03-10-2008, 01:53 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-10-2008, 02:02 AM by Jack White.)
I am NOT a student of the Bard, though I admire his works, especially when well presented, as in Olivier's HAMLET.
However, I have read a little about Shakespeare and the controversy, and I find many things suspicious...against human nature.
1. Shakespeare was a well known person in his own time, and as such would have gained some notoriety, so there should be many historical artifacts surviving in public records and archives. I know of nothing, do you?
2. It is said that he penned all his works in longhand, and from these pages were printed the words we have today. However, though the words survive, I know of not a single museum nor collector which has an original manuscript in Shakespeare's handwriting. Do you? Such an artifact would be priceless, worth millions. Does it strike you odd that not a single scrap of manuscript survives? Or were they written at all, but improvised by actors in rehearsals from a plot line? What if the written works were written down AFTER the play was all worked out in rehearsals? Nobody really knows.
3. If someone other than Will wrote it all, why did he choose to remain anonymous? Was Will a fictitious character? Surely not, since he seems to have been a public figure and producer of plays at the Globe. I can fathom no reason for an author of such acclaimed works to disavow them. How was Shakespeare chosen, and why did he accept the role? It is against human nature for anyone to hide such talent. Fast forward to the 20th century. Flo Ziegfield produced many Broadway shows...but he did not write them. Hired writers wrote them. Or take Bob Hope, our greatest comedian. His jokes were famous, but one of his running jokes about his humor was about his JOKEWRITERS.
To me the most logical "theory" is that Shakespeare was a real person who was a theatrical producer. He had a stable of writers cranking out "soap operas" much like today's TV. His plays were considered just a day's work in the entertainment business...not the monumental works they were later acclaimed to be, or not to be. The question is whether tis nobler in the minds of men to see them as soap operas of that period, or something mysterious and more grand.
Jack
However, I have read a little about Shakespeare and the controversy, and I find many things suspicious...against human nature.
1. Shakespeare was a well known person in his own time, and as such would have gained some notoriety, so there should be many historical artifacts surviving in public records and archives. I know of nothing, do you?
2. It is said that he penned all his works in longhand, and from these pages were printed the words we have today. However, though the words survive, I know of not a single museum nor collector which has an original manuscript in Shakespeare's handwriting. Do you? Such an artifact would be priceless, worth millions. Does it strike you odd that not a single scrap of manuscript survives? Or were they written at all, but improvised by actors in rehearsals from a plot line? What if the written works were written down AFTER the play was all worked out in rehearsals? Nobody really knows.
3. If someone other than Will wrote it all, why did he choose to remain anonymous? Was Will a fictitious character? Surely not, since he seems to have been a public figure and producer of plays at the Globe. I can fathom no reason for an author of such acclaimed works to disavow them. How was Shakespeare chosen, and why did he accept the role? It is against human nature for anyone to hide such talent. Fast forward to the 20th century. Flo Ziegfield produced many Broadway shows...but he did not write them. Hired writers wrote them. Or take Bob Hope, our greatest comedian. His jokes were famous, but one of his running jokes about his humor was about his JOKEWRITERS.
To me the most logical "theory" is that Shakespeare was a real person who was a theatrical producer. He had a stable of writers cranking out "soap operas" much like today's TV. His plays were considered just a day's work in the entertainment business...not the monumental works they were later acclaimed to be, or not to be. The question is whether tis nobler in the minds of men to see them as soap operas of that period, or something mysterious and more grand.
Jack