http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/32064 Mental Floss gives us 10 people who were less than impressed with Mr. Shakespeare, including some of the more well known ones like Voltaire, who called the works “an enormous dunghill”, and Darwin’s “so intolerably dull that is nauseated me” comment, which I refuted a few months ago. But then it completely skips what I thought was one of the most well known, namely when T.S. Eliot refers to Hamlet as “certainly an artistic failure.”
Having a problem connecting with mentalfloss at the moment. But just at first look, any of the noted people I know of who so-called hated Shakespeare had philosophical/literary/professional reasons, some of which were justified from their own standpoint,; some were because of reasons having to do with their own notoriety; some were simply quoting what was "proper" literary form. I hardly think any of them can be used as exemplary justifications for bored to death, wet behind the ears high school students summarily dismissing his work– if that's the point of the post I can't seem to connect with right now.
Didn't Eliot also say that "Coriolanus" was Shakespeare's great masterpiece? I mean, I like Coriolanus just fine, but, uh…yeah.