"Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.
—Sonnet 55
It's been almost 400 years since William Shakespeare made that prediction, and so far so good. Many a gilded monument crumbled while the Bard rose to the rank of first among the greatest. Outright Bardolatry began in the 18th century and continued unabated into our intellectually Balkanized age."
—Lela Stromenger, "Essayist Displays Grasp of the Bard," The Arizona Republic