Arguably the greatest English-language playwright, William Shakespeare was a seventeenth-century writer and dramatist, and is known as the Bard of Avon. Under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I, he penned more than 30 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous narrative poems and short verses. Equally accomplished in histories, tragedies, comedy, and romance, Shakespeare s most famous works include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It.

Like many of his contemporaries, including Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare began his career on the stage, eventually rising to become part-owner of Lord Chamberlain s Men, a popular dramatic company of his day, and of the storied Globe Theatre in London.

Extremely popular in his lifetime, Shakespeare s works continue to resonate more than three hundred years after his death. His plays are performed more often than any other playwright s, have been translated into every major language in the world, and are studied widely by scholars and students.

Paul Werstine has spent his career teaching Shakespeare and Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at King's University College and in the Graduate Program of the University of Western Ontario. Among his teaching awards are the King's College Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2003 and awards from the graduating classes of 2003, 2007 and 2009. From 1981 9 he served as Associate Editor, with Editor Leeds Barroll, of Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. He is co-editor, with Barbara A. Mowat, of the Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems. He is also co-general editor, with Richard Knowles, of the Modern Language Association's New Variorum Shakespeare edition and particularly of The Winter's Tale (2005) and The Comedy of Errors (2011). He has written many articles about the early printings of Shakespeare, about the Shakespeare editorial tradition and about early modern dramatic manuscripts. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.