Category William Shakespeare

     Harold Bloom, one of the most celebrated Shakespeare scholars, thinks that the Bard of Avon invented the ‘modern man’. Shakespeare’s canvas was so wide that there was scarcely any kind of human being that does not appear in his plays. No character, not even the one that appears and disappears for a single scene, is a lifeless flat character in them. He has explored the human mind so thoroughly that the entire work of the writer is an extensive examination of diverse human emotions in their varied hues and tones. And we have internalized Shakespeare and his characters so much that all events of our lives are mirror images of Shakespearean lives.

      Shakespeare’s plays have been classified in many ways. The traditional classification falls into four categories: the comedies, the histories, the tragedies and the romances.

     Today, a comedy means an entertaining laugh-riot movie. However, the word ‘comedy’ had a very different meaning in the Elizabethan times. A comedy was a light-hearted, happy-ending play in which young men and women marry each other promising a successful life thereafter.

     A Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labours Lost, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, Pericles, All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are some of Shakespeare’s comedies.

     In Shakespeare’s tragedies, the heroes undergo certain difficult situations, all the while suffering from internal conflicts. They all have a ‘tragic flaw’ that ultimately leads them to their own destruction. Othello, who was intensely in love with his wife Desdemona, was jealous of her because of the lies told to him by his enemy lago. His jealousy led him to kill his dear wife and commit suicide. Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens are Shakespeare’s tragedies.

     There are ten history plays by Shakespeare. They are Henry VI, parts one, two and three, Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV, Parts one and two, Henry V, King John and Henry VIII. Shakespeare’s history plays centre around actual events and monarchs from Britain’s history. The Gain and loss of power and the divine rights of kings are the main themes of these plays.

    The fourth category is a recent addition. The romances were previously grouped with comedies. However, today, these plays are considered more mature plays of Shakespeare as he wrote them all after the success of his tragedies. They have characters of comedies and tragedies. He mixes them with mystical and fantastic elements in them. His romances are Pericles: Prince of Tyre, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Some scholars believe that Shakespeare wrote more plays, while these plays are not part of the Shakespearean canon currently. They are called Shakespeare’s Apocrypha. The names of the 12 apocryphal plays of Shakespeare are Locrine, The London Prodigal, The Puritan, Thomas: Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, Arden of Feversham, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The Birth of Merlin, Edward III, Fair Em, Mucedorus and The Merry Devil of Edmonton.

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The question might seem absurd, but many scholars believed, and some still hold, that Shakespeare was either not real or too incompetent to have written so many great works of literature.

            The conspiracy theories took birth almost two centuries ago. One of their chief arguments is that the plays contain too much knowledge of foreign and distant places and too much familiarity with court life and the affairs of court to have been written by someone who had minimum educational qualifications and who was so low down in the social ladder. They also say that the plays of Shakespeare have too wide a range of style that makes it impossible for someone without advanced education to write them.

According to these theories, Shakespeare had no education in the classics, or the Latin language. There is no evidence of his handwriting in a letter or other documents. The six signatures that are available today are nothing more than the scrawl of an illiterate man.

Moreover, nowhere is Shakespeare mentioned as a writer. Instead, he is described as a businessman and property owner. To top it all, his will says nothing about his writings, and is phrased in ordinary uninspiring language.

So, who wrote in Shakespeare’s name? There are many names. The most prominent figure among them is Francis Bacon, the essayist and scientist. There are others such as Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe, William Stanley, the 6th Earl of Derby, and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. There is another conspiracy theory too, that Shakespeare’s works were written by a group of collaborators led by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh.

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     Although we have no conclusive evidence, scholars think that Shakespeare had a very brief illness that led to his sudden and unexpected death. The great writer had retired to his old town Stratford some years prior to his demise. Shakespeare was still working in 1606; however, the spreading of the bubonic plague had caused long spells of closure of theatres. This meant that work was scarce. However, the bard was reportedly visiting London until 1612. He wrote fewer plays after 1610 and after 1613, no plays are attributed to his name. Shakespeare probably knew he was inching towards death. In his final play, The Tempest, he gives away hints about his signing off from the stage and the world. The great artist passed away on 23th April 1616 at the age of 52.

       How did Shakespeare die? His will, which had been written just two months prior to his death, said that he was in perfect health. John Ward, who was the Vicar of Stratford from 1662 to 1681, wrote in his diary some anecdotes that shed light into Shakespeare’s life.

       In one of his diary entries he noted that Michael Drayton, a poet, and Ben Jonson had visited Shakespeare once and they had a merry meeting. Shakespeare drank too hard. Subsequently, he died of a fever that lasted a few days.

      For the literary titan that he was, the inscription on Shakespeare’s tomb was not very inspiring. In fact, a curse was left on his tombstone as the epitaph. It read, “Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare To dig the dust enclosed here.

     Blessed be the man that spares these stones And cursed be he that moves my bones”.

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Shakespeare was no ordinary mortal. His tales and poems have travelled to the ends of the world and his name is familiar even to toddlers. What would such a great soul have written in his will, the document that he wrote to his near and dear ones as he was nearing death? Does the man, who wrote about kings, battles, courts, courtships, jealousy, pride, avarice, wealth and romance, say anything about his greatest assets, his plays and poems? Has he left any message to the world though his will?

For all those who love literature and especially Shakespeare’s works, his will is a huge disappointment. The document is nothing more than any other ordinary will written in the most boring legal language. No exquisite witticisms, no extravagance of expressions and no inspiring epigrams!

All that is said is about money and some of his immovable assets and whom he bequeaths it all. In fact, the will was made immediately after his daughter Judith’s marriage.

However, with the help of his lawyer, he kept altering his will until he was fully satisfied with it before his death. Shakespeare was concerned about his daughters. He was disturbed by the plight of his second daughter Judith, whose husband Thomas Quiney was an immoral man. Shakespeare did not like him and did not want his wealth to go to Quiney. However, his first son-in-law, John Hall was dear to him. Shakespeare’s wealth was divided among his wife, daughters and his colleagues.

Shakespeare’s will have been closely scrutinized by scholars to determine his personal opinions and beliefs. It also sheds light on his religious beliefs, moral values, attitude towards his two daughters and relationship with his colleagues.

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     Shakespeare is a colossal figure when it comes to his contributions to literature. As is expected from any writer of such magnitude, Shakespeare’s contribution to language is huge. Many words that we use today have been in some way or other were modified or used with a distinct meaning by Shakespeare. He has invented over 1700 words that we commonly use. Shakespeare achieved this by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting word never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes and devising words wholly original. Several phrases that are still very much a part of our language and conversation such as ‘full circle’, ‘a sorry sight’, ‘strange bedfellow’ and ‘seen better days’ are coined by Shakespeare.

     Shakespeare turned the word ‘gloomy’, which was formerly used as a verb, into an adjective. The word is found in his play Titus Andronicus. In Merchant of Venice, he used the word ‘laughable’ for the first time. It was Shakespeare, who used the word ‘majestic’ for the first time in his play They Tempest. During the 15th century, the word ‘alone’ was shortened to ‘lone’ in common parlance. Shakespeare created the word ‘lonely’ from this word and used it in his Coriolanus. Shakespeare introduced the word ‘radiance’, in King Lear. The word was not in use formerly in English language as he modified the Latin word ‘radiantem’, meaning ‘beaming’. There are many others such as ‘hurry’ in Henry VI Part I, and ‘generous’ in Hamlet. ‘Critical’ was first used in Othello. Shakespeare created the word ‘courtship’ and used it in The Merchant of Venice. In his comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare used the word ‘undress’ for the first time.

    Considering the fact that English as a language was only evolving into its modern form, much scope existed for the kind of innovations Shakespeare made. Words were not sufficiently available for the bard in his creative ventures. Therefore, he had to invent!

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     Have you read Shakespeare’s plays or poems in its original language? It is highly likely that we understand hardly half of what is written. Some words and sentences do not have any resemblance to the modern English we are familiar with today. We may even wonder if Shakespeare wrote in the English language or some other tongue!

     It is indeed true that Shakespeare wrote in the English language. However, as all languages undergo evolution as time passes, the English language too has gone through considerable changes to become what it is today.

     The origins of English can be traced back to the beginning of the second millennium. To understand the evolution of English easily, the periods have been divided as Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Old English was spoken and written in Britain from the 5th century to the middle of the 11th century and is really closer to the Germanic mother tongue of the Anglo-Saxons.

     With the arrival of the French-speaking Normans in 1066, Old English underwent dramatic changes and by 1350, it had evolved into Middle English.

     By about 1450, Middle English was replaced with Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare, which is almost identical to contemporary English. Shakespeare’s works were written in Early Modern English.

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