Most information about the life of Shakespeare is taken from church records. We know, for example, that he was born in 1564, and most date his birthday as April 23. It is certain that Shakespeare was baptized on April 26. The death of Shakespeare is often dated as April 23, 1616, but this may as well be inaccurate. He probably attended a local school, and was married to Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children.
When Shakespeare was about 20, he left his wife and children and went to London where he worked as an actor and playwright. He also wrote a number of sonnets, and several book length poems in around 1592, when the spread of plague closed down theaters for a few years. He is noted for both "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece." Most of his plays were not published, but were rather written down as tracts so the actors could memorize lines. So publication of the plays today is based on collected folios, and critics differ on when each play was published.
Many of the plays of Shakespeare were performed at the Globe Theater in London, and also private plays were given for royalty, notably Queen Elizabeth I and her successor, King James. It is thought Shakespeare spent 25 years in London before retiring to his home in Stratford on Avon, where he lived the remaining 5 years of his life.
It would be impossible to describe the plots of every Shakespeare play, since they are complex. They do fall into several categories however, which can be described. Like his contemporaries, Shakespeare wrote histories, comedies, and tragedies. Comedies ended with marriage, tragedies with death. The last class, the romances, are neither comedy nor tragedy. This is a listing of all plays considered authored by Shakespeare.
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