Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme, But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn And broils roots out the work of masonry, Nor mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. 'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till judgement that yourself arise, You in this, and dwell in lovers eyes.

According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro in Julius Caesar "the various strands of politics character inwardness contemporary events even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing began to infuse each other". In 1598 the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. Many of his plays were publiWilliam Shakespeared in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime.

In the 20th century his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith.