Will Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon (April 26, 1564-April 23, 1616)

You must be aware how the digital age of the late 20th century has transformed the world around you and your worldview while adding new words and concepts to your vocabulary. The 16th century England also saw a similar burst of creativity and ripples of transformation, and this is the very time frame that shaped and was shaped by William Shakespeare.

 
Before we commence our discussion on Hamlet, let’s envision the young Shakespeare witnessing and processing these changes in his poetic vision. He was born into the world of literary symbolism—Queen Elizabeth the first tacitly fostered the cult of the Virgin Queen and all her courtiers vied to “woo” the “fair(y) queen” as a means of achieving social promotion. The printing press Johannes Gutenberg invented in 1439 finally reached the English shore to spawn aspirant writers and translators, who eagerly churned out pamphlets and booklets.


The educated and the elite had favored Latin and French to English, yet now there was a definite sea change and even the future king James the first was to commission the bible to be translated from the languages of the exclusive elite (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic) into the English vernacular. Thomas Wyatt had imported the Petrarchan (aka Italian) sonnet and attempted to Anglicize it suitable for the English tongue and decorum. As if to give wing to the English, the fortuitous defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 helped catapult the English to global hegemony (that is, dominance) and now the English dreamed of expanding their insular world to the brave new world (the American colony, the Indian subcontinent, and the small and large islands between the seas).
 

Now, Shakespeare walks into this bustling scene of creativity, experiment, expansion, and prosperity. Born in a small town called Stratford-upon-Avon (a Stratford near the small rivulet called Avon), the young Shakespeare runs away from a shotgun marriage to Anne Hathaway (a seven-year senior to Shakespeare) and joins the theater troupe as a novice actor and soon transforms into a poet and playwright. By 1616, Shakespeare is to own the largest house in Stratford and to become one of the shareholders of the acting company, King’s Men. This man we honor as the Bard.
 

Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, shaped the relatively flexible English (its spelling and pronunciation was yet to be standardized) by playing free and easy. For example, he used nouns as verbs as in “it out-herods Herod” and “uncle me no uncle.” Some even contend that he coined an estimated 2,000 neologisms (some illustrious examples include “bare-faced,” “gnarled,” “lackluster,” and “fitful”).


He also invented countless phrases commonly used even today such as “one fell swoop,” “vanish into thin air,” “brave new world,” “star-crossed lovers,” “there’s the rub,” “it's Greek to me,” “cruel only to be kind,” and so on and so forth. And he was more than happy to “borrow” from known sources and other writers (the copyright law was conceived not until 1709—Will, you lucky devil!). He penned 36 plays and 154 sonnets and perfected puns and blank verse (unrhymed units of iambic pentameter).


Whatever the merits of the other poets of this golden age, undoubtedly it is William Shakespeare who single-handedly fashioned the English language and literature for the times to come.
 

What one fact or observation of the Bard would you like to share with us?