
William Shakespeare
Greatest Literature
• A Midsummmer Night’s Dream (1594)
• Romeo and Juliet (c.1596)
• Henry IV, Part 1 (1597)
• The Merchant of Venice (c.1597)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Hamlet (1601)
• Othello (1604)
• Macbeth (c.1606)
• King Lear (c.1606)
• Sonnets (c.1609)
• The Tempest (1611)
Greatest Plays
• Richard III (1591)
• The Taming of the Shrew (1591)
• A Midsummmer Night’s Dream (1594)
• Richard II (1597)
• Romeo and Juliet (c.1596)
• Love's Labour's Lost (1597)
• Henry IV, Part 1 (1597)
• Henry IV, Part 2 (1597)
• The Merchant of Venice (c.1597)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1598–1599)
• As You Like It (1599)
• Henry V (1599)
• Julius Caesar (1599)
• Hamlet (1601)
• Twelfth Night (1601–1602)
• Measure for Measure (1603)
• Othello (1604)
• Macbeth (c.1606)
• King Lear (c.1606)
• Coriolanus (c.1603)
• The Winter's Tale (1611)
• The Tempest (1611)
• Henry VIII (1613)
Romeo and Juliet
Possibly Shakespeare's best-known play. Everyone knows the story of star-crossed lovers who defied their families—the feuding Capulets and Montagues—and ended their lives tragically.... more
Henry IV, Part 1l
I once read all Shakespeare's historical plays in chronological order. Not in the order he wrote them, but in the order of the historical events they supposedly relate. Like many before me.... more
The Merchant of Venice
The major issue of contention whenever The Merchant of Venice comes up, of course, is the portrayal of Shylock, the Jewish money-lender, the villain of the piece for the most part. so let's.... more
Julius Caesar
This play ought to be called Brutus, since the central theme concerns that character's decision to join an assassination conspiracy and the repercussions of his action. Caesar is.... more
Hamlet
Hamlet is such a famous play—so much the great drama, the one play that everyone in the world can quote at least six words from—that we usually can't see how strange it is that this.... more
King Lear
A straightforward play really, about a dysfunctional family. People thinks it's cosmic because of that annoying storm in the middle. That's not my opinion but the summary of Jonathan.... more
Macbeth
Macbeth was actually king of Scotland for seventeen years, though you would never get this from Shakespeare's most popular play. Historians consider Macbeth and his wife to have been.... more
Othello
Interesting thing about Othello is that it concerns a man of African heritage who is victimized in a white European society, and yet racism is never the central issue. Othello, the.... more
Sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets have been dissected and speculated upon for profound and hidden meanings for years, but I think the best way into them for a novice is to consider them as Shakespeare.... more
The Tempest
My favourite play. I'm not exactly sure why. It doesn't present many of the elements generally admired in drama. No great tragedy. Not much scintillating wit. Little realism. A fantastic... more
William Shakespeare
COMMENTARY | BIBLIOGRAPHY | HISTORIES | CRITICS | PARODIES | AUTHORSHIP
The sometimes surprising things said about him
Despite his current reputation as the greatest writer in the English language, perhaps in any language, William Shakespeare has also had his critics—both in earlier and in modern times. Here's a selection of quotations from prominent figures with varying assessments of the Bard's work.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
Ben Jonson, First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works, 1623
He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul.
John Dryden, "Essay of Dramatic Poesy", 1668
One of the greatest geniuses that ever existed, Shakespeare, undoubtedly wanted taste.
Horace Walpole, letter, 1764
Shakespeare's fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.
Denis Diderot, "On Dramatic Poetry", 1758
He was a savage...who had some imagination. He has written many happy lines; but his pieces can please only at London and in Canada. It is not a good sign for the taste of a nation when that which it admires meets with favor only at home.
Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire, letter, 1765
Shakespeare is a savage with sparks of genius which shine in a horrible night.
Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire, letter, 1776
Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
Samuel Johnson, Life of Johnson (James Boswell), 1769
Shakespeare's name, you may depend on it, stands absurdly too high and will go down.
George Gordon Noel Byron, letter, 1814
I have great reason to be content, for thank God I can read, and perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths....
John Keats, letter, 1818
If I say therefore, that Shakspeare is the greatest of Intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is more in Shakspeare's intellect than we have yet seen. It is what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of.... Shakspeare's Art is not Artifice; the noblest worth of it is not there by plan or precontrivance. It grows-up from the deeps of Nature, through this noble sincere soul, who is a voice of Nature.
Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes and Hero-Worship, 1841
I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.
Charles Darwin
With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his.... It would positively be a relief to me to dig him up and throw stones at him.
George Bernard Shaw, Dramatic Opinions and Essays, 1907
Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.
James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922
We can say of Shakespeare, that never has a man turned so little knowledge to such great account.
T.S. Eliot, lecture
The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good—in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
Robert Graves, The Observer, "Sayings of the Week", 1964
Shakespeare—whetting, frustrating, surprising and gratifying.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up, 1945
(He) has become a black hole. Light, insight, intelligence, matter—all pour ceaselessly into him, as critics are drawn into the densening vortex of his reputation; they add their own weight to his increasing mass. The light from other stars—other poets, other dramatists—is wrenched and bent as it passes by him on its way to us. He warps cultural space-time; he distorts our view of the universe around him.... But Shakespeare himself no longer transmits visible light; his stellar energies have been trapped within the gravity well of his own reputation. We find in Shakespeare only what we bring to him or what others have left behind; he gives us back our own values.
Gary Taylor, Reinventing Shakespeare, 1989
(The) Shakespearean cast of thought (is) a fine credulity about everything, kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything.
Robertson Davies, Murther and Walking Spirits, 1991
When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
That such trivial people should muse and thunder
In such lovely language.
D.H. Lawrence, When I Read Shakespeare
Shakespeare was the great one before us. His place was between God and despair.
Eugène Ionesco, interview International Herald Tribune, 1988
I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.
Virginia Woolf, diary entry, 1930
COMMENTARY | BIBLIOGRAPHY | HISTORIES | CRITICS | PARODIES | AUTHORSHIP