Brush Up Your Shakespeare Essay, Research Paper

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L. A. Sherman asks and answers this one question, which I have often asked my

self. ” What is Shakespeare? Why does the world account him great and put him so

generally at the head of all literary masters? Most people, at least such as has to do with

books, at some time or other ask themselves these questions, and often fail of personal,

satisfying conclusions. Men and women of liberal education for most part understand

Shakespeare’s secret, having divined it in consequence of many years of training. Some

common folk become his confident disciples without such aid. But the great majority of

readers seem not to know what Shakespeare is like, or how a maker of plays should be

held superior to authors who produce literature in a more popular and available form

(Sherman, 1).”

William Shakespeare is said to be one of et playwrights of all times. I agree with

this statement, but I feel, as a Theatre major I do not know that much about this genius

and that I could learn a lot more. Like his childhood, early beginning in the theatre, The

Globe, and his treatment of Monastic life in his plays.

William Shakespeare was born to John and Mary on April 23 1564. He was

baptized three days after the Holy Trinity, the old collegiate church, hearalded a period of

prosperity when it had seemed that fortune smiled on John and Mary. For after the loss of

two daughters, before Will, they were blessed with 5 children after Will, Gilbert (1566),

Joanne (1569), Anne (1571), Richard (1574) and finally Edmund (1580), who followed in

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his brother to become and actor. ” At the age of fourteen the future was full of promise

for the young Will: he had the right, like any good pupil of the grammar school, to benefit

by one of the scholarships which the generosity of Sir John Clopton had made available to

the students of the town. The gates of the University of Oxford were open to many of

them. The scholarship given to one of the Hankins brothers, for example, might have

gone to young Will, but did not. However at the at the time when most well-to-do young

men are free to decide on their future career, troubles came upon young Will and his

relatives. Misfortunes descended upon this family hitherto so prosperous, and as will be

seen, it was not at the university, that the future dramatist completed his duration, but in

the rough school of life (de Chambrun, 31).”

Six months after the birth of Will’s daughter, Susanna he was stirred by a horrible

episode. His neighbor, John Somerville, proprietor of the manor of Ederston, was

condemned to death for an accused plot against the Queen, and his accomplices were

sought in Stratford and its neighboring towns. Somerville who was a few years older than

Will, and already the father of two children; who had married the cousin of Will.

Will’s entry into London was less far from triumphant. Sir William d’Avenant,

godson to Nicholas Rowe, playwright and poet laureate gave more information: ” When

he came to London he was without money and friends, and being a stranger knew not

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to whom apply himself. At that time, coaches, not being in use and as gentlemen were

accustomed to ride the to the playhouse, Will, driven to the last necessity, went to the

playhouse door, picked up a little money by taking care of the gentlemen’s horses who

came to the play (de Chambrun, 65).” He became so eminent in that profession and was

taken notice for his diligence and skill. He had soon more business that he himself could

take care of, and at last hired boys under him who were known as “Shakespeare’s Boy’s”,

some of the players accidentally conversing with him found him so acute and a master of

such a fine conversation that they were struck right then and there and recommended him

to the house.

It just so happened that the proprietor of The Theatre, and an owner of a livery

stable was James Burbage. Burbage was not a stranger to young Will, who had admired

the spectacle at Kenilworth. It was Burbage who had in fact produced those celebrations.

A carpenter by trade, Burbage built in London a large hall that accomodated actors, who

until then were used to using precarious stages of inn yards or public buildings. This new

stage of Burbage’s was called The Theatre, which his son James later shared in principle

parts with Will as a fellow actor. Soon Burbage, the enterprising proprietor, would build

other theatres.

When Will arrived in London, the curtain has already risen at Shoreditch, on the

outskirts of the city. The Rose was opening its doors on the other side of the Thammes.

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The theatres were only open for 3 days a week at the time and the modest

remuneration of a lad was insufficient to provide for a man in the city. With no doubt will

had to have had a second income.

It is suggested that Will worked in a lawyers office as a clerk, which would

explain the frequent use of legal jargon in his sonnets and plays. Two commentators

William Blades and William Jaggard, have devoted studies proving that Will’s work

implies a quasi professional knowledge of the printers craft.

If Will had quickly arrived at the summit of success and kept a position

there all his life, this was because all of his talents were very theatrical. Experiences as a

dramatist, actor and producer, he exploited all the resources of his profession. Guided like

Moliere by his knowledge of the psychology of his audience. Instead of being astonished

that a mere actor could have written such masterpieces, it would be more logical to

wonder is Will could have created them in any other situation.

Since his arrival in London, he felt more at home with the theatre people

that among the university men , who claimed a monopoly on playwrighting. He was

Recognized as a leader, by the rest of the actors. A leader who was able to bring their art

to perfection. His fellow actors a good friend full of sensibility and understanding saw

him.

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Between December 28, 1598 and February 20 1599, the company was

occupied with quite a different occupation. It seems that the landlord of the site on which

The Theatre was built claimed that they had not paid their rent in full. Therefore they, the

company of The Theatre, were busy recovering the material used to build the Theatre.

The players, directed by a carpenter, Peter Street, armed with axes,

poignards, swords, and bill hooks, assisted in the demolition and transport of the materials

across the Thames. On January 20th, they returned to take what remained, but this time

they had protesters from the guardians of the playhouse. Street in turn spent several days

in prison for this. However everyone worked with such teamwork that his or her task was

accomplished in a mere three months. At the end of April 1599, the Globe opened its

doors.

John Adams, best describes the Globe structure: ” The shapes, sizes and

interrelationships of the may parts of the Globe stage and auditorium were determined

Or at least strongly influenced, by he shape, size and structure of the playhouse as a

whole. I shall begin, by presenting evidence from contemporary maps and views that the

globe was three stories, octagonal structure, surrounding an unroofed yard. After as brief

survey of the Globe site I shall analyze the builders contracts which show that the

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playhouse structure measured 83 feet between the outside walls, 34 feet high to the eaves

line, and 58 feet across the interior yard (Adams, 1).

Most of the current vies of London misrepresent the proportions of the Globe.

One view, exhibits a building approximately as high as it is wide. Others seriously

exaggerate the height one by Delaram, whose Globe dwarfs all the near-by buildings.

Needless to say such exaggeration is the result of pictorial emphasis.

The Globe stood on a marshy ground. Like the Fortune and the Hope,

there fore it must have ” a good suere (sure) and strong foundation of piles, brick and

lyme, and sand both without within (i.e., for both outter and inner walls.) to be wrought

one foote of assize at the leiste above the ground ( Adams, 17).”

When the foundations of pile and brick were ready, carpenters were able to

start building the frame. The Globe used a certain amount used material, from The

Theatre. At the globe the proportion of used material was very high, since the Burbages

salvaged much of their original playhouse, The Theatre.

The dimensions given in the Fortune contract for the platform- “an which stadge

shall conteine in length forty and three foote of lawful assige and in breadth (depth) to the

middle of the yards” seen at first look to imply a rectangle. It is generally assumed that

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the globe platform likewise was rectangle, except for the rear corners lost to the oblique

side walls of the tiring houses.

The question of Shakespeare’s religion is one that might appear at first sight to be

of minor importance in this computer age. In point it is a question of vital significance for

a true interpretation of Will’s life and personality. I am very interested in this part and his

portrayal of the monastic community in his plays, since I am going to a University that is

run by a group of Benedictine Monks.

It is clear that Shakespeare not merely approved of the life contemplative, but that

he deliberately set himself the task of exalting it. “This is most obvious of all in Measure

for Measure, where precisely the two characters who turn the drama into vindication of

monastic institutions, namely “Friar Lodowick” and the novice “Isabella” are both the

poets own invention (Mutschmann & Wentersdorf, 291).” Similar compulsions may be

drawn from the portrayal of Will’s other important monastic creation, “Friar Lawrence in

Romeo and Juliet.

The other Friars and Nuns appearing in the tragedies are also depicted in a

completely Catholic spirit. They are all, without exceptions, pious, worthy persons

entitled to the highest respect. This fact is al the more significant when we recall the

attitude of the English Protestant towards Catholic asceticism. Every attempt was made

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to disparge the catholic institutions of priesthood and cenobites. Monastic life was a thorn

in the eye of the Anglican Church: precisely because Catholic asceticism was regarded as

symbolic of the Roman Church , the Protestants at that time spared no means to awaken

and cultivate a hatred of it in the minds of the English. And, ants, the so called Puritans: it

also found strong support in the Anglican Church. In the 39 Articles of Religion, which

from the dogmatic basis of the English state church, the teaching of the evangelical

counsels- poverty, chastity, and obedience-is expressly described in Article XIV (”On

Works of Supererogation”) as arrogance and impiety.

This is by no means the opinion of Will: his description of individual friars and

nuns as well as his repeated references to monastic life in the general show that he was far

from agreeing with the Anglican point of view, and that on the contrary, he was strongly

convinced of the sublimity and the piety of ascetic life. For him it was a blessed state.

When “Hermia” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is forced to decide between

marrying the husband of her father’s choice or entering a nunnery, Duke Theseus warns

her to consider the manner carefully:

Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whether, if you yield not to your father’s choice,

You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to be sad in shady cloister mew’d,

To live a barren sister all your life,

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Chanting faint hyms to the cold fruitless moon. (i.I.68)

He points out that the marriage could make her happier as judged from human

standpoint:

But earlier happy is the rose distill’d,

Than that which withering on the virgin thorn,

Grows, lives, and dies, in struggling blessedness. (i.I.76)

However the Duke does not omit at the same time to remind her of the blessedness

of those who make the sacrifice of chastity:

Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage. (i.I.74)

All this in complete harmony with Catholic teachings: marriage is not theheaven-

made institution but a holy sacrament, and yet despite this (see I Corinthians 7), God

devoted chastity is superior to matrimony there can be little doubt that Will, accepted this

doctrine and tried to give it dramatic form and expression. It is not merely in connection

with the members of monastic orders that Will defends and even glorifies Catholic

asceticism. Throughout his works we find passages indicating that the poet regarded the

practice of extreme rigor and self-denial as a means to mortify the flesh and thus make it

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possible to perform works of the spirit. “Othello”, believing his wife his guilty of

committing adultery tells her:

this hand of your requires

A sequester form liberty, fasting, and prayer,

Much castigation, exercise devout;

For here’s a young and sweating devil here,

That commonly rebels. Othello, iii,4.40

Asceticism, of course, is not in itself a virtue but only means to an end. To regard

it as an end itself, perhaps even feel superior to others because on practices it, is to court

danger: for pride goeth before a fall. Will illustrates this in the person of “Lord Deputy

Angelo, a person with a reputation for extreme chastity:

a man whose blood

I very snow-broth: one who never feels

The wanton stings and motions of the sense,

But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge

With profits of the mind, study and fast. Measure for Measure, i.4.57

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This man who regards himself with pharisaical pride as more virtuous than his

fellow beings and who condemns a man to death for unshastity, is himself revealed as

unchaste. His offence is particularly objectionable because he attempts to seduce a novice

by means of blackmail.

It cannot be expected that Will should have expressed himself more clearly than

this on the subject of the suppression of these ancient centers of culture. However his

series if idealistically conceived monastic figures is sufficient and, at thay period in

England, unsurpassed evidence of the Catholic character of his outlook, and unqualified

song of praise in honor of the religious orders.

In conclusion, after the research I have got my answer to the question I asked in

the benign, “What is Shakespeare?”. I have decided that he is a pretty good guy, and

genius at his trade.

Bibliography

De Chambrun, Longworth, Clara. Shakespeare: A Portait Restored.

P.J. Kennedy & Sons, New York

Sherman, L.A.. What is Shakespeare?.

The Macmillan Company, London (1902)

Mutchmann and Wentersdorf. Shakespeare and Catholicism

Sheed and Ward. (1952)

Adams, Cranford, John. The Globe Playhouse

Barnes and Noble. New York (1964)

Spencer Hankins

Theatre History Paper

“BRUSH UP YOUR SHAKESPEARE”