iambic pentameter – Arthur Hofn

I completely get why some may be put off, but here is why I think you should give it a go.

Plague was filling the city and the country. Normal life was on hold. Theatres were closed. It’s been said many times that although we think that our circumstances are unusual, Shakespeare might disagree. It is said that whilst under a form of Lockdown Shakespeare was hard at work writing new plays, we can only guess this, but it’s either a motivation for writers or a somewhat depressing comparison.

On the previous blog I spoke about some of, what I think are, the most accessible of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as maybe the ones that maybe don’t always get the spotlight in the way that Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream do.

That post was about his Works, the whole point of what he was trying to achieve; which was it seems just making sure the theatre still had material and he could pay his way rather than looking for fame and immortality; in fact it’s likely that if he was brought to 2020 London and shown The Globe, the books and the videos it would be a massive surprise to him, let alone the fact his works are performed all round the actual globe in languages and countries he’d never heard of.

If you enjoy Shakespeare’s writings then of course the next step is to learn something out about the man. There are far more words written about him in many books and documentaries then he ever wrote himself. Of these there are two books I think that are great for either a starting point, or just a general containment of the facts in a clear and simple way.

First I’d recommend Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare (now subtitled The World As A Stage). Compared to some of Bryson’s works this is actually quite a slim volume, there is a reason for that. It seems there is a vast difference between what we think we know about Shakespeare, including myths and spurious stories, compared to what we do properly know as facts. Bryson (and the second book I will suggest) both avoid the apocryphal, only commenting on a myth to debunk it. No there isn’t any evidence that it was someone other than Shakespeare that wrote the plays, as a conspiracy it’s just an invention by people at the start of the 1800s and only hangs around for nay-sayers to point and feel superior.

Instead what we are given is the what facts we do know, or have a good chance of being true, most interestingly we have the context of the times and society as it was. It’s clearly written, the text is informative but not heavy going, and I’d suggest it’s one of the best books on Shakespeare’s life that I have come across. Chronological in it’s format it follows the life of this man as best we know it, including the impact that he was had on you and me which maybe we don’t know. You can read it in a couple of days even if you are taking it easy. The only slight issue I’d have is that, in my copy at least, there is no index so trying to find information again means wading through it once more. That aside this is a very good book.

“Perhaps nothing speaks more eloquently of the variability of spelling in the age than the fact that a dictionary published in 1604, A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words, spelled “words” two ways on the title page.”
― Bill Bryson, Shakespeare: The World as Stage

The other book I’d recommend is Shakespeare On Toast by Ben Crystal. It might be an odd title but the point of it is that the information within is supposed to be easy, like a lunch of beans on toast. The first part of the book certainly delivers this promise and compliments Bryson’s volume in that it either fills in gaps or provides the same information but from the view of a performer rather than a historian. This would make sense as Ben Crystal is an actor.

There is an index in this book, as well as charts and simple boxed out explanations that make reading this in short intervals possible. Again the author goes to lengths to make sure what he is presenting is as accurate as possible. He also takes up the whole of Elizabethan life that is relevant and condenses it down to the basic facts that once known adds so much more colour to Shakespeare’s works. Did you know the difference between thou, thee, thy and you? Did you realise that the word “table” used to mean “notebook”?

It’s fascinating stuff… then you get to the second half of the book. Deciding to drop the general facts Crystal becomes a little obsessed with the rhythm of Shakespeare’s dialogue, this is NOT a bad thing because after reading just the first few pages of this explanation, you will too.

Crystal unlocks entire secrets hidden in Shakespeare’s works that actors would have seen all along. No I don’t mean conspiracies against the King or Queen, I mean stage directions that add a whole other dimension to the scripts. Because these are scripts not prose and Shakespeare wrote them for his friends to read and perform they would have had shortcuts that the actors would have understood but we wouldn’t.

What is iambic pentameter? How does the way Shakespeare used it to write the lines of the script show the personality of the characters? Trust me that might sound like a snore, but it’s so well explained, not just informative but entertaining. It’s a real revelation in Shakespearian writing, and you may find you attempt to speak or write in one of the pentameters for a while after, or is that just me?

“The Elizabethans watching one of Shakespeare’s plays would be relatively unaccustomed to seeing pictures or images – save perhaps a sign outside a tavern, a portrait or tapestry. In our time, unless you make an incredible effort, it’s impossible to turn a corner without seeing a photograph.”
― Ben Crystal, Shakespeare On Toast

For one of England’s most famous people it’s surprising how little we know about someone who has literally changed all our lives in one way or other, even if it’s just using the words he invented.

Buy Shakespeare (The World As A Stage) by Bill Bryson
Buy Shakespeare On Toast by Ben Crystal