Saturday was Shakespeare's 447th birthday, and as part of the
Happy Birthday Shakespeare project, I'd like to share some pictures and thoughts from my recent visit to Stratford-upon-Avon.
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| Shakespeare's Birthplace |
First, a confession: As much as I loved
Chawton, Stratford-upon-Avon grabbed my heart and would not let go. I felt absolutely at home here, and I did not want to leave.
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| Shakespeare's Grave, Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Even in March, the city was full of tourists. (I ran into the same group of French students every place I went.) They all come to visit because they have been touched by the words of a man who died almost 400 years ago.
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| Anne Hathaway's Cottage, childhood home of Shakespeare's wife |
The authorship of those words, however, has been a subject of contention for the last 150-200 years. When I was at Anne Hathaway's Cottage, I overheard the guide explaining the
Shakespeare Authorship Controversy to another visitor.
There are several reasons some people doubt Shakespeare actually wrote Shakespeare. However, the most ludicrous to my mind is this: Shakespeare grew up in a small town in rural England and never traveled any farther than London. His life experiences wouldn't have given him the keen understanding of human nature we see in the works attributed to his name.
Let's put this argument in perspective. Many of Shakespeare's plays are histories. If we're to believe he couldn't have understood people well enough to write the complex relationships he did, then how would Francis Bacon, the Earls of Denby and Oxford, or Christopher Marlowe (all given as potential candidates) have been able to write about events in the past? They didn't experience them, so surely they couldn't have written about them.
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| King James Bible, first edition. Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Ridiculous, yes? Have these people never heard of books? Shakespeare lived in a time when books were becoming readily available to the masses. The obvious example in his lifetime was the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, but even before that the written word was a hot commodity among those who could read.
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| Guild Chapel, King Edward VI Grammar School, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Some go so far as to argue that Shakespeare was illiterate, but that stretches credulity a bit far. As the son of a well-to-do man, he would almost certainly have been educated at the local grammar school. There he would have received instruction in Latin and Greek, a vital tool since most works were still written in either language.
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| Carnegie Library, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Today, Stratford's public library is just two doors down from the Birthplace, as if it is impossible to separate a love and reverence for the Bard from a love of books. Shakespeare read classical myths and the plays and poems of his day, and in them he traveled to places he could only see in his mind. Today, people read his plays for the same reason. His words take us to Ancient Rome, to the battlefield of Agincourt, to fair Verona. With each reading, we learn more about people and history, about mythology and poetry.
This is why writers need to read. It is not so we understand how to use language, when to follow the rules and when to break them. Those are things we learn in the process of attaining a greater wisdom:
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
(Hamlet, Act I, Scene v, 166-167)
If you want to write like Shakespeare, if you want to live in a world that is wider than you can imagine, then you must read.
Intriguing post. Ann Radcliffe, interestingly enough, when writing her books had never been to Italy (where most of her novels take place) and all her descriptions are those she read about in books. See it does pay to read. :D
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly Kaydee! You and I have never been to Regency England, but we're writing Jane Austen sequels. Through books, we're able to experience the time and the people, and then we can share that with our readers.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I suddenly have the Reading Rainbow theme stuck in my head?
Great post, Nancy, and love the pictures! I had no idea there was any doubt/controversy about Shakespeare writing Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteIt comes as rather a shock to most people. Honestly, the majority of Shakespeare biographers and academics don't doubt Shakespeare's authorship. However, the debate does resurface from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI fully support the idea of reading books. There is, however, no evidence that William of Stratford ever owned a book, read a book or left a book to anyone in his will. There is also no evidence that he attended the local grammar school. Their requirement was that at least one parent be literate, but neither of William's parents, however, were literate.
ReplyDeleteIf you want an appraisal of the issues involved in the Authorship debate that does not favor a particular candidate, I would suggest you read "Shakespeare's Unauthorized Biography" by Diana Price.
For me, although the notion that the son of an illiterate glover could become the greatest writer in the English language, the evidence does not point in that direction.
Concluding that a man who had little or no education, whose children were illiterate, who never left any writing other than six unreadable signatures with his name spelled differently in each one, who spent much time and effort engaging in petty lawsuits, who could not read books in French, Italian, or Spanish yet used untranslated materials as his sources, who never left any books in his will, who left no letters, no correspondence, who did not elicit a single eulogy at his death is not credible.
Very cool photos and information about Stratford-upon-Avon! I can see why it's such a fascinating place to visit; thanks for a great post!
ReplyDeleteIs there any proof--actual written evidence--that anyone else wrote Shakespeare? I'm not aware of any. For me, that is actually the strongest proof that Shakespeare wrote the plays. For two centuries after his death, the authorship was not in doubt. There are no contemporary references against Shakespeare, and in fact there are several in favor of him.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Julia. This is only the tip of the iceberg; I could easily talk about Stratford all day.
ReplyDeleteNancy - all of the evidence is circumstantial. When contemporaries refer to William Shakespeare, they are referring to the name on the title page and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteThere is no proof, actual written evidence that either William of Stratford or Edward de Vere wrote the plays and poems. If there were manuscripts, letters, or any kind of correspondence to prove that William of Stratford was a writer, there would be no authorship controversy.
However, in my view, the weight of the evidence leans strongly towards Oxford. There is no other way to account for the detailed knowledge of the law, foreign languages, Italy, the court and aristocratic society, and sports such as falconry, tennis, jousting, fencing, and coursing that appears in the plays.
Most of the plays have an aristocratic bent and show the perspective of a court insider. Many books that were used as source material for the plays were not translated into English in Shakespeare’s time. The strongest evidence is the biographical connection between Oxford's life and the plays and sonnets.
The Sonnets are written by a man who is clearly much older than William of Stratford. Conventional chronology dates the sonnets to between 1592 and 1596. At this time, William of Stratford would have been in his late twenties and early thirties (Oxford was 14 years older). Even if we up the date to 1599, William of Stratford was still in his thirties.
The sonnets tell us that the poet was in his declining years when writing them. He was "Beated and chopped with tanned antiquity," "With Time's injurious hand crushed and o'er worn", in the "twilight of life". He is lamenting "all those friends" who have died, "my lovers gone". His is "That time of year/When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang/Upon those boughs that shake against the
cold."
The sonnets that most contradict Will of Stratford's life story are those about shame and disgrace to name and reputation. Here Shakespeare's biographers have nothing to go on. There was no reason to question the attribution until biographers began to look into his background and came up with a blank.
There are arguments to be made both for and against Shakespeare's authorship, and on both sides the majority of evidence is circumstantial. It's just as easy, I suppose to say there is no evidence that he didn't own a book as to say there is no evidence that he even owned a book.
ReplyDeleteAssuming he was illiterate (and separately, why would any author would go to such lengths to attribute their works to an illiterate actor, I don't know) Nancy' point is still valid. Whoever wrote Shakespeare read (or heard and acted) source material.
Meanwhile, the argument that because someone didn't experience something in their own lives the can't authentically write about it is ludicrous. Austen was an unmarried woman, she never HAD a Mr. Darcy and yet she wrote some of the best romances in the English language. For a modern (and more controversial example) my guess is that Stephanie Meyer has never met a real vampire OR werewolf. For that matter, I'm writing about fairies and magic spells, I've never experienced either. The era in which Shakespeare lived was focused intensely on rank. Nobility were the patrons of art and theater. I'm guessing actors, and playwrights, knew a heck of a lot more about the aristocracy and court than Howard seems to want to give credit for.
Jessica brings up another excellent point. Many authors throughout history have written under a pen name, or simply anonymously. Jane Austen published anonymously because writing wasn't something a lady did. I don't know of any author who has ever published under the name of a real person. We like our work to be attributed to us, even if it's just attributed to a name we made up that no one else knows is ours. There's a certain amount of creative ego involved, I guess.
ReplyDeleteNobles are another typically egotistical bunch. The best seats at the Globe were the ones at the very front, not because they had the best view of the stage (um, looking at the actors' backsides the whole time), but because it provided others with the best view of them.
To believe that a noble writer would allow a common actor to take credit for their work strains credulity a bit much. Human psychology is against it.
I am by no means an expert on anything, (especially Shakespeare), but I really like the last sentence that you wrote "If you want to write like Shakespeare, if you want to live in a world that is wider than you can imagine, then you must read." Last year I wrote a paper on the importance of reading and the benefits thereof. It is funny because I have found numerous things that I could have used in that paper. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and pictures. I have certainly enjoyed them.
ReplyDelete~Grace Owen
P.s. I look forward to finishing reading your book and passing it to my sisters, unless they get ahold of it first.