THE life, works and legacies of two of the most important writers of the British Isles - William Shakespeare and Robert Burns - are to be compared at a special conference this weekend.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, and not long before Burns Night, academic are to gather at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Ayrshire, today to compare and contrast the two figures.

Subjects to be discussed will be Calvinism and the two bards, commemoration and celebration, the influence of Freemasonry, and the fantastical elements in both writer's work.

Professor Gerard Carruthers, Director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies, at the University of Glasgow, said: “Shakespeare was a powerful influence on Robert Burns. Shakespeare was in his DNA.

"The poet refers in his writing to at least sixteen of Shakespeare’s plays, and in his letters Burns turns to Shakespeare on several dozen occasions."

He said that Burns's scholarly profile worldwide was now as strong as Shakespeare, and iswaspart of Romantic age literature courses across the world.

Burns initially did not like the violence in Shakespeare's plays, the Professor said, but grew to love the writer and mentioned him more than four dozen times in his letters.

"Shakespeare is the English, or even the British, national writer, Burns is the Scottish national writer, let's bring them together," he said.

"Both are very canonical parts of our English-speaking international culture. In terms of translation Shakespeare has been translated more, but Burns is no slouch - translated into at least 42 languages, including Faroese, Latin and Esperanto."

The ‘Two Bards: Burns & Shakespeare’ conference has been jointly organised by the University of Glasgow and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum (National Trust for Scotland).

.