The life of Shakespeare

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17

The life of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. By S. Schoenbaum. Oxford University Press. 320 pp., notes and index. $17.45. (Reviewed by Naylor Hillary) When “William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life,” by Professor Schoenbaum, appeared in 1975 the “Guardian” described it as “the best life of Shakespeare” in a glowing review which added that the book was too big for comfortable reading in bath, bed, or bus. Three years later, Professor Schoenbaum has come up with a more compact edition — not an abridgement, but a book in smaller format, with the text slightly revised, and with 50 of the proven documents relating to Shakespeare’s life illustrated in smaller plates than in the original edition.

Schoenbaum already had to his credit “Shakespeare’s Lives,” published in 1970, an attempt to survey all the theories — sober and fanciful — which have grown up concerning Shakespeare’s surprisingly obscure career. In the “Documentary Life” he wrote a straightforward narrative bringing together everything reallv known about Shakespeare from authenticated records. It turned out that more was known than was generally supposed, although questions often remain, even about such fundamental matters as the exact date of Shakespeare’s birth.

Even in its new format “William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life” is an expansive book. The author devotes much space to a thorough exploration of controversial incidents, and to setting them in the perspective of Elizabethan morals and customs. One instance, which readers can enjoy through many pages, is whether the Hathaway family forced Shakespeare into a “shotgun” marriage with Anne, and whether he was ever betrothed to another Anne, from a Whately family, at the lime of what might have been a disastrous romp in the hay with Miss Hathaway.

In spite of such passages, this is a sober nook, packed with matter, and clearly and elegantly written. It must be the standard reference against which to measure the fancies of other writers who have been lured to dubious invention about Shakespeare’s personal history by the enigmatic splendour of Shakespeare’s writing. As Schoenbaum demonstrates, selective quotation from the plays can prove almo-'-t anything about Shakespeare’s life. The point is to recognise that his genius was capable of drawing on more diverse matter than the eve” ; ' were part of his own experience.