"Will in the World"

Shakespeare's lifetime was full of events as compelling as those in his plays. Any author, however, claims at his peril that he knows exactly how reality and Shakespeare's fictions line up. In Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare author Stephen Greenblatt presents the real events in a most fascinating way. Then he quite frankly speculates on how Shakespeare reflected them in his poetry and plays.

Some questions will never be answered. Many authors have pondered them, sometimes rather trivially, sometimes, as in this book, in a thought-provoking way. Was there a real lover -- a man who inspired Shakespeare to write the early sonnets? A real dark lady for the later sonnets? Did the trial of the secret Jew Roderigo Lopez influence the creation of Shylock? Are the witches in Macbeth related to the witches in the deep and disturbed fears of King James? How did the death of Hamnet, Shakespeare's young son, relate to the creation of Prince Hamlet?


Greenblatt is most interesting when describing the complexities of life under Queen Elizabeth. The tension over the perceived Catholic menace, the residual Catholic faith among many inhabitants of the realm, the yearning that some felt because of the loss of Catholic ritual -- all are shown to be interesting topics in themselves, all most interestingly tied to the content of the plays.

I love the way Shakespeare's early life is connected, speculatively, to his career. For example, I enjoyed the discussion of whether Shakespeare had a history as a deer poacher at Sir Thomas Lucy's deer park at Charlecote near Stratford (shown in a photo from our visit in 2000). Then I enjoyed the speculation of what this did to Shakespeare: "Throughout Shakespeare's career as a playwright he was a brilliant poacher -- deftly entering into territory marked out by others, taking for himself what he wanted, and walking away with his prize under the keeper's nose." (Will in the World, p. 152)

Ultimately, the book also is most interesting for its interpretation of the plays. For example, I like this:

Macbeth leaves the weird sisters unpunished but manages to implicate them in a monstrous threat to the fabric of civilized life. The genius of the play is bound up with this power of implication, by means of which the audience can never quite be done with them, for they are most suggestively present when they cannot be seen, when they are absorbed into the ordinary relations of everyday life. If you are worried about losing your manhood and are afraid of the power of women, it is not enough to look to the bearded hags on the heath, look to your wife. If you are worried about temptation, fear your own dreams. If you are anxious about your future, scrutinize your best friends. And if you fear spiritual desolation, turn your eyes on the contents not of the hideous cauldron but of your skull: 'O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!' (3.2.37)" (Will in the World, p. 355)