Tragedy often presents lyric poems greater than any other work of literature; hence Aristotle and his imitators concluded that a verse tragedy was the highest form of poetry.
"The Literature of Ecstasy"
Albert Mordell
In the second class he put imitators of the first and all others.
"The Literature of Ecstasy"
Albert Mordell
Shakespeare's successors are explained as imitators of Shakespeare, and Shakespeare is explained by his 'genius' or, in other words, is inexplicable.
"English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century"
Leslie Stephen