William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and was baptised there in April 1564. He was the eldest surviving child of John Shakespeare, a glover who later became bailiff of the town, and Mary Arden. At 18 he married Anne Hathaway, and by the late 1580s he was working in London as an actor, writer and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

He is known for about 39 plays, 154 sonnets and several long narrative poems, including Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. In this version, what drives him is the work itself: the stage, the audience and getting