“Time’s glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light.”
— William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
Everybody reveres Shakespeare. He was a magnificent playwright, the author of the well-known plays Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Much Ado About Nothing and alike. On April 23rd, we commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. But who is the man behind the brilliant plays and highly expressive poems?
First and foremost, he was born in the Warwickshire market town in 1564, more precisely on Stratford-upon-Avon (and that is why he was nicknamed “The Bard of Avon”). Because it is the place where the dramatist was born and educated, it receives an estimated 4.9 million visitors a year. Many of the town’s most important and visited buildings are located along what is known as Stratford’s Historic Spine, which was once the main route from the town centre to the parish church.
What you may not know about Shakespeare is the mystery around his last name: “Shakespeare”. There are more than 80 variations recorded for the spelling of Shakespeare’s name. In the few original signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelt his name “Willm Shaksp,” “William Shakespe,” “Wm Shakspe,” “William Shakspere”, ”Willm Shakspere,” and “William Shakspeare”. There are no records of his ever spelling his name, “William Shakespeare” as we know it today. Oddly enough, it has been evidenced by his baptismal record and even on his monument that Mr. Shakspere’s name was spelled with no “e” after “k.”. Other interesting things related to the problematic case of names, are his wifes’ and sons’ name. W.S.’s wife had the same name as the popular actress Anne Hathaway, and his sons’ name was Hamnet, which sounds very close to Hamlet. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 11 and some Shakespearean scholars speculate on the relationship between Hamnet and his father’s later play Hamlet, as well as on possible connections between Hamnet’s death and the writing of King John, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night.
More than that, it is common knowledge that Shakespeare’s masterpieces made history and a case in point when it comes to human nature in our hectic today’s world. Besides numerous plays and poems, one of them caught my attention…MACBETH. Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest tragedy, Macbeth tells the story of a brave Scottish general (Macbeth) who receives a prophecy from a trio of sinister witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, early in the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shakespeare’s acting company, and among all the plays Shakespeare wrote under James’s reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright’s close relationship with the sovereign. Focusing on Macbeth, a figure from Scottish history, Shakespeare paid homage to his king’s Scottish lineage. Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most complex play, but it is certainly one of his most powerful and emotionally intense piece of writing.
Another uncanny story is the one connected to his detailed will, in which he famously left his wife “my second best bed with the furniture”. There is no clear reference to the famous Shakespearean turn of phrase and mentions no books, plays, poems, or literary effects of any kind despite its accuracy. Nor does it mention any musical instruments even though the author’s musical expertise was commonplace in his time as a theatre man. He did leave token bequests to three fellow actors (an interlineation, indicating it was an afterthought), but nothing to any writers. The actors’ names connect him to the theater, but nothing implies a writing career. Why was Stratford’s Richard Field completely ignored even if he was Shakespeare’s publisher and the very person who aided the playwright’s name to reach the heights of stardom after printing his poems for the first time? What history glitch made the misspelling of his name occur in his will when it is widely acknowledged that dying men are usually very concerned about their fame records? Why would this man make an exception?
All in all, we may consider Shakespeare one of the “heavyweights” of the world literature, which opened the way to high-quality literature, and ventured forth into the realm of human spirit. Never has it been before such an astute eyewitness of the human being’s flaws and character beyond the classic canon of European works of literature as Shakespeare has.
Source: https://doubtaboutwill.org/declaration
By Stefan LEAUA and Bianca BOTEZATU, 10thB
neuroteen.wordpress.com 