The major university here caused a big flap a couple of years ago when Ol' Willy was dropped from the "must study" list for English majors. My understanding is that there is quite a debate in academia about who Willie really was - seems like many folks now believe he was actually a composite of several writers.. Anyhow, there's more stuff about him on line than I care to wade through. Regardless of the personna/personnae issue, "he" is, I think, still credited with being a major force behind modern English (whatever the hell that is).