William Shakespeare: Kierkegaard’s Post-Romantic Reception of “the Poet’s Poet”

When the dramatist Ben Jonson penned his dedication for the 1623 Folio edition of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, he predicted a perennially enthusiastic reception for the plays of his friend and rival:

Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe, To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time!1