In 1599:A Year in the life of William Shakespeare, James Shapiro (a Shakespeare scholar and professor at Columbia University) depicts a bibliography on the mark left on four plays; Hamlet, As You Like It, Henry V and Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare in 1599 by public events. James Shapiro goes to the next level in this book by depicting the life of William Shakespeare during the momentous year of 1599. Shapiro informs his readers that much of the story is created from historically informed conjecture. James Shapiro goes to the next level in this book by depicting the life of William Shakespeare during the momentous of 1599.
Shapiro informs his readers that much of the story is created from historically informed conjecture. James Shapiro illuminates on the achievements Shakespeare attains as a playwright, actor, and business person. The biography achieves a gripping account of a motivating moment in history. The author, Shapiro provides new insights into Shakespeare’s financial prospects and artistic choices that year. This book answers the question of whether the plays William Shakespeare wrote indeed reflected what was going on in London at the time and also provides greater insights on Shakespeare’s personal life.
Shapiro also believes that “Elizabethan culture ought to matter a great deal to us, for we’ve inherited its conflicting views of everything from the nature of the self and sexuality to nationhood and empire. ” (vii) Just as Shakespeare was an outcome of his surroundings, according to Shapiro, so are we. At the start of the biography, Shapiro sets the background of the theater profession at the end of the 16th century in London. Shapiro states, “William Shakespeare is a member of an acting troop called the Chamberlain’s men,” (3). Shapiro discusses this troop throughout the entire bibliography.
The Chamberlains’ men were called to perform for the court of Elizabeth I. The Chamberlain’s men had five members; and they are William Shakespeare, Thomas Pope, Will Kemp, John Heminges and Augustine Phillips and was financed by Cuthbert and Richard Burbage. Shapiro states that “Chamberlain’s men were more than acting companions, they were also co-investors. ” The Burbage brothers offer investment plans to fellow actors at a time their theater was tenuous owing to its location and the landlord owning the land where the theater was built.
Shapiro states that the Burbage brothers set up an easily accessible theater in the outskirts of London and offered the Chamberlain’s men to invest 10% into the theater, and they would share in 10% of the profit they would generate (4). This theater was set up near the current Globe Theater. Shapiro describes the troubles set into play when Henry VIII (Elizabeth’s predecessor) encourages his subjects to invade and colonize Ireland. Elizabeth’s reign was now dealing with the Ireland’s resistance.
There was an anonymous letter that described the problems facing the intermarriage between the Irish and English. Shapiro states that English troops in Ireland were constantly being attacked by Ireland’s resistance, young men from gatherings such as church were taken as troops to neutralize the situation in Ireland. This process was highly corrupt because affluent young men could usually buy their release. The book covers the political situation in England at the time of Elizabeth and her relationship with Earl of Essex, who was scheduled to go to Ireland to crush the resistance once and for all.
If the problems in Ireland were solved, Elizabeth would worry over possible invasion by the Spanish Armada. From the book, the discussion of the play Hamlet is fascinating because it was tenuous and difficult to publish a play at the time. At the time, Shapiro states that “In all these respects, England had reached, and passed, the tipping point. ” (273) This was a time of English prosperity for writers due to the globalization caused by the East India company. Shakespeare may have not directly been apart of the movement yet there was a copy of Hamlet on the voyage to the East Indies.
On this voyage, Shakespeare’s master piece was performed by the crew members. This was a time of great change and “in Hamlet he perfectly captures such a moment, conveying what it means to live in the bewildering space between familiar past and murky future. ” (279) As the Shapiro states that Hamlet had two versions because it was relatively long in entirety (16). Shapiro provides insights to the reader on the difference between the two versions of Hamlet. Shapiro states, “William Shakespeare owned property in Stratford-on-Avon and had a family” (20).
Shapiro informs readers on the travels between Shakespeare’s Arden and London and also some money-making activity that the author terms as less-than-honorable at the expense of locals. There are two obvious conclusions one perceives from nearly all plays written by William Shakespeare; one is that very little is known about him, and that plays reflect the troubling times in which he lived. Shapiro adopts a unique and reverse approach to understanding Shakespeare. Shapiro in his bibliography can prove that Shakespeare’s plays reflected his country at the time. This helps readers understand Shakespeare as a man and also as an artist.
Shapiro describes the building of the Globe by the Chamberlain’s men when the lease for the original theater expired. Shapiro focuses his lens on 1599 and divides it into four seasons with each season dealing with a set of preoccupations at personal, professional and national levels and at the same time maintaining a dynamic readability throughout. Spring- the Chamberlain’s men develop logistics for building the Globe. Summer- there is paranoia in England resulting from fear of the second Spanish Armada. Autumn- there is a decline in the chivalric ideals of the aristocratic class and a rise of the adventurous merchants, Capitalist.
Winter- displaying Shakespeare’s artistic difference with his comic; Will Kemp. The author Shapiro correlates his topics with the themes from the four plays written by William Shakespeare that year; Hamlet, As You Like It, Henry V and Julius Caesar (30). The author also provides readers with unexpected details so as to be poignant. Such as Shakespeare changing horses while riding home. Shapiro can explain the nature of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth’s Court and Shakespeare very effectively and also how the performance before the Queen affected his decisions when writing his plays.
Shapiro is also able to provide with insights into how Shakespeare’s financial prospects artistic choices in 1599 were intertwined with the rise and plummeting fate of the Earl of Essex. The author also delivers on key forgotten events that had transpired the same year like the failed occupation of Ireland and second Spanish Armada. These events are vital in creating the mood of England that particular year. Shapiro also shows how these events helped to influence Shakespeare’s imagination and artistic plays.
Shapiro can connect Shakespeare’s soliloquy and demonstrate how Shakespeare invented what we can term as “Shakespearean” tragedy in 1599 by realizing that Montaigne’s literary innovation could be used to depict inner consciousness on stage. Shapiro describes how 1599 marked the end of the over-ripe chivalric ideals of the aristocratic class and the rise of the adventurous merchant capitalists (28). This is backed by the creation of the East India Company. He shows that Shakespeare being a wealthy entrepreneur desiring to acquire a court of the arm had superseded both sensibilities.
When reading Shapiro, we must also appreciate that “Rather than awkwardly littering the pages that follow with one hedge after another— “perhaps,” “maybe,” “it’s most likely,” “probably,” or the most desperate of them all, “surely;” (xii) Shapiro would “like to offer one global qualification here. If a claim is made, “it signals that the evidence is inconclusive or the argument highly speculative. ” (xii) In the book, A Year in the life of William Shakespeare 1599 James Shapiro provides with original and insightful information on William Shakespeare.
Shapiro helps his readers learn and understand more about William Shakespeare as an artist and as a man. In my view, Shapiro gives readers the feeling of moving through the year of 1599 illuminating on Shakespeare’s life and other events that took place in that same year. To conclude, James Shapiro in an excellent writer because he has delivered an exceptional biography on Shakespeare in the year 1599. He uses historical information from his research to create this masterpiece biography on William Shakespeare and the historical events that transpired in 1599.
