WEBVTT

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Welcome to the Deep Dive. Our mission here is

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simple. Take the stack of sources on history's

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most towering figures, distill the essential

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knowledge, and deliver it to you, the learner,

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in one fascinating conversation. And today, we

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are tackling a giant, I mean really the giant

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of literature, arguably the fundamental architect

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of the modern English language itself, William

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Shakespeare. Right. universally acknowledged

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isn't he greatest writer in english world's preeminent

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dramatist england's national poet often called

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the bard of avon yeah that title alone tells

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you something we have so much ground to cover

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today our deep dive is really focused on tracing

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the uh the established facts of his life you

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know what we actually know and analyzing that

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revolutionary evolution of his writing style

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we can sort of track it across three major creative

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phases definitely And crucially, we need to unpack

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those enduring historical controversies and,

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well, the gaps, the things that still persist

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centuries after his death. The sheer scale of

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his output is just astounding. It's essential

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context, really, for understanding his global

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impact, his extant works. What is it, something

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like 39 plays? Yeah, 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three

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long narrative poems, and various other verses.

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It's incredible. And when we talk about global

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influence, you have to consider this staggering

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fact. His plays have been translated into every

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major living language. Over 80, I read, including

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constructed ones like Esperanto and even Klingon.

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Klingon, that says it all, doesn't it? And they're

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performed more often than those of any other

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playwright worldwide. He is, simply put, the

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single most influential writer in the Western

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canon, period. Okay, so let's unpack this first.

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Let's leave the, you know, the bright lights

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of London for a moment and go back to where it

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all began. Stratford -upon -Avon, Warwickshire,

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a provincial market town. That's right. Shakespeare

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was born and raised there, and his background

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was, well, solid, if not exceptionally privileged.

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He wasn't aristocracy. But his family did have

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some local distinction. Oh, yeah. His father,

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John Shakespeare, was a successful glover. uh

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delton hides too but more importantly he served

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as an alderman and at one point bailiff which

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was basically the town's chief magistrate right

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exactly so william grew up in an environment

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where you know civic duty and commercial success

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were uh were key components of life not just

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farming and his mother mary arden she came from

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an affluent landowning family so that sort of

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tied him to the local gentry a step up maybe

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and biographers they always loved that neat historical

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symmetry around his birth and death dates. Ah,

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yes. The date paradox. He was baptized on April

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26th, 1564, but his birth date is traditionally

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observed on April 23rd, which is St. George's

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Day. And the same day he died in 1616. Exactly.

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The 23rd of April is an observance scholars kind

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of lean into, mostly because of that symmetry,

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but the actual birth record. Doesn't survive.

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Just the baptism. And in that era, baptism usually

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followed birth pretty quickly. Yeah, typically

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three days or so after birth, which makes the

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23rd a very reasonable guess, you know, but it's

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not confirmed. Just tradition. Okay, now his

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education. This is another area where we don't

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have hard records, but the consensus is he was

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extensively educated locally. What does that

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really tell us about the foundation for, well,

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for everything that came later? it tells us he

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didn't need oxford or cambridge to become the

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bard basically he likely attended the king's

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new school right there in stratford a free grammar

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school yes mandated by royal decree and following

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a really rigorous curriculum this wasn't just

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you know learning your abcs no it was intensive

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latin wasn't it oh very much so latin grammar

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rhetoric classical authors like ovid seneca cicero

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the boys would have been translating constantly

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learning how to construct formal arguments, being

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exposed to sophisticated poetic models, it really

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provides the perfect explanation for all those

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classical and historical illusions that just

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saturate his later work. Right, you don't need

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a university library if you've got Ovid drilled

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into you from a young age. Pretty much, yeah.

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Okay, so the personal drama seems to kick in

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when he's just 18. He marries Anne Hathaway.

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Who is eight years his senior, which was a bit

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unusual, maybe? And these circumstances are always

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described as suggesting haste. Why? What's the

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actual evidence beyond just... You know, speculation.

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Well, the evidence lies in the legal paperwork,

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essentially. The license was issued by the Consistency

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Court of the Diocese of Worcester, which wasn't

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the standard route. Okay. And more crucially,

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the marriage bans, that's the public notice of

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intent to marry, they were read only once instead

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of the usual three Sundays. Ah, cutting corners.

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Exactly. Reducing that notification period was

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a specific, deliberate action, and it was often

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taken when there was urgency involved, usually.

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usually a pregnancy that needed to be legitimized

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before the birth. And that urgency seems immediately

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confirmed, doesn't it? Their first child, Susanna,

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was born only six months later. May 1583. Yeah,

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six months is pretty definitive. It's part of

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that human drama that sometimes gets, you know,

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glossed over when we just focus on the poetry.

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Sure. And after Susanna, they had twins. Hamnet

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and Judith, born in 1585. And tragically, Hamnet

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died when he was just 11 in 1596. Right in the

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middle of Shakespeare's most productive period.

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Absolutely. That loss must have been profound.

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And you can certainly argue it colored the works

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that followed, especially perhaps the writing

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of Hamlet not long after. OK, so the period immediately

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following the birth of the twins from about 1585

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until he suddenly pops up in London print in

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1592. That's the seven year gap. That's the famous

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chasm scholars call the lost years. Lost years.

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It sounds so dramatic. Well, it is a fascinating

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historical blank canvas precisely because the

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official records just. dry up completely for

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seven years which naturally means people fill

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in the blanks oh inevitably this lack of documentation

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gave rise to all sorts of colorful um but largely

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unsubstantiated legends that have become part

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of the whole shakespeare mythos let's touch on

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a few of those the big one is that he had to

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flee stratford because he was in trouble with

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the law Yeah, the deer poaching story. This is

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the most famous anecdote, really. It was recounted

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by Nicholas Rowe, who was Shakespeare's first

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formal biographer back in the early 18th century.

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So quite a bit later. Oh, yes. The story claims

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Shakespeare was involved in poaching deer on

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the estate of a local bigwig, Sir Thomas Lucy.

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And apparently the prosecution was so severe

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that Shakespeare legged it to London. And supposedly

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took revenge by writing a nasty poem about Lucy.

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A scurrilous ballad, yes. It's a great story,

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isn't it? Fits that idea of the young rebellious

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poet sticking it to the establishment, but factually

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totally unproven. Right. What about his supposed

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first job in London? The horse -minding story.

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Ah, yeah. Another 18th century tale suggested

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he started right at the bottom, on the fringes

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of the theater world. Not as an actor or writer,

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but literally minding the horses of the wealthy

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theater patrons outside the playhouses. Plausible,

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I suppose. Entirely plausible as a starting point

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for, you know, an unknown young man trying to

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get a foothold. But again, zero contemporary

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evidence to confirm it. Just hearsay. And then

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there's the more sort of professional speculation,

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the idea he might have been a schoolmaster. That

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comes from a note by the antiquarian John Aubrey,

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who claimed Shakespeare worked as a country schoolmaster

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during this period. Which led to that whole complicated

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William Shakespeare theory. Exactly. In the 20th

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century, scholars picked up on Aubrey's note

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and connected it to a Lancashire landowner, Alexander

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Houghton. Houghton was a known Catholic recusant

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and his 1581 will mentioned a William Shakespeare.

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OK. So the theory was maybe our William Shakespeare

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used the name Shakespeare and was employed as

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a schoolmaster or maybe even an actor within

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the Houghton household, which could also subtly,

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you know, link him to Catholic sympathies during

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that hidden period. But the big problem is the

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name, right? The reality is Shakespeare was a

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relatively common name in Lancashire back then.

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It's suggestive. It's intriguing. But it's not

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proof. Not even close. We have to be really clear.

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These stories, they provide context for the kind

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of life he might have lived, the sort of things

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young men did. But they are all hearsay collected

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decades, sometimes centuries after his death.

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Those seven years, they remain largely a historical

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mystery. Which makes his sudden explosive arrival

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in the London scene all the more dramatic, really.

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Exactly. And his arrival isn't marked by some

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triumphant debut playbill. No, it's marked by

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a really vicious literary attack in 1592. Right.

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This is the earliest surviving mention of him

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in print from Robert Greene. That's the one.

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From Greene's rival playwright in his pamphlet,

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Grote's Worth of Wit, which was actually published

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just after Greene died. Well, Greene's attack

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is crucial, isn't it? Because it proves Shakespeare

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was already active and, well... Successful enough

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to make rivals really jealous. Vitally important.

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Green doesn't even use his name, does he? But

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he uses that unmistakable pun calling him the

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only shake scene in a country. There's no doubt

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who he means. And the source of Green's bitterness

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seems pretty clear. Class snobbery and Shakespeare's

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perceived lack of a formal university education.

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Oh, absolutely. Green had a master of arts from

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Cambridge. He clearly resented this guy, Shakespeare,

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achieving success without that university background.

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He called him an upstart crow, beautified with

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our feathers. Suggesting he was just copying

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or stealing from supposedly superior writers.

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Precisely. Taking the best bits from the university

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wits, as they were known. But the most pointed

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insult, the real kicker, was calling him Johannes

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Factotum. Which means jack of all trades. Yes,

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but it wasn't the compliment we might think of

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today like being versatile. Green was basically

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accusing Shakespeare of being an ambitious, arrogant

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tinkerer. Someone trying his hand at everything,

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comedy, tragedy, history, and daring to think

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he could match the work of the classically trained

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guys like himself, Thomas Nash, Christopher Marlowe.

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The subtext is basically, You're just a common

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actor trying to write like your betters. That's

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exactly the subtext. Stay in your lane, essentially.

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But despite green sour grapes, Shakespeare's

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career just took off, didn't it? By 1594, he

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wasn't just writing plays. He became a fundamental

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part of the business structure of his acting

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company. The Lord Chamberlain's men, yes. And

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this is probably the single most important factor

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in explaining his later financial success. He

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became a sharer. A part owner. A part owner,

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exactly. Most playwrights back then were just

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paid a one -time fee for a script, which meant

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they had to constantly churn out new stuff just

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to survive. A pretty precarious living. Very.

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But as a sharer, Shakespeare got a cut of the

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company's profits, not just a playwright's fee.

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And importantly, he'd get profits from revivals

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of his older hits, too. So he was literally invested

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in the company's success. That structure insulated

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him from that constant grind of the single payment

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system. Completely. And it made him wealthy.

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Wealthy enough to make significant investments

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back in his hometown. Right. Like buying new

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place in Stratford in 1597. Which was the second

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largest house in the whole town. Think about

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that. This demonstrates serious accumulated wealth

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far beyond what a typical playwright could manage.

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Bigger than the house he grew up in. Much bigger.

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And later, in 1605, he further diversified his

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income by investing in a share of the parish

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tithes, basically a kind of real estate investment

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generating steady income. This dual existence

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is just fascinating. He's at the absolute cultural

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core of London theatre, writing these masterpieces.

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But he's also constantly maintaining and investing

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in his Stratford life, like a successful merchant.

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He had remarkable business acumen. And it extended

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to the theater infrastructure itself, too. The

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Globe Theater. Yes. He was one of the partners

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who funded and built the iconic Globe in 1599.

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And later, when the company needed a winter venue,

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they were renamed the Kingsmen after getting

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a royal patent from James I in 1603. Right. King

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James. They took over the Blackfriars Indoor

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Theater in 1608. He wasn't just an author. He

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was effectively a theatrical mogul, a producer,

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an investor. And even with all this writing and

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managing the business. In his side, he apparently

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never stopped acting. Seems not. He continued

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to perform. We see his name in the cast list

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for plays written by his rivals, including Ben

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Johnson's Every Man in His Humor and Segenis'

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His Fault. Which tells us he remained a physical

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presence in the company, known to his peers as

00:12:32.269 --> 00:12:34.049
an actor, too. Definitely. Still part of the

00:12:34.049 --> 00:12:36.370
troupe. And we have that lovely little anecdote,

00:12:36.570 --> 00:12:39.309
though maybe apocryphal, that he played the ghost

00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:41.590
of Hamlet's father. Yeah, that tradition was

00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:44.350
passed down by early biographers. It's fitting,

00:12:44.450 --> 00:12:46.929
isn't it? The greatest writer perhaps playing

00:12:46.929 --> 00:12:49.789
one of the most atmospheric, short, but incredibly

00:12:49.789 --> 00:12:52.529
impactful roles in his own masterpiece gives

00:12:52.529 --> 00:12:54.990
you a sense of his connection to the stagecraft.

00:12:55.330 --> 00:12:57.789
It does. We should also probably mention collaboration,

00:12:58.190 --> 00:13:01.769
right? Mm -hmm. The idea of the lone genius wasn't

00:13:01.769 --> 00:13:04.799
quite the norm then. No, collaboration was very

00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:06.840
common for playwrights, especially later in their

00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.120
careers. And Shakespeare definitely worked with

00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:11.500
others. The evidence points strongly to him working

00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:14.000
with John Fletcher, particularly late in his

00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.179
career. On plays like Henry VIII? Henry VIII

00:13:16.179 --> 00:13:18.899
and The Two Noble Kinsmen, yes. Those are generally

00:13:18.899 --> 00:13:21.120
accepted as collaborations, likely with Fletcher.

00:13:21.259 --> 00:13:24.639
Okay, so fast forward a bit. Around 1613, Shakespeare

00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.179
seems to have retired, moved back to Stratford

00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:29.299
full -time. This was before the Globe actually

00:13:29.299 --> 00:13:31.909
burned down later that year. Yes, the timing

00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:33.590
suggests he was already stepping back before

00:13:33.590 --> 00:13:36.490
the fire. And retirement from all work was pretty

00:13:36.490 --> 00:13:38.590
uncommon then for someone of his age and status,

00:13:38.769 --> 00:13:41.330
still relatively young. So why would he step

00:13:41.330 --> 00:13:44.029
away? He was wealthy, successful. Well, if you

00:13:44.029 --> 00:13:46.090
look at the context of his working life in London,

00:13:46.269 --> 00:13:50.169
one major factor becomes tragically clear. The

00:13:50.169 --> 00:13:53.090
bubonic plague. Ah, the theater closures. Exactly.

00:13:53.210 --> 00:13:57.009
Between just May 1603 and February 1610, that's

00:13:57.009 --> 00:13:59.929
less than seven years, London's public playhouses

00:13:59.929 --> 00:14:02.509
were forced to close for over 60 months due to

00:14:02.509 --> 00:14:05.610
recurring plague outbreaks. Sixty months. That's

00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:08.610
five full years out of seven. Imagine trying

00:14:08.610 --> 00:14:11.330
to run a profitable theater company under those

00:14:11.330 --> 00:14:13.809
conditions, the constant uncertainty, the massive

00:14:13.809 --> 00:14:16.429
financial drain, not to mention the very real

00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:19.440
risk of infection. It likely drove him to towards

00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.539
the relative safety and stability of his big

00:14:21.539 --> 00:14:23.919
house and investments back in Stratford. Makes

00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.519
perfect sense. Okay, so he dies on April 23,

00:14:26.779 --> 00:14:29.960
1616, aged 52, that traditional birthday date

00:14:29.960 --> 00:14:32.159
again. What's intriguing is that he signed his

00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.559
will just a month before and apparently described

00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.100
himself as being in perfect health. Yeah, the

00:14:37.100 --> 00:14:39.139
will suggests he wasn't anticipating imminent

00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:42.159
death. We have no confirmed contemporary source

00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:45.840
for the actual cause. But, as always with Shakespeare.

00:14:46.019 --> 00:14:48.559
The speculation is more colorful. Much more colorful.

00:14:49.070 --> 00:14:51.470
About half a century later, John Ward, who was

00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:53.809
the vicar of Stratford at the time, wrote down

00:14:53.809 --> 00:14:56.529
the local legend. The merry meeting. That's the

00:14:56.529 --> 00:14:58.809
one. The story goes that Shakespeare died of

00:14:58.809 --> 00:15:01.129
a fever he contracted after a merry meeting,

00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:04.049
drinking too hard with his literary pals Ben

00:15:04.049 --> 00:15:06.950
Johnson and Michael Drayton. A rather bohemian

00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:09.649
end for the man who became the respectable Stratford

00:15:09.649 --> 00:15:11.750
property owner. It is, isn't it? Whether it's

00:15:11.750 --> 00:15:14.250
true or not, who knows? But it's the story that's

00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:17.610
stuck. His legal legacy is mostly contained in

00:15:17.610 --> 00:15:20.360
that will. He left the bulk of his pretty sizable

00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:22.759
estate to his elder daughter, Susanna. Right.

00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.379
And sadly, his direct line actually ended not

00:15:25.379 --> 00:15:28.139
too long after. His granddaughter, Susanna's

00:15:28.139 --> 00:15:30.039
daughter Elizabeth Barnard, died without any

00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:33.100
children in 1670. So no direct descendants after

00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:35.940
that. But the most famous and endlessly debated

00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:39.360
part of that will is the specific bequest to

00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.460
his wife, Anne. Item, I give unto my wife my

00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.679
second best bed with the furniture. That specific

00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:50.139
line. My second best bet. It sounds like a snub,

00:15:50.139 --> 00:15:52.379
doesn't it? Has it always been interpreted that

00:15:52.379 --> 00:15:55.600
way? It's launched centuries of academic and

00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.460
popular debate. Was it a calculated insult or

00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:01.340
maybe a gesture of profound affection? How could

00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:04.000
it be affection? Well, the argument for it being

00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.029
an insult suggests that Anne... as the widow,

00:16:07.210 --> 00:16:10.389
was automatically entitled by law to one third

00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:13.110
of his estate anyway, which would typically include

00:16:13.110 --> 00:16:16.330
the best bed in the house. So specifically leaving

00:16:16.330 --> 00:16:18.509
her only the second best bed could be seen as

00:16:18.509 --> 00:16:21.070
a pointed slight, maybe hinting their relationship

00:16:21.070 --> 00:16:23.389
was strained. OK, that makes sense. What's the

00:16:23.389 --> 00:16:25.980
counter argument? The opposing view, which is

00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:28.639
actually quite popular now, argues that the best

00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:31.139
bed in a prosperous household was often kept

00:16:31.139 --> 00:16:33.460
in the guest chamber reserved for honored visitors.

00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:36.460
Ah, like the formal parlor furniture. Exactly.

00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:38.240
Whereas the second best bed would have been the

00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.659
actual marital bed, the one used by the couple,

00:16:40.779 --> 00:16:42.940
the intimate one, rich with sentimental meaning.

00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:45.799
Hmm. So maybe it was a meaningful gift. It's

00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:47.860
possible. The ambiguity is perfect, isn't it?

00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:50.440
It ensures the debate just keeps going, reflecting

00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:52.940
that wider uncertainty we have about their personal

00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:56.659
relationship. Fascinating. Regardless of Anne's

00:16:56.659 --> 00:16:59.460
inheritance, his final resting place was carefully

00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:01.860
secured, wasn't it? Buried in the chancel of

00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:03.779
Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. Prime position,

00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:06.720
yes. And his epitaph is surely one of the most

00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.599
famous curses in all of literature. Designed

00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:11.920
to stop anyone moving his bones. Explicitly.

00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.920
It's a powerful four -line appeal carved right

00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:17.460
into the stone slab over his grave. It reads,

00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.259
It's worked, apparently. It seems to have. Even

00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:33.339
during extensive church restorations in the 21st

00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:35.799
century, they used ground -penetrating radar

00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:37.960
and everything, but his grave itself was carefully

00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:40.700
left untouched. Nobody wanted to risk that curse.

00:17:40.940 --> 00:17:43.400
Okay, let's move now from the man himself to

00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:46.480
his monumental literary output. And the first

00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.660
thing we run into is a pretty significant challenge,

00:17:48.779 --> 00:17:51.900
figuring out what he actually wrote down, textual

00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:54.640
instability. It's incredible, isn't it? Hard

00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.299
to imagine now the greatest writer in the language

00:17:57.299 --> 00:17:59.960
maybe not overseeing the definitive publication

00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:02.799
of his own works. So the closest we get to a

00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.539
definitive text is posthumous. Yes, the famous

00:18:05.539 --> 00:18:09.940
first folio of 1623, published seven years after

00:18:09.940 --> 00:18:12.950
his death. by his fellow actors, John Heminges

00:18:12.950 --> 00:18:15.470
and Henry Condell. Friends and colleagues from

00:18:15.470 --> 00:18:18.049
The King's Men. Exactly. And this was a monumental

00:18:18.049 --> 00:18:21.470
effort, really a labor of love and memory. It

00:18:21.470 --> 00:18:24.670
contained 36 plays, and crucially, 18 of those

00:18:24.670 --> 00:18:27.509
had never been printed before. Without the folio,

00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:30.190
we might have lost works like Macbeth, Twelfth

00:18:30.190 --> 00:18:33.130
Night, Julius Caesar. Unthinkable. But before

00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:36.069
the folio, many plays only existed in these quarto

00:18:36.069 --> 00:18:38.849
editions, flimsy little books. That's right.

00:18:38.950 --> 00:18:41.710
Quarto editions often printed quite haphazardly

00:18:41.710 --> 00:18:43.950
during his lifetime. And these are the source

00:18:43.950 --> 00:18:46.430
of so many headaches for scholars trying to establish

00:18:46.430 --> 00:18:48.650
a reliable text. Why were they so unreliable?

00:18:48.890 --> 00:18:50.849
Well, the folio editors themselves, Heminges

00:18:50.849 --> 00:18:52.970
and Kondal, they referred to some of these earlier

00:18:52.970 --> 00:18:56.410
quartos as stolen and surreptitious copies. That's

00:18:56.410 --> 00:18:58.569
the term they used. These are what scholars later

00:18:58.569 --> 00:19:01.470
called the bad quartos. The thinking is they

00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:03.410
weren't based on Shakespeare's own manuscripts

00:19:03.410 --> 00:19:06.009
or official playhouse prompt books. Instead,

00:19:06.210 --> 00:19:08.609
they were likely rough reconstructions. How they

00:19:08.609 --> 00:19:11.180
reconstruct them. Possibly taken down by actors

00:19:11.180 --> 00:19:13.359
trying to remember their lines and cues, maybe

00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:15.859
even transcribed hastily by someone sitting in

00:19:15.859 --> 00:19:18.400
the audience during a performance. Imagine trying

00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:21.339
to reconstruct Hamlet purely from memory. The

00:19:21.339 --> 00:19:24.039
potential for errors, omissions, and just general

00:19:24.039 --> 00:19:26.759
garbling is immense. So that means for some plays

00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:28.839
we might have fundamentally conflicting versions.

00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:32.259
Absolutely. King Lear is probably the most dramatist

00:19:32.259 --> 00:19:36.079
example. The 1608 quarto version and the 1623

00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:39.019
folio version are so radically different in structure.

00:19:38.990 --> 00:19:41.430
the sequence of scenes, even the final fates

00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:44.089
of major characters that modern editions like

00:19:44.089 --> 00:19:45.910
the Oxford Shakespeare actually feel compelled

00:19:45.910 --> 00:19:48.750
to print both versions separately. Wow. So it

00:19:48.750 --> 00:19:50.609
suggests maybe Shakespeare was still revising

00:19:50.609 --> 00:19:52.809
his plays long after they were first performed,

00:19:53.009 --> 00:19:55.650
or the folio represents a later, more polished

00:19:55.650 --> 00:19:58.269
theatrical version. It raises profound questions,

00:19:58.509 --> 00:20:01.470
doesn't it? What even is the intended or final

00:20:01.470 --> 00:20:04.309
version of a masterpiece when you have such variation?

00:20:04.670 --> 00:20:06.849
It's a constant challenge for editors and directors.

00:20:07.109 --> 00:20:09.410
Okay, so the first folio gave us those basic

00:20:09.410 --> 00:20:12.390
classifications we still use, comedies, histories,

00:20:12.609 --> 00:20:15.309
and tragedies. But later criticism added more

00:20:15.309 --> 00:20:18.150
nuance, right? Yes, those broad categories proved

00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:20.569
a bit too restrictive as critical analysis developed,

00:20:20.869 --> 00:20:23.710
especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. For

00:20:23.710 --> 00:20:26.170
instance, the critic Frederick S. Boas coined

00:20:26.170 --> 00:20:29.730
the term problem plays back in 1896. Problem

00:20:29.730 --> 00:20:32.109
plays. What makes them a problem? He used it

00:20:32.109 --> 00:20:34.349
to describe works like Measure for Measure or

00:20:34.349 --> 00:20:37.019
All's Well That Ends Well. Plays whose overall

00:20:37.019 --> 00:20:39.539
temper or themes meant they couldn't be neatly

00:20:39.539 --> 00:20:43.180
pigeonholed as comedies. They contain dark, morally

00:20:43.180 --> 00:20:45.880
ambiguous or disturbing elements that kind of

00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:48.799
resist a simple, happy, comedic resolution. So

00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:50.460
the problem isn't really with the writing itself.

00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:54.380
It's more about the lack of a tidy, moral or

00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.519
emotional ending. Exactly. Measure for Measure,

00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:00.279
for instance, ends with a forced, rather uneasy

00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:03.200
marriage proposal, not genuine romantic joy.

00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:06.160
While Boas initially tried to classify Hamlet

00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:09.480
as a problem play too, it's now pretty definitively

00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:11.799
seen as a tragedy. And there's another category

00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:14.500
for the ladle plays. Yes. Edward Dowden later

00:21:14.500 --> 00:21:16.839
classified the final group of plays, like The

00:21:16.839 --> 00:21:20.259
Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline as romances,

00:21:20.259 --> 00:21:22.960
sometimes called tragic comedies. Because they

00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:26.730
blend tragic elements with... Magic. and happier

00:21:26.730 --> 00:21:29.349
endings. Right. They often blend grave themes

00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:31.970
like loss, jealousy, and injustice with elements

00:21:31.970 --> 00:21:34.309
of the supernatural or improbable coincidences,

00:21:34.490 --> 00:21:36.589
but they ultimately move towards reconciliation

00:21:36.589 --> 00:21:39.569
and forgiveness, a very different feel from the

00:21:39.569 --> 00:21:41.529
bleakness of the great tragedies. Okay, let's

00:21:41.529 --> 00:21:43.589
try and trace the evolution of his dramatic genius

00:21:43.589 --> 00:21:45.849
through these phases, starting with the early

00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:49.950
period, roughly 1589 to 1594. This period is

00:21:49.950 --> 00:21:52.069
really dominated by his earliest histories, the

00:21:52.069 --> 00:21:54.630
three parts of Henry VI, Richard III, and his

00:21:54.630 --> 00:21:56.430
first attempts at comedy, like the Comedy of

00:21:56.430 --> 00:21:59.210
Errors or The Two Gentlemen of Verona. And the

00:21:59.210 --> 00:22:01.670
style here is often highly conventional for the

00:22:01.670 --> 00:22:04.789
time, very rhetorical, lots of elaborate wordplay,

00:22:04.950 --> 00:22:07.849
clearly influenced by earlier Elizabethan dramatists

00:22:07.849 --> 00:22:10.789
like Marlowe, but also by medieval drama traditions

00:22:10.789 --> 00:22:13.430
and the bloody revenge tragedies of the Roman

00:22:13.430 --> 00:22:15.609
playwright Seneca. And some of these earliest

00:22:15.609 --> 00:22:19.039
works. Well, they can present genuine ethical

00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:21.440
hurdles for modern audiences, can't they? Oh,

00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.400
without a doubt. The Two Gentlemen of Verona,

00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.299
for instance, contains a scene near the end where

00:22:26.299 --> 00:22:28.839
one character seems to offer his beloved to his

00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:31.420
friend who just tried to rape her. It's deeply

00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:34.299
unsettling to modern sensibilities. And the taming

00:22:34.299 --> 00:22:37.160
of the shrew. Yes, with its focus on systematically

00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:39.519
breaking down a woman's independent spirit is

00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.059
also frequently performed today only with significant

00:22:42.059 --> 00:22:45.359
reservations or radical reinterpretations to

00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:47.809
try and mitigate. the misogyny. But by the mid

00:22:47.809 --> 00:22:50.410
1590s, we start to see a definite shift, right?

00:22:50.809 --> 00:22:53.509
into that more complex romantic atmosphere we

00:22:53.509 --> 00:22:55.769
really associate with his genius. Absolutely.

00:22:55.970 --> 00:22:58.450
This is the era of the glorious romantic comedies.

00:22:58.450 --> 00:23:00.809
You get a Midsummer Night's Dream, which masterfully

00:23:00.809 --> 00:23:03.710
blends magical fairy realms with witty, confused

00:23:03.710 --> 00:23:06.309
human lovers. And a huge development in character

00:23:06.309 --> 00:23:09.150
and language. Yes, much more integration of complex

00:23:09.150 --> 00:23:11.890
characters, deeper psychology, and also incredibly

00:23:11.890 --> 00:23:15.230
rich prose comedy. This phase is really defined

00:23:15.230 --> 00:23:17.769
by the introduction of Sir John Falstaff in the

00:23:17.769 --> 00:23:20.130
Henry VIII plays. One of the greatest comic creators.

00:23:20.170 --> 00:23:23.289
in all of literature. Absolutely. His sheer vitality,

00:23:23.289 --> 00:23:27.009
his wit, his amorality, he almost overwhelms

00:23:27.009 --> 00:23:28.930
the historical narrative he's part of. And this

00:23:28.930 --> 00:23:31.250
period culminates dramatically, doesn't it? First

00:23:31.250 --> 00:23:34.670
with Romeo and Juliet around 1595. The quintessential

00:23:34.670 --> 00:23:37.869
romantic tragedy defined by youthful passion,

00:23:38.089 --> 00:23:40.589
feuding families, and that devastating ending.

00:23:40.670 --> 00:23:43.769
Pure high romance and tragedy combined. And then

00:23:43.769 --> 00:23:46.329
a few years later, around 1599, Julius Caesar.

00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:49.240
Which feels different again. It's a massive turning

00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:51.740
point. The literary critic James Shapiro really

00:23:51.740 --> 00:23:54.460
nailed it when he said that in Caesar, the various

00:23:54.460 --> 00:23:57.559
strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary

00:23:57.559 --> 00:24:00.380
events began to infuse each other. So it's moving

00:24:00.380 --> 00:24:03.099
beyond just romance or history into political

00:24:03.099 --> 00:24:06.220
philosophy, inner turmoil. Exactly. It's a drama

00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:09.480
focused on political dilemmas, conspiracy, betrayal,

00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:11.740
and the psychological weight of those choices.

00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.440
It really marks the transition to the absolute

00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:16.960
peak of his art, the great tragedies. Okay, here

00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.720
we go. The period from roughly 1600 to about

00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.460
1608. This is where it gets truly transformative,

00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:26.059
producing Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.

00:24:26.259 --> 00:24:28.400
What's the key structural difference here separating

00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.829
these? from what came before. I think they moved

00:24:30.829 --> 00:24:33.049
decisively away from those more externalized

00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:35.089
Senecan revenge plots, though revenge is still

00:24:35.089 --> 00:24:38.410
present, obviously towards incredibly deep internal

00:24:38.410 --> 00:24:41.549
existential psychological exploration. Exploring

00:24:41.549 --> 00:24:44.349
the fatal flaw. Yes. The core tragic structures

00:24:44.349 --> 00:24:46.549
are often built around the protagonist's fatal

00:24:46.549 --> 00:24:49.630
flaw, but executed with just breathtaking variation

00:24:49.630 --> 00:24:52.410
and depth. Consider the huge difference between

00:24:52.410 --> 00:24:55.009
the intensely introverted intellectual Hamlet

00:24:55.009 --> 00:24:58.289
whose fatal flaw is perhaps overthinking. Indecision.

00:24:58.700 --> 00:25:01.480
That hesitation famously voiced in To Be or Not

00:25:01.480 --> 00:25:03.920
to Be. Precisely. Compare that to Othello or

00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:06.500
Lear. They are undone not by hesitation, but

00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:09.640
by a catastrophic, hasty error of judgment. Impulsive

00:25:09.640 --> 00:25:12.160
action based on flawed perception. Othello's

00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:15.039
flaw being his susceptibility to Iago's manipulation,

00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:18.160
his overwhelming sexual jealousy, leading him

00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.400
to murder the innocent Desdemona. Right. And

00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:23.400
Lear's fatal error is that incredibly rash decision

00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:26.039
at the start, abandoning his power, demanding

00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:28.240
false declarations of love from his daughters,

00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:31.119
banishing the one who truly loves him, Cordelia,

00:25:31.299 --> 00:25:34.630
which unleashes just... unspeakable suffering

00:25:34.630 --> 00:25:37.789
and cosmic chaos. And Macbeth. How does that

00:25:37.789 --> 00:25:40.470
fit? Macbeth, which is the shortest and maybe

00:25:40.470 --> 00:25:43.250
the most intensely compressed of the tragedies,

00:25:43.269 --> 00:25:46.549
is distinct again. It's driven not just by Macbeth's

00:25:46.549 --> 00:25:49.230
own ambition, but by that powerful external supernatural

00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:51.970
element. The witches and their prophecies combine

00:25:51.970 --> 00:25:54.470
with this incredibly vivid psychological depiction

00:25:54.470 --> 00:25:57.109
of guilt that eventually consumes both Macbeth

00:25:57.109 --> 00:25:59.410
and Lady Macbeth. The sheer poetic intensity

00:25:59.410 --> 00:26:01.930
in these plays is just unmatched. Unbelievable.

00:26:02.150 --> 00:26:04.380
Okay. So after that peak, we reach his final

00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:07.279
phase, the romances or tragic comedies from about

00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.539
1608 to 1613. We mentioned Cymbeline, The Winter's

00:26:10.539 --> 00:26:12.799
Tale, The Tempest. And the collaborations fit

00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:15.180
in here, too. That's right. These plays definitely

00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:18.279
have a grave tone often. They feature separation,

00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.839
jealousy, tyranny, supposed deaths, profound

00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:25.240
loss. So they aren't light comedies. Well, they

00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:28.039
end differently. Ultimately, yes. They resolve

00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:30.960
into themes of reconciliation, forgiveness, the

00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:33.799
restoration of lost. children. Often with a sense

00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:36.940
of wonder or magic, it's a clear move away from

00:26:36.940 --> 00:26:39.380
the nihilism or bleakness that permeates the

00:26:39.380 --> 00:26:41.640
great tragedies. Was he also maybe responding

00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:45.039
to changing theatrical tastes? Very likely. These

00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:47.680
plays also show Shakespeare reacting to the fashions

00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:49.779
of the Jacobian court, which increasingly favored

00:26:49.779 --> 00:26:52.279
elaborate staging and spectacle masks, music,

00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.799
special effects. In Cymbeline, for instance,

00:26:54.980 --> 00:26:57.160
you get stage directions calling for the god

00:26:57.160 --> 00:26:59.680
Jupiter to descend in thunder and lightning,

00:26:59.859 --> 00:27:03.000
sitting upon an eagle. Wow. Very different from

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:05.640
the stark stage of the earlier Globe. Very different.

00:27:05.700 --> 00:27:07.700
More suited to the indoor Blackfriars Theatre,

00:27:07.859 --> 00:27:10.680
perhaps. It shows him still adapting, still experimenting,

00:27:10.819 --> 00:27:13.400
right to the end of his solo career. The plays

00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:16.859
obviously cemented his stage legacy. But his

00:27:16.859 --> 00:27:19.200
poetry, especially the narrative poems and the

00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:22.579
sonnets, they gave us a different view of his

00:27:22.579 --> 00:27:24.740
literary ambition, didn't they? And were written

00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:26.799
during specific circumstances. That's right.

00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:29.160
They were primarily produced or at least published

00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:31.619
during those periods when the plague forced the

00:27:31.619 --> 00:27:35.029
London theaters to close. His two long narrative

00:27:35.029 --> 00:27:38.509
poems, Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece,

00:27:38.750 --> 00:27:42.109
were published in 1593 and 1594, respectively.

00:27:42.470 --> 00:27:44.829
And both were dedicated to the same person. Yes,

00:27:44.890 --> 00:27:47.549
both dedicated to Henry Rilesley, the third Earl

00:27:47.549 --> 00:27:50.730
of Southampton, a young, wealthy, and culturally

00:27:50.730 --> 00:27:53.849
influential nobleman who many believe was Shakespeare's

00:27:53.849 --> 00:27:56.289
patron during this period, possibly supporting

00:27:56.289 --> 00:27:58.269
him financially when the theaters were dark.

00:27:58.430 --> 00:28:00.849
And these poems tackle quite strong, complex

00:28:00.849 --> 00:28:03.829
sexual themes, don't they? They really do. Venus

00:28:03.829 --> 00:28:06.549
and Adonis explores the goddess Venus's aggressive,

00:28:06.670 --> 00:28:09.029
almost desperate pursuit of the beautiful but

00:28:09.029 --> 00:28:11.750
reluctant young Adonis. It deals with themes

00:28:11.750 --> 00:28:14.289
of desire, rejection, and maybe the destructive

00:28:14.289 --> 00:28:16.890
nature of obsessive love. And the rape of Lucrece.

00:28:17.170 --> 00:28:20.289
That one is much darker, much more tragic. It

00:28:20.289 --> 00:28:22.690
graphically recounts the story from Roman history

00:28:22.690 --> 00:28:25.569
of the virtuous noblewoman Lucretia being raped

00:28:25.569 --> 00:28:29.410
by Tarquin. It explores uncontrolled lust, the

00:28:29.410 --> 00:28:32.539
violation of chastity, moral confusion. honor

00:28:32.539 --> 00:28:35.720
and ultimately the profound psychological trauma

00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:38.660
of sexual violence leading to lucrece's suicide

00:28:38.660 --> 00:28:41.019
these must have caused quite a stir they were

00:28:41.019 --> 00:28:44.160
literary blockbusters in their day hugely popular

00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:46.619
reprinted multiple times they really established

00:28:46.619 --> 00:28:48.940
shakespeare as a major poet in his own right

00:28:48.940 --> 00:28:51.559
separate from his work for the stage showed his

00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:53.660
versatility okay and then we have the sonnets

00:28:54.349 --> 00:28:56.869
Published later in 1609, but probably written

00:28:56.869 --> 00:28:59.309
earlier. That's the general belief, yes. The

00:28:59.309 --> 00:29:01.329
writer Francis Mears mentioned Shakespeare's

00:29:01.329 --> 00:29:03.890
sugarite sonnets among his private friends way

00:29:03.890 --> 00:29:06.890
back in 1598. This suggests they were circulating

00:29:06.890 --> 00:29:09.450
in manuscript form for years, likely intended

00:29:09.450 --> 00:29:12.309
for a select private readership, not necessarily

00:29:12.309 --> 00:29:14.589
for publication. And structurally, they fall

00:29:14.589 --> 00:29:17.420
into two famous contrasting sequences. Broadly,

00:29:17.420 --> 00:29:21.119
yes. The first, larger sequence, Sonnets 1126,

00:29:21.500 --> 00:29:24.700
is addressed to, or concerns, a beautiful and

00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:27.119
aristocratic young man, often referred to as

00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:30.200
the fair youth. The poems explore themes of love,

00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:33.339
beauty, time, mortality, and urging the young

00:29:33.339 --> 00:29:35.660
man to marry and have children to preserve his

00:29:35.660 --> 00:29:38.579
beauty. And the second sequence. Sonnets 127

00:29:38.579 --> 00:29:42.079
-152 are addressed to or concern a woman often

00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:44.819
called the Dark Lady. She is depicted as being

00:29:44.819 --> 00:29:47.119
conventionally unattractive by Elizabethan standards,

00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:50.160
dark hair, dark eyes, dark complexion, possibly

00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.700
married, and the relationship described is often

00:29:52.700 --> 00:29:55.039
tormented, sensual, and filled with betrayal

00:29:55.039 --> 00:29:57.579
and self -loathing. The final two sonnets are

00:29:57.579 --> 00:30:00.299
adaptations of classical epigrams. These sonnets

00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:02.200
are the source of just endless speculation, aren't

00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:04.640
they? Particularly about identity. The I speaking

00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:06.440
in the poem is meant to be Shakespeare himself.

00:30:07.210 --> 00:30:09.650
fair youth and dark lady real people? That's

00:30:09.650 --> 00:30:11.569
the million -dollar question. We simply don't

00:30:11.569 --> 00:30:13.750
know for sure, and honestly, that ambiguity is

00:30:13.750 --> 00:30:16.369
a huge part of their enduring power and fascination.

00:30:16.609 --> 00:30:18.869
They feel intensely personal, yet they resist

00:30:18.869 --> 00:30:21.789
easy biographical decoding. And the mystery is

00:30:21.789 --> 00:30:24.750
compounded by that strange dedication in the

00:30:24.750 --> 00:30:28.230
1609 edition. Oh, yes, the dedication to a mysterious

00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:32.109
Mr. W .H., who is described as the only begetter

00:30:32.109 --> 00:30:36.059
of the poems, who was Mr. W .H.'s scholars. have

00:30:36.059 --> 00:30:38.960
proposed dozens of candidates. Henry Raisley,

00:30:39.059 --> 00:30:41.920
reversing the initials, William Herbert, Earl

00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:44.440
of Pembroke, even William Hall, the printer's

00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:46.859
assistant. Nobody knows for sure. And we don't

00:30:46.859 --> 00:30:48.779
even know if Shakespeare authorized the publication.

00:30:49.140 --> 00:30:51.099
No, it's quite likely they were published without

00:30:51.099 --> 00:30:53.619
his direct involvement or permission, possibly

00:30:53.619 --> 00:30:55.940
by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. who somehow got

00:30:55.940 --> 00:30:58.380
hold of a manuscript copy, another layer of mystery.

00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:00.440
But what we do know is their immense critical

00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:03.599
impact. Oh, absolutely. Regardless of the biographical

00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:06.059
riddles, they are universally praised as just

00:31:06.059 --> 00:31:08.759
a profound, intimate, and technically brilliant

00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.940
meditation on the great human concerns. Love

00:31:11.940 --> 00:31:15.160
in all its forms, passionate, platonic, obsessive,

00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:18.960
desire, beauty, procreation, betrayal, the destructive

00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:21.440
power of time, the search for immortality through

00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:23.839
poetry. They contain some of the most famous

00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:29.180
lines in English. That's Sonnet 18, yeah. Their

00:31:29.180 --> 00:31:34.240
influence is just immeasurable. But arguably,

00:31:34.460 --> 00:31:37.259
the real technical revolution. The innovation

00:31:37.259 --> 00:31:40.380
that truly defined modern English trauma lies

00:31:40.380 --> 00:31:42.940
in his mastery and manipulation of blank verse

00:31:42.940 --> 00:31:45.880
within the plays themselves. Yes, I think that's

00:31:45.880 --> 00:31:48.339
right. His earliest style, as we sort of touched

00:31:48.339 --> 00:31:51.259
on, was often highly conventional, very rhetorical.

00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:54.160
If you look at early works like Titus Andronicus

00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:57.180
or even parts of Richard III, the sentences often

00:31:57.180 --> 00:31:59.619
end quite obediently right at the end of the

00:31:59.619 --> 00:32:02.160
ten syllable line break. Creating a very regular

00:32:02.670 --> 00:32:04.990
maybe even monotonous rhythm. It can feel that

00:32:04.990 --> 00:32:07.690
way sometimes, yes, almost end -stopped. The

00:32:07.690 --> 00:32:10.109
speeches can feel more like formal orations delivered

00:32:10.109 --> 00:32:12.549
line by line rather than capturing the flow of

00:32:12.549 --> 00:32:14.769
natural thought or conversation. So how did he

00:32:14.769 --> 00:32:17.329
break free from that? How did he transform that

00:32:17.329 --> 00:32:20.009
basic structure, unrhymed iambic pentameter,

00:32:20.069 --> 00:32:22.130
into something so dynamic and revolutionary?

00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:24.980
Well, first he mastered it completely. He understood

00:32:24.980 --> 00:32:27.200
the underlying pulse of the iambic pentameter,

00:32:27.259 --> 00:32:29.400
that da -dum -da -dum -da -dum -da -dum rhythm.

00:32:29.660 --> 00:32:31.960
And then, once he had that mastery, he started

00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:35.059
to intentionally, artfully break it. How so?

00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.279
He introduced run -on lines, what critics call

00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:41.180
enjambment, where the grammatical sense or phrase

00:32:41.180 --> 00:32:43.900
spills over the line break, forcing the reader

00:32:43.900 --> 00:32:46.980
or actor to continue without a pause. He varied

00:32:46.980 --> 00:32:49.200
the position of the caesura, the natural pause

00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:52.359
within the line. He used feminine endings. with

00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:54.859
an extra unstressed syllable. He incorporated

00:32:54.859 --> 00:32:57.720
irregular pauses, hesitations, interruptions,

00:32:57.720 --> 00:32:59.980
and elliptical constructions where words are

00:32:59.980 --> 00:33:02.720
deliberately omitted. This sounds quite technical,

00:33:02.859 --> 00:33:05.059
maybe, but the impact on conveying psychology

00:33:05.059 --> 00:33:08.039
must be profound. It is absolutely the difference

00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:10.759
between writing formal poetry and writing believable

00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:13.500
human speech. The constant variation, the deviation

00:33:13.500 --> 00:33:16.380
from the perfect metronomic beat is what mimics

00:33:16.380 --> 00:33:18.180
the way human thought actually works. Sometimes

00:33:18.180 --> 00:33:20.480
flowing, sometimes halting, sometimes rushed,

00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.000
sometimes contemplative, emotionally charged.

00:33:23.180 --> 00:33:25.279
Can you give an example of where we really hear

00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:27.920
this? Oh, all over the later plays, but Hamlet's

00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:30.740
introspection is a prime example. Think of that

00:33:30.740 --> 00:33:34.059
bit where he's describing his unease. Sir, in

00:33:34.059 --> 00:33:35.799
my heart there was a kind of fighting that would

00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:38.220
not let me sleep. See how fighting carries over?

00:33:38.380 --> 00:33:41.500
Then methought I lay worse than the mutines and

00:33:41.500 --> 00:33:44.900
the bilboes, rashly, and praise be rashness for

00:33:44.900 --> 00:33:47.839
it. Let us know. Our indiscretion sometimes serves

00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:51.000
us well. The pauses, the dashes, the run -ons,

00:33:51.019 --> 00:33:53.660
it perfectly mirrors his troubled racing mind.

00:33:53.940 --> 00:33:55.799
You can almost hear the character thinking, can't

00:33:55.799 --> 00:33:57.299
you? It's not just reporting thoughts, it is

00:33:57.299 --> 00:33:59.859
the thought process. Exactly. This incredible

00:33:59.859 --> 00:34:02.619
ability to vary rhythm and integrate poetic genius

00:34:02.619 --> 00:34:05.220
with a deep practical sense of how actors speak

00:34:05.220 --> 00:34:08.059
on stage allowed him to take existing plots,

00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:10.579
often borrowed pretty freely from sources like

00:34:10.579 --> 00:34:13.820
Plutarch's Lives for the Roman Plays or Holinshed's

00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:17.659
Chronicles for the In - He wasn't just translating

00:34:17.659 --> 00:34:20.869
the story to the stage. No way. He created multiple

00:34:20.869 --> 00:34:23.889
centers of interest, complex subplots, ensured

00:34:23.889 --> 00:34:26.969
dynamic pacing, and most importantly, he elevated

00:34:26.969 --> 00:34:29.909
simple narrative or historical chronicle into

00:34:29.909 --> 00:34:33.150
profound psychological drama by letting us hear

00:34:33.150 --> 00:34:35.570
the characters think and feel through this incredibly

00:34:35.570 --> 00:34:38.789
flexible verse. And he also used these incredibly

00:34:38.789 --> 00:34:41.210
vivid, concrete analogies that just stick in

00:34:41.210 --> 00:34:43.710
your mind, didn't he? Making the abstract tangible.

00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:46.809
Yes. Think of that description of pity in Macbeth,

00:34:46.889 --> 00:34:48.949
the one the artist William Blake... later illustrated

00:34:48.949 --> 00:34:51.989
so powerfully, and pity, like a naked newborn

00:34:51.989 --> 00:34:54.590
babe striding the blast or heaven's cherubim

00:34:54.590 --> 00:34:57.190
horsed upon the sightless careers of the air.

00:34:57.570 --> 00:35:00.269
He makes an abstract concept like pity into this

00:35:00.269 --> 00:35:02.630
vulnerable, powerful, almost terrifying image,

00:35:02.809 --> 00:35:05.389
that sheer genius making the language work on

00:35:05.389 --> 00:35:08.170
multiple levels simultaneously. So the legacy

00:35:08.170 --> 00:35:10.489
of this stylistic innovation, combined with the

00:35:10.489 --> 00:35:13.269
sheer depth of character and story. It secured

00:35:13.269 --> 00:35:15.889
his place not just in English literature, but

00:35:15.889 --> 00:35:18.750
as a foundational global cultural figure. It

00:35:18.750 --> 00:35:20.670
seems almost impossible to overstate his influence.

00:35:20.969 --> 00:35:24.369
It really is essentially boundless. He fundamentally

00:35:24.369 --> 00:35:26.929
expanded the dramatic potential of both characterization

00:35:26.929 --> 00:35:30.570
and genre. Before Romeo and Juliet, for instance,

00:35:31.070 --> 00:35:33.670
romance wasn't really considered a weighty enough

00:35:33.670 --> 00:35:36.090
topic for high tragedy. He made it so. And the

00:35:36.090 --> 00:35:38.630
soliloquy. He transformed that, too. Completely.

00:35:38.670 --> 00:35:41.449
He moved it way beyond just being a clumsy device

00:35:41.449 --> 00:35:44.590
to convey plot information to the audience. Now

00:35:44.590 --> 00:35:48.170
I must go and kill the king. He turned the soliloquy

00:35:48.170 --> 00:35:51.030
into this intimate, unparalleled window into

00:35:51.030 --> 00:35:53.409
a character's deepest psychological processes,

00:35:53.789 --> 00:35:56.289
their doubts, fears, motivations, their very

00:35:56.289 --> 00:35:59.110
consciousness. And the impact just ripples outwards,

00:35:59.110 --> 00:36:00.869
doesn't it? Yeah. Through pretty much every other

00:36:00.869 --> 00:36:04.079
art form imaginable. Oh, absolutely. Novelists

00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:05.780
from Herman Melville. I mean, Captain Ahab and

00:36:05.780 --> 00:36:08.139
Moby Dick is a classic Shakespearean tragic hero,

00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:10.360
clearly inspired by King Lear Macbeth through

00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:12.739
Charles Dickens, William Faulkner. They were

00:36:12.739 --> 00:36:14.860
all profoundly steeped in Shakespearean drama,

00:36:15.159 --> 00:36:17.780
character types and plotting. And music. Film.

00:36:17.820 --> 00:36:19.420
Don't even get me started. There are literally

00:36:19.420 --> 00:36:22.000
tens of thousands of pieces of music linked to

00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:24.820
his works. Just think of Giuseppe Verdi's great

00:36:24.820 --> 00:36:29.119
operas, Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff, or Felix Mendelssohn's

00:36:29.119 --> 00:36:31.519
famous incidental music for A Midsummer Night's

00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:35.349
Dream. Sergei Prokofiev's iconic ballet score

00:36:35.349 --> 00:36:37.690
for Romeo and Juliet. It goes on and on. And

00:36:37.690 --> 00:36:40.110
film adaptations are countless. Countless. And

00:36:40.110 --> 00:36:42.309
not just direct adaptations. Think of the great

00:36:42.309 --> 00:36:46.090
Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, his masterpieces

00:36:46.090 --> 00:36:48.969
Throne of Blood, based on Macbeth, and Ran, based

00:36:48.969 --> 00:36:51.750
on King Lear. They prove that Shakespeare's core

00:36:51.750 --> 00:36:54.750
narratives are entirely universal, capable of

00:36:54.750 --> 00:36:57.230
transcending language, culture, and time. Even

00:36:57.230 --> 00:36:59.530
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis,

00:36:59.550 --> 00:37:01.650
drew heavily on Shakespearean psychology, didn't

00:37:01.650 --> 00:37:04.340
he? particularly Hamlet. Yes, Freud used Hamlet

00:37:04.340 --> 00:37:06.380
extensively in developing his theories of the

00:37:06.380 --> 00:37:09.440
Oedipus complex and human nature. He saw Shakespeare

00:37:09.440 --> 00:37:11.800
as having an intuitive grasp of the unconscious

00:37:11.800 --> 00:37:14.820
mind long before psychoanalysis existed. And

00:37:14.820 --> 00:37:16.099
then, of course, there's the language itself.

00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:18.699
He didn't just use English. He actively shaped

00:37:18.699 --> 00:37:22.190
it. He literally forged the modern English lexicon

00:37:22.190 --> 00:37:25.150
in many ways. Samuel Johnson, when compiling

00:37:25.150 --> 00:37:27.570
his seminal dictionary of the English language

00:37:27.570 --> 00:37:29.489
in the mid -18th century, quoted Shakespeare

00:37:29.489 --> 00:37:32.730
more often than any other author by far, effectively

00:37:32.730 --> 00:37:35.809
canonizing his usage. And so many everyday expressions

00:37:35.809 --> 00:37:38.210
we use without even thinking about it. They come

00:37:38.210 --> 00:37:40.389
straight from Shakespeare, with bated breath.

00:37:40.630 --> 00:37:42.789
That's from The Merchant of Venice. A foregone

00:37:42.789 --> 00:37:45.730
conclusion, Othello. Break the ice, the taming

00:37:45.730 --> 00:37:59.250
of the shrew. Let's touch briefly on his critical

00:37:59.250 --> 00:38:02.130
reception over the centuries. Even in his own

00:38:02.130 --> 00:38:04.869
time, his genius was recognized, wasn't it? Despite

00:38:04.869 --> 00:38:07.860
Green's attack. Yes, fairly early on. Francis

00:38:07.860 --> 00:38:10.639
Marers, writing in 1598 in a survey of English

00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:13.460
writers called Palladus Tamiya, called Shapespere

00:38:13.460 --> 00:38:16.320
most excellent in both comedy and tragedy, comparing

00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:19.059
him favorably to classical authors like Palladus

00:38:19.059 --> 00:38:21.780
and Seneca. And Ben Johnson, his friend and rival,

00:38:21.960 --> 00:38:24.539
gave the ultimate verdict. He did. Despite their

00:38:24.539 --> 00:38:27.019
professional rivalry and Johnson's own more classical

00:38:27.019 --> 00:38:29.739
leanings, he wrote that amazing commendatory

00:38:29.739 --> 00:38:32.980
verse preface to the first folio, famously declaring

00:38:32.980 --> 00:38:35.780
Shakespeare was not of an age but for all time.

00:38:36.039 --> 00:38:38.639
That really set the tone for centuries to come.

00:38:38.820 --> 00:38:40.800
But his reputation wasn't always universally

00:38:40.800 --> 00:38:43.719
sky high and unquestioned. No, it fluctuated

00:38:43.719 --> 00:38:46.380
a bit. During the Restoration period in the later

00:38:46.380 --> 00:38:49.059
17th century, neoclassical critics like Thomas

00:38:49.059 --> 00:38:52.320
Reimer actually rated him below Johnson and Fletcher.

00:38:52.619 --> 00:38:56.480
finding his work too wild, too irregular, violating

00:38:56.480 --> 00:38:59.380
the classical rules of drama. Who defended him

00:38:59.380 --> 00:39:01.960
then? It was the great poet and critic John Dryden

00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:04.679
who offered the most powerful rebuttal. Dryden

00:39:04.679 --> 00:39:06.860
famously stated that while he admired Johnson,

00:39:07.079 --> 00:39:10.219
he loved Shakespeare. He argued that Shakespeare

00:39:10.219 --> 00:39:12.679
possessed a kind of natural learning, a genius

00:39:12.679 --> 00:39:15.500
that transcended rigid rules. And then the Victorians

00:39:15.500 --> 00:39:17.559
maybe went too far the other way. You could say

00:39:17.559 --> 00:39:20.820
that. The Victorian era saw such intense, almost

00:39:20.820 --> 00:39:23.300
uncritical work. of Shakespeare, what George

00:39:23.300 --> 00:39:26.840
Bernard Shaw famously mocked as bardolatry, that

00:39:26.840 --> 00:39:28.980
it provoked a reaction. Shaw himself was quite

00:39:28.980 --> 00:39:31.179
critical, wasn't he? Very witty and provocative

00:39:31.179 --> 00:39:34.699
in his critiques, yes. But then modernist writers

00:39:34.699 --> 00:39:37.579
like T .S. Eliot in the early 20th century sort

00:39:37.579 --> 00:39:41.059
of rediscovered Shakespeare, embracing his complexity,

00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:44.099
his ambiguity, even his perceived primitiveness,

00:39:44.420 --> 00:39:47.179
finding it spoke powerfully to the modern condition.

00:39:47.420 --> 00:39:49.940
His relevance just keeps getting reaffirmed for

00:39:49.940 --> 00:39:53.139
every new generation. Okay. For all this established

00:39:53.139 --> 00:39:56.480
genius, this monumental legacy, we absolutely

00:39:56.480 --> 00:39:59.059
have to acknowledge the controversies and the

00:39:59.059 --> 00:40:01.460
unresolved speculations that continue to generate

00:40:01.460 --> 00:40:03.960
passionate interest and sometimes heated debate,

00:40:04.119 --> 00:40:06.699
even today. We do. And let's address the most

00:40:06.699 --> 00:40:09.719
famous, most persistent one first. The authorship

00:40:09.719 --> 00:40:11.619
question. Right. The idea that William Shakespeare

00:40:11.619 --> 00:40:13.780
of Stratford didn't actually write the plays

00:40:13.780 --> 00:40:16.519
and poems attributed to him. Exactly. These doubts

00:40:16.519 --> 00:40:19.159
arose relatively late, actually not really gaining

00:40:19.159 --> 00:40:21.619
traction until the mid -19th century, about 230

00:40:21.619 --> 00:40:23.960
years after his death. They were largely fueled

00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:26.219
by the perceived gaps in his biographical record

00:40:26.219 --> 00:40:29.219
and a kind of snobbery. Snobbery about his education

00:40:29.219 --> 00:40:32.340
and social class. Largely, yes. The argument

00:40:32.340 --> 00:40:35.500
often boils down to. How could a mere grammar

00:40:35.500 --> 00:40:38.019
school educated man from the provinces, the son

00:40:38.019 --> 00:40:41.139
of a glover, possibly possess the vast knowledge

00:40:41.139 --> 00:40:44.239
of law, history, foreign languages, court life,

00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:47.260
philosophy, falconry, etc. that is displayed

00:40:47.260 --> 00:40:50.559
so dazzlingly in the plays? So who are the main

00:40:50.559 --> 00:40:52.760
alternative candidates proposed? We should probably

00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:54.559
name the big ones while stressing the mainstream

00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:57.940
view. Absolutely. It's crucial to state up front

00:40:57.940 --> 00:41:00.239
that the overwhelming consensus among literary

00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:02.719
historians and Shakespeare scholars, based on

00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:04.880
the surviving contemporary documentary evidence,

00:41:05.079 --> 00:41:06.920
theater records, payments, witness accounts,

00:41:07.139 --> 00:41:09.320
the folio preface, his Stratford Monument, is

00:41:09.320 --> 00:41:11.179
that William Shakespeare of Stratford did write

00:41:11.179 --> 00:41:14.360
the works. However... However, the alternative

00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:17.039
theories persist. Who's candidate number one,

00:41:17.099 --> 00:41:19.659
usually? Francis Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon is

00:41:19.659 --> 00:41:22.559
often the earliest prominent candidate. He was

00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:25.599
a renowned philosopher, scientist, lawyer, courtier,

00:41:25.619 --> 00:41:28.840
and statesman, undeniably a man of vast intellect

00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:31.780
and learning. Proponents argue he had the necessary

00:41:31.780 --> 00:41:34.519
knowledge and perhaps used sophisticated ciphers

00:41:34.519 --> 00:41:36.579
hidden within the text to conceal his authorship,

00:41:36.739 --> 00:41:39.239
maybe because playwriting was seen as a slightly

00:41:39.239 --> 00:41:41.699
disreputable activity for a man of his public

00:41:41.699 --> 00:41:44.860
standing. Okay. Candidate number two, Christopher

00:41:44.860 --> 00:41:47.269
Marlowe. Marlow makes sense in some ways because

00:41:47.269 --> 00:41:49.610
he was Shakespeare's chief rival in the early

00:41:49.610 --> 00:41:53.030
1590s, a brilliant university wit, an established

00:41:53.030 --> 00:41:55.489
poet and playwright of genius, Tamburlaine, Dr.

00:41:55.650 --> 00:41:58.550
Faustus. The issue is, Marlow officially died

00:41:58.550 --> 00:42:01.670
in a supposed tavern brawl in Deptford in 1593,

00:42:01.949 --> 00:42:04.130
just as Shakespeare's career was really taken

00:42:04.130 --> 00:42:06.329
off. So the theory requires his death to have

00:42:06.329 --> 00:42:09.340
been faked. Yes. Marlowe enthusiasts often subscribe

00:42:09.340 --> 00:42:11.579
to the idea that his death was staged, perhaps

00:42:11.579 --> 00:42:13.579
due to his alleged activities as a government

00:42:13.579 --> 00:42:15.719
spy, allowing him to continue writing in secret

00:42:15.719 --> 00:42:17.599
under the convenient cover of Shakespeare's name.

00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:20.280
The stylistic similarities between Marlowe and

00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:23.159
early Shakespeare are also sometimes cited. And

00:42:23.159 --> 00:42:25.300
finally, the candidate who seems most popular

00:42:25.300 --> 00:42:28.860
among skeptics today, Edward de Vere, the 17th

00:42:28.860 --> 00:42:31.139
Earl of Oxford. De Vere has become the leading

00:42:31.139 --> 00:42:33.960
alternative candidate for many. The Oxfordian

00:42:33.960 --> 00:42:36.239
theory suggests that De Vere, a highly educated,

00:42:36.579 --> 00:42:39.440
traveled aristocrat with known literary interests,

00:42:39.820 --> 00:42:43.420
intimate knowledge of court life, Italy, falconry,

00:42:43.500 --> 00:42:46.500
music, all things reflected prominently in the

00:42:46.500 --> 00:42:49.639
plays, was the true author. And the argument

00:42:49.639 --> 00:42:52.760
is he needed a front man. Yes, that aristocratic

00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:55.000
disdain for print publication, especially for

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:57.699
the popular stage, meant he needed a commoner,

00:42:57.719 --> 00:43:00.260
Shakespeare, to act as a plausible front for

00:43:00.260 --> 00:43:02.559
his work. Supporters point to parallels between

00:43:02.559 --> 00:43:04.920
De Vere's life events and incidents in the plays.

00:43:05.139 --> 00:43:07.179
It's essential, though, to reiterate. Absolutely

00:43:07.179 --> 00:43:09.320
essential. While these theories are fascinating

00:43:09.320 --> 00:43:11.059
and keep generating books and documentaries,

00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:14.099
almost all mainstream Shakespeare scholars and

00:43:14.099 --> 00:43:16.360
literary historians regard the authorship question

00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:19.699
as a fringe theory, lacking any substantive contemporary

00:43:19.699 --> 00:43:22.230
documentation. to overturn the wealth of evidence

00:43:22.230 --> 00:43:24.309
pointing to William Shakespeare of Stratford

00:43:24.309 --> 00:43:26.510
-upon -Avon. It seems to be a question driven

00:43:26.510 --> 00:43:29.210
more by a romantic dissatisfaction with the surviving

00:43:29.210 --> 00:43:32.710
records and maybe some class bias rather than

00:43:32.710 --> 00:43:34.909
by compelling evidence. I think that's a fair

00:43:34.909 --> 00:43:37.710
assessment, yes. The historical evidence for

00:43:37.710 --> 00:43:40.190
Shakespeare's authorship is consistent and cumulative,

00:43:40.369 --> 00:43:42.789
even if it's not as detailed as we might wish.

00:43:43.070 --> 00:43:44.769
Okay, let's move to another area of speculation.

00:43:45.489 --> 00:43:48.889
His private religious beliefs. This was a time

00:43:48.889 --> 00:43:51.590
of huge religious turmoil in England, wasn't

00:43:51.590 --> 00:43:54.730
it? Catholics versus Protestants. Intense turmoil

00:43:54.730 --> 00:43:57.190
and persecution, particularly for Catholics.

00:43:57.469 --> 00:44:00.230
And the evidence around Shakespeare is typically

00:44:00.230 --> 00:44:03.409
contradictory and ambiguous. We know his mother,

00:44:03.530 --> 00:44:05.809
Mary Arden, came from a prominent Warwickshire

00:44:05.809 --> 00:44:08.650
family with known Catholic sympathies who maintained

00:44:08.650 --> 00:44:11.230
recusant connections, meaning they refused to

00:44:11.230 --> 00:44:13.369
attend Anglican services. And his father, too.

00:44:13.510 --> 00:44:16.019
There was that document. Yes, there's evidence,

00:44:16.239 --> 00:44:18.539
though the document itself is now lost, suggesting

00:44:18.539 --> 00:44:21.059
his father, John Shakespeare, may have signed

00:44:21.059 --> 00:44:23.340
a kind of secret Catholic statement of faith

00:44:23.340 --> 00:44:26.519
late in his life. Furthermore, some scholars

00:44:26.519 --> 00:44:29.159
find subtle pro -Catholic sentiments or coded

00:44:29.159 --> 00:44:32.019
language woven into the plays, particularly around

00:44:32.019 --> 00:44:35.480
themes of martyrdom, old faith rituals, or purgatory,

00:44:35.480 --> 00:44:37.699
which was a Catholic doctrine. But what's the

00:44:37.699 --> 00:44:40.559
evidence for his Protestant conformity? Because

00:44:40.559 --> 00:44:43.159
officially, he lived and died an Anglican. The

00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:44.880
official records are clear on that front. He

00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:46.940
was baptized, married, and buried in the Protestant

00:44:46.940 --> 00:44:49.639
Church of England. His children were raised Anglican.

00:44:49.659 --> 00:44:52.599
His will uses standard Protestant preamble language.

00:44:52.860 --> 00:44:55.739
His company, the king's men, performed frequently

00:44:55.739 --> 00:44:58.079
before the staunchly Protestant monarch James

00:44:58.079 --> 00:45:01.679
I. So, impossible to definitively nail down his

00:45:01.679 --> 00:45:04.519
private beliefs. Pretty much impossible. Scholars

00:45:04.519 --> 00:45:07.760
find evidence pointing both ways. It seems most

00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:09.960
likely he conformed publicly to the established

00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:12.719
church, as was legally required and practically

00:45:12.719 --> 00:45:16.139
necessary for his career. But his family background

00:45:16.139 --> 00:45:18.000
and the nuanced treatment of religious themes

00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:20.360
in his plays suggest he was certainly deeply

00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:23.440
aware of, and perhaps sympathetic to, the Catholic

00:45:23.440 --> 00:45:25.980
predicament. The plays themselves are generally

00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:28.079
ambiguous enough to speak across the religious

00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:30.599
divide, which might have been intentional. Another

00:45:30.599 --> 00:45:33.619
key area of endless speculation. His sexuality.

00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:36.920
fueled almost entirely by those sonnets we discussed.

00:45:37.179 --> 00:45:39.760
Almost entirely, yes. The sonnets are the primary

00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:42.460
source text for this debate. The intense, passionate,

00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:44.880
sometimes anguished language used in the sequence

00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:47.239
addressed to the fair youth leads some readers

00:45:47.239 --> 00:45:49.480
to interpret this as clear evidence of romantic,

00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:52.960
possibly erotic, love for a young man. But that's

00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:55.860
not the only way to read that language. No. Other

00:45:55.860 --> 00:45:58.599
critics argue forcefully that this kind of intense,

00:45:58.940 --> 00:46:02.199
effusive language was characteristic of idealized

00:46:02.199 --> 00:46:04.179
platonic male friendship during the Renaissance,

00:46:04.519 --> 00:46:07.380
and doesn't necessarily imply a physical or sexual

00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:09.760
relationship in the modern sense. They emphasize

00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:12.099
the cultural context of the time. And meanwhile,

00:46:12.179 --> 00:46:14.619
you have the Dark Lady sonnets. Exactly. The

00:46:14.619 --> 00:46:17.320
26 sonnets addressed to the mysterious Dark Lady

00:46:17.320 --> 00:46:20.500
are often cited as undeniable evidence of intense,

00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:23.539
physical, and often deeply troubled heterosexual

00:46:23.539 --> 00:46:26.809
liaison. The language there is explicitly sexual,

00:46:27.090 --> 00:46:30.289
full of desire, guilt, and betrayal. So the texts

00:46:30.289 --> 00:46:32.190
themselves support a range of interpretations.

00:46:32.610 --> 00:46:34.630
They really do. You can find evidence in the

00:46:34.630 --> 00:46:36.710
sonnets to support arguments for same -sex desire,

00:46:36.969 --> 00:46:39.949
passionate heterosexual relationships, or perhaps

00:46:39.949 --> 00:46:42.150
complex emotional states that don't fit neatly

00:46:42.150 --> 00:46:45.010
into modern categories. Ultimately, the sonnets

00:46:45.010 --> 00:46:47.050
reflect the complexity and contradictions of

00:46:47.050 --> 00:46:49.570
human love and desire rather than providing a

00:46:49.570 --> 00:46:51.949
clear biographical statement about Shakespeare's

00:46:51.949 --> 00:46:54.489
personal orientation. Which, again, leaves room

00:46:54.489 --> 00:46:57.210
for endless interpretation. Finally, what about

00:46:57.210 --> 00:47:00.130
the most basic thing? What did the man actually

00:47:00.130 --> 00:47:02.829
look like? We still don't have a definitive contemporary

00:47:02.829 --> 00:47:05.170
written description of his appearance, do we?

00:47:05.269 --> 00:47:08.090
Isn't that amazing? For arguably the most famous

00:47:08.090 --> 00:47:10.750
person of his era, no contemporary description

00:47:10.750 --> 00:47:13.969
survives saying if he was tall or short, fair

00:47:13.969 --> 00:47:18.320
or dark, thin or stout. Nothing. So we rely primarily

00:47:18.320 --> 00:47:20.880
on just two key images, both created just after

00:47:20.880 --> 00:47:23.239
his death. That's right. The first and arguably

00:47:23.239 --> 00:47:26.340
most important is the Drew Shout engraving. This

00:47:26.340 --> 00:47:28.500
is the portrait printed on the title page of

00:47:28.500 --> 00:47:31.760
the first folio in 1623. And Ben Jonson vouched

00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:34.079
for it. He did. In his poem printed alongside

00:47:34.079 --> 00:47:37.119
it in the folio, Jonson explicitly praised the

00:47:37.119 --> 00:47:39.239
engraver, Martin Druchout, for hitting his face

00:47:39.239 --> 00:47:41.840
accurately. That endorsement from someone who

00:47:41.840 --> 00:47:43.960
knew Shakespeare well gives it immense credibility,

00:47:44.199 --> 00:47:46.219
even if stylistically it looks a bit stiff to

00:47:46.219 --> 00:47:49.300
us now. And the second key image. is his funerary

00:47:49.300 --> 00:47:52.500
monument, the sculpted bust erected in Holy Trinity

00:47:52.500 --> 00:47:55.099
Church in Stratford, likely commissioned by his

00:47:55.099 --> 00:47:57.440
family fairly soon after his death, probably

00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:01.960
before 1623. It shows a rather prosperous, slightly

00:48:01.960 --> 00:48:05.519
plump man quill in hand, again, presumably approved

00:48:05.519 --> 00:48:07.539
by those who knew what he looked like. But what

00:48:07.539 --> 00:48:09.980
about the most famous painting often associated

00:48:09.980 --> 00:48:13.780
with him, the Chandos portrait? Ah, the Chandos

00:48:13.780 --> 00:48:16.239
portrait. It's now held by the National Portrait

00:48:16.239 --> 00:48:18.219
Gallery in London, and it certainly looks more

00:48:18.219 --> 00:48:20.820
like our romantic image of a poet earring, slightly

00:48:20.820 --> 00:48:24.159
disheveled look. It has, as one expert put it,

00:48:24.219 --> 00:48:26.980
the strongest claim of any of the known contenders

00:48:26.980 --> 00:48:29.079
to be a genuine portrait of Shakespeare painted

00:48:29.079 --> 00:48:31.809
from life. Based on what? Based on its plausible

00:48:31.809 --> 00:48:34.550
dating to the early 17th century and its provenance,

00:48:34.650 --> 00:48:36.769
which can potentially be traced back through

00:48:36.769 --> 00:48:39.030
owners who had connections to Shakespeare's circle.

00:48:39.349 --> 00:48:42.070
However, its attribution is not definitively

00:48:42.070 --> 00:48:44.969
proven, and it's not without its own controversies

00:48:44.969 --> 00:48:47.010
and questions. So even his face remains slightly

00:48:47.010 --> 00:48:49.590
elusive. Like so much else about the man himself.

00:48:50.250 --> 00:48:53.030
No portrait was definitively commissioned by

00:48:53.030 --> 00:48:55.449
him or his immediate family while he was alive

00:48:55.449 --> 00:48:58.389
and clearly labeled as him, which is just another

00:48:58.389 --> 00:49:01.530
one of those fascinating biographical gaps surrounding

00:49:01.530 --> 00:49:05.190
the world's most famous writer. Hashtag outro.

00:49:06.030 --> 00:49:09.130
So what does this all mean for us trying to understand

00:49:09.130 --> 00:49:11.969
Shakespeare today? We've traced this astonishing

00:49:11.969 --> 00:49:14.820
trajectory, haven't we? From the son of a Stratford

00:49:14.820 --> 00:49:17.019
Glover whose own life seemed to start in a bit

00:49:17.019 --> 00:49:19.480
of haste. To becoming a London theater sharer,

00:49:19.480 --> 00:49:22.079
a shrewd businessman who achieved revolutionary

00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:24.179
wealth and status through his stake in the company.

00:49:24.619 --> 00:49:27.019
We've seen that incredible evolution of his literary

00:49:27.019 --> 00:49:29.539
output from those early, often conventional histories

00:49:29.539 --> 00:49:32.159
and comedies through the glorious romantic period,

00:49:32.340 --> 00:49:34.800
peaking with those monumental psychological tragedies.

00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:36.480
And then ending with those strange, beautiful,

00:49:36.559 --> 00:49:39.280
reconciling romances. All of it driven by that

00:49:39.280 --> 00:49:41.840
absolute mastery of blank verse that bent the

00:49:41.840 --> 00:49:43.980
English language to his will and essentially

00:49:43.980 --> 00:49:47.260
created modern dramatic speech. And this trajectory,

00:49:47.559 --> 00:49:51.079
this output produced an undeniable, almost overwhelming

00:49:51.079 --> 00:49:54.559
impact, not just on literature and drama, but

00:49:54.559 --> 00:49:57.719
on the very texture of global culture, on our

00:49:57.719 --> 00:49:59.920
language, on how we understand ourselves. We

00:49:59.920 --> 00:50:02.719
know him, in essence, through his texts. They

00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:04.860
are the most detailed, the most intimate records

00:50:04.860 --> 00:50:07.119
we really have of his inner life, his concerns,

00:50:07.219 --> 00:50:11.429
his genius. But maybe. Maybe it's precisely the

00:50:11.429 --> 00:50:13.849
gaps in the records of the man, those long lost

00:50:13.849 --> 00:50:16.849
years, the contradictory hints about his inner

00:50:16.849 --> 00:50:19.289
religious or sexual beliefs, the slightly opaque

00:50:19.289 --> 00:50:21.269
nature of his business dealings, and even his

00:50:21.269 --> 00:50:23.789
appearance perhaps. It's those blank spaces that

00:50:23.789 --> 00:50:25.849
actually allow his art to feel so perpetually

00:50:25.849 --> 00:50:28.059
relevant, so universal. That's a really interesting

00:50:28.059 --> 00:50:30.639
point because those gaps allow every generation,

00:50:30.860 --> 00:50:33.079
every culture, every individual reader or audience

00:50:33.079 --> 00:50:35.760
member to sort of project their own concerns,

00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:37.920
their own struggles onto the creator, finding

00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:40.320
echoes of themselves in the work precisely because

00:50:40.320 --> 00:50:42.760
the author himself remains slightly out of focus.

00:50:43.289 --> 00:50:45.550
Indeed. And the one thing we can definitively

00:50:45.550 --> 00:50:48.369
say about the Bard, ironically, is that he spent

00:50:48.369 --> 00:50:50.409
his entire career giving his characters from

00:50:50.409 --> 00:50:53.110
Hamlet to Juliet to Lear to Rosalind clearer

00:50:53.110 --> 00:50:55.369
and more varied motivations, as Samuel Johnson

00:50:55.369 --> 00:50:58.889
noted, than any writer before him. He showed

00:50:58.889 --> 00:51:00.889
us the inner workings of the human heart. Yet

00:51:00.889 --> 00:51:03.550
history, or just the random survival of documents,

00:51:03.869 --> 00:51:07.010
ultimately failed to grant those same clear motivations,

00:51:07.150 --> 00:51:09.409
that same transparency, to Shakespeare himself.

00:51:10.090 --> 00:51:12.130
Which leaves us perhaps with this final provocative

00:51:12.130 --> 00:51:14.150
thought for you to ponder. What does it truly

00:51:14.150 --> 00:51:17.050
mean that the writer who arguably defined human

00:51:17.050 --> 00:51:19.769
inwardness for the modern world, who gave us

00:51:19.769 --> 00:51:22.090
the very language to describe the troubled soul,

00:51:22.329 --> 00:51:24.889
existential doubt, the complexities of love and

00:51:24.889 --> 00:51:27.590
jealousy remains in his own person, so profoundly

00:51:27.590 --> 00:51:30.570
opaque, so resistant to easy understanding, even

00:51:30.570 --> 00:51:33.590
after centuries of intense scrutiny. That is

00:51:33.590 --> 00:51:34.489
the deep dive for today.