Today is Will Shakespeare Day. A true genius of words, and the human condition, it is the second attribute that makes him worth reading. Having a literary knack is one thing; being able to use it to explore the inner life and outer actions of humanity is another. This gigantic ability of his, made/makes Shakespeare immortal.
Immortality makes one a god.
What has this genius done for us? We can quote him, today, because he managed to fit the context of every era into his work. That makes him a philosopher as well as a poet, playwright and actor. Ayn Rand said that every writer is a philosopher.
I agree.
Shakespeare lived 52 years. That is correct. No telling what he would have written if he had lived within today’s average life span. Never mind that speculation. He churned out 36 plays, and more, and several sonnets, from approximately 1588, to his death in 1616.
Did I mention he was also an actor? I won’t hold that against him.
Today is the day of his death, 398 years ago.
There is a school of thought that suggests Shakespeare didn’t write his own material. As the son of a glove maker, which made him of the merchant class, the overall question goes, how could such a young man know so much about politics, history and Italians?
Good question. I’ll give you my answer.
Firstly, he wasn’t your average middle class guy when it comes to our context. He would be a very smart kid in any era. He attended the grammar school set up for the merchant’s children in Stratford. School was for boys, and boys were taught basic stuff, like math (these are merchant children, math is important), grammar, (it was called grammar school for a reason), and stuff no longer taught in our schools until university; Latin and classical Greek. He would also learn history, especially his own country’s past. Which would include the time the Romans set foot in England, and stayed for 400 years. Ergo, young Will would know Latin, which means he could read the literature of old, plus have a handle on Italian. With that classical educational background, when he was ready to write, he had plenty of resources for a good beginning.
Secondly, actors like words. Words are their tools. Like a carpenter loves his saw, it is what he does with it that matters. Actors are the same. Some words are meant to be savored, because they provide nuance, insight, into the character the actor assumes.
Writers build the tools that actors use. That makes writers gaga over words. With words, they will create a world for the actor to inhabit. Using that tool, and with guidance from a director, or, if you will, the carpenter, the actors will draw the audience into the world they are presenting. Being that Shakespeare wore both hats, writer and actor, he had a special insight into what he was doing up on that stage.
Like all writers, Shakespeare would keep up a steady amount of reading. However, reading helps the actor as well. An actor cannot convey every situation unless he as done a bit of reading. (Only male actors were allowed to act in Shakespeare’s day.) Actors portraying the female roles probably mimicked more than acted. True, like all theaters everywhere, there were a fair amount of gay men in the troop of actors. Historically, theatre people have always been liberal in their attitudes about life. But not their politics.
To say that Shakespeare did not write his works is like saying Einstein didn’t write his theories.
Many of the stories Shakespeare used came from other sources. He would take a narrative poem, like the one about Romeo and Juliet, and make the story immortal, because of the depth he would bring to it.
Shakespeare has certainly been a favorite with me. In university, I acted in Julius Caesar, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. When I was a theatre professional, I acted in Midsummer’s again. Well, it is such a lovely play. In 1994, I read several of his works in order to write my text book on Early Modern English, Trippingly on the Tongue. This was followed by, Words of Course, which meant more reading, more study. Before the decade was finished, I had produced a third book, along with an audio recording, titled Speaking the Speeche. This was a full language course in Early Modern English.
And how do I continue to honor the Bard? I teach leadership recognition and habits from his play, Romeo and Juliet. I bet you thought it was a love story. It is so much more! I also use other time tested literature to point out leadership skills, like folk tales and mythology. This new learning experience is a book, titled, Leadership in Literature. It will be published on January 1, 2025.
To honor Master Shakespeare, why not go read Hamlet! And, speak the speech…trippingly on the tongue.