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1564 ca1585-16131616
an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
 Timeline (7)
04/23/1564-Birth of William Shakespeare celebrated
04/26/1564-William Shakespeare is baptized
11/27/1582-William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway receive their marriage license
11/28/1582-Playwright and poet William Shakespeare weds Anne Hathaway
11/01/1604-William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello first presented
11/01/1611-William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest first presented
04/23/1616-Death of William Shakespeare
 Dictionary Citations (193) • View in Dictionary
Abodement: A foreboding, especially of ill. Also to abode, to presage, to be ominous; an abode was also (17th century)...
Alife: Dearly. Especially in the expression to love alife; William Shakespeare in THE WINTER'S TALE (1610) has: I ...
Allycholly: Misused for mallycholly, a corrupt form of melancholy (Greek melan, black + choler, bile). Dame Quickly in ...
Arming: A wretched creature. Old English earm, poor. In the play THE LONDON PRODIGAL (1605), formerly attributed to...
Arrant: Originally a variant of errant, wandering, present participle of Latin errare, to stray. The original form ...
Bate: (1) To fight, to contend with blows or arguments. In the latter mood, replaced by debate. Also, to beat the...
Batler: A flat-sided stick with a handle, for beating clothes. William Shakespeare in AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) has: I ...
Bavin: Brushwood; especially, a bundle of light wood (as for bakers' ovens) tied with one withe or band; a fagot i...
Bawcock: Fine fellow. A jocular term of endearment, from French beau coq, fine cock, used in the same way. William S...
Bezonian: A raw recruit. Later, a beggar, a rascal. William Shakespeare in HENRY VII, PART TWO remarks that Great men...
Birthdom: Inheritance, birthright. So in the O.E.D. In his notes to William Shakespeare's MACBETH (1605), however, G....
Blue: This color word was very popular in compounds and phrases. Thus blue apron, a tradesman; hence, blue-apron ...
Bumbailiff: A bailiff; one that makes arrests. The term is one of contempt (bum, buttocks; cp. bumrowl) , implying that...
Byrlakin: A contraction of By Our Ladykin, by our darling lady-- referring to the Virgin Mary, and used as a mild oat...
Caddis: A yarn; a worsted tape, used for garters and the like; hence, short for caddis ribbon or caddis garter. Wil...
Cadent: Falling. Latin cadentem, falling; cadere, to fall. William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605) : With cadent te...
Calendar: In addition to its still current senses (in use since the 14th century) calendar was used to mean a guide, ...
Cataplasm: A poultice, plaster -- in the 17th century made with herbs and flour, or (1612) of bread crumbs, milk, and ...
Cater-cousin: A close friend. In Tudor times, cousin was used by close friends, without blood relationship; in AS YOU LIK...
Cautel: A crafty device or trick; trickery; a precaution. Cautela, in Roman law, was an exception made as a precaut...
Clepe: To call; to call on, appeal to; to summon; to call to witness; to speak to; to name. A very common word wit...
Codling: A variety of apple, somewhat tapering; especially, a variety that could be cooked while still unripe. Hence...
Congree: To join in agreement. French gré, liking. In the 16th century, gree was a common shortening of agree...
Copesmate: A person with whom one copes; an adversary. Hence, a love partner, paramour. Hence, a partner or colleague;...
Costermonger: Originally an apple-seller -- costard, apple; monger, dealer. Thence, a pushcart salesman; also used figura...
Crotchet: Originally, a small hook (French crochet, diminutive of croche, hook; women still crochet with a small hook...
Daff: (1) A person deficient in sense or in courage; one who is daft. So Chaucer, in THE REEVE'S TALE (1396). Hen...
Deywife: A dairy woman, dairymaid. Cheese, said Trevisa in his translation (1398) of Bartholomeus' DE PROPRIETATIBUS...
Dislimn: To efface the outlines of, erase, blot out; to become effaced, to vanish. William Shakespeare in ANTONY AND...
Doit: A trifling sum; a very litde. Originally (perhaps via Norwegian dveit, a piece cut off, dvita, to cut) a Du...
Dotant: One that dotes, a simpleton. A variant of dotard; see doddard. William Shakespeare has, in CORIOLANUS (1607...
Doxy: (1) Mistress; wench. From the 14th century (first as slang: the mistress of a beggar or a vagabond) , prost...
Dudgeon: (1) A kind of wood used for handles, as of knives; probably boxwood. Hence, a hilt made of this wood; Willi...
Ean: To bring forth lambs, to yean. Also eanian, enen, enye, eyne. Thus eaned, born (used of a lamb) ; eanling, ...
Ecce: Behold. Latin, used in phrases, especially Ecce Homo (THE BIBLE: JOHN 19) ; hence, a representation of Chri...
Elder-gun: A pop-gun; a toy gun made of the hollow shoot of an elder, the young branches of which are pithy. William S...
Embarquement: The act of placing under embargo (Italian imbargo; Latin in + barra, bar) . Also imbargement, embargemenL W...
Enew: To plunge into the water. Also, to drive into the water, as a bird of prey would another bird. French en, i...
Engraff: To graft in; an early form of engraft. Used since the 15th century. Also ingraff. Used by Swinburne (ATALAN...
Excrement: That which grows out, as hair, nails, feathers. By extension, an excessive outgrowth, as when William Warne...
Exion: Action. A blunder of Mistress Quickly, in a legal matter, in William Shakespeare's HENRY IV, PART TWO (1597...
Facinorous: Extremely wicked, infamous; grossly criminal. The word, naturally, is accented on the sin. From Latin facin...
Festinate: Hasty. From Latin festinare, to hurry; festinus, in haste, quick. William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605) h...
Finew: Mouldiness; mould. Also as a verb, to grow mouldy, to make mouldy. Finewy, finewed, mouldy. The last form e...
Fitment: A making fit, preparation; that which is fit; one's duty. Used only in Shakespeare before the 19th century;...
Fleer: A mocking look or speech; "a deceitful grin of civility" (Johnson) . As a verb, to laugh in a coa...
Flirt-gill: A light or loose woman. Also flirt-gillian; gill-flirt. Gill (Remember Jack and Jill) is a pet form of Juli...
Forcible feeble: A weak person who makes great show of strength (physical or moral). William Shakespeare first used the expr...
Frampold: Cross, disagreeable; (of a horse) mettlesome, fiery. Also frampard, frampull, frampled, frompered (John Bun...
Fustilugs: A fat, frowzy woman (fusty, mouldy + lugs, implying heavy). John Burton in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621)...
Gaberdine: A loose upper garment of coarse material, as worn by pilgrims, hence, by beggars; after William Shakespeare...
Galliard: As an adjective: valiant, sturdy; full of high spirits, lively, light-hearted; spruce, light-hearted in loo...
German: Full; closely akin. Said of children of brothers and sisters, as sister-german, first cousin; loosely used ...
Giglot: A wanton woman; rarely, also, a dissolute man. William Shakespeare in HENRY IV, PART ONE says: Young Talbot...
Gis: Jesus. A euphemism; also jysse, jis, gisse, gys. Used in mild exclamations, as in mad Ophelia's song in Wil...
Gyve: A fetter, a shackle for the leg. Usually in the plural: gives, guives, guyves; the word was probably once p...
Hab Nab: Hit or miss; at a venture; at random; anyhow. Probably from Old English habbe, to have; nabbe, not to have....
Half: In various combinations, half-bull, a pontifical letter of a new pope before his coronation -- the bulla be...
Halidom: Holiness; a holy place, a chapel; a holy relic -- by which one might take an oath; hence, since the 16th ce...
Handsaw: The obvious meaning, a saw used with one hand, occurs in William Shakespeare's HENRY VI, PART ONE (1596): M...
Handy-dandy: A game played since the 14th century, in which an object is shaken in the two hands held together; the hand...
Hatchment: An escutcheon; especially, a square or diamond-shaped background on which are the armorial bearings of a de...
Hesperian: Relating to the west (the ancient Greeks meant Italy; the Romans meant Spain) ; to the place where the sun ...
Heydeguyes: A 16th and 1 7th century country dance, a variation of the hay. Perhaps the hay of Guy or Guise; there was ...
Hilding: Something or someone worthless; applied to a beast (as a horse) , a man or (less commonly) a woman. Perhaps...
Hodgepudding: A pudding made with many ingredients. William Shakespeare uses the word figuratively, of the big-bellied Fa...
Hody-moke: Secrecy, concealment; hence intrigue; hence muddle, confusion, trouble. Also, one who keeps things secret...
Homager: One that owes homage to a king or overlord; hence, an humble servant. Used figuratively, as by William Shak...
Imperseverant: A form in William Shakespeare's CYMBELINE (1611) for imperceiverant, not perceiving, imperceptive, undiscer...
Impone: To place or set upon, to impose; to impose upon; to 'lay' upon, to wager. Latin im, in, on + ponere, positu...
Incarnadine: Originally this was an adjective (16th century), meaning flesh-colored. There was a slightly earlier verb, ...
Incarnate: This not wholly unremembered word was used by William Shakespeare HENRY V, 1599; TITUS ANDRONICUS) only in ...
Inclip: To enclose; embrace. Used first by William Shakespeare, in ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA (1608) : What ere the ocea...
Incony: Delicate, pretty, choice. The word was popular, especially among playwrights (Christopher Marlowe, Thomas ...
Indigenate: Of native origin; an early form of indigenous; also, indigenary, indigcnal, indigenital. An indigene, indig...
Indign: Unworthy. Used from the 15th century; Latin in, not + dignus, worthy; whence also dignity. Indignation firs...
Inhearse: Used by William Shakespeare (SONNET 86; 1598) to mean entomb: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse...
Inkle: (1) A kind of linen tape; a piece of this. Unwrought inkle, the yarn from which this tape is made. Autolyc...
Insculpt: To carve, engrave, sculpture on something. Used in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Also to inscuip; to ...
Jack: A pet form of John, used in many senses and combinations. Especially, Jack, a name for a representative of ...
Jack-a-Lent: A figure shaped like a man, set up to be thrown at, originally during Lent; later, at amusement parks. Also...
Jakes: A privy. See ajax. In William Shakespeare's KING LEAR (1605) we find both forms: I will tread this unbolted...
Jar: This was originally an echoic word, meaning to make a harsh sound. Similar are charre, gorre, churr, chirr,...
Jaunce: Listed in the Sussex dialect GLOSSARY of 1875 as meaning a weary journey. That was the original meaning of ...
Jess: A short strap, fastened one to each leg of a hunting hawk; on its free end was a ring to which the leash wa...
Jordan: A pot or bottle used by alchemists and medieval doctors. Often used to hold urine for analysis; hence, a ch...
Keech: A lump of fat, the fat of a slaughtered animal rolled into a lump. In William Shakespeare: HENRY IV, PART T...
Keel: As a verb, to cool. From the 9th century; Old English coelan; a common Teutonic form, koljan, whence also c...
Kibe: A chapped chilblain, especially on the heel. Hence, to tread upon one's kibe, to annoy. William Shakespeare...
Kicksie-wicksie: A whim or erratic fancy. Also kickie-wickie; kicksey-winsey, kicksy wincy, kickshiwinches; probably humorou...
Kissing: kissing-comfit. A small sweet confection for perfuming the breath. For a quotation from William Shakespeare...
Knotgrass: A plant, of interbranched and knotted creeping stems, with tiny pink and crimson flowers. It was used --par...
Lace: To catch in a net or snare; to variegate, streak with color (originally, from gold and silver lace) ; hence...
Land-damn: To make a hell on earth for. William Shakespeare thus uses it (unless the text be corrupt) in THE WINTER'S ...
Main: As a noun. Physical strength; force, power. William Shakespeare in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606) : with all ...
Makeless: (1) Without a husband. William Shakespeare in SONNET 9 (1598) says The world will waile thee, like a makele...
Makeweight: A small quantity added to make up a certain weight; especially, in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, a sm...
Martin: (1) A fool, a dupe. So used in the 16th and 17th centuries, perhaps from the bird (the bird martin, of the ...
Mazard: A bowl, a drinking cup; originally, one made of hard wood. Also, mazzard; mazer. Old High German masar, an ...
Melliloquent: Speaking sweetly. Latin mel, honey. More common were mellifluent, mellifluous, sweet as honey (mainly of th...
Mercury: The Roman god (Greek Hermes) of traders and thieves, of eloquence and feats of skill; presider over roads; ...
Merkin: This is a variant of malkin, a diminutive of Maud. Malkin became a general term of contempt, meaning a slat...
Minion: A beloved, darling, favorite; a favorite child, servant or animal; a royal favorite. William Shakespeare, i...
Moonling: A simpleton. In Ben Jonson's THE DEVIL IS AN ASS (1616) : I have a husband . . . But such a moonling, as no...
Mutton: A loose woman; see lace. William Shakespeare in MEASURE FOR MEASURE (1604) uses it in this and the literal ...
Nag: In addition to the old horse -- being driven into oblivion by the "tin Lizzie"' but once used as ...
Nayword: (1) Refusal, saying nay. A late use, as in BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE of April 1898: There be no naywor...
Nickname: See eche. As a verb, nickname also is used to mean to misname (16th through 19th century; Samuel Taylor Col...
Noncome: A standstill. Perhaps a humorous shortening of non compos mentis, not master of one's mind; perhaps a subst...
Novum: A game of dice in which the principal throws were nine and five. William Shakespeare mentions it in LOVE'S ...
Nuncle: A variant of uncle. Used since the 16th century; by William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605). Also nunky....
Ob: (1) A wizard. Hebrew obh, a necromancer. (2) Short for obolus, a Roman coin; used in English of a halfpenny...
Old: Among the meanings at one time acquired by this common old word, from the notion of long practice and expe...
Onion-eyed: Ready to weep: readily weeping; with the eyes full of tears (as though watery from peeling onions). William...
Ort: Usually in the plural, orts, scraps left over from a meal, or fodder left by cattle; refuse leavings; hence...
Ousel: Originally a name of the blackbird or the thrush; applied to a person of dark hair or complexion. Also ouze...
Overcrow: To crow over, exult over; to triumph over, subdue. Edmund Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) wrote: Then g...
Pad: A toad. Generally pictured in the Middle Ages (as William Shakespeare phrases it in AS YOU LIKE IT) as ugly...
Peat: An old form of pet, a darling. Also, a spoiled child; William Shakespeare in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596)...
Pelf: Property pilfered or stolen, booty; property; money, wealth. Thus William Shakespeare in the prologue to PE...
Pilch: An outer garment of skin dressed with the hair. Chaucer gives as a proverb (1390): After heet comethe colde...
Pillicock: (1) The penis. Pill and cock were used separately in this sense; pill also was figurative for testicle. The...
Placket: (1) A plan or map (16th century). (2) A piece of armour worn over the cuirass, or a leather jacket with ste...
Prig: A tinker, a traveling mender of pots and pans; hence, a thief. A prigman (prygman, pridgeman) is one of the...
Quaff: To drink deeply, take a long draught; especially, to drain a cup at a draught. Used since the 16th century;...
Quern: A hand-mill; usually two circular stones, the upper one turned by hand. For grinding corn; also, pepper-que...
Quest: (1) A body of persons appointed to make an inquiry or inquest, a jury. William Shakespeare uses this figura...
Questrist: One that is seeking, goes in quest of. William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605) tells that thirty of his kni...
Quiddity: (1) The essence of a thing. Formed with the ending -ity from quid (Latin, what), used also in English, mean...
Quintain: (1) A tilting post. Common in medieval knightly training, in 17th and 18th century country sports at weddin...
Quondam: Former; that used to be. Directly from the Latin; in the 16th century, also condam. Often used in the 16th ...
Rabblement: Also rablement; variant forms of rabble; used also (Edmund Spenser, THE FAERIE QUEENE; 1590) of the tumult ...
Rap: To seize, to snatch; to carry off. An early (16th and 17th century) form of rape, q.v.; frequent in the phr...
Rearmouse: A bat (the animal); plural, rearmice. Also reremice; hryremus, reremows, and more. William Shakespeare in A...
Reechy: Smoky; dirty, squalid. Related to reek. Used from the 15th century; surviving in dialect. William Shakespea...
Relume: To kindle again. Also relumine; short for reillumine. Hence, relumination. Lumination has been superseded b...
Rhapsody: Originally, an epic poem; especially, a book of the ILIAD or the ODYSSEY, which could be presented aloud at...
Riggish: Wanton, licentious. One meaning of rig (from the late 16th century) is a wanton woman; also rigmutton; cp. ...
Rigol: A ring or circle. French rigole, water-course; hence gutter, groove. Also riggal, regal. William Shakespear...
Rim: A membrane. (This is a different word from rim, edge, border.) Thus rim-side, the flesh-side of a skin. Als...
Romage: An earlier form of rummage, q.v. William Shakespeare has, in HAMLET (1601): This, I take it, is . . . the c...
Ropery: Trickery, knavery. In William Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET (1592) the Nurse inquires: I pray you sir, wha...
Sackbut: (1) A musical instrument: a bass trumpet with a slide (like that of a trombone); used 15th to 18th century...
Sennet: An early form of signet, sign, token, signal. Also, a set of notes on trumpet or cornet, as a signal, in El...
Simular: A pretender. Thus William Shakespeare has in KING LEAR (1606) a simular of virtue. He also uses it, in CYMB...
Sleave: A filament of silk, obtained by separating the strands of a thicker thread. Hence, floss-silk. Also sleeve....
Smilet: A light and little smile. Also smylet. Fraunce in COUNTESS PEMBROKE'S IVYCHURCH (1592) wrote that he knew h...
Sooth: Truth. Common from the 8th to the 17th century; used later in poetry and in phrases in sooth, my sooth, by ...
Sortance: Suitability, correspondence. Also sortable, accordant, suitable. Apparently sortance has been used only by ...
Still: I. As a verb -- beyond the current senses of to lull, calm, stop -- was a short form of distil (from which ...
Surreined: Over-ridden; worn out (of a horse) . Used by William Shakespeare in HENRY V (1599): A drench for sur-reyn'd...
Tabor: A drum. Related to Persian tabirah and taburak, both meaning drum; possibly to Arabic tanbur, a kind of lyr...
Tassel: An old form of tercel, q.v. The tercel-gentle was the male of the peregrine falcon -- used figuratively of ...
Teratical: Pertaining to monsters or prodigies. Cp. teratoscopy. Greek terata, marvels, which is also used in English ...
Third: A variant of thrid, thread. The original form of third, the numeral, was also thrid; Gothic thridja; Latin ...
Thirdborough: A town constable. Also thridborrow, tharborough, thredbearer. Probably a corruption of Middle English fridb...
Thisness: Used in the 17th century (again in the 19th); opposed to thatness, which is the quality of being something ...
Thrall: One who is held in bondage; a slave, a captive. Also used to mean the condition of a thrall, thraldom, thra...
Thrasonical: Bragging; vainglorious. Also thrasonic. A thraso, a thrasonist, a swaggerer, a boaster. In Terence's play T...
Three-pile: With the loops of the pile-warp (that forms the nap -- of carpetry, or velvet) formed of three threads, hen...
Threne: A song of lamentation. Also threnode, threnody (Greek ode, song); threnos. Greek threnos, lament William Sh...
Tiffany: Originally, though rarely in English, short for Epiphany, the Twelfth Day (January 6) -- as in William Shak...
Trencher: A knife or other cutting instrument (14th to 16th century). A flat piece of wood (later, also metal or eart...
Trow: (1) Faith, belief; pledged faith, covenant; fancy, supposition. (2) A boat or barge, a variant of trough. (...
Ubiquarian: One that goes everywhere. The ANNUAL REGISTER of 1767 remarked: The English being by their nature ubiquarta...
Unaneled: Also unnaneld, unanneald, unanealed. See Anele. Laurence Sterne in TRISTRAM SHANDY (1759) tells: Obadiah ha...
Uncuckold: To remove the stigma of cuckoldry, to unhorn. J, Moore in ZELUCO (1789) remarked, with perspicacity and pro...
Unear'd: Unploughed. From ear, to plough, of the same root as Greek aroein, Latin arare, to plough, till, whence Eng...
Unready: Undressed; in deshabille. Also, to unready, to undress. Developed in the 16th century as the converse of to...
Unseminared: Deprived of virility; without seminal power. Used by William Shakespeare in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606): Ti...
Vade: (1) A variant of ford (wade?) , a shallow place in a river. (2) An early form of fade, quite frequent from ...
Wappened: Used by William Shakespeare in TIMON OF ATHENS (1607): This it is That makes the wappen'd widdow wed againe...
Weet: A variant though popular form of wit, to know; the past tense forms were wot, wist Cp. wit. Edmund Spenser ...
Wench: A girl, young woman; a maid-servant; used as a familiar term to a sweetheart, wife, daughter, trusted maid-...
Whiffler: (1) A smoker of tobacco; usually contemptuous. Used from the 17th to the 19th century; so also (2) a trifle...
Whipping-boy: A boy educated along with a young noble, and flogged whenever the princeling did something adjudged to meri...
Whipster: A term of reproach, with various shades of meaning: a lively, violent fellow (such as might swing a mean wh...
Whorage: Company of whores. Also whorism, whoredom. Hardy, in TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (1891) has: If I had known y...
Wight: I. As a noun. A living being; then, a preternatural or unearthly being; then, a human being, gradually with...
Wil: A variant form of will The faculty of conscious and intentional action; the power or exercise of deliberate...
Winchester goose: A venereal swelling. The public brothels of the late 16th and early 17th century, at Bankside in Southwark,...
Windlass: In addition to the contrivance familiar for weighing anchor on a ship, windlass (16th and 17th centuries) w...
Witsnapper: One that makes witty or caustic remarks, as though snapping a whip of words. Also, witcracker; more mildly,...
Wood: Insane, mad. Thence, vehemently excited, uncontrolled; ferocious, furious. Also wod, wode, wyd, void, wodd...
Woot: (1) Old present tense of wit, q.v. (2) Short for Wilt thou? Used by William Shakespeare in ANTONY AND CLEOP...
Wormwood: A plant (artemisia absinthium) , proverbial for its bitter taste. The name is altered from the earlier werm...
Writhled: Wrinkled. As though from a frequentative form of writhe. William Shakespeare in HENRY VI, PART ONE (1591) h...
Wroath: Distress; disaster. A variant of ruth, q.v. Also wroth (not to be confused with wroth, great anger, earlier...
Yard: The still current yard meaning enclosure is Old Saxon gard (whence also garden) , as in vineyard and orchar...
Yare: Ready, prepared. Also as an adverb, quickly, nimbly. The adverb was sometimes used as an exclamation, as in...
Yerk: (1) To draw stitches tight; to bind tightly. Revived by Walter Scott in THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805)...
Yesty: A variant of yeasty, in the sense of frothy, insubstantial; or foamy, like troubled waters. William Shakesp...
Zounds: A euphemistic shortening of By God's wounds, as a mild oath. Also zwounds; zoones, zauns, zownds, zons, dzo...
 Mentions (25)
Delia Bacon
...She promoted the theory that the plays attributed to William Shakespeare were written by a group of men, including Francis...
Richard Barnfield
...English poet. His obscure though close relationship with William Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars....
John Bartlett
...was quotations from the Bible and from the works of William Shakespeare, most of the balance being lines from the great...
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
...Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce...
Luigi Da Porto
...with the story of Romeo and Juliet, later reprised by William Shakespeare for his famous drama. Da Porto wrote the novel...
Eugene Delacroix
...lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German...
Martin Droeshout
...completely on the fact that he made the title portrait for William Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio of 1623,...
John Fletcher [1]
a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential...
Arthur Golding
...of Ovid's Metamorphoses because of its influence on William Shakespeare's works, in his own time he was most famous for...
Robert Greene
...Repentance, widely believed to contain an attack on William Shakespeare. He is said to have been born in Norwich. He attended...
Joseph C. Hart
...known as the first person to assert in print that William Shakespeare was not the true author of the plays published under...
John Heminges
...actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. Along with Henry Condell, he was an editor...
Raphael Holinshed
...Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays. Little is known...
Anna Brownell Jameson
...Characteristics of Women (1832). These analyses of William Shakespeare's heroines are remarkable for their delicacy of critical...
Robert Johnson [2]
...an earlier Scottish composer. Johnson worked with William Shakespeare providing music for some of his later plays.
Ben Jonson
...the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I.
Edward J. Kuntze
...Design in 1869. Among his works are statuettes of William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Washington Irving, Alfred...
Christopher Marlowe
...Elizabethan tragedian of his day. He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and...
George Peele
...supposed but not universally accepted collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play Titus Andronicus.
Alexander Pope
...writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after William Shakespeare. An Essay on Criticism was first published anonymously...
Mary Sidney
...with her brother Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare, as one of the notable authors of her time in the...
Gerard Soest
...17th century. He is most famous for his portraits of William Shakespeare and Samuel Butler, but painted many members of...
Jones Very
...Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare and many of his poems were Shakespearean sonnets....
William Warburton
...of the works of his friend Alexander Pope, and of William Shakespeare. At Brant Broughton for 18 years he spent his time...
John Webster
...17th-century English stage. His life and career overlapped William Shakespeare's.
 Contemporaries
Category
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127
William Shakespeare1564 ca1585
 
16131616

Sir Philip Sidney1554, Nov 301572
 
15861586, Oct 17
 an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent f...
Muircheartach O Cobhthaighunknown1586
 
 
1586unknown
 an Irish poet. A member of the Ó Cobhthaigh clan of poets from County Westmeath. He is known as ...
John Bellendenunknown1533
 
1587unknown
 a Scottish writer of the 16th century. At the request of James V he translated Hector Boece's His...
Mary Stuart1542, Dec 81558
 
15871587, Feb 8
 reigned over Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567. As Mary was an infant when she inher...
Christopher Boroughunknown1579
 
1587unknown
 an English adventurer, navigator and translator and the chronicler of one of the most interesting...
Francois Hotman1524, Aug 231542
 
15891590, Feb 12
 a French Protestant lawyer and writer, associated with the legal humanists and with the monarchom...
Thomas Brasbridge15471570
 
15891593
 an English divine and author. At Oxford he studied both divinity and medicine, and remained to te...
Jaques De Lavardinunknown1570
 
1589unknown
 a lord in Plessis-Bourrot, squire and noble of the king of France, known for the translation of t...
Thomas Barbarunknown1580
 
1589unknown
 an English divine. His name is attached to the ‘Book of Discipline,’ and he belonged to the p...
Thomas Bowesunknown1580
 
1589unknown
 an English translator. Bowes was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1579–80...
Thomas D'Oylyunknown1580
 
1589unknown
 an English antiquary. He became a member of the Society of Antiquaries. Two of his contributions ...
Bertrand de Loqueunknown1580
 
15891600+
 a Protestant minister, said to be the same person as François de Saillans, who was born in Valen...
George Etherege [2]unknown1580
 
1589unknown
 an English classical scholar and physician. He lived with his family in ‘an ancient decayed pal...
Diarmait O Cobhthaighunknown1580
 
1589unknown
 a member of a hereditary bardic family, based in what is now County Westmeath but was once the he...
Morus Dwyfechunknown1520
 
1590unknown
 a Welsh-language poet. There is very little information available concerning the details of his l...
Pilip Ballach O Duibhgeannainunknown1579
 
1590unknown
 an Irish historian. A member of the Clan Ó Duibhgeannáin and a hereditary historian, Pilip was ...
Pasquillunknown1589
 
 
1590unknown
 the pseudonym adopted by a defender of the Anglican hierarchy in an English political and theolog...
William Webbeunknown1568
 
1591unknown
 an English critic and translator. Little is known about him except that he attended Trinity Colle...
Michel de Montaigne1533, Feb 281546
 
15921592, Sep 13
 one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance, known for popularizing the es...
Christopher Carleill1551 ca1573
 
15931593
 an English military and naval commander. In 1588, he was appointed constable of Carrickfergus, Co...
Christopher Marlowe1564, Feb1587
 
 
15931593, May 30
 an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Eliza...
Thomas Kyd1558, Nov1580
 
15941594, Aug
 an English playwright, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important fi...
Thomas Edwards [1]unknown1587
 
 
15951595
 writer, poet
Edmund Spenser1552/531578
 
15961599, Jan 13
 an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory ce...
Thomas Hudsonunknown1580
 
15991605 ca
 a musician and poet from the north of England present at the Scottish court of King James VI at t...
Thomas Nashe15671588
 
 
15991601 ca
 considered the greatest of the English Elizabethan pamphleteers, also a playwright, poet, and sat...
Philip Barrowunknown1590
 
 
1599unknown
 an English medical writer. Barrow was the son of John Barrow, of Suffolk. He obtained from the un...
Anthony Chuteunknown1590
 
 
15991595
 an Elizabethan poet and pamphleteer. Very little is known about him. In 1593, Chute published Bea...
William Clerkeunknown1590
 
 
1599unknown
 an English writer. Clerke matriculated as a sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1575, be...
Robert Gwinunknown1590
 
 
1599unknown
 a Welsh Roman Catholic priest and author. Gwin, who appears to have been alive in 1591, wrote sev...
Simon Kellwayeunknown1590
 
 
1599unknown
 Wrote Defense Against The Plague in 1593
Giordano Bruno1548, Jan 11572
 
16001600, Feb 17
 an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is re...
Edward Guilpin1573 ca1598
 
 
16011607
 poet and satirist, was the eldest child of John Guilpin and Thomasin Everard, who had been marrie...
Richard Stanihurst15471582
 
16021618
 an Irish alchemist, translator, poet and historian, born in Dublin. Richard was sent to Peter Whi...
W. Watsonunknown1602
 
 
1602unknown
 Referenced only in period dictionaries under the word Aulic
Queen Elizabeth I1533, Sep 71558
 
16031603, Mar 24
 Queen of England and Ireland (and Supreme Governor of the Church of England ) from 17 November 15...
Sir Robert Dudley [2]1574, Aug 71594
 
 
16031649, Sep 6
 an English explorer and cartographer. In 1594, he led an expedition to the West Indies, of which ...
Edward Hakeunknown1570
 
1604unknown
 an English satirist, educated under John Hopkins, known for being the part-author of the metrica...
John Dee1527, Jul 131546
 
16051609 ca
 an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, imperialist, and adviser to...
Sir Geoffrey Fenton1539 ca1567
 
16081608, Oct 19
 an English writer, Privy Councillor, and Principal Secretary of State in Ireland. Geoffrey is sai...
Nicholas Fauntunknown1572
 
1608unknown
 an English clerk of the signet, agent of the Crown, and politician. Early in 1581 he spent three ...
Al-Masfiwiunknown1570
 
1609unknown
 a poet in the time of Ahmad al-Mansur. The surviving poetry of al-Masfiwi can be found in Manahil...
William Phistonunknown1571
 
1609unknown
 an English translator and author. He describes himself as "a student of London", and had some lea...
Thomas Faleunknown1590
 
 
1609unknown
 an English mathematician. His only known publication is Horologiographia. (1593). It is dedicated...
Anthony Shirley15651590
 
 
16091637
 an English traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I caused the English House of Comm...
Robert Allottunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an Elizabethan editor of poetry who published the verse compilation England's Parnassus in 1600. ...
John Chalkhillunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an English poet. Two songs by him are included in Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, and in 1683 app...
Emanuel Fordunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an Elizabethan romancer. There is very little information available about the details of his life...
Aindrais MacMarcuisunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an Irish poet. There is little information available about his life or career. MacMarcuis is main...
Fear Feasa O'n Chainteunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an Irish poet. Native of Munster, and a member of the Ó an Cháintighe bardic family. Very littl...
Stavrianos Vistiarisunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 a Greek poet born in the village of Malcani, in modern Sarande District, a region of Albania that...
Thomas Wright [1]unknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an English writer, a protégé of Henry Wriothesley, third earl of Southampton, who had travelled...
Robert Yaringtonunknown1600
 
 
1609unknown
 an English Playwright, most famous for his two Tragedies. They were printed for Matthew Law, and ...
Thomas Bell15511573
 
1610unknown
 an English Roman Catholic priest, and later an anti-Catholic writer. He was mentioned in 1592 as ...
Lochlann Og O Dalaighunknown1610
 
 
1610unknown
 an early modern Irish poet. A native of Munster and a member of the Ó Dálaigh clan of poets, he...
William Fowler1560 ca1581
 
16121612
 a Scottish poet, writer, courtier, and translator. Fowler was part of a literary circle around Ki...
Richard Hakluyt15531583
 
16121616, Nov 23
 an English writer. He is known for promoting the British colonisation of North America by the Eng...
Sir Thomas Overbury15811601
 
16131613, Sep 14
 an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalo...
Vincenzo Scamozzi1548, Sep 21568
 
16141616, Aug 7
 an Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venic...
Mary Sidney1561, Oct 271575
 
16151621, Sep 25
 one of the first English women to achieve a major reputation for her poetry and literary patronag...
Miguel de Cervantes1547, Sep 291569
 
16161616, Apr 22
 a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of...
Pieter Cornelisz van der Morsch15431598
 
16161628
 a man in Leiden best known today for his portrait that was painted by Frans Hals in 1616. He was ...
Lughaidh O Cleirighunknown1603
 
1616unknown
  an Irish Gaelic poet and historian. He is best known today as the author of Beatha Aodha Ruaidh ...
Sir Henry Mainwaring15871610
 
16161653
 an English lawyer, soldier, author, seaman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 16...
Franz Schmidt15551573
 
16171634
 an executioner in Hof from 1573 to April 1578, and from 1 May 1578 till the end of 1617 execution...
John Thornborough15511593
 
16171641
 an English bishop. In a long ecclesiastical career, he was employed as a chaplain by the Earl of ...
Thomas Coryat1577 ca1603
 
16171617
 an English traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age. He is principally...
Sir Walter Raleigh1554 ca1569
 
16181618, Oct 29
 an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy, and explorer. He i...
Thomas Ashe [1]unknown1600
 
1618unknown
 an English legal writer. Ashe entered as a student of Gray's Inn in 1574, was called to the bar 2...
Thomas Bretnorunknown1600
 
1619unknown
 an almanac maker. Bretnor calls himself on the title-page of one of his almanacs 'student in astr...
Emilia Lanier1569, Jan 271600
 
16191645, Apr 3
 the first Englishwoman to assert herself as a professional poet through her single volume of poem...
John Andrews [1]unknown1610
 
1619unknown
 an English poet. Andrews was the author of a poem called the ‘Anatomie of Basenesse’ (1615), ...
Robert Antonunknown1610
 
1619unknown
 an English poet and satirist. A unique quarto prose tract of Anton's, in black letter, entitled M...
Henry Austin [1]unknown1610
 
1619unknown
 an English poet postulated by Alexander Balloch Grosart as author of The Scourge of Venus, or the...
Yusuf Biscainounknown1610
 
1619unknown
 a Morisco in the service of the Moroccan Sultan Mulay Zidan. He was sent as an ambassador to the ...
Robert Carliellunknown1610
 
1619unknown
 an English poet. Carliell is remembered mainly for a verse defence of the new Church of England a...
Edmond Graileunknown1610
 
1619unknown
 an English poet and physician. Graile was born at Gloucester about 1577. He matriculated at Magda...
Samuel Ridunknown1610
 
1619unknown
  the author of The Art of Jugling or Legerdemaine (1612), an apparent sequel to Martin Markall, B...
Joseph Swetnamunknown1610
 
16191621
 a Renaissance pamphleteer and Jacobean fencing master. He is best known for his misogynistic auth...
Kyrillos III Loukarisunknown1601
 
1620unknown
 Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria for the Greek Orthodox Church (1601-1620). He co-authored many l...
Thomas Harriot1560 ca1580
 
16211621, Jul 2
 an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. He is sometimes credited with...
William Strachey1572, Apr 41605
 
16211621, Jun 21
 an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English ...
Pedro Paez15641589
 
16221622, May 25
 a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be th...
Ottavio Codognounknown1599
 
1623unknown
 the deputy postmaster general of the Duchy of Milan and author of an extensive guidebook to the p...
John Brinsley the Elderunknown1581
 
1624unknown
 an English schoolmaster, known for his educational works. His best-known work is Ludus Literarius...
George Chapman1559 ca1596
 
16241634, May 12
 an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influ...
Ericus Erici Sorolainen15461583
 
16251625
  a Finnish Lutheran bishop, a Bishop of Turku from 1583 to 1625 as the successor to Paulus Juuste...
King James I1566, Jun 191603
 
16251625, Mar 27
  King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland (and Supreme Head...
John Fletcher [1]1579, Dec1606
 
16251625, Aug
 a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he w...
Francis Bacon1561, Jan 221579
 
16261626, Apr 9
 an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served both...
Robert Naunton15631606
 
16261635, Mar 27
 an English writer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1606 an...
Thomas Smith [1]unknown1600
 
1627unknown
 an English soldier. Smith as he styles himself on the title-page of the first edition (4to, 1600)...
John Preston1587, Oct1611
 
16271628, Jul 20
 an Anglican cleric and master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. About 1611, the year in which he co...
Samuel Rowlands1573 ca1598
 
16281630
 an English author of pamphlets in prose and verse, which reflect the follies and humours of lower...
George Silverunknown1550
 
1629unknown
 a gentleman of England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who is known for his writin...
Johannes Buxtorf1564, Dec 251589
 
16291629, Sep 13
 a celebrated Hebraist, member of a family of Orientalists; professor of Hebrew for thirty-nine ye...
Oliver Almondunknown1590
 
1629unknown
 a Roman Catholic priest and writer, born in the diocese of Oxford. He is believed by Foley to hav...
Thomas Beardunknown1590
 
16291632
 an English clergyman and theologian, of Puritan views. He is known as the author of The Theatre o...
Nicolas de Cardonaunknown1610
 
1629unknown
 a Spanish entrepreneur and adventurer with residence in Seville, who was involved in the explorat...
Johannes Kepler1571, Dec 271594
 
16301630, Nov 15
 a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific r...
Edmund Howesunknown1607
 
1631unknown
 an English chronicler. Howes lived in London, and designated himself "gentleman". Undeterred by J...
Randle Cotgraveunknown1590
 
16321634
 an English lexicographer who in 1611 compiled and published A Dictionarie of the French and En...
Henry Wotton1568, Mar 301588
 
16331639, Dec
 an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. Of 2...
John Harrison [1]unknown1610
 
1633unknown
 an English representative in Morocco in the 17th century. James I of England sent John Harrison t...
George Abbot1562, Oct 191611
 
16331633, Aug 5
 an English divine who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1611 to 1633 for the Church of England. H...
Felix Lope de Vega1562, Nov 251594
 
16341635, Aug 27
 a Spanish playwright, poet and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Cent...
John Marston1576, Oct 71598
 
16341634, Jun 25
 an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. His ca...
Geoffrey Keating1569 ca1603
 
16341644 ca
 a 17th-century historian. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and is buried in Tubrid Grave...
William Alabaster1567, Feb 271592
 
16371640, Apr 28
 an English poet, playwright, and religious writer. He became a Roman Catholic convert in Spain wh...
Ben Jonson1572, Jun 111598
 
16371637, Aug 6
 an English playwright, poet, actor and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerte...
Robert Fludd1574, Jan 171605
 
16371637, Sep 8
 a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is rememb...
Galileo Galilei1564, Feb 151581
 
16381642, Jan 8
 an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who played a major rol...
Johann Heinrich Alsted1588, Mar1608
 
16381638, Nov 9
 a German Calvinist minister and academic, known for his varied interests: in Ramism and Lullism, ...
Xu Xiake1587, Jan 51607
 
16401641, Mar 8
 a Chinese travel writer and geographer of the Ming Dynasty, known best for his famous geographica...
Richard Bernard15681598
 
16411641
 an English Puritan clergyman and writer. Barnard was a Calvinist Puritan, but a moderate one. Ber...
Charles de Valois1573, Apr 281589
 
16431650, Sep 24
 a French royal bastard, count of Auvergne, duke of Angoulême, and memoirist. Charles de Valois w...
Joseph Hall1574, Jul 11597
 
16431656, Sep 8
 an English bishop, satirist and moralist. His contemporaries knew him as a devotional writer, and...
Francisco Pacheco15711611
 
16441654
 a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez and Alonzo Can...
Hugo Grotius1583, Apr 101599
 
16451645, Aug 28
 a Dutch jurist. Along with the earlier works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotiu...
Anthony Knivetunknown1591
 
1649unknown
 an English sailor who fell into Portuguese hands in Brazil, lived for a while with a native Brazi...
John Selden1584, Dec 161612
 
16521654, Nov 30
 an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish ...
Theodore Tronchin1582, Apr 171608
 
16551657, Nov 19
 a Swiss Calvinist theologian, controversialist and Hebraist. He studied theology at Geneva, Basel...
Anthony Jenkinson15291550
 
1661610/1611
 one of the first Britons to explore Muscovy and present day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and...
Robert Abbot [1]1588 ca1610
 
16621662 ca
 an English theologian who promoted puritan doctrines. He is sometimes mistakenly described as the...
Thomas Hobbes1588, Apr 51608
 
16751679, Dec 4
 an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book L...
Gian Lorenzo Bernini1598, Dec 71609
 
16781680, Nov 28
 an Italian artist and a prominent architect who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sc...
George Hartgillunknown1590
 
 
168unknown
 an English astronomer. Hartgill was in considerable repute during Elizabeth I's reign, from his k...
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