2 - Shakespeare’s Life, Times, and Stage

Summary

The celebrations which marked the 400th anniversary of the birth of Shakespeare at Stratford first gave Professor Schoenbaum the idea of ‘a little book narrating the quest for knowledge of Shakespeare the man; a book describing the different, sometimes opposing ideas of him that people over the centuries had entertained’. The little book which he has now produced runs to over 850 pages. It fulfills his original intention by giving an account, by turns fascinating, alarming and pathetic, of all those who have attempted to discover, or been tempted to invent, facts about the life of William Shakespeare. It exceeds that intention since it is not merely a history of opposed views and a study of the opponents who held them – it is a brilliant piece of modern historical scholarship which will endure as long as the study which it chronicles. No one who sets out to consider the life of Shakespeare can afford to ignore this book since it provides the scholar with the opportunity of reading down to his own starting point.