For All Time

The final post--Part IV of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." Check out Part I, Part II, and Part III and why I am interested in learning about the life of William Shakespeare.

doublet & breeches

When Queen Elizabeth died, King James of Scotland stepped up to take the throne. He was known as a philosopher prince, surrounding himself with the arts. Consequently, Shakespeare's company was made the King's men. Michael Wood shows a document stating that Shakespeare and some of the men of his company were issued with a 4 yard roll of scarlet cloth. This amount of cloth was sufficient to make a doublet and breeches for the King's coronation. During the coronation of King James Shakespeare was one of the ushers that carried the canopy over the King. Needless to say Shakespeare was well favored among all the classes of his time.

The Christmas holiday meant providing entertainment for the royals for 2 long weeks. While reading a record about the Christmas holiday, Wood found a document with another funny spelling of Shakespeare: "Shaxberd." Maybe that's why we don't know much about Shakespeare's life...no one could spell his name right!

In this PBS series, the Royal Shakespeare Company follows Michael Wood on his tour through the life of Shakespeare. The company explained that during a normal season the RSC puts on 151 performances of 5 plays. During the same amount of time Shakespeare's company also performed around 150 times but they put on 38 plays, 21 of which were NEW. As Max explained in class, no wonder the term "winging it" came from play performances in the Elizabethan era.

Once again, political turmoil springs in November of 1609. Wood calls it the "Jacobian 9/11" when terrorists tried to blow up the royal family and Parliament. King James hunted the terrorists, which consequently purged England of catholics, since these were times of religious unrest. On the stage in London plays reflected the political atmosphere. It was at this time when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth--the murder of a Scottish king.




Pressure from the Puritans began about censorship against the theater. Shakespeare was forced to rewrite parts of his plays or face a 10 pound fine for every bit of profanity. These laws trickled into publishing as well as several of Shakespeare's scenes were cut because of publishing censors. Shakespeare was one of five collaborators of the play Sir Thomas Moore that was never put on because it was stopped by the censors. Taking a closer look at the transcripts of the play, Wood points out Shakespeare's writing and his horrible spelling. He spells silence "scilense", and Wood says he actually spells it like this many times in the Henry IV plays, too. We have to cut him some slack though, since he was cut short on a formal education.

Nathan Field
The Shakespearean Brad Pitt

In 1607 Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, fell in love and got married. Her husband was a doctor, and a Puritan. Adopting a Puritan into an underground Catholic family must've been quite the adjustment. As we can see, for Shakespeare, reconciliation of the Old and the New began at home.

Shakespeare wanted an indoor theater for the winter, so he and his company decided to open a second theatre on the other side of the river. In 1608 they got the Blackfriars theatre in the "poshest" part of the city. One winter, at Blackfriars, they made 1,000 pounds more than they did at The Globe. With that large sum of money The Blackfriars theater raised the social status of actors--one sign being that they had their portraits painted.


Michael Wood believes that one of Shakespeare's last plays The Tempest was "more than a hint of autobiography." There are storms in all of his last plays, storms that destroy all that is good in life--love, family, friendship, and the survivors and their children are redeemed by time. Wood thinks that The Tempest is Shakespeare's "personal voyage":

 "...it's about a dad who is a control freak full of bottled up aggression, who wants to take revenge on his enemies but in the end forgives them, and is reconciled when his daughter marries the son of his enemy. And with that, he announces that he's going to throw away forever his supernatural powers as a [conjurer] of words and magic."

Is Prospero Shakespeare?

In the spring of 1613 Shakespeare went back to in Worcester and bought land. Was he finally going back to settle down with his wife and family? Not quite yet. Later that year he bought a large house in London, very close to Blackfriers theater. The house was known as an old, catholic safe haven. The cellar still exists to this day, and there is a maze of tunnels underneath. Shakespeare's new home was basically the "epicenter of catholic London." Within the same year, Shakespeare begins to write again. He reflects back to the turning point in time that shaped his entire life--the rule of Henry VIII. Shakespeare satirically titles it Henry VIII or All is True.

In 1614 the The Globe theater burned down, and Shakespeare sold his share. He went back to Stratford to spend the rest of his days. He got sick in 1616 when he was only 51 years old. The story goes that he died of a fever after a drinking binge.

The will

Shakespeare's will can tell us something about his family life. Mostly of his assets go to his daughter, Susana, and some go to his acting friends Hennings, Burbage, Condel (money to buy rings). This short snippet of his will is all he has to give to his wife, Anne: "give unto my wife my second best bed of the furniture". When Ann's father died he left 2 beds in condition that they must stay in the family. Those two beds actually still exist today and you can find them at the Hathaway house. Wood thinks that one of those beds was probably taken by Anne when she and Shakespeare were first married, their "marriage bed." Many think that Shakespeare's will is evidence that he didn't love Anne, but it could have been a tender reminder of their love and the life they began together.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. The Stratford register records his burial: "William Shakespeare, Gentleman." Wood believes that all Shakespeare really wanted--to restore the family name. Shakespeare was a generous benefactor of the local church and he and his family got the prime burial spot right in front of the altar.

Seven years after Shakespeare's death, Heminges and Condell (dear friends and actors in his company) printed a collection of 36 of shakespeare's plays. In the front of the book his friends and family wrote the tribute:

"We have but collected [these plays]...without ambition either of selfe-profit, or fame: onely to keepe the memory of so worthy a Friend, & Fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare."

With the end of Shakespeare's life, even Ben Johnson, Shakespeare's foe, admitted

"He was not for an age, but for all time."