ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a really famous man who lived a long, long time ago in a place called England. He was really good at writing stories that were so interesting and fun that people still like reading them today, many, many years later.

This man wrote plays, which are like a really fun show that you watch with lots of different characters and stories. Some of his most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. These were so good that even people who didn't understand everything he wrote could still watch and love them.

Shakespeare was really smart and used words in a way no one else had at the time. He made up lots of new words and phrases that we still use today, like “break the ice” and “heart of gold”.

Some people think Shakespeare is the best writer ever, which means he's super important to lots of people!