William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. Sometimes known as the Bard of Avon (or simply the Bard), Shakespeare is considered the most important writer in the English language and one of the most celebrated in world literature.

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "Shakespeare is generally recognized as the greatest writer of all time, a unique figure in the history of literature. The fame of other poets, such as Homer and Dante Alighieri, or of novelists such as Miguel de Cervantes, Leo Tolstoy or Charles Dickens, has transcended national borders, but none of them has achieved Shakespeare's reputation, whose works today are read and performed more often and in more countries than ever. The prophecy of one of his great contemporaries, Ben Jonson, has thus come true: "He was not of an age, but for all time!""

American critic Harold Bloom places Shakespeare, alongside Dante Alighieri, at the summit of his "Western Canon": "No other writer has ever had such linguistic resources as Shakespeare, so abundant in Love's Labour's Lost that we have the impression that, once and for all, many of the limits of language have been reached. Yet Shakespeare's greatest originality lies in the representation of characters: Bottom is a melancholy triumph; Shylock, a permanently ambiguous problem for all of us; but Sir John Falstaff is so original and so overwhelming that with him Shakespeare makes a complete turnabout in what it means to create a man through words."

Jorge Luis Borges wrote about him: "Shakespeare is the least English of England's poets. Compared with Robert Frost (of New England), with William Wordsworth, with Samuel Johnson, with Chaucer, and with the anonymous writers who composed or sang the elegies, he is almost a foreigner. England is the homeland of understatement and well-bred reticence; hyperbole, excess and splendor are typical of Shakespeare."

Shakespeare was a poet and playwright revered in his own time, but his reputation did not reach its current heights until the 19th century. The Romantics in particular celebrated his genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a devotion that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry."

In the 20th century, his works were adapted and rediscovered many times over by all kinds of artistic, intellectual and theatrical movements. Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies have been translated into the world's major languages, and they are constantly studied and performed in a wide variety of cultural and political contexts around the globe. Moreover, many of the quotes and aphorisms scattered throughout his works have become part of everyday language, in English and in other languages. On a personal level, over time, much has been speculated about his life, including questions about his sexuality, his religious affiliation, and even the authorship of his works.