After the Holy Bible, Shakespeare is the most frequently translated writer in the world. His plays are published today in more than 90 languages and, as a Shakespeare scholar says, no household in the English-speaking world is properly furnished unless it contains a copy of Shakespeare`s works.
It is estimated that the books written on Shakespeare and his works exceed 100,000. Indeed, for no other writer has so much typographical ink been used.
One may ask: On what does Shakespeare`s great popularity depend? Undoubtedly, on the universality of the genius of this great anatomist of the human soul, who searched all its depths and with his incomparable diction lighted all its aspects. This self-taught dramatist, who, according to his contemporary Ben Jonson, `knew small Latine and lesse Greeke`, contrary to the university wits, was a versatile genius who could `hold, as `t were, the mirror up to nature`, and create clear-cut and real characters like Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Iago, Shylock, Ophelia, Desdemona and others.
That is why, `So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see`, people will be rushing to the theatres to see some Shakespeare production, will study his works and will continue visiting his picturesque birthplace as pilgrims. And this, because this playwright, as his friend Ben Jonson so prophetically stated, `He was not of an age, but for all time!`

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