The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the life and legacy of William Shakespeare, an English poet, playwright, and actor who lived during the 17th century. He is 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".

Works

• Shakespeare bibliography
• Chronology of Shakespeare's plays
• William Shakespeare's collaborations
• Complete Works of Shakespeare
• Early texts of Shakespeare's works
• Shakespeare's late romances
• Shakespeare plays in quarto
• Shakespearean problem play
• Translations of works by William Shakespeare
• Shakespearean characters
  • List of Shakespearean characters (A–K)
  • List of Shakespearean characters (L–Z)
  • List of historical figures dramatised by Shakespeare
  • Women in Shakespeare's works

Plays

Tragedies

• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus
• Hamlet
• Julius Caesar
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Othello
• Romeo and Juliet
• Timon of Athens
• Titus Andronicus
• Troilus and Cressida

Comedies

• All's Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It
• The Comedy of Errors
• Cymbeline
• Love's Labour's Lost
• Measure for Measure
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Two Noble Kinsmen
• The Winter's Tale

Histories

• The Life and Death of King John
• Edward III (play)
• Richard II (play)
• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Henry V (play)
• Henry VI, Part 1
• Henry VI, Part 2
• Henry VI, Part 3
• Richard III (play)
• Henry VIII (play)

Poetry

• Shakespeare's sonnets – 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69 • 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 • 102 • 103 • 104 • 105 • 106 • 107 • 108 • 109 • 110 • 111 • 112 • 113 • 114 • 115 • 116 • 117 • 118 • 119 • 120 • 121 • 122 • 123 • 124 • 125 • 126 • 127 • 128 • 129 • 130 • 131 • 132 • 133 • 134 • 135 • 136 • 137 • 138 • 139 • 140 • 141 • 142 • 143 • 144 • 145 • 146 • 147 • 148 • 149 • 150 • 151 • 152 • 153 • 154
• A Lover's Complaint
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• The Phoenix and the Turtle
• The Passionate Pilgrim

Apocrypha

Plays

• Sir Thomas More
• The History of Cardenio (lost)
• Love's Labour's Won (lost)
• The Birth of Merlin
• Locrine
• The London Prodigal
• The Puritan
• The Second Maiden's Tragedy
• Double Falsehood
• Thomas of Woodstock
• Sir John Oldcastle
• Thomas Lord Cromwell
• A Yorkshire Tragedy
• Fair Em
• Mucedorus
• The Merry Devil of Edmonton
• Arden of Faversham
• Edmund Ironside
• Vortigern and Rowena
• Ireland Shakespeare forgeries

Poetry

• To the Queen
• A Funeral Elegy

Analyses

• Shakespeare's editors
• Shakespeare attribution studies
• Shakespeare authorship question
• Shakespeare's writing style

Life

• Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare)
• Shakespeare's Birthplace
• Shakespeare garden
• Shakespeare's Globe
• Shakespeare's handwriting
• Shakespeare in performance
• Portraits of Shakespeare
• Religious views of William Shakespeare
• Shakespeare's reputation
• Sexuality of William Shakespeare
• Spelling of Shakespeare's name
• Stratford-upon-Avon
• Shakespeare's will

Associated people

• Robert Armin
• Matteo Bandello
• Cuthbert Burbage
• Richard Burbage
• Robert Chester (poet)
• Henry Condell
• The Dark Lady
• Leonard Digges (writer)
• Fair Youth
• Richard Field (printer)
• John Fletcher (playwright)
• Archibald Dennis Flower
• Samuel Gilburne
• John Heminges
• Ben Jonson
• William Kempe
• Edward Knight (King's Men)
• Emilia Lanier
• John Manningham
• Mr W.H.
• Augustine Phillips
• Rival Poet
• Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
• Nahum Tate
• Anne Whateley
• George Wilkins
• Henry Willobie

Legacy

Shakespeare's influence – in addition to his works, Shakespeare's legacy includes the ongoing performance of his plays, and his influence upon culture and the arts, extending from theatre and literature to present-day movies and the English language itself.

• Category:Adaptations of works by William Shakespeare
• List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases
• Cultural references to Hamlet
• Cultural references to Ophelia
• Cultural references to Othello

Memorials and monuments

• Memorials to William Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare's funerary monument
• Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square
• Shakespeare's Way

Shakespearean phrases

• Phrases from Hamlet in common English
• "All that glitters is not gold"
• "All the world's a stage"
• "All's Well That Ends Well"
• "Band of brothers"
• "Beast with two backs"
• "Between you and I"
• "Brave new world"
• "By the pricking of my thumbs"
• "The dogs of war"
• "Et tu, Brute?"
• "Even a worm will turn"
• "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"
• "Hoist with his own petard"
• "Honorificabilitudinitatibus"
• "Ides of March"
• "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
• "Let's kill all the lawyers"
• "Mortal coil"
• "Much Ado About Nothing"
• "Once more unto the breach"
• "The quality of mercy"
• "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
• "Salad days"
• "Star-crossed"
• "There's the rub"
• "Thy name is"
• "To be, or not to be"
• "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow"
• "What a piece of work is a man"
• "What's past is prologue"
• "Winter of Discontent"

Shakespearean theatre

• Shakespeare festivals
  • Shakespeare in the Park festivals
• List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations
  • BBC Television Shakespeare
  • Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
• ShakespeaRe-Told
• Shakespearean theatres
  • Shakespeare's Globe Centres
• Category:Shakespearean theatre companies
• Shakespeare Theatre Association

Works about Shakespeare

• Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
• Complete Works
• Timeline of Shakespeare criticism
• The Herbal Bed
• Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool
• Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love Life
• The Quest for Shakespeare
• Shakespeare
• Shakespeare's Kings
• Shakespeare's Politics
• Shakespeare: The World as Stage
• William Shakespeare

Fictional works about Shakespeare

• Shakespeare in Love
• Upstart Crow