The Guardian has a terrific article by Jonathan Bate on how Shakespeare went from being considered one of the very best playwrights to the unique, exceptional genius of our language.

Among small points: Bates says it isn’t true that Shakespeare created more new words than anyone else in our history. That myth resulted from the Oxford English Dictionary’s frequent citation of Shakespeare as a source because “because of his ready availability when the dictionary was created at the end of the Victorian era.” [Tags: shakespeare]

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