To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

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.