Shakespeare, No Mere Regurgitating Potter of Earlier Lives
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“This is a lively, fresh new introduction to the life of Shakespeare, no mere regurgitating POTTER of earlier lives. It reads well. It is judicious, intelligent, coherent, and well documented.” David Bevington, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago “Lois Potter has produced an astonishing, revelatory, fully literary biography.” Lena Cowen Orlin, Executive Director, Shakespeare Association of America, and Professor of English, Georgetown University The Life of The Life “This is not just (just!) a biography of Shakespeare: it is a theatrical biography. It uses Lois Potter’s immense, unrivalled knowledge of things theatrical to draw very logical and frequently original inferences.” Laurie E. Maguire, Professor of English, University of Oxford “Richly informative and engagingly written, this book should appeal to general readers as well as to professional Shakespeareans.” Edward Pechter, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Concordia University WI “Lois Potter’s book provides a delightful guide through Shakespeare’s world. A splendid introduction for those new to the facts about Shakespeare’s life, it is also a revelation for anyone all too familiar with them.” ll Meredith Skura, Professor of English, Rice University IAM In this remarkable new biography, distinguished Shakespeare scholar and theater critic Lois Potter explores literary and historical contexts often neglected in other studies, drawing in particular on the idea of the literary personality and on new discoveries about collaboration. She looks at Shakespeare’s possible role models, both real and fictional, with particular attention to the people with whom he worked as both author and actor, and considers how these various kinds of collaboration may have affected him. The focus throughout is on Shakespeare’s words and on SHAKE what he learned about writing for his audiences – which, Potter suggests, were more varied than has been thought. The result is a unique and wide-ranging study of the life and work of the great poet and dramatist. LOis POTTER recently retired as Ned B. Allen Chair at the University of Delaware. She has also taught at the Universities of Aberdeen, Leicester, and Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, and at Tsuda College, Tokyo. Her publications include Twelfth Night: Text and Performance (1986), the Arden edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen (1997, 2001), and Shakespeare in Performance: Othello (2002). She is also the editor of two volumes in the Revels History of Drama in English series (1981 and 1984), and has been a frequent reviewer S of plays for the Times Literary Supplement, Shakespeare Quarterly, and Shakespeare Bulletin. PEARE The Life of WIllIAM Cover image: William Shakespeare, c.1610 (oil on canvas) SHAKESPEARE by John Taylor © National Portrait Gallery / The Bridgeman Art Library Cover design: www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk A Critical Biography ISBN 978-1-118-28152-9 90000 LOIS POTTER 9 781118 281529 Potter pb artwork.indd 1 16/2/12 10:14:10 “Lois Potter’s book provides a delightful guide through Shakespeare’s world. A splendid introduction for those new to the facts about Shakespeare’s life, it is also a revelation for anyone all too familiar with them. The Life of William Shakespeare revitalizes old truths by asking questions where none seemed necessary, by filling in new detail, and, most of all, by approaching the material from the perspective of a would-be, then practicing and collaborating, player-playwright. Potter’s unique emphasis on Shakespeare’s imaginative life and the words that fed it works brilliantly to produce what I would have thought impossible: a really new biography that never thins into mere speculation. Learned, modest, witty, and above all smart, the book will be a must-read for anyone who cares about early modern theater.” Meredith Skura, Professor of English, Rice University “By keeping her eye on the enduring power of Shakespeare’s writing, Lois Potter manages to gather all the interesting and puzzling questions we have asked about his life into a focused and authentically critical biography. She is adventurous in taking on speculation and counter-speculation but never allows us to confuse conjecture with fact. Richly informative and engagingly written, this book should appeal to general readers as well as to professional Shakespeareans.” Edward Pechter, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Concordia University “Lois Potter has produced an astonishing, revelatory, fully literary biography. The Life of William Shakespeare is a product of deep reservoirs of historical knowledge, theatrical experience, and critical acumen, all deployed with an extraordinarily sympathetic imagination. Potter adjudicates standing quarrels about the life story with intelligence and dispassion, offers up scintillating new readings of the works, and produces interesting and original observations on every page.” Lena Cowen Orlin, Executive Director, Shakespeare Association of America, and Professor of English, Georgetown University “This is not just (just!) a biography of Shakespeare: it is a theatrical biography. It uses Lois Potter’s immense, unrivalled knowledge of things theatrical to draw very logical and frequently original inferences.” Laurie E. Maguire, Professor of English, University of Oxford “This is a lively, fresh new introduction to the life of Shakespeare, no mere regurgitating of earlier lives. It reads well. It is judicious, intelligent, coherent, and well documented.” David Bevington, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago BLACKWELL CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES General Editor : Claude Rawson This acclaimed series offers informative and durable biographies of important authors, British, European, and North American, which will include substantial critical discussion of their works. An underlying objective is to re-establish the notion that books are written by people who lived in particular times and places. This objective is pursued not by programmatic assertions or strenuous point-making, but through the practical persuasion of volumes which offer intelligent criticism within a well-researched biographical context. Also in this series The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer The Life of Henry Fielding Derek Pearsall Ronald Paulson The Life of Samuel Johnson The Life of W. B. Yeats Robert DeMaria, Jr Terence Brown The Life of Robert Browning The Life of Evelyn Waugh Clyde De L. Ryals Douglas Lane Patey The Life of William Faulkner The Life of Goethe Richard Gray John R. Williams The Life of Walter Scott The Life of John Milton John Sutherland Barbara Lewalski The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Life of Daniel Defoe Rosemary Ashton John Richetti The Life of Thomas Hardy The Life of William Shakespeare Paul Turner Lois Potter The Life of Celine The Life of George Eliot Nicholas Hewitt Nancy Henry The Life of William Shakespeare A Critical Biography Lois Potter This edition first published 2012 Ó 2012 Lois Potter Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Lois Potter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Potter, Lois. The life of William Shakespeare : a critical biography / Lois Potter. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-631-20784-9 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-28152-9 (pbk.) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. 2. Dramatists, English–Early modern, 1500-1700–Biography. I. Title. PR2894.P68 2012 822.303–dc23 2011043348 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12pt Bembo by Thomson Digital, Noida, India 1 2012 Contents List of Illustrations vi Preface and Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations x The Shakespeare Family Tree xii 1 “Born