William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the w

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s preeminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet. His (36) surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long (37) narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been (38) translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
    Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly (39) comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including (40) Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies; also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his (41) lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now (42) recognized as Shakespeare’s.
    Shakespeare was a (43) respected poet and playwright in his own day, (44) but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare’s genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "Mariolatry". In the twentieth century, (45) his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are (46) constantly performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.