During his lifetime, Shakespeare provoked the envy and admiration of fellow writers, as we know from their surviving comments in print. The First Folio, an unprecedented collection of a playwright's work, is the best illustration of the pre-eminence awarded to him. Ben Jonson's tribute to him, printed in this volume, famously praised him as:
".....Soule of the Age!
The applause! Delight! The wonder of our Stage...
He was not of an age, but for all time!"
The statue erected to his memory in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, by his family also demonstrates his status as a prosperous man of property as well as a famous poet.