Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard - Hardcover

Lynch, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802715664 ISBN 13: 9780802715661

Publisher: Walker Books, 2007

Synopsis

Becoming Shakespeare begins where most Shakespeare stories end―with his death in 1616―and relates the fascinating story of his unlikely transformation from provincial playwright to universal Bard. Unlike later literary giants, Shakespeare created no stir when he died. Though he'd once had a string of hit plays, he had been retired in the country for six years, and only his family, friends, and business partners seemed to care that he was gone. Within a few years he was nearly forgotten. And when London's theaters were shut down in 1642, he seemed destined for oblivion.

With the Restoration in 1660, though, the theaters were open once again, and Shakespeare began his long ascent: No longer merely one playwright among many, he became the transcendent genius at the heart of English culture. Fifty years after the Restoration scholars began taking him seriously. Fifty years after that he was considered England's greatest genius. And by 1800 he was practically divine.

Jack Lynch vividly chronicles Shakespeare's afterlife―from the revival of his plays to the decades when his work was co-opted and "improved" by politicians and other playwrights, and culminating with the "Bardolatry" of the Stratford celebration of Shakespeare's three-hundredth birthday in 1864. Becoming Shakespeare is not only essential reading for anyone intrigued by Shakespeare, but it also offers a consideration of the vagaries of fame.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Lynch, a professor of English at Rutgers University, has been studying the curious afterlife of William Shakespeare for more than fifteen years. He is the editor of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary and Samuel Johnson's Insults. He lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

From Publishers Weekly

It's easy to assume that William Shakespeare has always held his position at the top of the literary canon. But the truth is not that simple, as Lynch, a professor of English at Rutgers and longtime student of literary history, demonstrates. He ably chronicles how "in three hundred years, William Shakespeare the talented playwright and theatre shareholder had become Shakespeare the transcendent demigod," against whom no slight of literary criticism was too small not to be deemed heresy. Along the way, Shakespeare was all but forgotten; criticized for his sloppy, profane dramaturgy; rewritten, forged and bowdlerized (literally, by the eponymous Bowdler); hijacked as a spokesperson for political causes of all stripes; revered and, finally, unquestioningly glorified. Lynch tells the story of the personalities and politics that shaped both the reception of the Bard's works and the development of the theater in England between 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, and 1864, his 300th birthday. Lynch writes fluidly about the Puritan aspirations that shut the English theaters after Queen Elizabeth's death, the Restoration and consequent revitalization of London's theatrical culture, the rise of celebrity culture and the spread of literacy that took Shakespeare off the stage and into the parlor and classroom. Illus. (July)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0802715664
• ISBN 13: 9780802715661
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320