All quotes are from Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography.
“T.S. Eliot once suggested that bad poets borrow while good poets steal; Shakespeare managed to do both.” (page 193)
That got mangled and the way I first saw it, attributed without attribution was Pablo Picasso, as “Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
“Self-estrangement has become so obvious a topic of Shakespearean commentary that it is often forgotten that it is peculiar to, and symptomatic of, his genius.” (page 193)
And?
“It has often been noticed that in the plays there is no sense of Shakespeare’s personality, and that the characters themselves do all the thinking.” (page 193)
Hard to imagine, then that the writer removed himself, and let the characters speak for themselves. Just the other day, Bubba was telling me….
“We may refine this further by noting that Shakespeare excelled at scenes in which authority confronts disorder where, by the use of colloquialisms and other devices, the figure of authority is able to communicate with the discomfited crowd.” (page 199)
It was a point about some of the earlier plays that might, or might not, have been written by the young playwright, sort of like early versions of history plays. Or plays, which might – or might not – have had Shakespeare’s input. At least one or two early plays were probably, at the very least, doctored by him.
“The humor of the Elizabethan stage, and indeed the humor of the medieval mysteries and interludes, survives still in farce and in pantomime. It is one of the unchanging features of the English imagination.” (page 222)
Humor. Important. Heard it before, “Say something funny.” I’ve generally enjoyed the comedy of manners, and more important, the absurd, black comedy of the British. Strange lands, strange lads. Lord Strange’s Men, that was one of the companies the young Shakespeare was associated with.
“There are a great many stage-fights in his plays; no other dramatist of the period used them so frequently or with such dramatic effect, which suggests some particular interest on his part.” (page 234)
Sex and violence. Remind me of Thersites, “Still wars and lerchery, nothing else holds fashion.” (I think I missed the quote.)
But the point is taken, and Shakespeare – the actor – probably trained for stage sword fighting, hence the popularity. Plus violence. Action movies, you know. As the song goes, the “cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder….” however, a wee bit of the ulta-violence is always good for drawing a crowd.
“Imagination and borrowing were part of the craft of composition. It is the normal story of influence and gradual change.” (page 237)
“He would sometimes copy a source line by line, and even word for word, when he knew he could not surpass it. His interest lay in reimagining events and characters.” (page 238)
In our more modern times, that would get lawyers out, but the story,, as it unfolds, traces the various versions of plays, especially the more accessible data about early plays, and how certain parts were added as time went by.
Laeti edimus qui nos subigant!
(click to visit)
