Plague & Playhouse

Shakespeare  
Hello Mr. Smith. This is William Shakespeare the action figure, and I would be most remiss if I did not continue my narrative regarding my education in Stratford. You see, like many boys of my station, I probably attended the King’s New School in Stratford. It has been so long that I must admit I am a bit foggy. The curriculum would have been heavy on Latin, rhetoric, and the classics. Day after day, I was been drilled in the works of Ovid, Seneca, and Plautus. Later, echoes of those schoolroom authors would resurface in my plays — such as Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as the Roman senators in Julius Caesar. 

Night watchmen
So when did you start using the alphabet and language so masterfully?

Shakespeare
I certainly intend to address that, but for now be patient, my fellow toys, be patient. You see, by 1582, when I was only eighteen, I married a lady by the name of Anne Hathaway,  Some scholars Believe that my wive's name was actually Agnes. In any case, our first daughter, Susanna, was born the following year. Twins, Hamnet and Judith, followed in 1585.  Unfortunately my dear son Hamnet later died as a result of the plague.

 And then comes the mystery: the so-called “lost years.” Between 1585 and 1592, I completely disappear from the historical record. No plays, no mentions, no documents, but what we do know is that by 1592, I was in the city of London and making a name for myself. A rival playwright, Robert Greene, derided me in print as an “upstart crow.” For all its venom, the insult is proof that I had arrived — I was already challenging the university-trained writers and beginning my rise to the very top of the Elizabethan stage.

Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Creativity and Conversations with Toys. This episode is the Second of three episodes about the greatest writer in the English language - perhaps in ANY language. William Shakespeare. This specific podcast episode is called Plague & Playhouse — when London closes the theaters, and the Shakespeare action figure opens a new chapter.

And as usual, let me get the disclaimer out-of-the-way.

This podcast is a dramatization that blends historical research with fiction, satire, and imagined conversations between people, toys, and other objects. It is not a documentary and not professional advice of any kind. No character, toy, product, or brand depicted in this podcast is authorized by, endorsed by, or officially affiliated with any company, manufacturer, museum, or organization; references to specific names are for storytelling only and do not imply sponsorship or approval.

I’m George Bartley… now let’s have some fun.
[THEME MUSIC SWELLS, THEN FADES OUT.]

Night watchmen
I am your friendly nightwatchman for this toy museum, and we are listening to the William Shakespeare action figure, complete with scroll and quill. Mr. Shakespeare, could you tell us about your grammar school.

Shakespeare  
Hello Mr. Smith. This is William Shakespeare the action figure, and I would be most remiss if I did not continue my narrative regarding my education in Stratford. You see, like many boys of my station, I probably attended the King’s New School in Stratford. It has been so long that I must admit I am a bit foggy. The curriculum would have been heavy on Latin, rhetoric, and the classics. Day after day, I was been drilled in the works of Ovid, Seneca, and Plautus. Later, echoes of those schoolroom authors would resurface in my plays — such as Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as the Roman senators in Julius Caesar. 

Night watchmen
So when did you start using the alphabet and language so masterfully?

Shakespeare
I certainly intend to address that, but for now be patient, my fellow toys, be patient. You see, by 1582, when I was only eighteen, I married a lady by the name of Anne Hathaway,  Some scholars Believe that my wive's name was actually Agnes. In any case, our first daughter, Susanna, was born the following year. Twins, Hamnet and Judith, followed in 1585.  Unfortunately my dear son Hamnet later died as a result of the plague.

 And then comes the mystery: the so-called “lost years.” Between 1585 and 1592, I completely disappear from the historical record. No plays, no mentions, no documents, but what we do know is that by 1592, I was in the city of London and making a name for myself. A rival playwright, Robert Greene, derided me in print as an “upstart crow.” For all its venom, the insult is proof that I had arrived — I was already challenging the university-trained writers and beginning my rise to the very top of the Elizabethan stage.

Night watchmen
So Mr. Shakespeare, it would seem that one might say that you were fully in the London scene.

Shakespeare
Precisely! By the early 1590s, I was fully in the - as you call it - London scene — which meant two things: theater and plague. In 1592, theaters were shut down because of an outbreak, and with the stage dark, I began to write poetry. Today the public might refer to this time in my life as my side-hustle era. I published two long narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, dedicated to a wealthy young noble, the Earl of Southampton. You flatter a patron, they fund your career. And the process worked. These poems put my name in print for the first time.

And in 1609, I published a book of sonnets that included the famous “shall I compare to a summers day”

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 all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

But my real passion was the stage, and by 1594, the theaters reopened. I joined an acting company that would later become the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. From then on, my plays weren’t just circulating among companies — I had what you might call A Home team.

A block
Mr. Shakespeare, what did you write first?

Shakespeare
That’s debated, but by the mid-1590s, we see Titus Andronicus, with its gore and brutality. Titus Andronicus is definitely bloody and full of dramatic extremes. I like to think that it shows me testing the limits of tragedy, revenge, and spectacle for stage effect.

Let my tears staunch the earth’s dry appetite;
My sons’ sweet blood will make it shame and blush
O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain
That shall distil from these two ancient ruins
Than youthful April shall with all his showers.
In summer’s drought I’ll drop upon thee still;
In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow
And keep eternal springtime on thy face,
So thou refuse to drink my dear sons’ blood.

Shakespeare
While it may seem shocking today, it was a very popular with audiences- you might say that I was beginning to understand what a crowd enjoyed.  Today, it might shock you with its gore, but in Elizabethan London, the audience loved it. I was learning how to grip a crowd, and how to push the boundaries of emotion and spectacle. I was testing the limits of storytelling itself.

It was around this time I wrote Richard the Third - a history play about a very manipulative English king.

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

And later I wrote a great series of historical dramas that are known as the Henry VI plays (a trilogy of English history with more sword fights than your average Marvel movie - and yes I do try to stay aware of historical and pseudo action entertainment)

This battle fares like to the morning’s war,
When dying clouds contend with growing light,
What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect day nor night.
Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea
Forced by the tide to combat with the wind;
Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea
Forced to retire by fury of the wind:
Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind;
Now one the better, then another best;
Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
Yet neither conqueror nor conquered:
So is the equal of this fell war.
Here on this molehill will I sit me down.

And then there were the early comedies such A Comedy of Errors (pure farce, twins everywhere). Note that in this portion of  a “comedy of errors,the character of Antipholus and a bondsman describe the character Nell using geographical references. Comparing the lower part of Nell’s body to the Netherlands - the low country - Antipholus asks about the location of the Netherlands on her body, and the character of Dromio responds - To conclude: this drudge or diviner laid claim to me, swore I was assured to her, told me what privy marks I had about me, as the mark of my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm, that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch. And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, She had transformed me to a curtal dog and made me turn i’ th’ wheel.

And later the character says:

As from a bear a man would run for life,
So fly I from her that would be my wife.

Block A
Mr. Shakespeare, along with the other blocks permit me to say that we could could hear you talk all day.

Shakespeare
That is greatly appreciated, and I have to be careful that I don't do just that!     Giggles

No, These plays weren’t yet the deep, polished works that one might quote today — but they were fast, funny, violent, and very popular.
I was simply giving the Elizabethans what they craved: spectacle, laughter, and a dash of scandal.

By 1595, though, something began to change. I wrote Romeo and Juliet, and suddenly the kid from Stratford had found hisvoice. It’s a teenage love story, yes, but also a tragedy written with such lyrical power that audiences were hooked. In fact, to use your current terminology - if the Henry VI plays were my “pilot episodes,” Romeo and Juliet was my breakout hit.

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady; O, it is my love!
O that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

And after the tragic events involving Romeo and Juliet at the end of the play, the character of the Prince utters:

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

And I came to believe that an audience member could see me begin to experiment in real time. In one decade, I went from blood-soaked revenge tragedies to poetry, to romantic comedy, and then into high tragedy — like a playwright who refuses to become typecast. Think of me as the Elizabethan version of a director who makes a quality slasher flick - whatever that might be - then an excellent rom-com, then a prestige drama, then an outstanding love story - just to prove that I can.

Watchman
May I ask Quinn did you feel that you were really becoming famous - or as they say - a household name?

Shakespeare
By the end of the 1590s, I believe that I had become a household name in London. I had my own acting troupe, hit plays packing the theaters, and my reputation spreading beyond the city. This “upstart crow” had officially become the main attraction.

In my early plays, I was experimenting with form, voice, and character. I was learning what words could do on a stage and what stories would make an audience sit forward, laugh, weep, or gasp. From the political machinations of kings to the secret yearnings of young lovers, my early works are the foundation of the genius that you celebrate today—and the first steps on the ladder that would take me to the masterpieces of my later years.”

By the turn of the century, I was no longer just successful — I was unstoppable - and I do not say this to BOAST. In 1599, my company built the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames. Imagine it: a 3,000-seat open-air theater, round as a doughnut, filled with everyone from pickpockets and apprentices in the pit to nobles in the galleries. It was noisy, messy, and alive — more like your current rock concerts than a polite evening at the opera.

The Globe became my creative laboratory. And what a year to start with: 1599 saw Julius Caesar,

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
And It was during this period that I wrote Henry V - a masterful play, if I may say so myself.

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth;
For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o’er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Join celebrate creativity for the third and final part of this very special three part series based featuring the William Shakespeare action figure -
complete with scroll and quill.

Sources Include:  Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov, The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom, Shakesfear and How to Cure It, an unpublished manuscript by Ralph Cohen, and ChatGPT four. 

Thank you for listening to celebrate creativity.

Greensleeves, traditional, performed by George Bartley, source: Fallingwater Dreams by George Bartley. License: Public Domain (composition) / Creative Commons (recording).