Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

Shakespeare Project 2020

When I embarked on the Shakespeare Project last year I attempted to include all the Shakespeare in my library which entails the Hogarth adaptations (read all but 2) and 2 non-fiction books about the Bard; one of which is this renowned work by Stephen Greenblatt.

While I had started it, I unfortunately didn't finish it during the Project year of 2020. But I did return to it.

There is a lot of questions surrounding the biography of William Shakespeare, including his actual date of birth and his cause of death and much of his life in between including the authorship of many of his plays.

Through extensive research of past and present scholars, Greenblatt strips away some of the romanticism of Shakespeare and shows a more accurate picture of the flawed genius.

Aside from the life of arguably the most famous man, I was astounded and dismayed at England's history including religious persecutions, expulsion of Jewish citizens and plague outbreaks. The latter especially as we are currently enduring a global pandemic.

Quote: "But people had grasped, through bitter experience, that the isolation of plague victims slowed the spread of the disease - ... - and they grasped too that there was a relation between the progress of epidemics and large crowds. Authorities did not cancel church services, but when plague deaths began to rise, they looked askance at any other public assemblies, and when such deaths reached a certain number (above 30 a week in London), they shut the theaters down."