To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too.

William Shakespeare—the poet, dramatist, and actor who is regarded as the national poet of England and perhaps the most famous dramatist of all time—died this day in 1616 in his native town of Stratford-upon-Avon.