Q: Or what if Shakespeare never published any work when he was alive, and nobody ever heard of him until someone in the 21st century just happened to digup some chest in some old crypt that had all of Shakespeare's writings... would 21st century critics still be like "OK, this guy is the greatest playwright and greatest English writer of all time... we must make high school and college students study his work"?
A: it would struggle against a 400-year language barrier. even though he was spicy fresh with the language, there is no longer a population of native speakers of the language base he was starting from. if he were born in the modern day, he'd surely do it damn great, starting from our language as we know it today and then pushing it forward from there