His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres.

He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.

In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime. 

1. Shakespeare was not an Elizabethan playwright

Calling Shakespeare an Elizabethan playwright is actually incorrect. The majority of his plays were written after Queen Elizabeth I’s death, making him a Jacobean writer.

2. Shakespeare often wrote about suicide

Shakespeare seemed to be fond of one particular kind of death – suicide. In fact, suicide occurs a whopping 13 times in Shakespearean plays.

3. Two of Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into Klingon

Klingon is the language created for the Star Trek science fiction series. You can read Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing in the fantasy language.

4. Some moons were named after Shakespeare’s characters

The moons circling around the planet of Uranus are mostly named after characters from Shakespeare plays, including Oberon, Ariel, and Juliet.

5. No one’s dared to go close to Shakespeare’s tomb since 1747

Shakespeare had a poem sketched into his tomb in Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. It says anyone who moves his bones will be cursed. Consequently, his grave has gone untouched since 1747.

6. One of Shakespeare’s plays is never performed by modern theatre companies

One of Shakespeare’s plays has been completely lost to history. There is evidence that he wrote a play called Cardenio which was performed in England, but no known copy of the play exists.

7. Shakespeare never published any of his own plays

Thankfully his friends John Heminges and Henry Condell did it posthumously and saved the world of theatre.

8. Shakespeare turned to sonnets because of a plague

He only stopped writing plays and turned to sonnets because the plague caused all theatres to be shut down. Maybe you could say the plague wasn’t so bad after all?