1. * The Greatest Writer Ever known!
William Shakespeare
* The Greatest Writer
Ever known!
* This may be subject to debate.

2. So who is William Shakespeare anyway?
He was born in Stratford, England in 1564.
He wrote 30 plays, broken into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances.
He wrote 152 Sonnets. These are poems with fourteen lines and use iambic pentameter a certain type of rhyme scheme.
Shakespeare is given credit for introducing nearly 2000 words and phrases to the English language!! For example…

3. Adj. Partially or totally dark, especially dismal and dreary.
Gloomy
Adj. Partially or totally dark, especially dismal and dreary.

4. Noun. a person or thing that is regarded as very foolish or ridiculous
Laughingstock
Noun. a person or thing that is regarded as very foolish or ridiculous

5. Impede
Verb. to interfere with or slow the progress of.

6. Adj. ludicrously or impulsively comical; clownish.
Zany
Adj. ludicrously or impulsively comical; clownish.

7. Verb. to imitate or copy in action, speech, etc.
Mimic
Verb. to imitate or copy in action, speech, etc.

8. Leapfrog
Noun. a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs.

9. Adj. prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful.
Frugal
Adj. prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful.

10. Shakespeare also coined many common phrases.
What’s a phrase?? A collection of words that hold a meaning.

11. “All that glitters is not GOLD.”
This is a saying that basically means just because it looks valuable, doesn’t mean that it is valuable.
from The Merchant of Venice (1596)

12. “Vanish into thin air.” Means disappearing without a trace.
from Othello (1604) and The Tempest (1610)

13. Meaning I am distressed; sad; grieved.
“Woe is me.”
Meaning I am distressed; sad; grieved.
Hamlet (1602)

14. “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
The real art of speaking (especially when speaking humorously)
is to use as few words as possible.
Hamlet (1602)

15. “Love is blind.”
People who are in love have trouble “seeing” the obvious.
Actually, modern-day research supports the view that the blindness of love is not just a figurative matter. A research study in 2004 by University College London found that feelings of love suppressed the activity of the areas of the brain that control critical thought.

16. “Star-crossed lovers.”
Star-crossed means unlucky, not favored by the stars.
Poor Jack and Rose 

17. And speaking of Jack and Rose…
Romeo and Juliet, a play written by Mr. Shakespeare in 1595, is quite similar to the story of the young lovers on the ill-fated Titanic. How? Well I thought you’d never ask!!