Every age, so far at any rate, has been able to find in Shakespeare whatever it needed to maintain contact with him . . .

--Frank Kermode: Shakespeare, Spenser, Donne

The business of Shakespeare criticism would have no point if it were not necessary to re-read him to suit the always-changing interests of the times.

--Andrew Gurr: The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642

It is notorious that Shakespeare would not understand much modern Shakespearean criticism. But then that, in itself, is hardly an objection to what the critics are doing. Newton, equally, would presumably not understand modern physics.

--George Watson: The Study of Literature