30 Great Myths about Shakespeare

Think you know Shakespeare? Think again . . .Was a real skull used in the first performance of Hamlet? WereShakespeare's plays Elizabethan blockbusters? How much do we reallyknow about the playwright's life? And what of his notoriousrelationship with his wife? Exploring and exploding 30 popularmyths about the great playwright, this illuminating new bookevaluates all the evidence to show how historical material--orits absence--can be interpreted and misinterpreted, and whatthis reveals about our own personal investment in the stories wetell.

Introduction 1Myth 1 Shakespeare was the most popular writer of his time 6Myth 2 Shakespeare was not well educated 11Myth 3 Shakespeare's plays should be performed inElizabethan dress 18Myth 4 Shakespeare was not interested in having his playsprinted 26Myth 5 Shakespeare never traveled 34Myth 6 Shakespeare's plays are politically incorrect40Myth 7 Shakespeare was a Catholic 47Myth 8 Shakespeare's plays had no scenery 54Myth 9 Shakespeare's tragedies are more serious than hiscomedies 60Myth 10 Shakespeare hated his wife 66Myth 11 Shakespeare wrote in the rhythms of everyday speech72Myth 12 Hamlet was named after Shakespeare's son 80Myth 13 The coarse bits of Shakespeare are for the groundlings;the philosophy is for the upper classes 86Myth 14 Shakespeare was a Stratford playwright 94Myth 15 Shakespeare was a plagiarist 99Myth 16 We don't know much about Shakespeare's life106Myth 17 Shakespeare wrote alone 113Myth 18 Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical 119Myth 19 If Shakespeare were writing now, he'd be writingforHollywood 125Myth 20 The Tempest was Shakespeare's farewell to the stage130Myth 21 Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary 137Myth 22 Shakespeare's plays are timeless 143Myth 23 Macbeth is jinxed in the theater 150Myth 24 Shakespeare did not revise his plays 156Myth 25 Boy actors played women's roles 163Myth 26 Shakespeare's plays don't work as movies169Myth 27 Yorick's skull was real 175Myth 28 Queen Elizabeth loved Shakespeare's plays 183Myth 29 Shakespeare's characters are like real people190Myth 30 Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare 196Coda 202Further Reading 207Index 211