This Above alL
Much ado about the Bard’s life
Khushwant Singh

Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets were not written by Shakespeare but by another man with the same name", remarked a witty scholar of literature. That pretty well summarises the controversy which followed several centuries after the death of the greatest figure in world’s literature over his real identity. He wrote nothing about himself; nor did any of his contemporaries bother to write about him. We do not know what he looked like. A large portrait found later shows him to be a balding man in his thirties with a ring in one ear, a goatee on his chin and dressed in fineries of Elizabethen times.

Other portraits and statues followed the pattern of this painting. We are not sure when exactly he started his writing career and in what order he wrote his plays and sonnets. Though public records, including church and school in his birthplace and in London, have been thoroughly researched, they revealed little about the man. Most of what is known about this great man is based on conjectures, created round a few bare bones of authenticated facts. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. He died on April 23, 1616, and is buried there.

His father, John Shakespeare, became an alderman in charge of the quality and quantity of ale served in taverns and meat and bread supplied by butchers and bakers. The family must have lived well. His mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a farmer. She bore eight sons and daughters, including William. William spent about eight years in school cramming Latin. He never went to college. He married Anne Hathaway, eight years elder to him and pregnant (40 per cent of English girls were pregnant brides).

She bore him three children. It is assumed that William’s interest in theatre was kindled watching troupes of players from London performing in towns over the country. One such group lost its principal actor and William was chosen to play his role. He became an actor. He left his family in Stratford and moved to London. At the time the city comprised different boroughs, the gates of which were shut against outsiders every evening. It was a dirty city frequently afflicted by plague and other diseases which killed more people than were born.

Nevertheless, it continued to grow with influx of job-seekers and Protestants and refugees from Catholic France. There were quite a few theatrical companies with theatres of their own. Shakespeare’s company performed in the afternoons. There were rough-necks and pick-pockets snatching bags and wallets. Women seldom went out unaccompanied. A story is told of a young wife who wanted to see a play. She persuaded her husband to let her go alone. He agreed and advised her not to take a wallet but put her money in her bra to buy apples or ale during intervals. She returned home desolate as her money was gone. "Didn’t you feel the fellow’s hand inside your bra?" asked her angry husband. "Yes, I did", replied his wife, "but I didn’t know it was money he was after".

Shakespeare first made his mark as an actor. When theatres were closed for some reason or the other, he took to writing plays and poetry. It is likely that he visited France and Italy because several of his plays are on Italian and French themes. When his sonnets were published, doubts arose about his sexuality. Among his most celebrated lines on love are: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May and summer’s lease hath too short a date. The lines were not addressed to a young lady but a young man who was "master-mistress" of his passion.

This in times when homosexuality was frowned upon and sodomy punishable with death. Although Shakespeare is regarded Elizabethan, it was during the period of King James, who succeeded Elizabeth I, that he won acclaim. It took no more than a couple of centuries for scholars to conclude that he was the greatest of great poets and playwrights of the world. All this I got from the most delightfully readable book, Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson (Harper Collins), who subscribes to the view that all the plays and sonnets ascribed to Shakespeare were actually written by some one with the same name.

Hillary connection

I can claim a tenuous connection with Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who died a few days ago at the age of 88. When he came down to Delhi with team leader Colonel John Hunt in the last week of May or early June, 1953, I was working in the External Service of All India Radio. I was picked up to interview both men for the Internal and External Services. The question uppermost in my mind, and that of everyone else, was "who put his foot first on the peak, Hillary or Tenzing Norgay?’’

Apparently both men had sworn not to tell anyone, and simply say "we did it together". That was accepted by Col Hunt as the right line to take. However, I kept badgering both men, hoping to get a more positive answer. Col Hunt was a man of few words, but Hillary went on and on about the details of how close they came to being swept away to death by an avalanche and how exhilarating it was to have the whole world under their feet. While he was at it, Col Hunt scribbled something on a slip of paper and pushed it in front of Hillary. He gave it a brief look, crumpled it with contempt and threw it on the floor. He continued to drawl on and on.

At the end of the interview when no one was looking, I picked up the crumpled piece of paper and put it in my pocket. It read "make it short". I pasted it on my book on the Everest by Capt M.S. Kohli, who led the Indian team on a repeat performance. It is still with me.

Santa’s answers

Santa’s answers to questions when he applied to a medical school: Antibody—against everyone; artery—the study of fine paintings; bacteria—backdoor to a cafeteria; coma—punctuation mark; dilate—the late British princess; gall bladder—bladder of a girl; genes—blue denim; hernia—she is close by; hymen—greeting to several males; impotent—distinguished, well-known; labour pain—hurt at work; liposuction—a French Kiss

(Contributed by Vipin Bucksey, New Delhi)

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