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particularly Ben Jonson whose first successful comedy, “Every Man in his
Humour”, was acted by Shakespeare’s company in 1598.
Shakespeare seems to have retired from the stage in 1607, his name does
not occur in the various lists of players after this time. Hehceforward he lived
for the most part at Stratford, where he was regarded as one of the most
important citizens.
Thus, the literary biography of the Great Bard consisting of the dates of
producing and staging of his plays was discussed above. But sometimes the
plain facts in support of the non-Stratfordian theory lead to a plain and
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irresistable conclusion. Shakespeare’s works are incontestable evidence of
his brilliant foresight and the abundance of his vocabulary (it is three times
his most talented contemporary writers), his mastering French, Latin, Italian
languages, his deep knowledge in the Greek mythology, reading Homeric
and Ovidian works in original, not only in translations - are the signs of his
noble origin. Some liteerary scholars (Russel Lowel, Kently Bomhill, Ilja
Gililov, Marina Litvinova) who share non-Stradfordian versions of
Shakespeare’s biography believed that in this period such kind of knowledge
could be gained only in the Universities since there were no libraries in
England of the 16
th
century.
Moreover many outstanding people (among them Ch.Dickens, M. Twain)
beginning from the 19th century “felt a little doubtful whether the Stradford
actor who did not teach his own children to read and write (it is known that
his daughter Judith was illiterate), who did not mention his plays in his will
and who during the last seven years of his life was content to be “William
Shakespeare, Gent”, and to occupy himself in money-lending and land
purchase, could really have been the author of “Hamlet”, “The Merchant of
Venice”, “King Lear” and “Timon of Athens”.
The materials and documents concerned the life of Stradfordian
Shakespeare, the actor of London troop, whose name was written in the
Parish church book as “Shaxper” do not contain any proofs of the fact that
this person dealt with literature. The first biographers (Vicar Ward and
Nicolas Row) are known to look for materials about the Great Bard only after
50–100 years after his death. Vicar Ward from Stradfordian parish church
began to write his diary about Stradford where he mentioned Shakespeare, in
1662. The poet and playwright Nicholas Row wrote his biography as an
introduction to one of the editions of the works by Shakespeare in 1709. In
the biography of Shakespeare by N. Row we read for the first time, that
Shakeaspeare was born in 1564 and his father was a gloves maker. As it was
mentioned above, in the town and church archives in Stradford the names of
the parents and Shakespeare himself was written as “Shakspere” or
“Shaksper” (‘Shaxper’). The Russian biographer Feoder Shipulinsky in his
famous monograph “Shakeapeare – Ruthland. The Three Centuries Old
Historical Mystery” published in 1930-ies interpreted these names into
Russian as «Шакспер»; it is worth mentioning that Russian non-
Stradfordians call Stradfordian Shakeapeare – «
/
Шекспер
» and the author of
great works – «
Шекс
/
пир
».
Some non-Stratfordian Shakespearian scholars find it unnatural that the
death of the Great Bard was unnoticed by his contemporaries – poets and
playwrights. In the Stratfordian parish church we find only the date of his
burial – 25 April, 1616, – William Shakespeare, a gentleman. There are many
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elegies and epitaphs devoted to the death of Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson,
Spencer, Dryden and other outstanding writers of the Renaissance, – but no
response to the funeral of the most outstanding person among the
Elizabethans! Some scholars (I. Gililov, M. Litvinova) see something
enigmatic in this silence. Moreover, the period 1586–1594 in Shakespeare’s
lifetime, so called “black period” seems to be enigmatic as well, because
there is no documentary data, only legends about deer steeling and ale
drinking often told to the tourist of Stratford.
Is Shakespeare’s life and biography important to us? Does it matter to us
that he was born in Stratford or somewhere else, made unwise marriage
there, migrated to London, amassed a fortune, came back a wealthy citizen
and died (according to the data of the traditional Stratfordian biography) of a
fever after a drinking bout? In a sense it does, because knowing why
Shakespeare wrote his plays, we can attune our views of the plays to his
view; understand them better for getting inside the skin of the man who wrote
them.
All these circumstances – i.e. the lack of the real facts in the biography of
Shakespeare as a dramatist and author of his works (only facts about a
merchant and an actor are present) we call
Shakespeare’s phenomenon
or
Shakespeare’s mystery
and this term is used both by Stratfordians and non-
Stratfordians scholars.
There are some facts in favour of Stratfordian biography, among them the
Stratfordian monument in the Trinity Church in Stratford with a stone where
it is written: “…and cursed be he who moves my bones”. On the monument
the date of death is written: 23 April 1616, – the date of Shakespearian death
in Stratford.
The inscription on the tombstone of
Shakespeare’s grave in the Trinity
Church in Stratford on Avon
The translation in prose of the verse on
the
grave:
“Друг добрый, ради Христа –
остерегись
Тревожить прах, заключенный
здесь.
Благословен будь, кто пожалеет эти
камни,
И проклят тот, кто тронет мои
кости”.
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Stratford tombstone in 1656 Stratford tombstone nowadays
But it is confirmed that up to the middle of the 18th century there was
another monument, without a pen and a paper – only a sack as a symbol of
prosperity. Who paid for this monument – is unknown, but it has been carved
in the workshop of the sculptors Harrat and Nicholas Yanson’s. The
monument of the Earl Rogers Manners Ruthland is known to be carved by
the same Danish sculptors.
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