‘Shakespeare Racket Based On Deception’

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 3

‘Shakespeare Racket Based On Deception ’

(New Zealand Press Association)

.AUCKLAND, June 29. The “Shakespeare industry” in Stratford-on-Avon was dedicated to making money from the sale of fake Elizabethan souvenirs rather than to honouring Shakespeare himself, said Associate Professor J. C. Reid, of Auckland University, at today’s Rotary luncheon. Dr. Reid, who was recently in England, described the town as a “commercial slum,” “If anything is calculated to turn people against Shakespeare, it is his home town today.” Much of the “Shakespeare racket” was based on deception. Ann Hathaway’s cottage was neither Ann Hathaway’s nor a cottage.

It had never been proved that “Shakespeare’s birthplace,” which collected £27,000 a year from visitors, was really Shakespeare’s birthplace.

In spite of such vulgar commercialism, Shakespeare remained the most widely translated writer in the world. His popularity in Asiatic and African countries and languages was as great as it was in Europe. This was because of Shakespeare’s concentration on basic humanity, those features of humanity that did not change —love, hate, jealousy, fear and lust for power—and his insight into the private dreams of men of ability to represent them on the stage. Because of this, Dr. Reid was confident Shakespeare would be as popular as ever in 200 years, providing humanity still existed.