Who Wrote Shakespeare? Who Cares?
Not I, said the blogger.
Note, for clarity: I think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. I do care. I’m not entirely apathetic. My whole point to this post is that it seems that researching the authorship question has put a fog in front of the works themselves.
There are so many theoretical webs that have been spun over the past several years about who the REAL Shakespeare was. Shakespeare couldn’t have written the plays… he was uneducated, lower class, not well read, didn’t travel, didn’t know about this, that, or the other, blah, blah, blah. Because of all that it must’ve been The Earl of Oxford, or Queen Elizabeth, or Bacon, or a black Jewish woman!
I’ve often pondered what people’s fascinations with finding the “REAL Shakespeare” is. It has become a mystery story with infinite possibilities. The authorship question is a choose your own adventure story among researchers and authors. People are crazy about finding connections between people and possibilities of this and that. Are we searching for answers or are they trying to avoid something by raising different questions?
I’m merely asking questions; I don’t have the answers.
Does all this talk about who wrote Shakespeare’s plays detract in anyway from the works themselves? You decide. I personally am not wholly concerned with who wrote them… they good! If several monkeys with quill and inkwell scribbled out this wonderful poetry, so be it. It’s great theatre and that’s what matters to me. If Arthur Miller didn’t write his plays, shame on him for lying, but they plays are still amazing. Who can argue with quality art? The fact is that we know so little about Shakespeare’s life that it’s not possible for us to say for sure what he could or couldn’t do, what knew and didn’t know, where he went and where he didn’t go.
Maybe the authorship debate is in some way an attempt to knock Mr. Shakespeare off the high pedestal he’s been on for a few centuries. “Shakespeare’s overrated, and no one remembers Oxford. Time to change that!” Maybe. Could it be that a student long ago didn’t want to study Shakespeare’s plays because he was bored and happened to draw some connections between the works and some other person alive at the time? “Now nobody will read the plays, they’ll only read my book on who wrote them! MUAHAHAHA!!!”
I exaggerate. But if Shakespeare didn’t write the plays… so what? That’s all I want to know. People make it such a big issue, but what does it change? I actually enjoy hearing all the crazy stories that people make up on this subject. That’s entertainment! So I’ll continue to let the history detectives do their work. I’ll also continue to read, perform, study, blog about, and enjoy the works by the artist currently known as Shakespeare.
Craig Apr 30
Intellectually, I understand what you’re saying. But the “authorship debate” still gets my hackles up. I think it’s probably three things: First, that I have a very low tolerance for arrant nonsense, which is how I rate the many authorship theories out there. Second, that I am particularly troubled by the elitist snobbery underlying so much of this stuff. Finally, it bothers me to have the memory of a great artist slandered by people calling him nothing more than a front man–maybe even a plagiarist–for the true artist. I’m very fond of Shakespeare, even though we’ve never met socially, and I don’t like to see him treated that way.
Gedaly Apr 30
Hey, I agree with you completely. A lot of it is arrant nonsense to me. I also don’t like to hear great artists called plagiarists or a front-man. It is indeed sad that many aren’t satisfied to leave this issue alone and respect the playwright who is credited with the works, no matter how little we know of him.
But what I meant to say in my late night, not-so-coherent rant was that by questioning the authorship of the plays, we should not lose sight that these are great works of art and should be treated as such, even you don’t believe a humble poet from Stratford wrote them.
Roger Apr 30
Hey there,
Bard Blog dude.
One good turn deserves another.
Who wrote this blog?
Who cares?
How does it feel?
A.K.Farrar Apr 30
Roger, Shakespeare is dead (and also anyone else involved in writing the plays) – so he doesn’t feel anything.
El Geek in his (good) review of ‘Shakespeare’s Wife’ gives a key to the many locks needed to be opened in answering this question: The very human need to ‘know’ who is responsible (and what that person is like) for things in our personal world – especially for something which impacts so strongly on that world – for someone to say ‘I don’t care’ about something that affects them deeply is a little bit of self-illusion.
It is a question of honesty and belief in the truth if that honesty is not there.
It is also, I think, a question of context – we interpret everything ‘in context’ – the context given by false biography has a nasty habit of skewing the text – think of the bru-ha-ha over the sonnets and Shakespeare ‘the gay’.
Greer’s placing him firmly in the fold of ‘wife loving husband’ will change the meaning of the text at several levels – forbidden love flies through the window …
Gedaly May 1
Roger, your link point to the Shakespeare Fellowship so I’ll assume that you have something to do with it. In which case I mean no disrespect, there’s nothing wrong with the quest for knowledge and truth. It just so happens that my personal preference is not to go down that particular path. I noticed that I didn’t craft my words as well as I should have… I posted while rather tired.
I’m all in favor of discussion on any issue so you are also entitled to share your opinion.
You’ve got some good points Alan. One’s understanding, however limited, of the author does skew the text to some extent. I suppose I do care, but lets just say that my human need to ‘know’ gravitates more strongly toward other issues.
Rick May 1
Tired or not, this viewpoint is one I do appreciate.
So many people are more interested in finding out “what’s wrong” with something instead of simply embracing “what’s right!” There’s nothing simpler to do than to point blame or create rumors based on bits of information surrounded by no solid fact. In this specific case these works of literature are the same works of literature no matter who wrote them. Now while I think it’s just downright silly (and this is just my personal opinion) to spend time trying to point them to a different author, Gedaly’s point that these works remain great regardless is a solid foundation to work from.
Of course I love the discussions and opinions on this. I just happen to agree with this one… no matter how tired the words were.
Mark May 1
Some actually do care. The plays and poems are one thing if written, a la Shakespeare In Love, by a player-playwright as a commercial enterprise — or whether there’s also a controversial, political layer of meaning, written by a courtly insider, commenting on the power politics of the Elizabethan government. It’s that second part of the story that has been very much neglected in telling Shakespeare’s story. It’s that part of the story that I was most interested in refocusing on in my book — http://shakespearebyanothername.com. Click on the “Audio” tab for free downloadable audios/podcasts. There’s also a free Google Earth atlas to explore the whole of late Renaissance Europe that’s being depicted in these immortal plays, whether we recognize the original context or not.
A.K.Farrar May 1
An advert, by any other name, is just an advert.
Gedaly May 2
Yay Rick! I’m glad I’m not alone out there. I’m a little perturbed when I hear about English or Theatre classes where the students spend a good portion of the Shakespeare unit discussing whether he wrote his plays or not. It’s definitely worth discussing… but that leaves less time for learning about and enjoying the plays!
Wow, an author of a popular book is reading my blog? I feel honored! Hi Mark! I must admit that I have listened to much of the podcast edition of your work in the past. You’ve certainly done your homework and that’s always nice too see. The “second part of the story” that you mentioned is an interesting story indeed.
Roger May 3
Hi Gedaly,
You aren’t alone. You’re defending a perspective that, however improbable it may seem to an informed view, is still a majority opinion.
Its nice that you listened to Mark’s podcast and are able to admit that “you’ve certainly done your homework.”
Cheers,
“Doc”
Matt May 11
I’m with the camp here that’s against the authorship debate, but mostly because I find peoples’ tendency to try to discredit great men deplorable.
Amateur Reader May 19
There’s also a strange prestige issue here. We know far more about Shakespeare than we do about Thomas Kyd or John Webster, but no one bothers with trying to prove their works were written by someone else. It’s just as likely, or unlikely, but no one cares.