SNICKERSNEE
First, We Kill All The Scholars
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has thrown his weight behind the Shakespeare doubters, claiming the plays were written by the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, adding yet another candidate to the lengthy ballot of candidates. Cast your vote now for the winner.
Conspiracy theories go back a long way before 9/11. Pseudo-scholars never seem to tire of beating the "who wrote Shakespeare's plays?" dead horse in order to get attention for their feeble treatise or book. There's a whole Shakespeare industry out there churning stuff out with assembly-line regularity. My favorite comment was that of Mark Twain, who said that the Shakespeare plays were written by a different person with the same name.
It is hard for many of us brought up in an age of diaries, confessions and electronic communications to believe that the greatest writer that ever lived left us nothing but a few town clerk documents on debts and property. But no one else of Shakespeare's time left us anything either.Shakespeare was an actor and later a playwright. Later he was a prosperous property owner. Being a playwright in those days was a profession like any other. He hung out with the theater crowd, like any actor today does; after the show you go out for a beer and a bite with the gang. You meet in pubs and have arguments, make jokes, and have a good time.
Why would you write down any of these conversations...especially when it would take days for a letter to get anywhere? Who would care what you wrote, when you had already given your opinion in person at the pub? What would you write about that you didn't already talk about with the guys? Why would we imagine that Shakespeare said to himself: I am the greatest writer that ever lived and I want to make sure posterity has a complete accurate record of every idea and opinion that ever entered my head. Actually, it is truly regrettable that he didn't do so, because now we are stuck with trunkfuls of speculations by scribblers hoping to cash in on the Shakespeare Conspiracy Industry. Shakepeare was a playwright, not a philosopher.
I read Peter Ackroyd's biography of Shakespeare and apparently those smarmy critics who think Shakespeare was an ignorant peasant boy never read this book. It opens with a fascinating and detailed history of Stratford, its nearby farms and villages and then recounts how the residents earned their living, the clash of Catholicism with Protestantism, Shakespeare's parents and grandparents, and, not least, how the local schools educated their children. Shakespeare's father was a glover, a burgess and mayor at one time, a prosperous businessman and often a money lender. His mother came from well to do yeoman's background.
When he wasn't in school, Shakespeare devoured the Bible and numerous books, says Ackroyd. In his plays there are references to and influences from Malory's Morte d'Arthur (mentioned in Falstaff); old English romances of Sir Degore and Sig Eglamour and Bevis of Southampton; The Book of Riddels; The Hundred Merry Tales. Biographers agreed that he owned a copy of William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure and Richard Robinson's translation of Gesta Romanorum, legends which he borrowed for some of his plots.
After lower school he advanced to the King's New School, as the son of an alderman. To be admitted to this school he had to demonstrate fluency in reading and writing English and show he was "fit" to study Latin and ready to learn Grammar. Latin was the basis of the curriculum, both grammar and rhetoric, via reading, writing and memorization. After a few months he studied William Lilly's Introduction of Grammar, with examples from Cato, Cicero and Terence, after which the pupils were expected to imitate these masters by writing simple Latin sentences. Many English phrases in his plays can be traced directly back to Latin phrases in his textbooks. Imagine this curriculum being offered in today's high schools....
Later he read selections from Plautus and Terence, moving on in following years to Aesop in Latin, which he apparently memorized. By this time he could translate easily from English into Latin and vice versa. Many of his plots were taken from Latin poets and his works contain words from Virgil and Horace. He began to read Ovid's Metamorphoses from where he absorbed myths. Later he also studied Sallust, Caesar, Seneca and Juvenal (from which Hamlet reads).
In 1569 theatre came to Stratford as it came to towns all over England in the form of travelling troupes; when Shakespeare was five he saw theQueen's Men and the Earl of Worcester's Men. Imagine again theater troupes travelling all over the United States to present the latest dramas.... Over the next few years ten more troupes came to Stratford; in one year alone Stratford had five companies, including the Earl of Warwick's Men, the Earl of Oxford's Men, the Earl of Essex's Men and other travelling players. And Shakespeare's father likely took his son to Coventry to see the famous cycle of mystery plays; Shakespeare mentions King Herod, the villain of these plays, five times
It is quite evident that Shakespeare and the students of his day absorbed an intense and thorough classical education, undoubtedly far better than most students today get in high school or maybe even college .....no gender or cultural studies!..but rigorous immersion in the Latin classics and language. Add on to this the exciting exposure to theatre presented by travelling players, and the nonsense about Shakespeare being an ignorant country boy carries no weight whatsoever.
I read Peter Ackroyd's biography of Shakespeare and apparently those smarmy critics who think Shakespeare was an ignorant peasant boy never read this book. It opens with a fascinating and detailed history of Stratford, its nearby farms and villages and then recounts how the residents earned their living, the clash of Catholicism with Protestantism, Shakespeare's parents and grandparents, and, not least, how the local schools educated their children. Shakespeare's father was a glover, a burgess and mayor at one time, a prosperous businessman and often a money lender. His mother came from well to do yeoman's background.
When he wasn't in school, Shakespeare devoured the Bible and numerous books, says Ackroyd. In his plays there are references to and influences from Malory's Morte d'Arthur (mentioned in Falstaff); old English romances of Sir Degore and Sig Eglamour and Bevis of Southampton; The Book of Riddels; The Hundred Merry Tales. Biographers agreed that he owned a copy of William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure and Richard Robinson's translation of Gesta Romanorum, legends which he borrowed for some of his plots.
After lower school he advanced to the King's New School, as the son of an alderman. To be admitted to this school he had to demonstrate fluency in reading and writing English and show he was "fit" to study Latin and ready to learn Grammar. Latin was the basis of the curriculum, both grammar and rhetoric, via reading, writing and memorization. After a few months he studied William Lilly's Introduction of Grammar, with examples from Cato, Cicero and Terence, after which the pupils were expected to imitate these masters by writing simple Latin sentences. Many English phrases in his plays can be traced directly back to Latin phrases in his textbooks. Imagine this curriculum being offered in today's high schools....
Later he read selections from Plautus and Terence, moving on in following years to Aesop in Latin, which he apparently memorized. By this time he could translate easily from English into Latin and vice versa. Many of his plots were taken from Latin poets and his works contain words from Virgil and Horace. He began to read Ovid's Metamorphoses from where he absorbed myths. Later he also studied Sallust, Caesar, Seneca and Juvenal (from which Hamlet reads).
In 1569 theatre came to Stratford as it came to towns all over England in the form of travelling troupes; when Shakespeare was five he saw theQueen's Men and the Earl of Worcester's Men. Imagine again theater troupes travelling all over the United States to present the latest dramas.... Over the next few years ten more troupes came to Stratford; in one year alone Stratford had five companies, including the Earl of Warwick's Men, the Earl of Oxford's Men, the Earl of Essex's Men and other travelling players. And Shakespeare's father likely took his son to Coventry to see the famous cycle of mystery plays; Shakespeare mentions King Herod, the villain of these plays, five times
It is quite evident that Shakespeare and the students of his day absorbed an intense and thorough classical education, undoubtedly far better than most students today get in high school or maybe even college .....no gender or cultural studies!..but rigorous immersion in the Latin classics and language. Add on to this the exciting exposure to theatre presented by travelling players, and the nonsense about Shakespeare being an ignorant country boy carries no weight whatsoever.
Lorna Salzman