William Shakespeare

You might get pushback on any rating above 3 stars from the legions of C-average Grade 11 English students.

A probably deliberately obscure figure, so all we have is his literary output; but Shakespeare's plays and poems are probably the greatest since antiquity.

Not a big fan of the Bard. I never read any of his stuff on my own, but I never enjoyed reading it in High School. Too hard to sit through, the language is outdated and I'm not a big fan of Romance. I also do not think that His Drama's translate well into the Modern World. But, If you are one of the Millions of Shakespeare fans out there: More Power to ya.

He deserves props for basically inventing half the English language. Unfortunately, since I am not fluent in old English, I do not get his works. It feels like reading a foreign language. My loss I am sure, but nothing I feel I have missed.

He was an important contributor to our literary world.

No need to elaborate - or is there?

dis man is so dumb he cant even speak english good an i gotta read his dum junk un scool

Willliam Shakespeare is, without a doubt, the greatest writer the world has ever known. Who could have produced such beautiful plays and sonnets? Moreover, who was so observant and so adept, so as to know human nature and its greatness- as well as its flaws? The Bard from Stratford-upon-Avon was a master observer of human psychology, and likely used his observances to shape his colorful characters- thereby bringing them to life. Characters such as Prospero from 'The Tempest' uttering famous lines which are still oft-quoted like: "And, like this insubstantial pageant faded/Leave not a rack behind/We are such stuff/As dreams are made of/and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep." are part of the English venacular, and are conveniently used in punch-lines or are liberally used to emphasize points in common conversational dialogue. And though there are claims that he was not the actual author of these brilliant masterpieces we all take from subconsciously in some form or another, n... Read more

his stories are awesome. humor, tragedy, he could do it all. the old enlgish is the only thing that makes his work torture in school. but anytime some one tries to make it modern, they get all artsy-fartsy like that junk with leo dicaprio a few years back. keep the stories original. they speak for themselves.

I guess he was ok for his time.  I had to study this in English class in school, but never could really get into it.

Considering his works are still being read, acted and made into movies. That says a lot.

Shakespeare was a very eloquent man with a keen ability to dramatize, which he used for his plays. He wrote very little poetry relatively speaking, and not very good. I am currently reading Venus and Adonis. Halfway through, all thats happened is that this woman is trying to kiss this man, and the man resists, because he wants to hunt a wild pig instead. She begins with wooing him by a philosophical dialogue as to why he should let her smother him. This is not my idea of deeply touching romance. Those who love exagerrated speeches, and a kind of sentimental drama, may like him, but I dont see great poetry here. To call him the worlds greatest poet is pure ignorance. Richard Paulson

Today is April 23, the feast day of St. George, in the church calendar, and on this date in history, according to historical computations, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. Also on this date in history, in 1616, Shakespeare died. This is a Julian Calendar date as under the Gregorian Calendar, these two dates would be May 3. I can add little to the luster of the one single person who has had the most impact on the English Language.

Why certainly I would give my debt of gratitude to this great and wise ruler of words. He wrote many different plays about many different subjects. He proved that love could conquer and destroy. He proved that people trust what they can't see, he proved that most people do not know what thier true intention is, only that one exists. He has written well over 300 plays of all generes. Some of his best examples are truly without even trying. That is the whole confounding experience of life, it just keeps bringing you different questions to experience and to decide to trust or reject what ones heart hopes to be, versus not trusting nor not knowing ones true intent. His stories will stay through the course of history, and some will achieve greatness because of something they have read that made profound sense out of virtue and other wonderous happenings. Even the tradgies have amusing sense of mirth. A whole dialect of amazing delight to think of 2000 years with so much less, this man achie... Read more

the most famous play write in history known for his extraordanery use of language.

Almost certainly the greatest English language author in history. His effect on the English language is incalculable.

We're still doing remakes of his plays for the silver screen and on stage how many years after this guy keeled over??? Someone didn't pay attention in English class, obviously. One of the great lumenaries of his day, and we all still enjoy his plays, even if you don't realize the influence on Hollywood at first. :)

who cares about this guy he just wrote a bunch of boring poems.

How can you compare a man you wrote plays to people who invented the technology that keeps us alive, fought wars that determined what tongue we speak (and what mr. playwright spoke) and came up with the political and moral codes by which we live? Expression is great and I am in no way saying his works are not a joy to hear, but without Locke I woundn't have the right to hear them, without the people who invented all these medicines I wouldn't be alive to hear him, with those who command the vast armies of history my culture wouldn't even be here! Nor would his! He is an artist, not a great influence on the path of history.

I think many people would be surprised to see how different the world would be if Mr. Shakespeare had never been born. His importance goes far beyond a required segment of your high school English class. This man's plays are a basic cornerstone in an artistic medium that offers an outlet of expression to us all. Theatre, whether drama, comedy or tradgedy, has always been more than simply entertainment. In a very real way it is also an ongoing attempt to define and play out our existence as we search for what makes us different and what makes us the same. There is a reason for Shakespeare's longevity and there is a rare purity about it.

Comparing the writings of Shakespeare to those of Danielle Steele is absurd; it is the same as saying that Charlotte Bronte wrote for Harlequin. Not only was he one of the greatest playwrights of all time, several of his quotes have become cliches today: it smells to high heaven ~Hamlet, one fell swoop~ Macbeth, .the world is my oyster~The Merry Wives of Windsor and I will wear my heart upon my sleeve.~Othello, just to name a small fraction of them. I have not heard too many quotes by Ms. Steele lately. His grasp of the human conditions of suffering, love and greed is profound, as well as written in some of the most beautiful prose ever to have found their way from pen onto paper. In King Lear, one of the darkest of his tragedies, the poignant words of Fool Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise, are an evidence of how his words have spanned over generations and time.

He is VERY over rated.. I CAN name three direct parallels between myself and OLE BILL .. However I prefer the Lamont Sanfored Portrayal of Othello I took the Circumsized DOg and Smote Him THus and he was reciting OThello...Fred say Lamont WHAT KIND OF DOG WAS THAT?.. Circumsized pop... Hey.. Was Shakepspeare Jewish? I DONT KNOW POP? WHY YOU ASK THAT? Well son, they go for that.. Blakc folks take it or leave it.. see.. when you was born the doctor said. And that white woman that was playing desdamona started LHAO.. Lamont POP WHAT ARE YOU TALKIG ABOUT? You take ONE WORD out of one of shakespeares greates plays and you make A PLAY OF YOUR OWN OUT OF IT.. Now what my acting...... then they went to Beverly Hills.. Well Lamont I'm gonna sit here in the truck just gimme a camera so I can take apicture of that Beverly Hills Policemans face when I tell him My son is in there acting like Shakespeare and choking a white woman to death. Thats all I want. LOLOLOLOLOL...

Overrated!!!

I think Shakespeare is over-rated.Yes,he wrote some fine plays-but he was also the Danielle Steele of his time.

The greatest playwright in history. Greater than even Euripedes. The greatest in English, the greatest in the world.

The World is but a stage, and the internet a feeding ground for plagiarism. So is literature, and Shakespeare is responsible for many plagiarized works, including Oedipus' stories which Shakespeare stole from Thespis, an ancient Greek playwright whom did not regain credit for his works for almost another five centuries. Shakespeare did however, lay out the groundwork for modern theatre, an accomplishment which bestowed him a seat in history's hall of fame.

For english-speaking people: Shakespeare is Shakespeare, but didn't invent the drama. Drama is a Greek word and Aeschilus, Sofocles and Euripides are the best of all time. No doubt about it. World iterature began before the Bard. (I am Italian, not Greek, but the facts are facts)

He is ANYTHING but overrated. I would go so far to say that he was one of the most intelligent people of all time, simply due to his literary genius.

Duh...he's the BARD

If he really wrote everything he purportedly wrote, he is the greatest writer who ever lived. If Dame Rowling can be a billionaire writing about sorcerer wannabes, then Shakes should be a trillionaire.

A great playwrite, to be sure, but how influential was he, really? He is not considered to have been of too much importance outside the English-speaking world, and even less outside of the West. He just wasn't THAT influential.

ol' willy is overrated, in my honest opinion. he was very advanced for his time, but that doesn't make his works any less dull. his characters are almost always flat, his plots are all generally similar, and by now most of his novels hae been ripped off and cheapened by media anyway. i can respect him for what he was, but i can't really appreciate any of his work.

I think that Shakespeare is one of the best authors in the world. People might disagree and that may be because they are not used to the language and are therefore not able to see the genius. That gets many people discouraged. Nobody says it like Shakespeare. Nobody is able to pull such richness of the words without sounding like he's testing the boundaries of verbiage. Shakespeare is not just a great author of today, but if you read anything by his contemporaries like Ben Jonson and especially Thomas Kydd (Christopher Marlowe not as much) you'll see how far was he, even at that time, with progression and development of plot and fullness of his characters.

Damn Right Shakespeare is #1! His plays are magnificent! Surpassed by none! His plays are so enticing and his poetry is some of the most beautiful I have ever read. So some of his obscure plays are pretty bad (Titus Andronicus!!!!!), but Hamlet, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc. Pure genius!

THe greatest playwright the world have ever known!!

DUUUUH!

Like him or not hes one of the most popular and famous classical literature authors of all time. This man is a creative genius. I've always had difficulty trying to grasp Shakespeare's style of writing, but once you do understand the way he writes you appreciate his work a lot more. No matter how hard I try to ignore his work, it's everywhere. He's used in english language and literature classes, drama and even to this day most films are based on his writing: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Ten Things I hate about You aka The Taming of the Shrew, O aka Othello. It doesn't stop there as his writing is going to continue to be appreciated and used for many more years to come.

It's hard to rate someone who's been ripped off by everyone else who's come along since then, especially if you were exposed to the copycats first. However, by modern standards, some of his plot devices are just too predictable. His writing style, however, is still unique.

shaky and i have a love hate relationship. I'm an english major and, of course, had to do THE SHAKESPEARE COURSE *gasp*. the thing with his plays is that the more you read them, the better they get and the more you get out of them. I love seeing the plays on stage (except the Histories, but even then they have merit). Shakespeare's plots were original and are beign emulated to this day. You know you've made it when the Simpsons do a take on your work ;). I'm not a fan of the sonnets, because there's just so much going on that i don't know about: the young man, the dark lady..the triangle! if shakespeare were only relevent in the 1600s as someone said, then why are the most popular quotes of the English language things that he wrote? *sighs*

However wrote this man's plays and sonnet series, whether it was Kit Marlowe, Lord Essex or unknown Playwright-By-Commitee, was one of the great literary giants of all time. Problematic as the topics of Shakespearian origins, authorship and canon might be, there's no doubting the greatness of the works, especially the major tragedies. The grace and lyricism of the language is among the greatest in English, the insights into human nature unparalleled, the dramatic structuring a model for most of ensuing Western theatre, the poetic heft and substantial/enduring themes of the plays ensure the author's place among the literary heavyweights of Western culture. Whoever wrote these plays was not only an erudite and supremely gifted wordsmith, but also a very experienced and well traveled sophisticate: the literary/historical/geographical allusions bear this out. This is why the idea of the historical William Shakespeare, a glover's son and itinerate actor with a fifth grade education bein... Read more

I hate Shakespeare. His plays may have had their place back in the 16th century but I get irritated why he is always set as compulsory text in Eng. lit studies. There are so many others to choose from, why him all the time?

Shakespeare wrote about universal themes using archetypal images and plots. I believe his stories have lasted to this day because of this fact. In fact, some of his stories have their roots in tales told thousands of years before Shakespeare wrote his plays. Star Wars is actually on the same level (a hero myth). I think Shakespeare was only influential in that the themes of his stories are timeless and based in our collective unconscious, but that's enough.

Shakespeare is a great poet - perhaps the best ever - but IMHO the characters in his plays are not fully convincing.

I will admit that I am not a master at reading Shakespeare, nor have I read many of his works, but I have to give this man credit. I think he had a very clear understanding of the human psyche and deserves much of the popularity given to him considering it wasn't his plays that he wanted to be remembered for. His words post such passion and emotion. And even now, hundreds of years after his death, Shakespeare remains to be the most talked about and loved author of all time. There aren't many who can claim such a feat as that.

Shakespeare's characters were the first developed and introspective characters in drama/literature. His characters questioned their existence and philosophies in an abstract way that had never been done before and (some say) haven't been done since. The fifth act of Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet are just some of the best examples of the finest work that western literature has to offer. People who give up on the language simply aren't paying attention or they are too impatient. . .

One of the greatest authors in the history of the world. I especially enjoyed Hamlet, and Othello.

Has there ever been a greater author? No one in drama comes close.

overrated and dreadfully boring. Didn't like any of his works.....

I use to read a great deal of his works, and loved them all.

Overrated *clap* *clap* another big *clap* etc.