William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English playwright, poet, actor, and shareholder in the theatrical company later known as the King's Men. Widely regarded as one of the central figures in world literature, he wrote tragedies, comedies, histories, romances, and poems that helped define English drama and continue to shape theatre, language, and literary study. His plays combine poetic force, psychological depth, theatrical intelligence, political insight, and an extraordinary command of character and speech.Shakespeare's major works include Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, and Antony and Cleopatra. His comedies often turn on disguise, courtship, mistaken identity, social pressure, and the unstable relation between desire and public order. All's Well That Ends Well stands among his most challenging comic plays, combining wit, romance, social ambition, moral unease, and theatrical ingenuity.