!
Interview: James Shapiro who claims otherwise is reading the life through the work, or projecting onto Shakespeare things they want to believe about him.”
meaning at this time – ‘individual’ is one – but those alterations typically take decades. It’s fascinating tracking these changes in the Oxford English Dictionary as well as in new scholarly tools like the database Early English Books Online.”
someone who shied away from company (at least according to reports by neighbors in Stratford-uponAvon). But a researcher in Edinburgh has recently unearthed a document How did your view of King from the 1640s that describes how James evolve while you Shakespeare (along with Ben Jonson were exploring 1606? Did he You’ve recently been involved and fellow actors Richard Burbage deserve the “wisest fool in in taking a production of and Laurence Fletcher “and the rest Christendom” tag that history Macbeth into prisons in New of their roistering associates in King has given him? York. This made me think two James’s time”) had “cut” his name on “That’s a great question. I remain things: how admirable to bring the paneling of the famous Tabard of two minds about James. I have Shakespeare to some of the Inn in Southwark. The discovery enormous respect for his intellect most disenfranchised people allows us to imagine a different sort and he was surely the best writer in the US – and weren’t you of Shakespeare – a popular actor ever to sit on the English throne. He afraid a riot would break out? who enjoyed drinking with friends, also handled the aftermath of the “Having spent a few afternoons in one who was happy to join them in Gunpowder Plot quite well, refusing prisons and jails of late, I’m struck carving autographs on the wall of a to listen to those who wanted to time and again by the graciousness favourite pub.” crack down on his Catholic subjects. that those who are incarcerated have But as smart as he was, James was extended to the actors. I’ve never felt also profligate, didn’t much enjoy threatened or scared. Jails, especially the day-to-day business of ruling ones like Rikers Island in New York, (preferring to let others handle that can be awful places to be imprisoned. Get James Shapiro’s new book while he spent his days hunting), and But the Public Theater’s Mobile wasn’t much of a husband or father. I Shakespeare Initiative, which visits could excuse all that if he had learned these facilities, has never had anything UK: published by Faber as how to become a better king, but by but the warmest reception. Like 1606: William Shakespeare and the end of 1606 it was clear that he all playgoers at good productions, the Year of Lear. didn’t really understand his English inmates are quickly engrossed. And subjects, didn’t know how to control unlike performances in the West End Parliament as Elizabeth had, and had or Broadway, in prisons the magic of USA: published by Simon failed to fulfill the high hopes the Shakespeare is never disrupted by the & Schuster as The Year of Lear: English had in him.” ringing of cell phones.” Shakespeare in 1606.
Ֆ
You’ve spoken eloquently about how the word ‘equivocation’ changed its meaning for Shakespeare between Hamlet and Macbeth. Did you encounter any other words that underwent similar transformations in or around 1606?
“It’s really unusual for the primary meaning of a word to undergo such a sea-change in so short a timespan as ‘equivocation’ did in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. There are other words that underwent shifts in
Macbeth is the only one of Shakespeare’s works to contain either the word ‘rhinoceros’ or the word ‘rhubarb’. What’s the most absurdly interesting thing about Shakespeare or his works you’ve learned from immersing yourself in 1606?
“Another great question. It would have to be a fresh discovery that changes our view of Shakespeare’s sociability. Until this past year, surviving anecdotes about Shakespeare often portray him as
SHAKESPEARE magazine
29