At any rate, Stephen Greenblatt avoids these pitfalls altogether in Will in the World. The fanaticism currently sweeping our culture also accuses Shakespeare of all manner of discriminatory beliefs (mostly coming from people who have read very little of Shakespeare). Of course, this belief is relatively recent and was certainly not considered legitimate by any of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. In fact, a popular conspiracy theory exists today which suggests Francis Bacon was the true author of the Shakespearean corpus. In our present-day, where great writers like Homer and Plato are often denied their seat at the table, poets like Shakespeare are thought to be an impossibility.

Some tend to believe that a provincial simpleton without the benefits of a sophisticated Oxford or Cambridge education surely could not possibly have crafted such transformative literature and poetry.

Our contemporary prejudices tend to levy accusations against Shakespeare. Why did Shakespeare leave Stratford and head to London to write plays? How are we to understand his relationship with his wife and family? What, if any, were his religious inclinations? Greenblatt’s book is a wonderful exploration into the possibilities of the historical imagination. It was also a rocky era with plagues and ongoing violent clashes between Protestants and Catholics. It was certainly a tumultuous time in English history -it was the end of the Tudor regime with the decline of Elizabeth which was then overtaken over by the Stuart regime under James I. Using quotations and imagery from Shakespeare’s plays and poems, Greenblatt re-imagines what Shakespeare might have experienced during his lifetime by filling in the vast gaps of his biography with possible experiences he might have had. Thanks to the diligent system of Tudor bureaucracy we know at least some minor details of his life, such as his real estate holdings, marriage, birth and death of his children, as well as reviews of his plays. Originally published in 2004, Will in the World is a comprehensive exploration into the mind of William Shakespeare from birth to death. Stephen Greenblatt’s delightful ‘new historicist’ literary biography of William Shakespeare is an imaginative glimpse into the elusive life of the bard.

Greenblatt will in the world