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Review of Literary Records Shakespearean Biografiction: How modern biographers rely on context, conjecture and inference to construct a life of the Bard A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Arts and Humanities Brunel University By Kevin Gilvary November 2014 ii Candidate Kevin Gilvary (1955- ) B.A. (Hons), Classics, Southampton, 1976 M.A., Classics, Southampton, 1978 M.A. (Ed), Language in Education, Southampton 1996 P.G.C.E., Institute of Education, London, 1980 Doctoral Study 2007-2014 (part-time), Brunel University Supervisor 1 Professor William Leahy, School of Arts, Brunel University Supervisor 2 Dr. Sean Gaston, School of Arts, Brunel University Examiner 1 Professor Tom Betteridge, School of Arts, Brunel University Examiner 2 Professor Tom Healey, University of Sussex iii Abstract Modern biographies of William Shakespeare abound: new studies appear almost every year, each claiming new research and new insights, while affirming that there are enough records for a documentary life. In this thesis, I argue that no biography of Shakespeare is possible due to insufficient material, that most of what is written about Shakespeare cannot be verified from primary sources, and that Shakespearean biography did not attain scholarly or academic respectability until Samuel Schoenbaum’s Documentary Life (1975). The thesis therefore is concerned with demythologising Shakespeare by exposing numerous “biogra-fictions.” I begin by reviewing the history and practice of biography as a narrative account of a person’s life based on primary sources. Next I assess the very limited biographical material for Shakespeare identifying the gaps, e.g. there is no record that he spent any of his childhood in Stratford or ever attended school. A historical review of writing about Shakespeare demonstrates that there were no serious attempts to reconstruct his life during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merely some comments and unverifiable anecdotes. I demonstrate that the greatest Shakespearean scholar, Edmond Malone, realised that no narrative account of Shakespeare’s life was possible. I show how the earliest biographies of Shakespeare emerged in the 1840s in line with the Victorian need to identify national heroes. Schoenbaum’s deeply flawed study has greatly influenced academics who have followed his structure and myths in their own biographies. My analysis of the contrasting descriptions of Shakespeare’s relationships with Southampton and with Jonson demonstrate that the very limited biographical material can only be expanded through speculation and inference. Finally, I propose that study of Shakespeare’s life should be confined to discrete topics, starting from a sceptical examination of primary sources. Any attempt at an account of his life or personality amounts, however, merely to “biografiction”. iv Contents page References and Abbreviations used within this thesis vi List of Tables and Annexes vii Acknowledgements viii Author’s Declaration viii Introduction: Shakespearean Biografiction 1 1 Biography: Much Practice, Little Theory 10 1.1 Definition and Key Elements of Biography 10 1.2 The Western Tradition of Biography 13 1.3 English Biography in the Early Modern and Victorian Periods 16 1.4 New Biography & New Criticism 21 1.5 Biography from the late Twentieth Century 24 1.6 Linear Narrative and Coherence in Biography 25 1.7 Types of Biographical Material 31 2 Gaps in Our Ignorance: Limitations in the Biographical Material for Shakespeare 34 2.1 Source Material for Shakespeare 36 2.2 Public Records: Stratford 40 2.3 Public Records: London 43 2.4 Literary & Theatrical Records 45 3 Inventing the myths: the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 54 3.1 Early Biografictions 56 3.2 Nicholas Rowe’s Acount of the Life &c (1709) 63 3.3 Reprints of Rowe’s Account 68 3.4 Lewis Theobald’s Neglected Preface (1733) 72 3.5 Edward Capell’s Neglected Insights (1767) 76 4 Doubting the Myths: Malone’s Unwritten Life of Shakespeare 79 4.1 Attempt at a Chronology 80 4.2 Use of the Poems for Biographical Inference 89 v 4.3 Ambition for a Life of Shakespeare 91 5 Inventing Details: Constructing a life of Shakespeare: 1805-1975 101 5.1 Scepticism in the Nineteenth Century 102 5.2 Romantic Biografictions 105 5.3 Exemplary Life and National Biography 110 5.4 Halliwell-Phillipps, Dowden and Lee 111 5.5 Scepticism in the Twentieth Century 119 5.6 Twentieth Century Biographies of Shakespeare (to 1975) 125 6 Re-inventing the Life: Samuel Schoenbaum and modern biographies 130 6.1 A Documentary Life 131 6.2 “Gentle” Shakespeare 135 6.3 Modern Shakespearean Biographies after Schoenbaum 137 6.4 Critique of Modern Shakespearean Biography 150 7 Inventing a Patron: the Earl of Southampton 167 7.1 Shakespeare’s Dedications to Southampton 172 7.2 Rowe’s Mention of a £1,000 gift 175 7.3 Plays written for Southampton? 177 7.4 The “Fair Youth” of the Sonnets 179 7.5 The “Classless Milieu” of Elizabethan Theatre 181 8 Inventing a Rival: Ben Jonson 185 8.1 Did Shakespeare purge Jonson? 187 8.2 “Shakespear wanted Arte” 190 8.3 Dedications in the First Folio 195 8.4 Jonson’s Timber or Discoveries 202 Conclusions and Inconclusions 207 Annex A: Text of Rowe’s Acount of the Life &c (1709) 210 Annex B: Jonson’s Censure of English Poets (ed. 1711) 228 References 230 vi References and abbreviations I have followed throughout the author-date style for citations and references, according to the fourteenth edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (1993) as the most economical in space and time. Quotations of the works of Shakespeare are taken from Stanley Wells & Gary Taylor, eds. (1986) William Shakespeare: the Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The following abbreviations are used throughout: WS E. K. Chambers. 1930. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press. STC A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English books printed abroad 1475-1640. Second edition, revised and enlarged, begun by W. A. Jackson and F. S. Ferguson, completed by K. F. Pantzer. London: The Bibliographical Society. Vol. I (A-H). 1986. Vol. II (I- Z). 1976. Vol. III (Indexes, addenda, corrigenda). 1991. The English Short Title Catalogue is available online through the British Library website: www.bl.uk Clarification Acount Some Acount of the Life &c. which Nicholas Rowe prefixed to his six-volume edition of The Plays of Shakespeare (1709). Account The version of Some Account of the Life &c. which Alexander Pope had slightly altered for the prolegomena to his edition of the plays 1723-5. This revised version, attributed to Rowe alone, appeared in subsequent reprints. The two versions are compared in Annex A. vii List of Tables Table 1 Campbell’s narrative structure: The Hero of a Thousand Faces (1949) 28 Table 2 Documented references to William Shakespeare: 1564-1593 35 List of Annexes Annex A Text of Rowe’s Acount of the Life, &c. of Mr. William Shakespeare with biographical comments and Pope’s alterations highlighted. 210 Annex B Jonson’s Censure of English Poets (ed. Sage & Reddiman 1711) 228 viii Acknowledgements I should like to thank my supervisor, Professor William Leahy, for his encouragement of my research, his incisive guidance and his unfailing confidence in my undertaking. I would also like to thank other academic staff at Brunel University, especially my second supervisor, Dr. Sean Gaston, as well as Professor Philip Tew, and Fay Weldon, for their many valuable comments. The staff in the School of Arts, especially Sue Ramus, have always been on hand to answer my queries, while the librarians, most notably Laura Ashley, have given me excellent support. Dr E. M. Jolly has given me exceptional advice and insights throughout my progress. Mr. R. Griffin has helped with many valuable suggestions and corrections. I have also received very useful help from Staff at the Folger Library in Washington, the British Library, The National Archives, the London Metropolitan Archives, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Southampton University Library, the Hampshire Archives, and the Hampshire Public Libraries. Similarly, the wonderful staff in the English Department at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Eastleigh, especially Mrs. Nicola Carcone, have given me magnificent support. I particularly wish to thank my wife for her support, patience and encouragement throughout my studies. Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. Authorisation for Brunel University to lend this thesis to others for the purpose of research will be granted when any further papers or other publications deriving from the research underlying the thesis have been completed. Kevin Gilvary Titchfield, Hampshire. 1 November 2014 1 Introduction Shakespearean Biografiction What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? Another yet! Macbeth, 4.1.130 Like Macbeth confronted by the interminable line of Banquo’s progeny, any person wanting to read about the life of Shakespeare must be astonished at the sheer number of modern biographies about the Bard. Since the release of the popular (but highly fictional) film Shakespeare in Love in 1998, there have been over twenty-five such biographies, many written by eminent academics such as Katherine Duncan-Jones (2001), Stephen Greenblatt (2004), and Lois Potter (2012). The number of these biographies is all the more surprising when we recall that no new contemporary document naming Shakespeare has been discovered since 1931 when Leslie Hotson published his transcription and analysis of the Langley writ of 1596. Before that, the last new documents bearing the name of William Shakespeare, from the Belott-Mountjoy case, were discovered and published by Charles Wallace in 1910 (Nicholl 2007). Thus any “new” evidence or research concerns only the history of the period and Shakespeare’s assumed place in it. Modern biographies vary considerably in their portrayal of Shakespeare according to their own imaginations, using selective inference from the works to identify a speech, a character or an idea with Shakespeare himself.
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