Birthday for the Bard

Today, April 23, is the date generally accepted by scholars with a special interest in these matters as the birthday of the man we know as William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564.

Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, and the custom in Elizabethan England was that children were baptized three days after birth. What is undisputed is that Shakespeare also died on this date, in 1616, also in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The dates of birth and death are about all we know that is beyond controversy, and almost all we know about a man who left few footprints during his lifetime. Indeed, his life was poorly chronicled, leading to a great deal of scholarly speculation.

We know that Shakespeare married a pregnant Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, in 1582. The couple had three children, two of whom survived infancy. The Shakespeare marriage was said to be an unhappy one, with Shakespeare spending years at a time in London, attending to his theatrical career. There is no evidence that Hathaway ever joined her husband in London, and in his final will and testament, Shakespeare famously left his wife his “second best bed.” Opinions differ about what this meant, and if it was meant as snub at all, since superior beds were meant to be reserved for visitors.

The controversy over the Shakespeare marriage pales in comparison to the central question regarding Shakespeare that resounds to this day: did this “man from Stratford,” with little formal education, actually write the plays attributed to him? In the 18th Century, doubts began to surface concerning the authorship of the 37 plays and over 150 sonnets.

The case against the Stratford man consists mainly of the following: the author of the plays possessed a vast knowledge of English history and Continental Europe, as well as the inner-workings of the monarchy. The plays are sprinkled with references to foreign languages (indeed, Henry V’s courtship of his future wife is conducted nearly entirely in French). How could someone as intelligent, politically connected, and as boldly theatrical as Shakespeare have managed to live and die without leaving more biographical data? Or, to state it in a way that is less politically correct, how could the greatest works in the English language have been written by some rube from Stratford who was completely removed from the aristocracy?

The current leading contender to the crown of the “true author of Shakespeare’s plays” is Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, and the proponents of this view, which includes noted actor Derek Jacobi, refer to themselves as “Oxfordians.” Not surprisingly, those who believe that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare call themselves “Stratfordians.”

The authorship question will never be resolved, and exists now mainly as an academic parlor game. What matters is that Shakespeare continues to be performed all over the world and books on matters Shakespearean continue to be produced in great number. In 2004, Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt published Will in the Word: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare to great critical acclaim. British broadcaster Michael Wood produced In Search of Shakespeare in 2003, in which Shakespeare was examined against the backdrop of Elizabethan England. The list of books in print and available seems almost infinite.

The Royal Shakespeare Company continues to perform the Bard’s works in Stratford and London. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre presents outdoor productions on the south bank of the Thames in London every summer. The Stratford Festival of Canada presents Shakespeare in repertory annually from April to October in its lovely Ontario setting.

“The play is the thing” after all, and fortunately, it’s not difficult to find Shakespeare performing nearby, wherever you are.