humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/books/08book.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

To posterity the balding man in the courtroom was the greatest
writer in the English language. To the maidservant formerly
employed at his lodgings, he was "one Mr Shakespeare that laye
in the house." To the Court of Requests, taking depositions in
a lawsuit in 1612, he was simply a witness who gave his statement,
signed a hurried "Wm Shakspe" and then took his leave.

This fleeting glimpse of Shakespeare as he appeared to others,
grounded in a specific London setting, seized the imagination of
Charles Nicholl, a British biographer and historian. He embarked
on a painstaking investigation into the particulars of the lawsuit,
the family that rented rooms to the middle-aged playwright and life
on Silver Street, where Shakespeare "laye" (that is, resided) from
about 1603 to 1605, a period when he wrote, among other plays,
"Macbeth," "All's Well That Ends Well" and "Measure for
Measure." . . . .

Stratfordians believe that -- after some ten
years at the very top of his profession --
the occupation and fame of the greatest
entertainer of the age was quite unknown:
(a) to the maidservant who had known him
personally for all that time, and
(b) to the officials at the Court of Requests.

Makes sense, huh?


Paul.