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The Personality of Shakespeare
“Unlike most sensitive people, he did not spend his time nursing his own sensitivities; instead he used them as a means to find his way into the hearts and minds of others.”
This books is part of a trilogy devoted to the foremost among the older English poets: Milton, Chaucer and, here, Shakespeare.
Many, if not most, Shakespearean scholars have despaired of moving beyond the poet’s so-called objectivity to get at the man himself. Drawing upon the known facts of Shakespeare's life, the writings of his contemporaries, and, above all, his immortal works, the distinguished scholar and critic Edward Wagenknecht establishes that Shakespeare was “an extraordinarily sensitive man” who “used his sensitivities to find his way into the hearts and minds of others.”
Shakespeare had, moreover, a warm, genial, and sunny imagination; he wrote more comedies than tragedies or histories. He was also a private person who “kept the citadel of his personality untouched.” His conclusion is that “there is nobody in secular history at least to whom we owe more than we do to Shakespeare”, fine praise indeed for a praiseworthy man.
Wagenknecht’s work quotes from many of Shakespeare’s characters, into whose mouths the playwright feeds his view of the world: its people, religions, organisations, ethics and morals.
There are also two appendices written by other critics of Shakespeare, further illuminating the life and times of the bard.
This books is part of a trilogy devoted to the foremost among the older English poets: Milton, Chaucer and, here, Shakespeare.
Many, if not most, Shakespearean scholars have despaired of moving beyond the poet’s so-called objectivity to get at the man himself. Drawing upon the known facts of Shakespeare's life, the writings of his contemporaries, and, above all, his immortal works, the distinguished scholar and critic Edward Wagenknecht establishes that Shakespeare was “an extraordinarily sensitive man” who “used his sensitivities to find his way into the hearts and minds of others.”
Shakespeare had, moreover, a warm, genial, and sunny imagination; he wrote more comedies than tragedies or histories. He was also a private person who “kept the citadel of his personality untouched.” His conclusion is that “there is nobody in secular history at least to whom we owe more than we do to Shakespeare”, fine praise indeed for a praiseworthy man.
Wagenknecht’s work quotes from many of Shakespeare’s characters, into whose mouths the playwright feeds his view of the world: its people, religions, organisations, ethics and morals.
There are also two appendices written by other critics of Shakespeare, further illuminating the life and times of the bard.
190 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1979
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April 25, 2016
I've actually started this book a while ago and put it down about tenth of a way in for sheer tediousness. But my OCD wouldn't let a book go unfinished and so now it is, in honor of the 400 year anniversary of the bard's death. It's understandable why the greatest writer of the English language (well, arguably maybe, but this is my subjective opinion) would cause so much speculation, we know so few things about him. Some basic biographical facts, sure, but the rest is primarily supposition and speculation. It might have all just been an elaborate literary hoax concocted by Earl of Oxford. Point is, if speculate we must, let it be fun. Not this soporific dense academese treaty that reads like a not particularly exciting, albeit well researched, thesis. Followed up by several others, though charitably shorter ones, by different scholars. We learn a few amusing things, Shakespeare's alleged strong dislike of domestic quadrupeds or that he was at some point a Groom of the Chamber to his patron James I. Or was it groom of the stool? The latter would be infinitely more entertaining to imagine. At some point the author does allow for the fact that most of his findings might be conjectural...but then again, probably not, although it's purely speculation, educated guesses, extrapolations, inferences and suppositions. And so this book has really only two things going for it, its brevity and the fact that it's heavily interspersed with direct quotations from the bard himself, which are always a delight. Read some Shakespeare and draw your own conclusions, it'll most likely be considerably more rewarding of an experience.
Displaying 1 of 1 review