William Shakespeare was not a playwright.
William Shakespeare . His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright . His early plays were primarily comedies and histories , which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres . He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608 , including Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , and Macbeth , considered some of the finest works in the English language . In his last phase , he wrote tragicomedies , also known as romances , and collaborated with other playwrights .