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Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

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Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World is a marvelous "biography" of sorts. Greenblatt's world relies as much on what is known about Shakespeare and the world that he lived in. Is it possible that a man without a university education and without serious political connections and wealth could have written the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare? Yes and to assume otherwise would be the same as assuming that Paris Hilton could become the greatest actress of our generation by virtue of the fact that she's wealthy and hangs out a crowd that includes talented artists. Just because you've got social advantages (or disadvantages)doesn't necessarily mean you'll change the world. Greenblatt indirectly creates a compelling argument for Shakespeare as the author of the plays under his name.Great art can appear out of anyone with the talent, desire and opportunity to present it. Greenblatt's biography shows through his cross connections and supposition just how Shakespeare might have evolved into the great playwrite that we, the audience, know and love. By looking at the world that shaped Shakespeare, Greenblatt proposes a world that shaped Shakespeare's writing and helped shape the theatrical world around him as well.

Although Greenblatt bases a lot of his observations and conclusions on deduction and supposition, he makes a lot of intelligent and accurate observations about the world that shaped William Shakespeare. He also, in turn, speculates (sometimes hitting his target and sometimes not)how Shakespeare used the world that formed him to, in turn, form his great works. Are all the conclusions perfect and ironclad? Greenblatt also points to popular works in latin that Will loved so much that he incorporated some basic plot elements into his plays as well (not unlike the Greek playwrites of their era).

Biographers, like historians, draw conclusions from evidence but those conclusions are informed by the bias of their time. That's also true of Greenblatt's work. Still, he makes some remarkable observations and his insights into Will's world will leave you thinking about the plays and sonnets in a whole new way. That's the value of a cultural and historical biography like this. While all the details of Shakespeare's life may be sketchy luckily for us his great plays (even though they've been through many hands and editors over the years) are not. They continue to resonate with great observations about human nature. Greenblatt's book will reshape some of your thinking about the man behind "The Tempest" and "Hamlet" and other times you'll find you completely disagree with him. That's the art of a great biography to create an atmosphere where discussion fuels the fire of interpretation.

Shakespeare's life is frustratingly beyond our sight. Aside from the plays (which, in many cases, come down to us in different versions), we have a slim scattering of legal documents, marriage and birth records, and vague secondary accounts.

As the world's preeminent Shakespeare scholar, Greenblatt has managed to assemble all these sources and, with a healthy dose of conjecture, arrive at something resembling a biography of the world's greatest dramatist. More than that, though, this work is a biography of the age in which Shakespeare lived and wrote---Elizabethan and Jacobian London---and how the major events of this time affected Shakespeare's plays. For example, the writing of King Lear may have been encouraged by a trial in 1603 in which two sisters tried to have their father declared insane so they could take control of his wealth and estate, while the youngest daughter (named Cordell) tried to stop them---a story uncannily similar to what is considered to be the Bard's greatest tragedy.

What impressed me the most about this biography is how ORDINARY Shakespeare seemingly was. He didn't seem pretentious or snobbish, as some people envision him. He was born to a humble family and lived frugally, despite dying a rather wealthy man.

Although Greenblatt's writing is clear and accessible, he makes the assumption that you have already read Shakespeare's plays, or at least are VERY familiar with them. I have read about two thirds of them and felt a little behind when he discussed plays I hadn't read, so if you haven't read more than, say, ten of his plays, the major ones, you need to crack open the Norton Shakespeare (of which Greenblatt is the editor-in-chief) before you approach Will in the World.

For any actor playing Shakespeare, the identity of who wrote the plays is really a moot point. You simply can't approach any of his roles with a headful of scholarship & dramaturgy. As for the Bard's true identity---some will say it's Marlowe, some furiously maintain it is the Earl of Oxford. Greenblatt seems content with the glove-maker's son theory. Which is fine by me.

What makes this book a cut above any "biographies" is the fact that Greenblatt is more intent on raising questions than passing any of his well informed suppositions off as fact. And interesting questions they are. For instance, why is Shakespeare's wife virtually left out of his last will & testament? Bequeathing her only a "2nd best bed" after 30+ years of marriage & nothing else? What Greenblatt does here is take what little historical records we have, coupled with the politics of the age & tie them into Shakespeare's work. What emerges is an ever so faint pencil sketch of a shrewd, practically minded opportunist who despite his phenomenal success, sought to call as little attention to his personal affairs as possible. In other words, a deliberate cipher. Someone who took in the the sundry world around him & put it all on display in the conveniently ironic guise of Fiction. But someone who seems to have consciously left little or no record of himself beyond his work. So what little we know may actually reveal more than we think. Greenblatt reminds us what a dangerous time Shakespeare was living in. One had to be extremely cautious lest the celebrity of one's words wind up on the end of a pike on London Bridge. Thoughout it all, Greenblatt wisely never leaves the realm of speculation but does a masterful job of aligning current events alongside Shakespeare's words. The chapter, "Laughing At The Scaffold" is an excellent example. The Merchant Of Venice is not only one of Shakespeare's most difficult comedies but one of his most easily misunderstood. I have to say I walked away with a clearer mind on it. It also served as a reminder of how Shakespeare could take a villainous cliche & infuse it with an empathy that not only reveals prejudice for what it is, but human frailty as well.

So how did this grammer schooled, glove-maker's son become the most esteemed playwright of his age? How did he out master such cut-thoat contemporaries as Marlowe & the rest of the University wits? Look to the chapter called, "Shakescene" The fact that they all died within a 6 month period might have something to do with it. Another factor may be that unlike his fellow playwrights at the time, Shakespeare the only one who was actually an actor.

Another key aspect of this book is what Greenblatt calls "deliberate opacity". Why did he take the trouble to deliberately cloud the motivations of a character like Iago, when this same character in Shakespeare's source material plainly states, "because I love Desdemona"? Perhaps, therein in lies the great gift of Shakespeare as a writer. To know that human nature is never black & white, nor as simple as Good vs. Evil. Perhaps Shakespeare knew that by leaving so much to question, it gave liscence to the imagination of actor & audience member alike. Revealing without ever having to explain. Leaving room for interpretation. By highlighting this particular literary device in Hamlet, Lear & beyond, Greenblatt succeeds on shedding a little light on the man behind the Legend. I walked away with the impression of of a man who was not only able to stand outside of society, but profit from it. Someone with a kind & gracious heart but may have loathed his wife. Someone who was low key enough to observe but also someone who could also get fantastically carried away. In short, like many of his characters, a study in contradiction. A useful read for actor, director & scholar alike.

I very much enjoyed Stephen Greenblatt's previous work on Shakespeare, Hamlet in Purgatory; therefore, I was very excited to see Mr. Greenblatt had decided to write a complete biography of Shakespeare. Fortunately, Mr. Greenblatt did not disappoint. Will in the World is one of the best Shakespeare biographies I have read.

The problem for any biographer of Shakespeare is, of course, the minimal records left behind. Apart from some information left in church and financial records, there is almost nothing of certainty known about Shakespeare. A Shakespearean biographer, then, is forced to make a certain number of guesses and speculations if he is going to come up with any kind of complete story for a reader. Historically, these speculations have ranged from the mundane to the outrageous but they always must rely on the reader's trust of the author's scholarship and how it relates to our own understanding of Shakespeare. I find Mr. Greenblatt to be a very believable biographer.

The main reason I find Mr. Greenblatt's work to be so compelling is the correlations he finds between well-recorded historical events, what is known of Shakespeare and, ultimately, how this finds its way into Shakespeare's work. For example, in the first chapter Greenblatt describes a visit Queen Elizabeth made to Kenilworth where Leicester puts on a grand display for her. Now, was Shakespeare present at these festivities, perhaps even as a young country player? There is no way to know for sure but Greenblatt quotes Robert Langham's letter describing the event and takes us to lines from Midsummer Nights Dream. Shakespeare's recreation of the event is striking. Perhaps he was there.

The other reason I like Greenblatt's work on Shakespeare is that he makes him human. Unlike Harold Bloom, for example (whose work I also greatly admire), who has a distracting tendency to deify Shakespeare, Mr. Greenblatt keeps Shakespeare deeply rooted in the real world. No less a genius for that, Greenblatt's Shakespeare is a man whose work was influenced by his life and experiences and not pulled wholesale from the Muse.

Again and again Greenblatt impresses with his extensive knowledge of history and Shakespeare's work. In doing so, he takes us through Shakespeare's life and time from beginning to end. In the end, he leaves us with a picture of a man and his times--if not a sharp as a photograph then at least as beautiful as an impressionist painting.

If you are a Bardolator like myself and read just about everything about Will you can lay your hands on, you will enjoy this book as immensely as I have. Why? Because anything that increases my pleasure in reading the plays and sonnets is worthwhile. Everything should be be explored including the possibility that Shakespeare was written by someone else; the England of his time for our perspective; his sexuality, emotions, and physical handicaps of his life. Stephen Greenblatt approaches his subject in much the same manner as Hercule Poirot might try to solve a mystery: piece by piece until the little grey cells put it all together. It is written in the manner of a detective story about a man of genius written by a man of enormous intellect. Who could ask for anything more exciting? A mystery mulled by a brilliant scholar. Hope you will join me.

I still remember visiting Statford,in 1965,when one could look across the avon and see verdant meadows, long since lost to ugly hotels, when one could go right up to the tomb,now blocked off. I fell inlove with the bard in college and have read a few books about him but none like this.Extremely well researched, by an eminent scholar,it is also written in a very casual,non stilted friendly way,so you can see the author really has loved his life of studying Will.
Unlike a novel, one can pick up anywhere and get as reasonable a glimpse of Will,s world, friends,politics and his inner thinking,as is humanely possible.The author has devoted his life to studying the little known and the much speculated about the bard and given us a little masterpiece that will delight those who know very little or a lot about the man.
I,m really crabby as a critic so this means its a super book, you really feel you,re there in Elizabethen England, with Shakepeare and his friends. You will surely enjoy the history, local color of London and Shakespeare,s exciting times as he grows and masters his trade.Enough, you,ll love it.

Stephen Greenblatt is a brilliant Renaissance scholar who utilizes his knowledge of that world to create a biography of William Shakespeare. In 400+ pages, Mr. Greenblatt reconstructs the playwright's life out of the merest of clues, for Shakespears lefted very little documentation behind of his life. Legal papers concerning his birth, marriage, children's births and his death constitute the bulk of the surviving documents from that era.

The reader is cautioned that "Will In The World" is a tour de force of conjecture. Mr. Greenblatt may be making an educated and deductive guess but still a guess about the very large gaps of our knowledge of Shakespeare's life. Having said that, the book is so well-research and well-written that it is a nominee for the National Book Award. It is a wonderful introduction to the world of Shakespeare and Elizabethan England.

Although Shakespeare stands astride the world of English letters like a colossus, his biographers are faced with an intractable problem: precious little documentary information exists about his life. The bare facts are known; his birth, his father's trade in wool and leather, his marriage to Anne Hathaway when he was nineteen and she was twenty-six, and, of course his presence in London as an actor and playwright with the Lord Chamberlain's men, and, later, as an increasingly prosperous shareholder in the Globe playhouse. Because of this a Shakespeare biographer must make a choice. Stick to the facts and risk producing a biography that is boring and of little interest to anyone except professional Shakespeare scholars, or engage in substantial amounts of speculation in an effort to produce a full-bodied story of who Shakespeare was, and how his life experiences might have shaped his extraordinary work.

Greenblatt chooses the second course wholeheartedly, and has produced a book that is both fascinating and entertaining. Although there are healthy doses of speculation in Will in the World, none of it is implausible or wildly conjectural. And because Greenblatt is eminently qualified through his astonishing command of all of Shakespeare's work, as well as of the era in which he lived, he succeeds brilliantly in giving us a Shakespeare biography that, as his title has it, sets "Will in the world" of Elizabethan England. Greenblatt's evocation of this world is wonderfully vivid and is what makes this book sing. With his colorful descriptions of the increasingly hysterical anti-Catholic paranoia of the era, his portraits of the Falstaffian figure of Robert Greene and of the other "University Wits" who looked upon Shakespeare as a déclassé upstart, and his account of the carnival-like atmosphere surrounding public executions, to name just a few examples, Greenblatt sets the stage for plausible and thoughtful insights into how this world might have shaped Shakespeare's work. As a distinguished Shakespeare scholar, Greenblatt's theories about how this most humanistic of writers responded to this world are well worth pondering. If we are to understand who Shakespeare was and why he is a writer universally admired by all ages and nations, we need to make an effort to understand him and his world through a synthesis of imagination with documented facts. This book brilliantly succeeds in giving us this.

I have read other Shakespeare biographies, but never with any particular enjoyment. This one breaks that pattern.

One of the best, if not THE best book that I have read on the Bard of Avon! The author has time-traveled us back to a cruel and heartless era of persecution,ignorance, bigotry and the appalling scenes of heads rotting on pikes on London Bridges. In contrast, enter the young country youth, a part of his time,as we all are and yet, in his sensitivity, his wisdom, his understanding, his genius ,"for all time" as recognized by his friend, Ben Jonson. This book "grabs" you and holds you in it's knowledge of the time and , yes, even its' learned conjecture about the man. Riveting and beautifully done!

Bill Moen, Kelseyville, CA

Shakespeare is one of the most interesting literary personages that I can think of. Greenblatt did a thorough job of explaining where Will came from and how he incorporated real-life events into his plays and poems. While I truly enjoyed this book, and will recommend it to others, I am left with the feeling after reading the book that I still do not really know Shakespeare. Not all the mysteries are solved, and I think that is part of the charm of this book. We will probably never know why Anne Shakespeare received the "second-best bed" or what even made Will move to London and become a renowned playwrite. What we are left with is a body of work so sublime that it is almost unequaled in the literary canon.

I thought that the book was organized well, and that it flowed well from chapter to chapter. I liked how the plays and poems were discussed in relationship to Will's life and the real-life events going on around him. His capacity for remembering the smallest detail and looking beyond the outside of a situation is remarkable. This book is definitely a must read.