12 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About William Shakespeare

11. Shakespeare Was An Elizabethan Playwright... But Plays Such As "Othello" And "Macbeth" Were Written During The Jacobean Period

"An Elizabethan playwright" - that is often how Shakespeare is described, but the fact of the matter is that his work-life straddled two separate monarchical reigns, that of Queen Elizabeth I and King James VI & I. What's more, some of his most-renowned works were actually written during the latter part of his life - and once James I had ascended to the throne in 1603, rather than during the Elizabethan period. The much-revered plays "Othello", "Macbeth", "The Winter's Tale", "The Tempest, "King Lear" and "Coriolanus" are just a selection of those written following Elizabeth I's death - when his works became less focused on romantic tragedy and shifted towards the corruption of men. Therefore it would probably be more apt to refer to Shakespeare as a "Jacobean playwright", rather than an "Elizabethan" one.