About Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts…

-As You Like It / William Shakespeare

If you ask the question of who is worthy of the title “the author of the authors” in an art circle, you’ll encounter many answers but surely not a single definitive one. Because there isn’t any. Some will say Joyce because of his revolutionary use of language. Some will say Proust for his mindblowing account of expertly written descriptions and some’ll say Faulker or Dostoyevsky et cetera. The list goes on like this without any actual end. But actually, there exist a consensus within this endless debate: the one and only master of emotional portrayal of human beings. Even for people who’re not really into literature, the name who writes about our love, our hatred, our ambitions and our lusts most successfully is undeniably William Shakespeare. The signature “Shakespeare” is the collosus of the whole art history, the titan, the monument: never be forgotten. Because everybody knows that the single name itself carries the burdens of many: the passion of Romeo, the oath of Hamlet, the corruption of Machbeth… But really, who is the real person after this intensely influential signature? Who is the true responsible for these literary treasures? Is he real, or is he just a delusion of this signature? Who is William Shakespeare?

Mark Twain, the writer of Huckleberry Finn and one of the most celebrated American authors of all time once declared “As everyone knows and can easily prove, Shakespeare of Stratford-Upon-Avon had never written a play for his whole life.” in his hugely misunderstood essay “Is Shakespeare Dead?”. Also considering the names including Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles, who support Twain on his belief, we’re left with a one crucial question: “How can we be so sure about the existence of this Shakespeare, despite all these gaps about his life?” The mystery is still alive after many centuries and this piece of writing of mine won’t answer those mysteries singlehanded but will try to provide you some new insights on this topic. At least, that’s my purpose. So let’s get started.

William Shakespeare is born in a small town of England; Stratford-upon-Avon. Even his real birthday is still unknown, many experts take it as 23rd of April, three days before his baptism –which is also his day of death. His father was a trader of leather goods, his mother was the daughter of a wealthy family and William was the third of eight children and unfortunately one of the few to stay alive. Even through the first school he was registered in is still uncertain to this date, most of the predictions say that the most logical choice here is King’s New School, which is only 400 meters away from his house. But we’re certain that his lessons were mostly consisted of Latin language and culture. When he was 18, he accidently got a woman named Anne Hathaway pregnant and married her. His first child Susanna was born six months later. But other twins, Hamnet and Judith, died at young age, sharing the fate of Shakespeare’s siblings.

Starting from the twins incident and ending at the beginning of his London career, the years between 1585 and 1592 are named “The Lost Years” by the Shakespeare scholars. A theory from Nicholas Rowe, the writer of the first Shakespeare biography suggests that he was actually a poacher, hunting in the lands of a famous politician named Thomas Lucy. Another theories suggest that he was a horse trickster or a teacher but these assumptions are valueless compared to the theory of Rowe.

After he moved to London, he started gaining some reputation as the “brilliant newcomer”, which actually attracted some attention, some good some bad. Famous names of the London art circle vilifed him, naming him as a vulgar crow or a second-class repairman. But he rose with a terrific speed and built his famous theater with his crew named King’s Men. They named the place “The Globe”. At that specific time, Shakespeare’s signature was in many real estate deals, so he was probably getting richer. Also his plays were getting more famous and famous. His works such as Hamlet, Romeo And Juliet, Machbeth, Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream were household names at London theaters. His reputation grew fast and soon he became the one and only king of London theater circle.

But his career as a writer and also an actor (even his image, acting as the ghost of Hamlet’s father became iconic in years) were slowly coming to an end. He wrote three more plays with John Fletcher -a member of his King’s Men crew- and then ended his career. He went to his hometown Stratford to spend his last days peacefully and died after a heavy drinking night. The day he died, 23rd of April, 1616 was also his birthday and he was buried in Holy Trinity Church.

Arda YEŞİLDAĞ

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