"Who Was Shakespeare?"

As I read many articles I learned that Shakespeare was an English poet and playwriter, he was widely regarded as the greatest writer in English language history.  He was often called Englands national poet.  Over his life he wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets. (wikipedia).  His most famous plays consist of "Hamlet", "Julius Caesar", and "Romeo and Juliet".  When students hear the name of William Shakepeare they think of old English style writing and old English style plays and dramas.  I still struggle with the old English style of writing and still don't understand some of the meanings of words and some of the messages of the plays.