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We recognise the dramatic world that Shakespeare created. Whether its Macbeth or Iago , Kent or
Gloucester , his characters soon start spouting in the
identifiable Shakespearean manner. We also have the synthetic myth of the world-renowned English
writer , the schoolboy's bugbear , the Swan of Avon.
What we don't have is any real clue as to what sort of chap he actually was. Was he a charmer , a
windbag , a boozer , a shmendrik ? The Canadian literary
critic Northrop
Frye suggested that “the only evidence we have of Shakespeare's
existence , apart from the poems and plays , is the portrait of a man who was clearly an idiot.”
There was also the second-hand bed bequeathed to his wife.
A skinflint ? Getting his plays produced at the courts of both Elizabeth and James I must have
required a degree of schmoozing. Was he a yes-man to Power ?
And where did he stand in the class war ? What was his attitude to feminism ? Its not the plots of
his dramas (largely borrowed from earlier sources) that
constitute his appeal to us but the 'verbal music' that animates them. We hear this music most
poignantly in his sonnets , a collection of poems that weave
through the writer's passionate friendship with an unidentified young man , his friend's seduction
by the poet's own mistress and , infamously , the writer's
humiliating infatuation with the 'Dark Lady' , who he describes as 'the bay where all men ride'.
In our meretricious times , we can imagine a tabloid headline :
The Bonking Bard : His Exclusive Story. The following , Sonnet 73 , is an Elizabethan
version of the Carter Family's song When I'm Gone or Roky Erickson's
You're Gonna Miss Me , written when he was with the 13th. Floor
Elevators :
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves , or none , or few , do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold ,
Bare ruined choirs , where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west ;
Which by and by black night doth take away ,
Death's second self , that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire ,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie ,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire ,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceivest , which makes thy love more strong ,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Of what relevance are the 'classics' of yesteryear to the modern , supercharged consumer economy ?
Well , Vivaldi proved useful when automated phone-answering systems put you on hold. Not only pop-art but
other well-known art-historical themes proved
useful to advertising. Yet no amount of 'modernising' the cast outfits (Chicago gangster suits ,
Silicon valley casual wear) can mitigate the difficulty of
Shakespeare's dramatic texts , dense and impenetrable to our monosyllabic ears. Televised versions
of them are unlikely to find sponsored (or viewing) favour , beyond
an occasional 'prestige' production on BBC 2. Not so long ago - in my younger days - the political
content of the history plays were regarded as pertinent commentaries
on the unchanging nature of political shinnanikins from his day to ours. Current times have seen
politicians reduced to implementing the whims and policies of an
unelected cabal of financial interests. The insolence of office. We can find little leverage in
some bald geezer's quill-scribed speeches placed into the mouths of
abdicating or aspiring kings , jealous rivals for power , fools in doublet and hose , scheming
wives and ungrateful daughters. Appropriately then , his most-quoted
character became the brand-name of a relaxing cigar.
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Archive
Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic
Pessimism, 13th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's
Friend, 10th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of
Two Dylans, 12th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam,
14th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake,
25th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet,
19th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy,
20th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's
Sonnets, 21st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas,
20th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's
Anthology, 19th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William
Plomer, 21st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts ,
20th August 2013
Poets' Corner #13 – William
Dunbar, 20th September 2013
Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub
Thoughts, 20th October 2013
Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music,
20th November 2013
Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia &
Emily, 20th December 2013
Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of
Icarus, 16th January 2014
Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone
Before, 20th February 2014
Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard
Kipling, 20th March 2014
Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell,
20th April 2014
Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest
Proposal, 20th May 2014
Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray
and The Eighteenth Century, 20th June 2014
Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan
Poe, 18th July 2014
Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly,
19th August 2014
Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be
Saved, 24th December 2015
Poets' Corner #26 – Wants,
20th January 2016
Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel
Johnson, 15th February 2016
Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot,
10th March 2016
Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord
Tennyson, 18th April 2016
Poets' Corner #30 – Leonard Cohen,
12th November 2016
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