William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was a male Human playwright and poet in the 16th and 17th centuries . He lived his life in England , Earth , and may or may not have been one of the many aliases of the immortal Flint . His works are counted among the best representations of Human literature . They include 154 sonnets and 38 plays , such as " Hamlet " , " Macbeth " , ' , " Henry V " , ' , " Othello " , " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " , and " The Merchant of Venice " . History . In 1986 , a painting of William Shakespeare was on sale at an antique store in San Francisco . ( ) In 2153 , Shakespeare ' s works were among the examples of Earth literature provided to the Vissian s . Vissian Captain Drennik later quoted from " Hamlet " and expressed admiration for " Macbeth . " Before departing , Captain Jonathan Archer advised them to take their time in reading the plays . ( ) In the year 2155 in the mirror universe , commented to that Shakespeare ' s work was similar in both their universe and the primary universe . ( ) In 2266 , the hosted the Karidian Company of Players , a traveling Shakespearean acting troupe . While on board they put on a performance of " Hamlet " . ( ) In 2268 , at the Elba II asylum , Marta cites the Sonnet XVIII by Shakespeare , and claims that she wrote it , but Garth corrects her . ( ) By 2293 , the works of Shakespeare were known to Klingons such as Chancellor Gorkon and General . Gorkon stated that Shakespeare could only truly be experienced in " the original Klingon " , and Chang quoted liberally from Shakespeare ' s plays . ( ) Captain Picard displayed a volume of in his Ready Room aboard the in 2364 . ( ) According to Captain Picard , there is no better way to learn about the Human condition than to embrace Shakespeare . In order to do so , Data studied " Henry V " on the holodeck . ( ) In 2366 , in order to rescue Lwaxana Troi from DaiMon Tog , Picard recited a string of quotes from Shakespeare ' s sonnets and " Othello " . ( ) When the senior officer s of the " Enterprise " time travel ed from 2368 to 19th century San Francisco they obtained a room at a local boarding house . Unable to pay the fees required them , Picard and his crew diverted the attention of the proprietress by convincing her that she should play a part in their touring production of Shakespeare ' s plays , specifically " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " . ( ) As part of his exploration of Humanity in 2370 , Lieutenant Commander Data used holodeck reenactments of the plays of Shakespeare to examine the Human condition , playing the part of Prospero in " The Tempest " , and " Henry V " in the eponymous play . ( ) Julian Bashir introduced Deep Space 9 ' s Cardassian tailor , Elim Garak to Shakespeare in the 2370s . ( ) While the Battle of the Omarion Nebula was raging and the Romulan - Cardassian fleet was being destroyed , Garak paraphrased a portion of " Julius Caesar " to Enabran Tain : " " I ' m afraid the fault , dear Tain , is not in our star s but in ourselves . " " ( ) In 2376 , Janeway described a message that had been composed to communicate with neucleogenic lifeforms as " Not exactly Shakespeare . " ( ) Appendices . Background information . According to the , the birth and death years of William Shakespeare were 1564 and 1616 , respectively . Because of Chancellor Gorkon ' s remark in that " " You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon " " , members of the Klingon Language Institute translated the text of " Hamlet " into Klingon . It was subsequently published by Pocket Books as " The Klingon Hamlet " . The KLI has also translated " Much Ado About Nothing " into Klingon , and selections from both works were performed in Klingon by the Washington Shakespeare Company in a 2010 fundraising benefit which also featured George Takei .