In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name. But now is black beauty’s successive heir, And beauty slandered with a bastard shame. For since each hand hath put on nature’s pow'r, Fairing the foul with art’s false borrowed face, Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bow'r, But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace. Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black, Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack, Sland'ring creation with a false esteem.   Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,   That every tongue says beauty should look so.

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.