Shakespeare, William

views updated

William Shakespeare

April 23, 1564
Stratford-upon-Avon, England April 23, 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Playwright, poet

"What a piece of work is man!… The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"
Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2.

The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history. The crucial fact about his career is that he was a popular dramatist at a time when drama (a composition in verse or prose depicting conflicts through dialogue) was flourishing in England. Audiences drawn from a wide range of social classes were eager to reward his talents. Shakespeare's entire life was committed to the public theater, and he seems to have written nondramatic poetry only when enforced closings of the theater made writing plays impractical. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the portrayal of the emotional states that are essential to human life, such as falling in love, knowing the need for friendship and loyalty, going through midlife crisis, growing old, and facing the approach of death. Possessing an unusual talent with words, he addressed the weighty issues of human existence in words that continue to enchant audiences and readers. Shakespeare is today the most quoted author in the English language.

Few facts known about early life

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a market town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants, in Warwickshire, England. According to christening records at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, he was baptized on April 26, 1564. His date of birth is assumed to have been April 23. Historians know little about Shakespeare's early life. His father, John, was the son of Richard Shakespeare, a farmer in Snitterfield, a village four miles north of Stratford. When Richard died in 1561, he left a modest estate. William's mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of Richard's prosperous landlord, Robert Arden of Wilmcote, another nearby village. John therefore increased his fortunes by a good marriage. Some time before 1552, John and Mary moved to Stratford, where John became a prominent citizen. One of the several houses he owned, located on Henley Street in the village, is considered the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Out of relatively few remaining timbers, the house was reconstructed and now serves as a tourist center.

The house was both a home for the Shakespeare family and a place of business for John. He cured animal skins for making gloves and other leather goods, which he sold at his shop. He also dealt in wool, grain, malt, and other farm produce. A successful merchant, John held several civic offices. At various times he served as ale taster (inspector of bread and malt, a grain used in brewing ale), burgess (member of the town's governing body), affeerer (one who levies fines), city treasurer, alderman (member of the town legislature), and high bailiff (the equivalent of mayor). By 1578, however, John Shakespeare had begun to encounter the financial difficulties that were to plague him until his death in 1601. For instance, he had to mortgage his wife's property, and he was required to pay heavy fines. Although solid evidence is lacking, historians have speculated that he was in trouble because he remained a Roman Catholic at a time when Catholics were being persecuted in England.

William most likely learned to read and write either at home or in a "petty" (elementary) school. Around the age of seven he probably enrolled at King's New School in Stratford, where students were required to follow a set routine. Latin study began at 6:00 or 7:00 A. M. and continued until 5:00 P. M. , with short breaks for eating and recreation. Strict discipline was maintained, often with corporal, or physical, punishment. In this school William would have read ancient Latin works by such authors as Ovid, Virgil, Plautus, and Terrance. He never attended a university. Instead, in November 1582, at age eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway (c. 1556–1623), a Stratford woman who was eight years older than he. They had a daughter, Susanna, six months later. They were evidently required to obtain a special license allowing them to marry after only one reading of banns, or official announcements in church of an upcoming wedding. Banns were usually read three times, so that any interested party could raise objections. In this case there was only one reading because Anne was pregnant and needed to marry as soon as possible. In addition, banns could not be read during the Advent season (the period beginning four Sundays prior to Christmas). Therefore the family and friends of the bride-to-be were required to sign a bond, or promise of payment, of up to forty pounds (an amount of British money) in case it was needed to reimburse a bishop (church official) who allowed the marriage to take place. William and Anne may not have been happy together, but they did have two other children, twins named Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

Possibly, Shakespeare's early and hasty marriage cut off any plans he may have had for a university education. His father's financial difficulties also meant that no money was available for further education. Whatever the case—and historians have no evidence that he planned to attend one of the universities in England—Shakespeare had to rely on his own resources to support a family. There are few records for the years of his late teens and early twenties. In the late 1700s scholars speculated that he became a schoolmaster for a time. Another suggestion is that he served an apprenticeship (training period) in Stratford in his father's trade. These would have been likely choices for a person of Shakespeare's background, but there is no reliable proof of his having pursued either course. It is certain, however, that by 1592 he was in London, evidently without his family, and he had quickly gained a reputation as a playwright and actor.

Charged with plagiarism

In 1592 Robert Greene (c. 1558–1592), a dramatist and writer, singled out Shakespeare for a remarkable attack. Greene wrote Greene's Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance (1592), in which he warned fellow dramatists Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), Thomas Nash (1567–1601), and George Peele (1556–1596) to beware of the ingratitude of a fickle public. He lashed out at a certain unnamed new play-wright—easily identifiable as Shakespeare—whose plays were becoming more popular than those of established London playwrights. The reference to "Shake-scene" is a clue that the "upstart crow" was Shakespeare, whom Greene accused of gaining public favor by plagiarizing, or copying, works of the successful dramatists of the time—that is, beautifying himself with their feathers. Scholars note that Greene's attack was clearly the envious reaction of an older playwright dismayed at the appearance of a bright new star in the London theater world. By this time Shakespeare had written a few plays, and it is known that his historical play, Henry VI, had been a great hit, possibly as early as 1589. In fact, one line in Henry VI is "O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide," which Greene repeated nearly verbatim, and another clue that he was targeting Shakespeare.

The incident over the charge of plagiarism not only confirms that Shakespeare was active in the London theatrical scene in 1592, but it also gives a character sketch of him. Greene's attack brought an apology from Henry Chettle (c. 1560–1607), a dramatist who had assisted in the printing of Greene's Groatsworth of Wit. Chettle published Kind Heart's Dream (1592), in which he insisted he had had no part in the matter. He went on to say that so fine a person as Shakespeare should not have been singled out for criticism. Chettle described Shakespeare as being courteous and an excellent playwright and actor. Furthermore, Shakespeare is judged to be upright by persons of social dignity and morality. A special talent is the great facility and swiftness with which he composed his works. All this, in Chettle's view, shows Shakespeare's honesty and his superior skills as a dramatist.

Shakespeare's earliest literary efforts were two nondramatic poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and Rape of Lucrece (1594). They were published with dedications to Anthony Bacon, earl of Southampton, who may have been Shakespeare's patron, or financial supporter. Quite possibly Shakespeare wanted to be a nondramatic poet like Edmund Spenser(c. 1552–1599; see accompanying box). For instance, writing poetry was more prestigious than playwriting. Also, he evidently cared enough about his early poems to personally tend to their publication, whereas he never bothered to have his plays printed.

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599) ranks as the foremost English poet of the sixteenth century. His best-known work was the unfinished epic poem The Faerie Queene. (An epic poem is one that portrays events over a long period of time.) Along with William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, he is considered one of the great figures of the English Renaissance. Spenser was working as a government official when he began writing poetry. He made his literary debut with The Shepherd's Calendar in 1579. In this work he adopted a variety of poetic forms—dirges, complaints, paeans—and attempted to enrich the English poetic vocabulary with foreign terms and archaic, or outdated, and dialect (distinctive to a region) words. The following year he was named secretary to Arthur Grey de Wilton (1536–1593), the new lord deputy of Ireland. Spenser moved to Ireland, where he remained for the rest of his life, except for brief trips to England.

In 1589 Spenser published the first three books of The Faerie Queene, with an elaborate dedication to Elizabeth I (1533–1603), queen of England. Spenser's plan was to compose twelve books, each concerned with one of the twelve moral virtues as classified by ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 b.c.). In turn, each of these virtues was to be embodied in a knight. Spenser's style is distinctively his own in The Faerie Queene. For his verse form he created the Spenserian stanza, which has since often been imitated in English literature. Composed of nine lines, the Spenserian stanza contains eight lines of iambic pentameter (five metrical feet, or units of one syllable followed by one long syllable) and concludes with a line of iambic hexameter (six metrical feet, or units of one short syllable followed by one long syllable) called the Alexandrine. The Faerie Queene met with much acclaim.

In 1594 Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle. His sonnet series "Amoretti" and the love poem "Epithalamion" give a poetic account of his courtship and marriage. "Epithalamion" is regarded as one of the greatest love poems in English. Spenser published three more books of The Faerie Queene in 1595. Two cantos, or parts, of a seventh book were published in 1609, but most of what he wrote in the years before his death has been lost. Spenser died in London in 1598. He was buried near other poets in Westminster Abbey.

Did he actually write the plays?

Since the nineteenth century, literary scholars have debated whether Shakespeare actually wrote the plays and poems attributed to him. Many note that he was a commoner without a university education, and he left no manuscripts or correspondence. Moreover, they argue, William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon may have been barely literate. The few signatures in his own handwriting—including the one on his last will and testament—are shaky, and his name is spelled in various ways. Therefore, could a country boy from Stratford, educated (if at all) only through what we would now call high school, have produced such brilliant studies of kings and aristocrats?

Many candidates have been put forward as the author of the plays. Those who present the case against Shakespeare are the anti-Stratfordians. They are given this title because they acknowledged that Shakespeare of Stratford did exist as an actor but they deny that he was a writer. The first candidate-of-choice of the anti-Stratfordians is the scientific theorist Francis Bacon (1561–1626; see entry). Others include Anthony Bacon, earl of Southampton; Charles Blout (c. 1562–1606), earl of Devonshire; Christopher Marlowe; and, most recently, Edward de Vere (1560–1604), seventeenth earl of Oxford. This last person has been a favorite candidate because he did in fact write verse, and he served for many years as a courtier, or member of court, under the queen of England, Elizabeth I. Oxford was also involved in various controversies that sound at times like plots from some of Shakespeare's plays. In addition, Oxford was the son-in-law of William Cecil (1520–1598), Lord Burghley, whom critics and scholars regard as a model for the character of Polonius in Shakespeare's famous tragedy Hamlet. Like Polonius, Burghley was a cautious, overly quarrelsome, and pompous statesman, or politician. A major problem with Oxford's being the true author, however, is that he died in 1604, before the dates that most scholars give to the chief plays of Shakespeare's later career.

One theory is that Oxford or one of the other candidates may have written the plays and then allowed Shakespeare to take credit for them. But why would these writers wish to see their great plays ascribed to an ordinary actor? The answer from the anti-Stratfordian side is that playwriting brought very little glory, much like script writing for the film industry or television today. It may have been profitable, but it was beneath the dignity of the English ruling class. Aristocrats and gentry of the time did indeed scorn commercial publication of the verses they turned out only as a pastime. Therefore, the argument goes, Oxford could have written the plays and then used Shakespeare as a "front man" in order to avoid the embarrassment of being associated with the theater world. One version of this view is that Oxford wanted to remain anonymous during his lifetime and then be revealed as the true author of the great plays centuries after his death. The problem with this argument is that a number of people would have had to participate secretly in such a complex endeavor—not only Oxford and Shakespeare himself but also others such as his fellow actors and Ben Jonson, who knew Shakespeare all his adult life.

Those who argue that Shakespeare was the true author raise several points in his defense. First, they say, it is necessary to consider whether university training and experience at court would have been necessary to enable him to write the plays and poems. They note that although English university education in the sixteenth century was directed mainly at preparing young men for the ministry, some professional writers of the Renaissance period did go to a university. (The Renaissance was a cultural revolution that began in Italy in the mid-1300s. It was initiated by scholars called humanists who promoted the human-centered values of ancient Greece and Rome. Humanist ideals were soon influencing the arts, literature, philosophy, science, religion, and politics in Italy. During the early fifteenth century, innovations of the Italian Renaissance began spreading into the rest of Europe and reached a peak in the sixteenth century.) Among them were Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and Ben Jonson. Others like Thomas Dekker (1572–1632), George Chapman (1559–1634), Anthony Mundy (c. 1560–1633), and William Shakespeare seemingly did not. It is also important to consider that drama was flourishing in England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Many professional writers were needed to turn out a continuous stream of high-quality plays that satisfied the tastes of audiences. The plays therefore had to be well crafted and profitable. Unlike Oxford and other noblemen, professional writers such as Shakespeare had a need for financial success, both to express themselves and to make a living. Thus, Shakespeare's supporters argue, this fact should exclude anyone from the noble class as being the true author, since aristocrats would not have devoted their lives to writing for commercial gain.

Joins Lord Chamberlain's Men

Shakespeare arrived in London at a crucial time, when new forms of drama were emerging in England. As the dominant city in the country, London was the center of this new and flourishing drama. In 1576 James Burbage (1531–1597), a former furniture maker, had built a theater at Shoreditch, northeast of the city. It was called the Theatre, perhaps because there were no others. There was plenty of dramatic activity at inn yards, churches, and mansions, but not in permanent theater buildings. Burbage and his colleagues built their theater outside the city to be free of authorities, who tended to be suspicious of theater activity as subversive (anti-government), ungodly, and unhealthy. Richard Burbage (c. 1567–1619), James's son, became Shakespeare's lifelong friend and the leading actor in his major tragedies, such as Richard III, Hamlet, and Othello. Some of Shakespeare's early plays may have been performed at the Theatre, though it is not known what acting company or companies he may have joined before 1594. That year his name appeared on a list of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company that performed chiefly at the Theatre in Shoreditch.

The Theatre appears to have been octagonal (eight-sided) or otherwise many-sided in design, with a seating capacity for perhaps three thousand spectators. More prosperous audience members sat in wooden galleries, while the less well-to-do stood in the "yard" in front of a large rectangular stage. The stage measured about 43 by 27 feet (13 by 8 meters). This platform stood 5 feet (1.5 meters) or so above the floor of the yard. Backstage was a "tiring house" where the actors attired themselves and made their entrances and exits through two or three doors. A gallery above the doors in the tiring house wall may have accommodated well-to-do spectators at times but could also be used for acting scenes. The main stage had a least one trap door in it, and probably supported two pillars that held up a roof partly covering the stage. The roof could also represent "heavens" from which descents and ascents were made by means of machinery, such as ropes and pulleys. The Theatre was dismantled in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men after a dispute with the landlord. It was then reassembled on the south side of the Thames River as the famous Globe Theater. The Globe was recreated in the late twentieth century on a location near the original site.

Achieves innovations in drama

Shakespeare began his professional life in a theater such as that just described. His first known play was probably The Comedy of Errors (1590), a comedy (play based on humor) with a complex plot involving two sets of identical twins. This was followed by a romantic comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591), that tells stories of a faithful girl who educates her fickle lover, a girl dressed as a boy, and happy marriages at the end. Love's Labour's Lost (1593), another romantic comedy, deals with the attempt of three young men to withdraw from the world and women for three years to study in their king's "little Academe." The men quickly abandon their plans, however, when a group of young ladies comes to lodge nearby. His first chronicle plays were Henry VI (1592) and Richard III (1594). These dramas dealt with the tumultuous events of English history between the death of King Henry V in 1422 and the accession of Henry VII in 1485. At the time they marked the most ambitious attempt in English theater to present epic drama (a play that portrays events over a long period of time). Shakespeare's first tragedy, Titus Andronicus (1593), reveals similar ambition. Though the modern reader or viewer may think the play is simply a chamber of horrors—the plot is full of mutilations and murders—Shakespeare succeeded in outdoing other English playwrights in the lurid tradition of the revenge play (drama in which the main character seeks revenge on someone who has wronged him). For twenty more years he continued to master and perfect all of these forms—comedy, history, and tragedy—as one of the most productive and brilliant playwrights in history.

Perfects the sonnet

During much of 1593 and 1594 English theaters were closed down because of the plague, a widespread outbreak of disease. Shakespeare therefore turned to writing nondramatic poetry to make a living. Again he excelled in his chosen craft by producing Venus and Adonis and the tragic Rape of Lucrece. Both poems carry the sophisticated techniques of Elizabethan narrative verse to their highest point, drawing on Renaissance mythological and symbolic traditions. Shakespeare's most famous poems were his 154 sonnets (published in 1609). They are considered the supreme English examples of the sonnet form, which was introduced by the Italian poet Petrarch (1304–1374; see entry) at the beginning of the Renaissance and was now in vogue throughout Europe. Shakespeare used the fourteen-line sonnet, with its fixed rhyme scheme, to express emotions and ideas ranging from the frivolous to the tragic. The sonnets are dedicated to "Mr. W. H.," whose identity remains a mystery. Scholars also cannot determine whether there was a real-life "dark lady" or an unfaithful friend, who are the subjects of a number of the poems.

After the theaters reopened in 1594, Shakespeare returned to writing plays because he had been writing poetry only to make money. He became the principal writer for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. In addition to performing as a regular actor, he was a "sharer," or partner, in the group of artist-managers who ran the entire operation. For the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare produced a steady outpouring of plays. Among them were the comedies The Taming of the Shrew (1594), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), The Merchant of Venice (1596), Much Ado about Nothing (1598), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599). In the year 1600 alone he wrote As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. Shakespeare's only tragedies of the period are among his most familiar plays: Romeo and Juliet (1596), Julius Caesar (1599), and Hamlet (1601). Continuing his interest in the chronicle, Shakespeare wrote King John (1596), Richard II (1595), the two-part Henry IV (1597), and Henry V (1599). At the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign he wrote works that are often called his "problem plays." For example, All's Well That Ends Well (1602) is a romantic comedy that presents sexual relations between men and women in a harsh light. The tragicomic (a combination of tragedy and comedy) Measure for Measure (1604) suggests that modern urban hopelessness was settling on London.

Writes great tragedies

When King James I (1566–1625; ruled 1603–25) took the throne of England in 1603, he became the patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The name of the company was then changed to the King's Men. During the next five years Shakespeare wrote fewer but perhaps even finer plays: Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1606), Antony and Cleopatra (1607–08), and Coriolanus (1607–08). Each in its own way is a drama of alienation (being withdrawn from or outside society), which continues to be relevant to the lives of people in the twenty-first century. These tragedies present an astonishing series of worlds different from one another, in language that exceeds anything Shakespeare had done before. He also created some of his most complex and vivid characters and used a variety of new structural techniques.

A final group of plays took a turn in a new direction. Commonly called the "romances," Pericles (1607), Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale (1611), and The Tempest (1611) were tragicomedies, which had been growing popular since the early years of the century. Shakespeare turned this fashionable mode into high art. The Winter's Tale is considered one of his best plays, while The Tempest is the most popular. After completing The Tempest, Shakespeare retired to Stratford. In 1613 he returned to London to compose Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. He died in 1616, at age fifty-two. Shakespeare's work has continued to seem to each generation like its own most precious discovery. His value to his own age is suggested by the fact that, in 1623, two fellow actors gathered his plays together and published them in a form known as the Folio edition. Without their efforts, since Shakespeare was not interested in publication, many of the plays would not have survived.