William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English actor, playwright, and poet. Widely regarded as one of the most important writers in the English language, Shakespeare wrote at least 39 plays and 154 sonnets in his lifetime. Very few records of Shakespeare’s life survive: In 1582, at the age of 18, he married a woman named Anne Hathaway, and the pair quickly had three children. By 1592, he had a successful career in London as an actor and playwright in a company known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Theater records and scripts suggest that Shakespeare wrote most of his plays between 1589 and 1613. Some of these plays were printed within his lifetime, and featured his name on the title page, suggesting that he was famous both as an actor and playwright. Seven years after his death, a collection of all but four of his plays was published. Here, for the first time, his plays were divided into three categories: comedies, tragedies, and histories.

Two Gentlemen of Verona is usually considered to be the first play written by Shakespeare, and features themes revisited by the playwright in later comedies such as Twelfth Night and As You Like It. As with most of his plays, Shakespeare drew heavily on existing narratives and tropes in writing Two Gentlemen of Verona.