/lit/ - Literature

Shakespeare was obviously the greatest writer of the English language but is he great because of some otherworldly, divinely inspired relationship he had with the English language that was totally unique to him or because English in comparison to other languages has quite a poor literary tradition? Do other countries simply lack a figure who displays a mastery of their language on par with Shakespeare or do they in fact have multiple artists who possess a similar skill and therefore veneration is not concentrated on one figure?