Thursday 4 November 2010

Did Shakespeare Read The News?

Of all the writers Shakespeare is the least "topical." His silence on the great figures and events of his time is weird. Yet if we know anything about him we are sure that he was a man of the world, a good "mixer," the friend of great men, a Londoner among Londoners. All that he knew about human nature he learned from the life around him. All the pulsations of his genius must have sprung from the events and conditions under which he lived. How came it, then, that this man about whom his period is so silent, is so silent about his period?
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 November 2010 at 19:45

    anything bad said about the government and the monarch at the time (especially in theatre, one of Elizabeth II's favourite past times), was an executional offence

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  2. Unknown6 November 2010 at 20:54

    A good point, but I think you meant Elizabeth the first, and James the first.

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