Merchandizing the Bard

It’s high time Madison Avenue took advantage of the Shakespeare Brand.  Of course there have been a plethora of books over the centuries, fiction and non-fiction.  There is a Shakespeare bobble-head figure and some queer looking square teapots and fussy tea cozies. I will admit to owning a William Shakespeare switch plate. These things are PEANUTS! The time is well past due to make real money on the good old Bard. 

Merchandize, franchise, animated films and video games—that’s where my fortune will be made!  Consequently I propose the following enterprises.  Call for a complete list of royalty and licensing fees.  Nothing is beneath me.

Animated movies with their lucrative licensed merchandise are a great place to start.  Picture all those little darlings singing the movie’s theme song, wearing adorable outfits, buying action figures (costumes extra) and filling their rooms with other movie inspired items.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream awards the wise filmmaker who comes up with an enchanting feature length cartoon/film, complete with an entire line of associated products.  Little girls wearing gossamer outfits, Lady Gaga singing the catchy theme based on Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, and boys donning mighty Oberon’s magic robes. Envision Titania figurines and stuffed “Bottoms”—the possibilities are unlimited. 

Animators, imagine Beatrice and Benedick romping through garden and banquet hall, singing of the single-life and surprising love. [Accessories sold separately.] I wonder if we couldn’t move the story to an undersea coral garden and have a charming Little Serving Wench sing Much Ado to You and You at their wedding which would be set in a sea of multicolored kelp? [Florida theme park developers copy.] DREAM BIG—the Bard wrote fourteen comedies!

Expand the experience. A planned trilogy based on the Wars of the Roses and/or the French Wars would delight, not only animated film fans, but also video gamers.  Which Henry will your son want to be? Richard III must be included too. Extra points for unhorsing him!  Heck, maybe six films and associated games for the histories alone.

Video games are gold.  In addition to the Henrys, how about a romp through the Forest of Arden for the kiddies, or action games like Midsummer Mummies and the ever popular Titus Andronicus?  There’s money to be made as Macbeth and the Three Witches fight to gain and keep a kingdom.  Wouldn’t Romeo make a great vampire? BARD GAMES, available for all game consoles.

Think $$$!  Licensed soliloquy heads make great Christmas gifts. Hamlet’s head will sprout “To be or not to be…,” and Henry V’s “This day is called the feast of St. Crispian…” will echo through the winter’s night.  Portia can be heard to speak “The quality of mercy is not strain’d…,” while Romeo declares “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?”  It will be wonderful to hear your children mimic Mark Antony’s, “Friends, Romans, countrymen…” or Macbeth’s “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand…?” or Lady Mac’s “Out, damned spot! out, I say...”   A mashup of the Three Witches would make a great birthday present:  “Thrice the brindled cat hath mew’d, et al.”  (Eye of newt extra.)  Just think how conversation at family meals will be enriched. Baby Boomers can delight in dis-inheriting their children as Lear spouts “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth…” while they spend the kids’ inheritance.  Collect them all:  HEAD ROLES: Educational, Fun and Great for Parties. 

No one could resist this merchandising scheme:  Pithy quotes to go along with that expensive cup of morning java?  Read them while sipping your double extra latte-cappuccino -  “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall,” “He that dies pays all debts,” “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage,” “Tis ever common that men are merriest when they are from home,” “For There was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently,” “You lack the season of all natures, sleep,” and “I like this place, And willingly could waste my time in it.”  JAVA EYE-POPPERS, licensed of course. [Perhaps we could find some lighter fare to adorn a kiddie meal cup of sugared soda?]

Afternoon coffee breaks will become fun, collegial exchanges when cup quotes stimulate conversation with their “SHAKES OF THE DAY” messages:  “Men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love,” “Hell is empty, And all the devils are here,” “O beware, my lord, the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on…,” “And do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends,” “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry,” or “If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul.”   I assure you, the office will be buzzing.  

New companies will form:  The Sir John Falstaff Weight Loss Program, Portia’s Bail Bond Services, or Lady Mac’s Out, Out, Damned Spot Cleaners franchise.  Plan your next event with As You Like It Catering; Visit Prospero’ Magic Island Water Park; Shop at Twelfth Night Party Goods for your next event; find the perfect mate on Romeo and Juliet’s eMatch, and, if that doesn’t work out, call King Lear’s Family Law for a quote.

Keep those royalties rolling in! Who can resist collectible bric-a-brac?  Every home should have cute salt & pepper sets, bathroom towels, plates, and pillow cases depicting legendary Shakespearean lovers:  Petruchio and Katharina, Rosalind and Orlando, Antony and Cleopatra, Titania and Bottom, Othello and the lovely Desdemona. Well, maybe you should think twice about the Othello bed pillows and the Petruchio plates.

Seriously, the time has come to cash in on this Bard of Avon thing. [BOAT LLC]  Hey, that’s a great name for my merchandising empire!  Call me.

[Sorry, Will. You’re not going to get a brass farthing from BOAT LLC, but Happy Birthday anyway.]

Happy Birthday Shout-out to the Bard

Welcome to WNTR’s “Middle of the Night Radio Shrink,” where pop psychology helps you make it through the night.  Tonight’s program which is in honor of William Shakespeare’s 450^th birthday features a penetrating analysis of Shakespearean characters and how they relate to YOU.  Night Radio Shrink thinks that when you admire certain Shakespearean characters’ qualities, you are really expressing your own personality quirks.  If you’d like to participate live, send your tweets to #WNutterBillsBday.

For you happy folks, we’ll start with the comedies. You’re on the air, Doc.

Rosalind, whom we all know is the heroine in “As You Like It” is an impulsive lady. She’s spirited and a meddler whose favorite color is forest green.  Her hobby is climbing trees and she likes to dress in men’s clothes.  Rosie’s ideal hook-up is any man she’s not supposed to marry.  The Buzz whispers that there was a lot more going on in the Forest of Ardor than we need to know.  Let’s Dish the Dirt:  Orlando and Ganymede—I tell you…

Portia is the poor little rich girl in “Merchant of Venice.”  She’s a quick witted, sympathetic, beautiful, and dutiful daughter.  Portia’s favorite color is lead because she knows that “all that glitters isn’t gold.”  She moonlights as an attorney while dressed as a man. (It’s a good thing her daddy is dead!)  This lady’s favorite hook-up is any John Doe in trouble with the law, or at least JD’s best friend.  The Buzz says that Bassanio is just another guy who slips off his wedding ring when he enters the bar.  Poor Portia!  Let’s Dish:  The whole casket thing was rigged.

Kate, is the title character in “The Taming of the Shrew.”  Choleric Kate is a headstrong lady who’s ripe for the plucking. Her high school graduating class voted her most likely to become a widow in ten years.  Kate’s favorite color is fire engine red.  Few people know that she moonlights as a marriage counselor.  This elder daughter of Baptista looks for a misogynist as her ideal mate.  The Buzz is that Kate wanted to become a nun.  Let’s Dish:  Her hubby said “ ’tis the mind that makes the body rich”—RIGHT!

OK, Fellows, wake up!  I haven’t forgotten you.  The History plays are just the things that dreams are made of for our gentlemen listeners… 

Richard III was not well liked.  This Prince of York carried one heck of an inferiority complex on his shoulder (the lower one, I think).  He balanced his complex with a strong streak of homicidal mania and insatiable ambition.  His color reflected the gold of the blazing sun of York, tarnished by the winter of his discontent.  Richard was relentless in the pursuit of his hobby, eliminating the competition.  Marriageable women with claim upon the crown really turned on this darling prince.  The Buzz quotes Richard’s mother.  She says, “my son was not a hunchback.  The boy just couldn’t be without his favorite dish, haggis, so he slung a sack of it over his shoulder (the higher one, I think) whenever he rode out to kill and cause mayhem.”  Let’s Dish: there are hints that, like Don Corleone, family meant everything to Richard. 

Henry V came after Henry IV (both parts) and before Henry VI (all three parts).  Like most middle children he liked to get in people’s faces and have a good time.  Number V was energetic and fun to be with.  He didn’t always choose his friends wisely, hence Sir John Falstaff.  In his family, purple—the color of kings—was the only color.  As a young man his favorite hobbies were drinking and wenching but this prince of the blood turned our pretty well.  He had a soft spot for French girls who happened to be included in treaties.  The Buzz tells us that “men are merriest when they are from home.” Poor Kate!  Let’s Dish, “we band of brothers,” come on!  Stephen Ambrose said that first.

And now, as the midnight hours pass into predawn, we’ll examine the tragedies.  Lord knows the ole Doc is depressed tonight.

Macbeth, Thane of Chowder and Oyster Crackers (just checking to see if you’re still awake), began as a loyal subject and fearless warrior. That is, until he met the three sisters, aka the weird sisters, aka the witches.  His ambition, as well as his lovely wife, Lady Macbeth, urges him on to regicide. This man is a very poor host. He is also superstitious.  Macbeth’s favorite color is said to be plaid.  As a natural scientist, Macbeth collects specimens like eye of newt, toe of frog, scale of dragon and tooth of wolf. His favorite hook-up is a murderous, insomniac with a hand washing compulsion. (To each his own.)  The Buzz is that his family told him not to marry that girl!  Let’s Dish:  “They” say that Macbeth has been seen wearing a skirt and daintily pointing his toes when dancing the Highland fling.

Hamlet, of course we have to talk about Hamlet, that broody, indecisive, arrested adolescent; talks to himself too.  Our prince’s favorite color is ghostly grey and he has been known to hang around graveyards, the morbid little twit. The lovely Ophelia just wasn’t his type, he’s Oedipal you know. The Buzz tells us that the family gets a large purchase discount on poisons.  Let’s Dish:  Uncle Claudius took  the fun out of dysfunctional.  Grow up, boy!

Our final selection for the night is a little known Roman general,

Titus Andronicus.  Titus is a classic psychotic whose sole motivation is revenge.  When Ti is around there is sure to be buckets and buckets of blood and gore.  It should come as no surprise that this totally out of control madman’s favorite color is blood red.  His monomania is apparent in his chosen specialist field, tit for tat and hand for hand.  If the general had a preference I’d say that a nice girl like Medea would strike his fancy.  There is a rumor that Titus was nominated for Father of the Year, but his children all died before they could testify on his behalf.  The Buzz advises:  Stay Away From This Man.  Let’s Dish:  This play is GOTH-ick!

But seriously, if any of you listeners are the Titus Andronicus type, TEXT ME right now.  Let’s meet up because I’m sure we can get an afternoon talk show on TV.  This all night gig is wearing me out!

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare.  For earlier Bardolatry tributes click on the Shakespeare links on the left.

Shakespearean Logic Puzzle

Celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday! For the occasion I thought it might be fun to create an original logic puzzle in honor of the Bard.  There is a template to help you organize the clues.  Click on it to enlarge and print a copy if you need one.  Answers are at the bottom of the post.  Enjoy!

Five Shakespearean actors live and work in London. Two are women.  Each will perform in a different play this season. One play is “The Taming of the Shrew.”  Each performance will be in a different location including the Shakespeare Globe Centre in New Zealand (SGC-NZ) and at the BBC studios near London.  Determine the first and last name of each actor, their current role, the location of this season’s play, and which play each performed in last season—one of which was “Measure for Measure.”  

1.  1. Actors include the one who plays in “Othello,” the woman who will perform in Oregon, and the one named Yorke who is sporting the red rose this season.

2.      2. One actor who has a role in a comedy this year performed in a tragedy last season; a second's current and last season roles feature characters in historical plays; and a third who has chosen Celtic plays for both seasons. 

3.      3. The actor who warns his lord to beware the green-eyed monster is not Evelyn or O’Dowd. Last year’s woman who portrayed a woman playing a man playing a woman will not perform in the UK this year.

4.      4. One performer’s first and last names have the same vowels. The last letter of one's first name begins their last name.

5.      5. This year DeBonne will plead for mercy in North America; Henry Duke of Hereford deposes under the Southern Cross; Tyler will not need to use a passport.

6.       6. Liam is not Yorke; Rome never played a princely role; Canada will resound with the wooing of “gentle Kate.”

7.      7. Arnold will lunch frequently with BBC’s Fidele.

Answers:  Evelyn Yorke—Bolingbroke—SGC-NZ—King Henry IV, Pt. 1; Howard Arnold—Iago—Globe/London—Measure for Measure; Liam O’Dowd—Petruchio—Stratford, ONT—Hamlet; Sybil DeBonne—Portia—Ashland, ORE.—As You like It; Tyler Rome—Imogen—BBC—Macbeth.                                                                                                                                          ©2013 “ettsme”

In Remembrance - William Shakespeare

Monument Plaque in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon

April 23rd approaches and it is time again to honor the Bard, as if a special time was necessary.  I thought it would be interesting to look at the type of memorial that has been provided for Shakespeare's final resting place. 
For those of you who assume that he is entombed in Westminster Abbey you are wrong, although such a final resting place was hotly debated after his death in 1616.

William Shakespeare's final resting place is to be found in is family's parish church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He and other members of his family are entombed in Holy Trinity Church beneath the floor of the church in the chancel area.  There is a bust mounted on the Northern wall of the church depicting the prosperous citizen and favorite son holding a quill in his right hand and a paper in his left.  This monument was in place before the printing of the First Folio in 1623. It was created by the Flemish sculptor Geraert Janssen.  The monument plaque is below the bust and reads (in English):  A Pylus (King Nestor) in judgement, a Socrates in genius, a Maro (Virgil) in art.  Earth buries him, the people mourn him, Olympus has him. Beneath this inscription are the lines:
     Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
     Read, if thou canst, whom envious Death hath placed
     Within this monument:  Shakespeare, with whom
     Quick nature died, whose name doth deck this tomb
     Far more than cost, since all that he hath written
     Leaves living art, but page, to serve his wit.

The cause of death of the immortal playwright is unknown.  He may have felt time was closing upon him because he made a first draft of his will in January 1616 and signed the final copy on March 25, 1616. One report places the blame upon a night of drinking and merriment with Ben Jonson and Drayton who "had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."  We will never know.

In 1616, lesser poet William Basse wrote "Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh to learned Chaucer; and rare Beamont, lie a little nearer Spenser; to make room for Shakespeare in your threefold fourfold tomb."  This sentiment opens the dispute as to the most fitting resting place for the Bard.  Basse clearly feels that Shakespeare should rest in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.  In 1623 Ben Jonson proclaims his choice:       Soul of the age!
     The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
     My Shakespeare rise; I will not lodge thee by
     Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
     A little farther, to make thee a room;
     Thou art a monument, without a tomb,
     And art alive still, while thy book doth live,
     And we have wits to read, and praise to give.

John Milton felt the need to add his opinion on the matter in 1630:
     What needs my Shakespeare for his honor'd bones,
     The labor of an age in piled stones,
     Or that his hallow'd relics should be hid
     Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
     Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
     What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?

Shakespeare was not buried amongst the great in the Abbey.  It wasn't until 1740 that a monument to one of the greatest poets of England was honored in the Abbey.  A life-sized marble statue was erected by the Earl of Burlington, Dr. Richard Mead, Alexander Pope, and Tom Martin. According to the Abbey's website, "Charles Fleetwood of the Drury Lane Theatre and John Rich of Covent Garden Theatre gave a benefit to help raise funds for the public subscription. The monument was designed by William Kent and executed by Peter Scheemakers, and both signed it, with the date 1740.  The Dean and Chapter of Westminster charged no fee for its erection."   Faint praise indeed.

Some say that there is a cautionary warning on his grave in Holy Trinity Church, and that Shakespeare himself wrote the imprecation:
     Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
     To digg the dust encloased heare,
     Blest be the man that spares these stones,
     And curst be he that moves my bones.

Dust to dust.  Rest in Peace.

Bardolatry, the Quiz

It’s that time of year again; Shakespeare’s birthday on little cat’s feet attends. I have chosen a number of quotes from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, choosing the exceptionally lovely, including some most often quoted, incorporating a few of my favorites. Can you name the play from which the following quotes are taken? Give yourself extra points for naming the speaker. If you can place the quote in the correct act, scene, and line you are a) a Shakespearean actor of renown, b) an academic who teaches the works of the mighty bard, or c) you’re using the same sources that I have used. Dame Fortune be thy friend.



1. Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.

2. For there was never yet a philosopher

    That could endure a toothache patiently,

3. Cowards die many times before their deaths;

    The valiant never taste of death but once.

4. For ‘tis the mind that makes the body rich.

5. Things without all remedy

    Should be without regard: what’s done is done.

6. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my

    reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and

    what remains is bestial.

7. We are such stuff

    As dreams are made on, and our little life

    Is rounded with a sleep.

8. When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

    I summon up remembrance of things past,

    I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

    And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:

9. A friend i’ the court is better than a penny in purse.

10. O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness

     through another man’s eyes!

11. The moon, like to a silver bow

      New-bent in heaven.

12. Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.

13. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

     An evil soul producing holy witness

     Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,

     A goodly apple rotten at the heart:

     O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

14. Experience is by industry achieved

     And perfected by the swift course of time.

15. Slander,

     Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue

     Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath

     Rides on the posting winds and doth belie

     All corners of the world.

16. Let Hercules himself do what he may,

     The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

17. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little

     happy, if I could say how much.

18. Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing;

     ‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

     But he that filches from me my good name

     Robs me of that which not enriches him

     And makes me poor indeed.

19. And do as adversaries do in law,

     Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

20. They say, best men are moulded out of faults:

     And, for the most, become much more the better,

     For being a little bad.

21. Every good servant does not all commands.

22. He that dies pays all debts.

23. Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

     For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

     And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

     This above all: to thine own self be true,

     And it must follow, as the night the day,

     Thou canst not then be false to any man.

24. There is a tide in the affairs of men,

     Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

     Omitted, all the voyage of their life

     Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

25. We, ignorant of ourselves,

     Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

     Deny us for our good; so find we profit

     By losing of our prayers.



Zounds that was fun! Each time I read Shakespeare there is something new to admire. I hope you enjoyed the quotes. Answers follow.

1. King Henry VI Part II – III.i.53 (Earl of Suffolk)

2. Much Ado About Nothing – V.i.35-36 (Leonato)

3. Julius Caesar – II.ii.32-33 (Caesar)

4. The Taming of the Shrew – IV.iii.174 (Petruchio)

5. Macbeth – III.ii.11-12 (Lady Macbeth)

6. Othello – II.iii.262-264 (Cassio)

7. The Tempest – IV.i.156-158 (Prospero)

8. Sonnet XXX – first four lines

9. King Henry IV Part II – V.i.33 (Shallow)

10. As You Like It – V.ii.47-48 (Orlando)

11. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – I.i.9-10 (Hippolyta) A marvelous simile!

12. Troilus and Cressida – III.iii.229 (Patroclus)

13. The Merchant of Venice – I.iii.99-103 (Antonio)

14. The Two Gentlemen of Verona – I.iii.22-23 (Antonio)

15. Cymbeline – III.iv.35-39 (Pisanio)

16. Hamlet – V.i.314-315 (Hamlet)

17. Much Ado About Nothing – II.i.316-317 (Claudio)

18. Othello – III.iii.157-161 (Iago)

19. The Taming of the Shrew – I.ii.278-279 (Hortensio)

20. Measure for Measure – V.i.444-446 (Mariana)

21. Cymbeline – IV.i.6 (Posthumus)

22. The Tempest – III.ii.140 (Stephano)

23. Hamlet – I.iii.75-80 (Polonius)

24. Julius Caesar – IV.iii.218-221 (Brutus)

25. Antony and Cleopatra – II.i.5-8 (Menecrates)



Happy Birthday, Will.

Bardolatry

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. He was most probably born in April of 1564. No matter the exact dates, the world would be a far poor place had he not existed. I am a fan of the Bard of Avon. I claim no expertise, only informed interest.

There is something special about attending a Shakespearean play, especially at the new Globe Theatre in London. The Globe does not try to “popularize” the Bard’s works by changing eras, jazzing up the costumes, or stupefying the playgoer with awe inspiring special effects. The Globe dramatizes Shakespeare much like Shakespeare dramatized Shakespeare, thank goodness!

There is something unique about reading a Shakespearean play or sonnet. Only then can one appreciate the art of Shakespeare as writer. The Bard used the best writer tricks: foreshadowing, plot development, pacing, character development, figurative language, elegant forms and metre, and so much more.

It is still considered commendatory to memorize parts of his work. Do you have a favorite quote, or does the occasion determine which phrases to utilize? It is humbling to ponder one’s mortality in light of the Sonnet 71. How can one take themselves seriously when confronted with “…a tale told by an idiot…”? Who has not smiled when thinking “For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently”? Smarted to hear “How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes”? Discovered satisfaction in “’Tis the mind that makes the body rich”?

It pains me to realize that, nearly 400 years later, pendants continue to claim that William Shakespeare did not write the works attributed to him. It is probable that a few plays were, at least in part, not his: King Henry VI part I, King Henry VIII, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. It is also important to understand that the first folio did not make its public appearance until after the death of Shakespeare’s widow in 1623. There was plenty of time for thespian colleagues Herminge and Condell to spruce up a scene or augment an act in the seven intervening years after Shakespeare’s death. Granting that an editor may have added value after the fact does not diminish Shakespeare’s achievements.

The principal arguments against Shakespeare’s authorship emanate from the fact that William was a middle class boy, educated in the common school, without aristocratic pedigree. For an impressionable young man who loved words, that humble education would be sufficient. There is certainly evidence that humble beginnings have not suppressed genius. Mark Twain, James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Naguib Mahfouz, and Dostoyevsky are but a few examples.

Detractors ask, “How could the son of a glover and petty official possess such genius? Demonstrate the highest mastery of the English language? Capitalized on dramatic instinct and human psychology?” With passion, courage, ambition and desire, how not?

In his Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1725) Alexander Pope wrote, “He seems to have known the world by intuition, to have looked through human nature at one glance.” The key is instinct. Good writers can be trained. Great ones transcend. Genius is a gift, 99 per cent of which is hard work! Shakespeare not only had the native genius and ambition, but the intelligence to understand the business of writing; not only the talent, but also the opportunity. He was gifted as well as assiduous. Shakespeare was an actor before he became an author. He understood the art of engaging an audience because he was capable of awe; he had the courage to innovate; he had an extra-ordinary command of words; he hungered for success. I think he was also shrewd. Genius is not limited to the London born, the Queen’s Court, or Cambridge. Talent surprises. It is democratic.

Like the movie or rock star of today, Shakespeare had his finger on the pulse of contemporary society. Elizabethans thrived on novelty and politics. Classes mixed in the dirty streets of London, in the taverns, and where the groundlings watched the latest plays. Fame fosters symbiotic relationships. A popular actor or writer would most naturally be flattered by the attentions of aristocratic patrons and intellectuals, who might, on occasion, make a suggestion or two. It is even possible that his relationships went deeper. Some of the Sonnets suggest bisexuality. A certain duality is evident in Sonnet 144. Shakespeare, under the influence of friends, may have paid a complement, included a suggestion, improved an idea, re-shaped a poem—but Shakespeare was the master of his craft.

For centuries scholars concur. John Dryden, in his Prologue to the Tempest, (1667) wrote:

Shakespeare who (taught by none) did first impart
To Fletcher wit, to labouring Jonson art…

…Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
Most modern experts credit Shakespeare’s authenticity. David Bevington is a renowned expert on Shakespeare. I had the privilege of studying with him at the University of Chicago for a semester. And I have heard him speak on Shakespeare in lectures in other venues. He is of the conviction that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. I do not attempt to speak for him: his knowledge of the subject is great, mine is not. The breadth and depth of Dr. Bevington’s reasoning is beyond the scope of this small essay. However he did share one of his arguments for authenticity. It is derived from the theme of father/daughter relationships that appears frequently in Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was very close to his daughters, especially to Susanna, his eldest. He was solicitous for the welfare of his second daughter Judith, twin to his dead son Hamnet. A reading of Shakespeare’s will affirm the loving care he had for daughters. Is this conclusive? Of course not, but it is suggestive of authenticity.

Building on Professor Bevington’s reasoning, I have examined another recurring theme in Shakespeare’s plays, the position of wives. Shakespearean spouses are very often missing (e.g.Thaisa), banished (Hermonie), dead (Miranda’s mother), ignored (Did Juliet not have a mother?), accused of infidelity (Desdemona), or just plain trouble (Lady Macbeth). In As You Like It Rosalind says “…maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives…” In nearly every comedy and tragedy Shakespeare dispatches the wife and/or mother.

In real life William seems not to have liked his wife who was several years older than he. It was probably a case of “marry in haste…” Certainly he left her for the bright lights of London. In his will she was left his “second best bed with the furniture.” At his death William Shakespeare was wealthy. He was generous to his daughters and relatives. He was niggardly with his wife. I often think of the poor woman sleeping in that second best bed for seven more years until her death. Her treatment is consistent with the dramatist’s treatment of wives in the plays. Of course this is not conclusive evidence, but worthy of consideration.

The Shakespearean authorship controversy will continue. Neither side will be able to convince the other. It might be best for the Bard to speak for himself. The Tempest is considered his last play, his farewell to his life’s work as a dramatic storyteller. Prospero becomes his alter ego in this last play. In Act III he declares:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like this baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
In Act IV Prospero/Shakespeare summarizes the power of his artifice as he abnegates “his potent art”:

…I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth…
Which plays come to mind?

The Bard of Avon is justifiably proud of his accomplishments as he eases into his final years. His humble beginnings are reprised as he graciously begs leave to retire:

With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please: now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon’d be
Let your indulgence set me free.
There was no one like Shakespeare but Shakespeare!
A note to readers: I have not given the sources of my Shakespearean quotations, because I want you to look for yourselves. In preparation of this piece I consulted: class notes, PBS article by Al Austin “Who Wrote Shakespeare?” (April 1989) and The Complete Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations compiled by D.C. Browning, New Orchards edition 1986, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd c. 1961. The Pope and Dryden quotes are to be found on page 480 of this text.

For those of you who wish to pursue the controversy, the most commonly named Shakespearean ghost writers are: Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, William Stanley, Christopher Marlowe, and Roger Manners.