Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

Happy Birthday to the man who warms the cockles of a Literature teacher's heart . . . . the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare 

“He was not of an age, but for all time.”

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon. The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, he was probably educated at the King Edward IV Grammar School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little Greek and read the Roman dramatists. At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman seven or eight years his senior. Together they raised two daughters: Susanna, who was born in 1583, and Judith (whose twin brother died in boyhood), born in 1585. 

Very little is known about Shakespeare's activities between 1585 and 1592. But there is evidence that he may have taught school during this period, but also worked as an actor and a playwright.

And from those humble beginnings emerged one of, if not the, greatest writers who ever lived, not just in English literature but in the literature of every culture. 

Since his death in 1616, no other writer has surpassed his ability to capture the human soul in words, and no other writer has been more read, more written about, and more debated. Shortly after Shakespeare died, his esteemed contemporary Ben Jonson wrote of him, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”  

In 2000 British citizens voted him the Man of the Millenium –the most important earthling since 1000 A.D. 

Quotes:

.......”Down through the ages, important essayists, poets, dramatists, and critics have acclaimed Shakespeare as a virtuoso of unparalleled creative and technical skill. Bernard D. Grebanier observed: "One might succeed in discussing individual facets of Shakespeare's unique genius, but it is utterly impossible to summarize his achievement. There is something miraculous about Shakespeare's peculiar gifts; and every sensitive reader will eventually discover the miracle for himself" (English Literature and its Backgrounds, New York: Holt, 1950). 

.......H.M. Burton observed that Shakespeare "is as important a figure in the history of mankind as Nelson or Lincoln, Newton or Einstein. His works have become a part of us and if they had never been written our lives and our language would have been so much the poorer." 

.......Harold Bloom said Shakespeare "is a system of northern lights, an aurora borealis visible where most of us will never go. Libraries and playhouses (and cinemas) cannot contain him; he has become a spirit or 'spell of light,' almost too vast to apprehend." 

.......According to drama critic John Gassner, "Shakespeare is the greatest humanitarian who ever wrote for the theatre. . . . Shakespeare's ability to create infinitely human characters stems from a pervasive love of man which no degree of pessimism in his climactic period can obliterate." 

.......American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson called Shakespeare "inconceivably wise." And English critic and lexicographer Samuel Johnson said Shakespeare was a master at depicting the humanity everyone shares.

The photos below were taken by me when I and my students were in Stratford on Shakespeare's birthday.  I thought that would be a memorable experience for them, and it was! 

His birthplace in Stratford on Avon     (Click on images to enlarge)

©A. Rutherford

The river Avon as it runs by the Royal Shakespearean Theatre 

©A. Rutherford

His statue sits in a prominent place by the River Avon, in front of the Royal Shakespearean Theatre. He is surrounded by four great characters from his best known plays. 

Here is Macbeth, whose tragic flaw was ambition, crowning himself King. 

©A. Rutherford

And here is Hamlet, whose tragic flaw was his hubris, deep in the throes of his indecision . . .

Unlike Macbeth, Hamlet was a tragic hero, because in the end he achieved enlightenment, which led him to his acknowledgment that: 

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

Rough-hew them how we will,--" 

Hamlet is thought to be the character in Shakespeare's plays who is to a large extent autobiographical, and who speaks most nearly for Shakespeare himself. 

©A. Rutherford

In the great tragedies of Shakespeare, questions about human existence are addressed: 

• What is evil, and what drives men and women to commit deeds of darkness?

• What are the consequences of our freedom to make choices in life? 

Here is Trinity Church, where he is buried 

©A. Rutherford

The spot at the altar where he is actually buried, with a bust of him above the spot which is marked by the gold candlestick and the blue sign

©A. Rutherford

©A. Rutherford

The inscription is a curse which he is said to have written and requested be put on his tomb so no one would ever disturb his grave. 

In modern English: 

Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 

To dig the dust enclosed here 

Blessed be the man who spares these stones 

Cursed be the man who move my bones. 

The Christian Worldview of William Shakespeare

Quote:

Shakespeare apparently believed firmly in a Supreme Being, as his plays suggest. In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet tells Horatio in Act V, Scene II, that “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” In Henry V, King Henry–deliberately portrayed by Shakespeare as strong and wise–exhorts his countrymen in Act II, Scene II, to “deliver our puissance in the hand of God, putting it straight in expedition.” To be sure, Shakespeare grappled with the great questions of eschatology, for his characters discuss death and the afterlife. But there can be no doubt that he joined other great men of the Renaissance–Copernicus, Galileo, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Erasmus, and Sir Thomas More–in believing in God. The opening of his last will and testament, written in his 51st year just three months before his death, then revised one month before his death, states (in English modernized for the sake of readability): 

. 

In the name of God . . . I William Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon . . . in perfect health and memory, God be praised, do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following–that is to say, first, I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting. 

-Biography 

By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003

So although he remains a man of much mystery, here is what we know—

We know that although limited in formal education, he was brilliant in intellect, insightful about the nature of man, gifted to an uncommon extent in his creative abilities, deeply emotional in his sensitivities and concerns about the human condition.

Incidentally he died on his birthday, April 23, 1616 at the age of 52.

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