William Shakespeare: Poor man or prince?
Text: Zhai Yanping
For hundreds of years, literary critics have often admired the brilliant rhetoric and profound philosophical connotations of Shakespeare's plays and poetry. But for whom was Shakespeare and his men? The academic debate on this has never stopped, but there are generally two versions to sum up.
Mainstream and traditional Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born into a wealthy family in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Wavekshire, central England. His father, John Shakespeare, ran a leather workshop and later became mayor of the town. William Shakespeare attended grammar school from the age of seven until the age of thirteen, learning writing techniques and Latin and Greek, and then dropped out of school to earn a living because of the bankruptcy of his father, working as a miscellaneous servant and as a teacher. Around 1586, he went to London, and eventually became an actor, director, screenwriter, and theater shareholder, writing a large number of plays such as "Hamlet". In 1596, in his father's name, he applied for and obtained the title of "gentleman" and the right to use heraldic seals. In 1597, he returned to his hometown of Sizhen and died on April 23, 1616, where he was buried in the local Holy Trinity Church. There are many data arguments for this view, and I will not repeat them for the time being.
William shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Second, antistratfordian (hereinafter referred to as the "anti-Slayer"), represented by Charlton Ogburn, believed that William Shakespeare was not Sturgeon Shakespeare, but someone else. They believe that Sha's book includes 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 long poems, and the author's vocabulary reached 25,000, which was 5 times that of ordinary people at that time and 2 times that of his contemporaries; His people are knowledgeable and profound; The works quote scriptures from ancient Rome and Greece, and involve nearly 30 disciplines such as history, theology, law, music, medicine, and botany; In addition to "The Merry Ladies of Windsor", the other 36 plays all depict the scenes of court and high society life in depth, and show a large number of overseas customs and customs such as northern Italy and Denmark. However, Si Zhensha's family was born poor and humble, the information of his hometown was closed, his parents, wives and daughters had limited knowledge, and his own education was unprecedented. Anti-Scythian scholars believe that there is a clear difference between the spelling of Szczesper's surname as "Shakespere" instead of "Shakespeare". "Shakespeare" was formed by the combination of "shake" and "spear", and became the stage name. In addition, there is no manuscript of Sha Shu in the historical materials, and there is no signature in the early "Sha Shu", and there is no mention of the distribution of his plays or books in the will of Si Zhen Sha, and the news of his death is not mentioned by all walks of life in England at that time, which is inconsistent with the status of playwrights and poets, and the real author of Sha Shu must have another owner.
The villains believe that in the Elizabethan era, drama ranked "lower nine streams" and despised the upper class. From the analysis of the content of Sha's writings, the author is familiar with the royal high society, and he himself must be an aristocrat, and due to the limitations of the times, he was forced to hide his real name and create plays under the stage name "William Shakespeare". The villains compared Shakespeare's writings with those of his generation and found them to be similar to some of them, so they believed that the real authors of Shakespeare's writings might be Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and others, the Earl of Oxford in the XVII, or co-authored by many people, and some even believe that Queen Elizabeth I also participated in the creation.
Ogburn advocated de Vere as the author of Shakespeare. Edward de Ville (1550-1604), Earl of Oxford XVII, whose ancestors were close to the William Conquistadors and who had been closely associated with the royal family for generations, was brilliant in his own life, and had been favored by Queen Elizabeth I for more than 40 years, and was the best candidate for "Shakespeare".
Edward de Ville
Edward de Vere
American writers such as Delia Pecken believe that Bacon is the real "Shakespeare". Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English writer and philosopher, born into an aristocratic family, whose father was the Chancellor of the Seal and the Chancellor, and who himself is suspected to be the illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth I. It is rumored that Bacon and his friends ran the Globe Theatre and established the Secret Drama Society, which attracted many Cambridge literary and artistic talents to join and write "Sha Shu".
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Calvin Goffmen argues that "Shakespeare" is actually Marlowe. Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), English poet and playwright, born into a wealthy family in Canterbury, graduated from Cambridge University. He wrote a large number of poems and plays that reflected the spirit of the times, and was killed at the age of 29 because of his personal arrogance and enemies. Goffmen believed that Marlowe had survived and secretly continued to create, publishing in the name of Shah.
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Third, the author agrees with the orthodox view that Szczessa is the author of Sha's writings. In fact, many orthodox shakers have made a lot of criticisms of the anti-Scythian argument.
Regarding the difference between the spelling of the surname "Shakespere" and the playwright "Shakespeare", linguistic research proves that there was no uniform standard for English spelling in the Elizabethan period, and spelling methods such as "Shakespeare", "Shakespere", "Shakespeare", "Shakspeare", "Shake-speare" and so on have appeared in relevant historical materials.
As for the unsigned early shamma, it was because there was no copyright law or copyright consciousness at that time, and the status of the play was low, and the identity of the playwright was not valued. According to the investigation, only one-third of the plays published in the 1690s were signed, and Shakespeare accounted for a large proportion.
There is no mention of books or scripts in Stone's will. According to Honigman Brock's Playhouse Wills (1558-1642), only 3 of the 14 wills made in English theatre between 1558 and 1642 (William Bird, Samuel Lowry Samuel Rowley, Arthur Wilson) mentioned the distribution of books. The absence of a reference to books is mostly normal and does not mean that the testator is bookless. At that time, Shakespeare was funded and owned by the theater, and Shakespeare did not own or even personally own the written script, so he did not mention the script in his will.
Shakespeare's Will in the National Archives of the United Kingdom
It is a coincidence that Sha Shu is similar to other literary styles. Modern research has found that Shakespeare's style and rhetoric are similar to a large number of other people's works of his contemporaries. However, the works of different writers in the same era have common literary and artistic characteristics, which are recognized by the literary and art criticism circles, and the works of the Renaissance period also have this characteristic. It is absurd to assume the authorship on this point. Sauer's opposition to individualism, Marlo's preaching individualism, and such other literary positions are complementary to Sha's, and modern research proves that Weir's style is not highly similar to Sha's, which is more powerful to prove that Shar is not written by others.
There is no evidence about collective creation. There is no historical evidence that Marlowe, Bacon, and Vail had any direct connection to the Globe Theatre.
Regarding the humble origins of Sza's family, limited education, and inability to obtain the background knowledge needed for creation, historical data proves that most of Sha's hometown friends are literati, and the neighbor Richard Field has become a famous publisher and publishes a large number of books needed for Sha's creative materials. Richard Quiney, who was even poorer than Shakespeare, wrote to Shakespeare mentioning that he often went to the court to deal with related matters, which showed that Shakespeare would also have the opportunity to contact the court and get relevant information, and the Globe Theatre was later protected by the nobility. Ben Jonson and John Taylor, who came from poor backgrounds, also rose to fame through personal efforts and often went out into high society. How can it be said that Sha Shi was born lowly, and spent his life as a poor peasant or a dragon runner?
Many of the claims about Sha Shi and others are based on speculation and imagination, and there is no real evidence, and many of the arguments of the anti-Scypriots are far-fetched.
In fact, a large number of orthodox Shakespeare studies have been confirmed by conclusive evidence that the author of Shakespeare's work is Shakespeare - William Shakespeare, no one else, and a large number of historical materials collected in the memorial hall of Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford Town are even more irrefutable evidence. I'll cite just one or two examples from David Kathman's study to prove it.
The Globe Theatre costume master Sir George Home ledger records that on 15 March 1604 for the performance of King James in London, the cast distributed 4 feet of material. The list includes William Shakespeare, John Hemminges, Richard Burbidge, and more. Prove that William Shakespeare was one of the actors in the theater.
Spencer's will allocates a number of money "to my colleagues John Hemings, Richard Burbich and Henry Cundell", and the Globe Theatre actor is mentioned again, as is the case with Globe Theatre.
A lease dated 7 October 1601 stating that the Globe Theatre was leased by "Richard Burbich and William Shakespeare", proving that Shakespeare was one of the shareholders of the theater.
Between 1616 and 1623, William Basse wrote a lament "To William Shakespeare, died April 1616", in which he praised Shakespeare's literary achievements, comparable to Chaucer and Spencer, and should be buried alongside Westminster Abbey. One year before 1623, the monument to William Shakespeare was erected in Sizhen, and the inscription records that Shakespeare was a literary and artistic master of his time. The writer Sha Shi died at the same time as Szczy Town Sha Shi and appeared to be the same person.
On the title page of the first folio, John Hemings and Henry Kendale say they have compiled and published the play in honor of the author of the play, their close colleague and best friend Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare, the playwright, poet, actor, director, and shareholder of the Globe Theatre, is Squires. For collective creation, the author has a reservation, that is, to speculate that "Shakespeare" may represent a creative collective in which Sha participated, Sha himself played a central or important role in it, and used Sha's name to represent this collective in external propaganda.
Shakespeare was the great master and forerunner of humanistic literature and philosophy in the Elizabethan I period and beyond, and his literary light still inspired generations of writers and artists to move forward, leading the people to an increasingly glorious spiritual world. This article commemorates the 458th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth.
About the author:Zhai Yanping
A native of Qufu, Shandong, he is a literary critic, creator, translator and cultural exchanger. He graduated from Jilin University and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom with a master's degree in literature and management. He has long been engaged in the study of Western literature, especially Shakespeare's plays and comparative literature. The research results such as "On the Anthropological Thought in the Four Tragedies of Shakespeare" have appeared in national core academic journals, and recently the first translation and publication of works such as "Rehearsal" and "Premiere Celebration" by the famous Russian modern playwright Kollendi <哈姆莱特><奥赛罗>have been published, and a new translation of Shakespeare's dialogue has been carried out. He has been invited many times to attend the Shakespeare Society's Shakespeare Birthday Celebration in Stratford, Shakespeare's hometown.
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