Shakespeare in Love?
Anyone a fan of the movie Shakespeare in Love? It’s one of my favorites. Two reasons. First, it has some of the most wonderfully done scenes of Romeo and Juliet I’ve ever seen on screen. Second, I love the representation of what it may have been like in the early days of Elizabethan theater. Constant struggles with the authorities. Rivalries among the different theater companies. Shakespeare’s appropriation of ideas and events from the world he saw in his life all around him—even if much of what was presented in the film was fantasy. The idea that Shakespeare was secretly in love with a gentlewoman who was engaged to another man and he wrote Sonnet 18 (see Sonnets 1-25) as a love letter to her does not seem very likely—nor does it fit with the story that runs through the sequence of the 154 poems that make up The Sonnets. In that story, Sonnet 18 is written to express the platonic love of the poet for another man. (I’ll save the details for a later post.) But what’s interesting is that, on its own, Sonnet 18 can be read a love poem from a man to a woman. As a matter of fact, it can be read as a love poem written between any two people. It’s just about love.
Was Shakespeare in love when he wrote Sonnet 18? I doubt it. I am of the belief that The Sonnets are not autobiographical. Some people feel strongly otherwise. I won’t go into the arguments pro and con, especially since it’s not that important. I’m much more interested in what Shakespeare wrote than in his life. My greatest concern is that viewing The Sonnets as autobiographical can unnecessarily restrict their interpretation. It gets really bad when some people imagine they prove that someone other than Shakespeare wrote his works. If you’re one of those, stop right here if you haven’t read Contested Will, by James Shapiro (see reading list). This is an intelligent, beautifully written book that lays out in clear language how the idea that Shakespeare’s work was authored by someone else started, and lucidly lays out the arguments for and against this idea. This is just one of many excellent books by Shapiro, who is always an entertaining read. His latest book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, includes some backroom details about the making of Shakespeare in Love as well as some fascinating details about Shakespeare and the history of feminism, classism and racism.
Anyone else a fan of James Shapiro?