William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was considered the greatest playright in the reigns of either Elizabeth and James I, a prolific writer in British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day. 

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories and these works remain regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, his work has been repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Hamlet, like Fortinbras, is a prince, born to be a leader of men. However, in comparing himself to Fortinbras, he continually denigrates himself by saying that he is first a "beast," then "craven" and "coward." Although he has reproached himself for delaying his revenge against Claudius before, it is his encounter with the Norwegians that makes him feel most keenly how far his conduct has fallen short of the heroic ideal to which he aspires.