William Shakespeare: In honour of his 454th birth anniversary

In today's Doodle, Titania and Nick Bottom are also there, as a tribute to Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights ever produced in the history of English literature. He is believed to have been born on April 25, 1564, in the town of Stratford on Avon. Baptized on April 26, Shakespeare has left tons of literature. Through his life, he composed 154 sonnets, long narrative poems and several other poems.

Famous for his playwriting, his work has been translated into major languages of the world. His plays till now are reenacted and have been made into several films. Many movies have been reproduced and have received an overwhelming response from the audience.

His two poems, 'Venus and Adonis ’and ‘The Rape of Lucrece' are among the popular ones. He wrote plays in the genre of tragedy, comedy, tragic-comedy and romance etc. These include, ‘Hamlet’, 'Othello’, ’King Lear’, 'Julius Caeser, 'Antony and Cleopatra', ‘HenryV’, 'As you Like it’, 'Much Ado about Nothing' etc.

He died on the same date that is April 23, 1616. Buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford - upon- Avon, his epitaph composed by himself reads as:

"Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear;
To dig the dust enclosed here;
Blessed be the man that spares these stones;
And cursed be he that moves my bones"

‘Et Tu, Brute?’, ‘To be or not to be’, 'Neither a borrower nor a lender', ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them’, ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once’, ‘Frailty, thy name is woman’, ‘What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet’, ‘Nothing will come of nothing’. etc.

In Bollywood itself, Omkara, Haider, Ram Leela, Maqbool, Ishqzade etc have been based on Shakespearean plays.

In today's Doodle, Titania and Nick Bottom are also there, as a tribute to Shakespeare.