William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, but his plays continue to be performed in over 80 languages. Modern readers often find his language difficult, yet productions sell out regularly worldwide. The gap between contemporary English and Elizabethan speech doesn’t stop audiences from engaging with these stories.
Shakespeare produced 39 plays and over 150 sonnets. Modern editors group them into comedies, histories, and tragedies, though Shakespeare himself used no such classification. Comedies like Twelfth Night feature mistaken identities and romantic complications. Histories like King John dramatize English monarchy. Tragedies like Hamlet center on human weakness and moral failure.
The plays were written for performance, not private study. They work best when spoken aloud or staged live. Directors and actors have approached his work from many angles - the Royal Shakespeare Company does period productions, but contemporary directors place the stories in modern settings, military regimes, and post-apocalyptic worlds. Films range from literal adaptations like Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V to radical updates like Julius Caesar set as a gangster movie.
New readers should consider watching a filmed version first, then reading the text with notes. The language becomes easier with familiarity. Paperback editions from Oxford, Norton, and Folger provide modern translations next to the original text. Shorter comedies work better starting points than tragedies like Hamlet or Richard III.
The First Folio (1623) preserved 36 plays that might have otherwise disappeared. Questions remain about authorship. Scholars debate how much collaborators contributed, whether theater companies revised the scripts, and if the texts we have resemble what Shakespeare actually wrote. Despite these uncertainties, Shakespeare’s influence on literature and the English language itself cannot be disputed.