This pack of 55 playing cards features 9 separate paintings that Blake based on Shakespearean subjects. Shakespeare and Blake: two of the greatest names in English history. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the most extraordinary playwright the world has ever known. William Blake (1757 to 1827); poet, visionary, painter and engraver. William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. Though in his lifetime his work was largely neglected or dismissed, he is now considered one of the leading lights of English poetry, and his work has only grown in popularity. Shakespeare needs no introduction: England's greatest dramatist, celebrated the world over.