William Shakespeare

Elizabethan playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the most influential writer in history. His highly popular plays have been translated into every major language, and are still widely performed throughout the world. Shakespeare completed 38 plays during his lifetime, as well as 154 Sonnets and two long narrative poems. While there has been increased speculation among literary critics and historians as to the authorship of many of his works, he is still looked upon as the greatest writer in the English language.

Two of the last remaining portraits of Shakespeare were ruined through a restoration process designed to remove paint that was added to the original layer of the painting. The restorations were conducted in 1988 and 2002 to both the Cobbe portrait and the Folger portrait. Researchers discovered, however, that instead of restoring the portraits, they were actually destroying work that had most likely enhanced the original paintings. Apparently the additional paint was added prior to Shakespeare's death to enhance the original paintings and more closely related to the desired pictures of the bard prior to his death.The Independent: How restorers ruined the last portraits... (March 30, 2009)

• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• All's Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It
• Cymbeline
• Love's Labour's Lost
• Measure for Measure
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• The Comedy of Errors
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Two Noble Kinsmen
• The Winter's Tale
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will

• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Henry V
• Henry VI, Part 1
• Henry VI, Part 2
• Henry VI, Part 3
• Henry VIII (Play)
• King John
• Richard II
• Richard III (Play)

• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus
• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
• Julius Caesar (Play)
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Othello, The Moor of Venice
• Romeo and Juliet
• Timon of Athens
• Titus Andronicus
• Troilus and Cressida

• "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
• To dig the dust enclosed here.
• Blest be the man that spares these stones,
• And cursed be he that moves my bones."Slate: Greer Tames the Shrew (March 31, 2008)

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.
• 1935: A Midsummer Night's Dream
• 1948: Hamlet
• 1967: The Taming of the Shrew
• 1968: Romeo and Juliet
• 1989: Henry V
• 1990: Hamlet
• 1993: Much Ado About Nothing
• 1995: Othello
• 1996: Twelfth Night: Or What You Will
• 1996: Romeo + Juliet
• 1996: Hamlet
• 1998: Shakespeare in Love
• 1999: A Midsummer Night's Dream

• • Also See Shakespeare on Film Timeline