"How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians"

This quote by Horace Walpole is a testimony to the genius of William Shakespeare. Walpole is applauding Shakespeare's ability to take little, mundane details from historic accounts and transform them into something extraordinary. He is highlighting the playwright's ability in taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. Walpole is also suggesting that Shakespeare had the ability to take the ordinary and elevate it to something of terrific beauty and power. This quote is a testimony to the power of Shakespeare's writing and his ability to take the common and make it remarkable. It is a pointer of the power of literature and how it can take the mundane and make it something of terrific charm and power.