Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new nomination underneath. To do this, see the instructions at TFAR nom/doc.

The result was: not scheduled by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2016 (UTC)



William Shakespeare (1564 (baptised) – 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, often called England's national poet. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of about 38 plays 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, and was the part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later the King's Men. He seems to have retired at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, which has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances. His plays remain highly popular, and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse contexts throughout the world.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Ralph Richardson
 * Main editors:, ,
 * Promoted: October 10, 2007
 * Reasons for nomination: 400th anniversary of death, Vital-3 article
 * Support as nominator. JerrySa1 (talk) 23:02, 29 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: this article was TFA on 10 October 2007 – it was promoted to FA on 14 August 2007, not as stated above. Repeat TFA appearances are only agreed in very special circumstances, so a particular case will need to be made if this is to run again. Brianboulton (talk) 23:58, 29 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Support. I wanted to bring Shakespeare's funerary monument up to FA status and nominate it for TFA for 23 April for the same reason, but I have had a lot of personal events prevent me from working on the article, so it won't be finished in time. Maybe next year. Tom Reedy (talk) 01:30, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Comment - Having taken a look over this article, it's showing its age. Please check for any dead links, and ensure it meets the MOS and the quality of the text / referencing is up to FA standards. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 15:27, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Fixed a dead link. What else do you want? JerrySa1 (talk) 23:46, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I already told you what to look for. This is not FAC or PR; it is not our role here to provide in-depth reviews. One of the most blatant issues is the fact that the last sentence of the lead is nowhere else in the article, a violation of both WP:LEDE and probably WP:WEIGHT. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 07:50, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Further concerns: The nominator here, JerrySa1, is not a significant contributor (1 edit), while Tom Reedy, shown as the main editor, last edited the article on 4 October 2015. I appreciate that this may have been for unavoidable personal reasons, but  careful preparation for a proposed TFA is essential for a featured article of this age. More specifically, a quick read-through reveals a number of substantial statements in the article which are not cited to any source. Here are some obvious ones:
 * "Some attributions, such as Titus Andronicus and the early history plays, remain controversial, while The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost Cardenio have well-attested contemporary documentation. Textual evidence also supports the view that several of the plays were revised by other writers after their original composition."
 * "By the time of Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself."
 * "In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art"."
 * So there's lots of work that needs to be done, quickly, if the article is to have any chance of a repeat TFA. Brianboulton (talk) 09:32, 1 April 2016 (UTC)