By the age of Elizabeth, English had become widely used with the expansion of philosophy, theology and physical sciences, but many writers lacked the vocabulary to express such ideas. When William Shakespeare began writing his plays, the English language was rapidly absorbing words from other languages due to wars, exploration, diplomacy and colonization.

See also: Shakespeare in Original PronunciationĮarly Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux. He is also the third most translated author in history. According to Guinness Book of World Records Shakespeare remains the world’s best-selling playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world after the various writers of the Bible many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages. Shakespeare's writings have also impacted many notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and Maya Angelou, and continue to influence new authors even today. He transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through innovation in characterization, plot, language and genre. William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of the English language, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

Shakespeare's influence extends from theater and literatures to present-day movies, Western philosophy, and the English language itself. William Shakespeare ( National Portrait Gallery), in the famous Chandos portrait

Shakespeare in love common sense media