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College aantekeningen Shakespeare The Norton Shakespeare, ISBN: 9780393263121
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SHAKESPEAREIntroduction: The Lives of William Shakespeare
No archives, libraries, ... ways we stored knowledge did not exist, limitation. We know a lot
about Shakespeare. No one doubted his existence. Legal documents he was involved in court
cases, city council documents ...
He has been used to advance all kinds of causes. Used to defend causes such as university
groups, ‘to beer or not to beer’, …
THE MANY LIVES OF SHAKESPEARE
- Shakespeare in popular culture
- References to Hamlet
Stratford-upon-Avon -> you can visit the house, school where he attended, …
Hamnet, his son’s name. Book by an Irish writer, story about Shakespeare’s children growing
up without mentioning his name
Footnotes, essays, dictionaries are important to read Shakespeare
So hard, so why are we still reading his texts? He lived at a very interesting time, the
beginnings of the theatre as an institution, it's a recent phenomenon -> generation before
Shakespeare had no theatres, only in open air, grassfields, …
Theatre as enclosed space you needed to pay for, that evolution was in Shakespeare’s time.
First demands for plays were huge, the timing for Shakespeare was perfect, talented man
and he happened to be there when the theatre was born.
Born in 1564, baptised on the 26th of April, died on 23th of April (guess), died in 1616
A lot of people died of the Plague, hit London 6 times, Shakespeare survived. Had a direct
influence on his life. When the plague hit, all the theatres immediately closed. No career
because of the plague.
1557: John Shakespeare x Mary Arden
(il)literate parents? Farmers on both sides of family
Strange career of his father, he was a very well known man, first he was known as an ale
taster, then a constable, bailiff, … -> Rags to riches story in a way, he became a prominent
man
His father disappears completely, no one knows what happened -> The Shakespeares were
catholics, maybe John Shakespeare did rise in the higher classes, protestant against
visualisation of religion…
He may have gotten into an ethical conflict (things as a protestant official and personal
beliefs as a catholic) He no longer reconciles his (protestant) duties with his (catholic) beliefs.
Shakespeare’s parents had 8 children, he had 3 younger brothers, 2 younger sisters and he
also had 2 older sisters who had already died (because of the plague)
A lot of facts to dispel the notion of Shakespeare not existing.
Don’t look for personal ideas in his plays
1
,No direct descendants after 1662 (Anne Hathaway, Susanna and Judith all died) -> potential
reason that people started fictionalising Shakespeare
Theatre companies were travelling over the country, fascination with theatre was raised
then. He was an actor in plays, where he played a ghost for example. He started as an actor,
maybe he was not good at it.
First literary reference to Shakespeare -> Robert Greene wrote a note (when he was dying)
to his fellow playwrights warning them that there was someone in London who was trying to
destroy their business. He was not trained, not a university wit, no degree, he was an
amateur. ‘Tiger’s heart wrapped in a …’ a line of early young Shakespeare. First reference to
Shakespeare is an accusation of him stealing (slide 9). Expression of envy is what rendered
him immortal, not his plays.
Theatre was a controversial art form, Queen Elizabeth was very excited but it was also a
danger -> people would fail to distinguish between the real world and the world of theatrical
representation. People would interpret everything they saw on stage as real. Being a
politician required a certain amount of acting, importance of censorship. Stamp of approval
of the censor to perform a play. Aristocrats enjoyed the new kind of entertainment, they
supported the theatre. A lot of people were also against it, it was sinful, haydays of
puritanism. Players were in a strange position, they ran into a lot of criticism and danger.
Players were officially labelled vagabonds -> economic parasites, they hadno job.
Shakespeare and kinsmen. Fierce competition.
Shakespeare's own theatre, The Globe, built it himself.
Shakespeare and Money
Buys second largest house in Stratford. 1599: opening of the Globe -> name is significant,
reinforcement of theatre as a symbol of the world, the world's a stage, this is everything that
matters to humans.
He was also a businessman, he was in it for the money.
Lack of market for his plays as books. -> also a reason why people think he did not exist. He
never published a play (out of the 37 plays, not one was ever published during his lifetime)
Half of them were published, but not by him, by sponsors, publishers, … He could not be
bothered, most people were illiterate. Small minority was interested in books, not a lot of
money to be made so he was not interested. None of the publications were authorised by
Shakespeare. He sued people that owed him money (fe. Philip Rogers for ‘debt’)
If people did not pay him back in time, he sued them. He was not generous when it came to
affairs.
Wrote his own epitaph (what goes on his grave) which basically says ‘leave me alone’
Controversy over his testimony (very detailed) Then he wrote a second version, which is
identical to the first, but he adds ‘and to my wife, I leave the second best bed’. First best bed
to his lover? Poor wife gets the second best bed? OR it means that the marital bed goes to
my wife, the best bed in these houses was always the bed for visitors. Merely a word for ‘our
bed’. By law, they never got divorced, she was entitled to a large part of the property. But in
conclusion to the epitaph, ‘don’t put Anne next to me’.
2
,Then why did people invent the story?
- Family dies out in first generation
- Shakespeare did not publish a play of his own
Status of the Shakespeare Text
Foul papers: He would write a play with certain actors in his mind. One of the big actors at
the time: Richard Burbage. He was absent minded, he mixed the name with the name of the
character he was writing. He submits it to the theatre, gets a lot of money and then he has
no rights over his plays anymore.
Fair copy -> Shakespeare as sanitised by the theatre company, free of the most obvious
mistakes.
Playbook (promptbook, prompter: souffleur) Actors were only given those pages that figured
their character, printing was expensive. Only the prompters would get the entire play.
Sometimes 3/4 plays are performed, actors had to memorise a lot of text. Shakespeare had
nothing to do with the texts. Leads to the conclusion that there is no original Shakespeare.
Every edition has been edited (slide 14)
None of the original pages survived, only fotocopies.
Quarto editions -> refers to printing technique, fold the paper into 8 pieces, making it a lot
cheaper. Almost all books were printed like this. Shakespeare’s plays were published like this.
Collective works? They gathered all the texts of the published plays + the never published
ones and put them together. ‘Like a bible’. We will make it into a chique folio, contained 36
plays (only folded once)
-> First folio edition (7 years after his death)
Which version is the oldest one? We have no way of knowing.
Printers make mistakes, they take the wrong letter and so mistakes are printed.
Publishers would reassemble a Shakespearian text based on the memories of actors who
performed his play. -> great cause of unreliability. Relies heavily on memorial reconstruction.
Major causes of many differences between the versions = Printing errors + memorial
reconstruction.
Theory of conflation: if a line does not sound like Shakespeare, they conflate it with a
different version. Use the best version of a line, the conflated version. Interpretations are
based on these conflated versions. Standard version: put together by editors but never
written by Shakespeare.
The Authorship Controversy
Scepticism vs Bardolatry
James Wilmot -> shows that seed of suspicion, what if it was a pseudonym? He initiated that
tradition of suspicion, in 1785, and it is still with us today.
Bardolatry, Shakespeare was called the Bard. Idolisation of Shakespeare. From Ben Jonson,
he is the one who came up with the line ‘he was not of an age, bur for all time’ → capitalism
3
, The taming of the shrew
Genres:
● romances: called romances, towards the end of his life he reinvented some of the
themes in his revenge -> They are different from the tragedies, because of different
tones, colours and solutions = lighter than the tragedies
● he also wrote sonnets: one proper edition authorised by shakespeare, not like his
plays
● sonnets were considered art, no novels yet the way we know them -> the valuation
was much higher of a poet than a playwright
● his literary reputation hinged on poetry, not on his plays, his poems sold better than
his plays -> He worked for the theatre for his money
● most of his poetry was published in years when the plague struck -> link: whenever
the plague came back, London went into lockdown, he was technically unemployed,
in those years when he was at home he published poetry -> direct link: the plays,
poems, and the plague
The Taming of the Shrew
● controversial: submission of women
● shakespeare: did not invent this story, he was a sampler, master at assembling a play
out of existing material
● almost all of his plays are adaptations of existing things, he tempered with his cultural
heritage
● did not get published during his lifetime! (Written in 1591-92)
● First folio: premiere of 13 plays after his death (1623)
● The taming of a shrew: written by himself? Or by a ripp-off -> we don’t know. Staged
in 1594 (Anon.)
● Extremely popular comedy, long history of adaptation
● Offspring:
❖ John Fletcher (1611)- the Woman’s prize: a play about a woman taking
revenge on her husband who’s trying to tame her “feministic” play
❖ Cole porter- Kiss me, Kate (is a line from the play)
❖ Franco Zeffirelli (made a big movie based on this play)
❖ 10 things I hate about you
❖ The Taming of the Shrew by the Bolshoi Ballet (visual rendering)
1) What’s a shrew?:
● first referred to a cruel animal, rhymes with a show
● 13th century: referred to a man and not to a woman “a wicked, evil-disposed, or
malignant man”
● End 14th century: the devil
● 16th century: dominant woman, how? -> dominance is linguistic, verbal, a shrew = a
chatterbox, claim to power is a claim to the right to speak
4
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