I know you have been gone for the past 400 years, but your works still resonate with people today as they did in your time. As a young girl, I fell in love with your words, sonnets, characters, and storytelling. The first one that I read by you was entilted Romeo and Juliet. Since then, I have read eight of your plays and will continue to read more. Without you, the world would never know the following phrases: "As good luck would have it' from The Merry Wives of Windsor, 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be' from Hamlet, 'Brave new world' from The Tempest, 'Break the ice' from The Taming of the Shrew,'The game is afoot' from Henry IV Part I, and'Wild-goose chase' from Romeo and Juliet" (BBC America). If I had to name my favorite play written by you, it would have to be either The Tempest, Othello or Macbeth.
The world is fascinated by not only your works, but by how you lived your life. You were born in Stratford-upon-Avon and married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18 because she was pregnant with your first child, Susanna. You became a father to twins the next year, but lost your only son when he was at the tender age of 11. You could not bear the pain, so you set off for London. You wrote many plays while there and the company that you wrote was the Lord Chamberlain's Men which then became the King's Men after King James the First. Your most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar.
About three years before you died in 1616, you began to build a better relationship with your daughter, Susanna, and left a lot of money to her in your will. It is peculiar that you wrote your will only a month before you died Many people know that you fell ill and the illness killed you, but are not fully sure what illness it was. Some speculate that it was a fever, we will never officially know. We do know that you were buried in the Holy Trinity Church with the following inscription: "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forebeare, To digg the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones." (The Telegraph).
Thank you for bringing your stories to the world. Whether they were about fairies, kings and queens, gods and goddesses, magic, mystery, romance, comedy, or tragedy; the stories you wrote, the poems with iambic pentameter, and the characters you created are found in all types of people. I think that is why so many of your plays have been reproduced since the First Folio good friends of yours created. The plays were saved and were able to be enjoyed from then on. The plays tell the story, but the words and characters will live on and will be enjoyed forevermore. All's well that ends well.
