Best known as a dramatist, Shakespeare was also a
______ 3 ______ poet; his 1609 sonnet series is considered a literary masterpiece.

Shakespeare's dramas and poems were composed during the English ____4 _____ (c.1500-1642).

Shakespeare had extraordinary ____ 5 ___abilities. "His gift for complex poetic ____ 6 ____, mixed metaphor, and brilliant ____7____--combined with a penetrating ______ 8 ____into human nature, are widely recognized as the makings of a unique literary
____ 9___."

In 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Ann Hathaway of Stratford. They had a daughter, Susanna, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

His first plays were presented in London in 1589-91.

Next he wrote two ____ 10______ poems on mythological themes that were immensely successful and was called "honey-tongued Shakespeare" He joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and in 1599 they financed the building of the ___11____ Theatre, the most famous of all ____ 12____ playhouses.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays.

One of the most popular plays is Romeo and Juliet (1595-96) It has lost none of its freshness in the four centuries since its first appearance. Here Shakespeare portrays the beauty and
____ 13 ____ of love at first sight .

The sonnet of Romeo and Juliet's first meeting at Capulet's ball, their betrothal vows in the balcony scene later that evening, the ______14_____ parting after their one night together that ______15____ their final meeting in the Capulet tomb--these are the moments we carry with us from a story that may be history's most famous love story.

The period of the great _______16______ , Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, followed between about 1601 and 1607.