(1) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

 

The Bard of Avon – or simply, the Bard.

“He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist…His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.”

What else is there to say than this introduction to the Wikipedia article on Shakespeare? Shakespeare is so definitive and so influential as a writer – indeed, as THE writer, “the only playwright most people can name” as per TV Tropes on Shakespeare – that his very name evokes all you need to say.

Well, except perhaps why I rank him as (only) special mention, albeit as my top special mention in god tier, in my Top 10 Poetry instead of Top 10 Literature?

The latter is perhaps easier to address. For me, Shakespeare primarily wrote poetry – obviously in his sonnets but also even in his plays. Yes – he did write some prose in his plays but mostly he wrote them in blank verse. I’m reminded of Don Marquis writing in jest as Shakespeare’s publishers remonstrating with him to stop doing so much of that poetry stuff and do more of the ghosts or gore the audience liked.

As for the query why only special mention, as influential as he is – including for me potentially as a subject worthy of several top ten lists – he just lacks the same influence for me as those entries in my Top 10 Poetry or Top 10 Literature lists. There’s also the sheer volume of writing, which makes it difficult to pick any single play, let alone sonnet, as the best or most influential above all others.

Although if push came to shove and I had to nominate one play for this special mention entry, it would be Macbeth – not coincidentally, the major Shakespeare play I studied at school and which remains a major influence on me, particularly when it comes to Shakespeare.

 

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 

Runners-up would be those other plays I studied, Julius Caesar and Henry V, although I also have a soft spot for Romeo and Juliet from the Baz Luhrman film adaptation.

And speaking of adaptations, the depth of his influence on drama, literature and culture remains long, ongoing and profound – back to Wikipedia on his legacy, “Shakespeare’s work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and literature…he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, language, and genre.” His plays have been almost endlessly adapted, imitated, parodied, deconstructed and reconstructed – not just in drama or theater, but in novels and literature in general as well as films and television.

His influence extends even to music – “scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare’s works” – and art, to the study of psychology and the English language itself. “His use of language helped to shape modern English…expressions such as ‘with bated breath’ (Merchant of Venice) and ‘a foregone conclusion’ (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.”

And far beyond England or English for that matter – “this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so effortlessly universal, each different culture – German, Italian, Russian – was obliged to respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has something for everyone.”

Although perhaps nothing will ever top his finest stage direction – “Exit, pursued by a bear” (from A Winter’s Tale).

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)