Which author wrote the line "He was not of an age, but for all time!"?

The line: "He was not of an age, but for all time!" was written by Ben Jonson. He said it about his beloved William Shakespeare. This line is said to have popped into Jonson head when he saw a histrionically scowling visage of Shakespeare's immortal face as he (Shakespeare) watched one of his stage plays being performed in the theater. Based upon the line, Jonson is said to have written the poem "To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare”.

In his poem of praise, Jonson said Shakespeare could not be compared to his contemporaries or even most of his great predecessors. “Thou art a monument without a tomb.” He compares him to “thundering Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles” rather than Kyd or Marlowe.

Jonson's brief was therefore a rhetorical summation that holds, “Shakespeare was good, but not simply good in the same way as his contemporaries of such a great age. He bears comparison to the greatest of all time…” So the poem itself is one that gives a reader so many apt epithets for Shakespeare including: “Soul of the age!”; “the wonder of our stage!”; “Sweet Swan of Avon!”; and “He was not of an age but for all time!”

Benjamin Jonson (June 1572, Westminster, London, UK— August 1637, London, UK) was an English playwright and poet. His artistry is known to have exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He had a long relationship with the Stuarts.