiences around the world. As a playwright, his work has been the most often adapted into film.

In his own lifetime he was recognized by his peers as an astounding talent, even before the year 1600 after which he wrote some of his most famous plays, such as Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, to name a few. No other English playwright achieved what he did.