The Duty of a Poet

Part III of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." You can read Part I, and Part II if you're interested in Shakespeare's earlier years. These interesting facts and finds presented by Michael Wood in "In Search of Shakespeare" are information I will refer back to as I focus on the familial aspect of Shakespeare. Of course Shakespeare's own experience as a son, husband and father is something that enriches, taints and shapes his literature.

The last episode ended with Shakespeare earning a living to support his family back in Stratford. In 1593 the plague strikes and the playhouses are closed so Shakespeare has to look elsewhere to find money. He then focuses on poetry and comes out with his first published work "Venus & Adonis." He dedicated this book to Henry Earl of Southampton (who just inherited a fortune) hoping to get patronage, prestige, and money.

August 11, 1596 Shakespeare's only son Hamlet died at the age of 11. He may have been buried even before Shakespeare got the news. Michael Wood said Shakespeare reacted in these ways:

Emilia Bassano

• He impulsively bought the second biggest house in Stratford. Was this an attempt for a new start?
• He applied for a coat of arms for his father, John, as a way to recompense his reputation. Above the coat of arms Shakespeare wrote the motto "Not Without Right." He was granted the coat of arms, gaining the title of a gentleman and restoring his father's name. After losing his son, it seems as though Shakespeare wanted to mend the relationship with his father as a way to cope with his son's death.
• Michael Wood believes Shakespeare's sonnets to be mostly autobiographical. Many of them refer to "sun" alluding the death of his own child, Shakespeare's love for him and also his feelings of grief and loss.
• Sadly, Shakespeare also reacts by taking on a mistress. He had an affair with a married woman, who was musical, and had "dark skin". Who was she? Michael Wood finds evidence in the casebook of Dr. Simon Foreman (who Shakespeare made frequent visits to and his actors as well). On May 27, 1597 it is recorded that Dr. Foreman did the horoscope of Emilia Bassano. She was a member of the most famous musical family in Elizabethan London, who were Venetian Jews. It is interesting to note that at this time Shakespeare began writing "The Merchant of Venice." This woman, Emilia Bassano, drove Shakespeare "mad with desire and guilt."

Going back to Shakespeare's career, there was a heated feud which resulted in Shakespeare and his company literally taking apart the Shoreditch theatre when the owner was on a Christmas vacation. Those pieces turned into The Globe theater. The Globe theater was opened June 12, 1599. Shakespeare had a horoscope done to find out the right date to open the theater. The12th was a new moon and said to be the best day to move into a new house.

In matters of politics, Shakespeare had a terrifying episode. The Lord of Essex bribed Shakespeare and his actors to put on Richard II  and include a controversial scene the night before the Essex Rebellion (that never actually happened). Later, when those involved were tried for treason, Shakespeare's company was interragated. They said they only did it because they were told they would get 40 shillings more than they usually made. You'd think in those days that the fear of a religiously tyrannical leader would outweigh a bribe, but apparently money was just as much of a motivation as ever.

The emergence of "boy's companies" created a rift that become the "War of the Poets". The "war" began between the classically based works of Ben Johnson and the more contemporary, populist works of William Shakespeare. Michael Wood believes Shakespeare's response to the boy's companies was Twelfth Night, poking fun at the young "womenly" boys. Shakespeare wins the "War of the Poets" with Hamlet, and it all ends well (well, except for Hamlet).

Shakespeare is known as a man of the times and a man ahead of his time, writing about society and the permeable nature of men. Michael Wood refers to this when discovering documents of many "moor" people and inter-racial marriages in Elizabethan time. The year Shakespeare was writing Othello the English government was trying to expell all of the black people from the country. Was he a man of his time, illustrating the tragic ending of a black man in Othello, or was he a man ahead of his time casting a black man as the lead hero in a play? Wood ends this episode with Shakespeare's quote explaining the duty of a poet: "To speak what we feel not what we ought to say." I believe he was a man ahead of his time.