Othello was first presented at Whitehall Palace.
Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatists, certainly in the
English language.
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Exactly how much of the plays he wrote
is always going to be open to question...
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This is based on the 38 plays which bear his name. Exactly how much of the
plays he wrote is always going to be open to question for some.
A good deal of Shakespeare life is rather clouded by history.
early
years
It seems likely he was born in 1564, the third of eight children and eldest
son, he was baptized in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Probably educated at the local grammar school.
In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, she was 26 and he 18. Six months later in
1583 they had a daughter (Susanna) and the following year, twins, one boy and
one girl (Hamnet and Judith). Unfortunately Hamnet did not survive.
It seemed Shakespeare lived in London from about 1588 and by 1592 had become
a successful playwright and actor. Even less is known about this period of his
life than the rest of it, 1585 -1592 are considered the 'Lost years'.
London
Most likely he was learning his craft, by 1594 he had written at least 6 plays
which had been produced.
Although his plays were popular at the time they were certainly not considered
the intellectual fodder they are today.
The educated of the time considered plays to be but entertainment for the vulgar
masses.
Not withstanding this he was successful due in part to the profit sharing arrangements
he had with his acting company The Chamberlain's Men.
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| Players, Shakespearean
Series [1917] |
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Later called The King's Men at the license of King James in exchange for regular
court performances.
Also his plays were presented at Royal court more than any other contemporary
playwright.
Shakespeare and six other men bought The Globe in 1599, one of the biggest
theatres in England at the time which again was a profitable enterprise.
It would seem from about 1608 Shakespeare retreated from the role of playwright
and spent an increasing amount of time at Stratford in his large house called
New Place with his family, enjoying the wealth he had accumulated.
There of course he was a celebrity, although in some accounts it seems his
death hardly warranted a mention, his will made no mention of his plays and
there is no evidence he owned a book (it seems he owned a number of beds though
as he left his wife 'the second best' one).
conspiracy
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...if the internet has been created for
one thing it is conspiracy theories. |
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There is no real evidence he had any formal schooling and he was the son of
illiterate parents, his father being something of a business failure. All these
things ensure there will always be lively debate about who did actually write
the plays and if the internet has been created for one thing it is conspiracy
theories.
Still to really believe anyone else wrote the plays is an act of faith bigger
than to believe he did write them. All the plays bear the name William Shakespeare.
The company that produced Shakespeare's plays numbered amongst its membership,
John Heminge, Henry Condell, Richard Burbage and of course William Shakespeare.
His will might not have mentioned plays but it did set aside money for the
purchase of memorial rings for Heminge, Condell and Burbage.
It would be foolish not to consider that William Shakespeare to be the same
man that was in partnership with these people.
Shakespeare was referred to during his lifetime as a gifted writer of plays
and sonnets. Ben Johnson going so far as to say he was a friend whom he admired
and referred to him as the 'Sweet Swan of Avon'.
And if all this was not enough during his lifetime and for some 150 years after
his death there was no serious mention anyone other than the man from Stratford
wrote the plays.
It is rather a Victorian thing to decide a rough, common ill-educated type
could not possibly have written the plays. Fair more likely gentry or noblemen
were capable of such things.
Francis Bacon is often suggested as the author. In 1888, Ignatius Donnelly
put forward the theory there was a secret message hidden in the plays to this
effect. The Great Cryptogram (1888) is a large and pointless book dedicated
to this subject. Although he does not reveal the nature of the cipher itself
he does reveal the message. How much easier just to have put his name on the
front cover.
There are hundreds more where that came from but in a pamphlet published by
Mrs CF Ashmead in 1881 even the plays names are suggestive of a jingle, an undercurrent
of something sinister.
For Othello the jingle is:
A tale, oh! I tell, oh!
Oh, dell, oh! What wail, oh!
Oh, hill, oh! What willow!
What hell, oh! What will, oh!
At will, oh! At well, oh!
I dwell, oh!
Make of that what you will. Perhaps I am being a little unfair on the conspiracy
theorists but the evidence for William Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon writing
the plays and sonnets is as good as any.
William Shakespeare died in 1616 two months after the marriage of his youngest
daughter.
The Shakespeare line did not survive long, his last direct descendant dying
in 1670, his granddaughter, Elizabeth.
