author
William Sidney Walker
1795–1846
Remembered for his sharp eye for Shakespeare’s language, this gifted 19th-century scholar also wrote poetry and classical translations. His life was brilliant and difficult, and much of his reputation rests on the care and originality of his literary criticism.
1 Audiobook
Gustavus Vasa and other poems
by William Sidney Walker
About the author
Born at Pembroke, Wales, on December 4, 1795, William Sidney Walker was an English scholar, poet, and Shakespearean critic. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won major academic distinctions in classics and was elected a fellow.
Walker became known especially for his close study of Shakespeare’s verse, grammar, and textual problems. Alongside that critical work, he published poetry and translations from Greek, showing the same exacting, bookish intelligence across several kinds of writing.
His later years were troubled by poverty, ill health, and periods of instability, and he died in London on October 15, 1846. Even so, he left behind a lasting reputation among literary scholars for the depth and precision of his readings of Shakespeare.