"The Immortal Bard" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov.

His autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, describes how science fiction gradually became more "respectable", while at the same time, professors of literary studies wrote things about SF — even about Asimov's own stories — which he completely failed to grasp.

The physics professor, Dr. Phineas Welch, has gotten himself slightly drunk and begins speaking with Scott Robertson, a young English teacher.

Shakespeare, according to Welch, was flexible enough to understand human beings of every era, and he adjusted to the modern world much more easily.

When Welch finds him a book of literary criticism, Shakespeare cries in exasperation, "God ha' mercy!

He recalls a bald man with an unusual accent, and starts to doubt whether Welch's story was all alcoholic fantasy.