William Stacy (February 15, 1734 – August 1802) was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. Published histories describe Colonel William Stacy's involvement in a variety of events during the war, such as rallying the militia on a village common in Massachusetts, participating in the Battle of Bunker Hill, being captured by Loyalists and American Indians at the Cherry Valley massacre, narrowly escaping a death by burning at the stake, General George Washington's efforts to obtain Stacy's release from captivity, and Washington's gift of a gold snuff box to Stacy at the end of the war.

During Col. William Stacy's post-war life, he was a pioneer, helping to establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. He was active in the Marietta pioneer community, and served as foreman of the first Grand Jury in the Northwest Territory, an event establishing the rule of law in the territory. At the age of 56, he ice skated thirty miles up a frozen river, warning two of his sons of a possible Indian attack, which occurred several days later as the Big Bottom massacre and marked the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.

William Stacy's surname has also been spelled as Stacey, Stacia, and Stacie; the correct spelling is Stacy. He is often referred to as Colonel Stacy, an abbreviation of his last rank of lieutenant colonel.

Early life[link]

William Stacy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1734 and died in Marietta, Ohio in 1802.^[1] Slightly different years of birth and death have been reported.^[2] Stacy grew up in Gloucester on the coast of Massachusetts and worked as a shoemaker, a trade learned from his father; he may also have worked in the seafaring business. William Stacy married Sarah Day in 1754. Subsequently, during 1757, they moved away from the coast to New Salem in western Massachusetts, and raised a large family. Stacy took up farming and continued his work as a shoemaker. He also became a commercial banker, loaning money at interest before there were any banks in the area. His customers were from New Salem and other towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. By the time of his early middle age, William Stacy was living a comfortable life; he was successful and widely known.^[3] During 1775, at the age of 41, William Stacy's life changed with the onset of friction between the Thirteen Colonies and the British Empire.

Opening days of the Revolutionary War[link]

William Stacy was an active revolutionary from the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. By one account, he entered service on April 19, 1775,^[4] the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the opening day of the war. Another account has William Stacy rallying the militia at his home village of New Salem, in the western portion of the colony, on April 20, 1775 upon receiving the news of Lexington and Concord.^[5] A memorial plaque was dedicated to Colonel Stacy in 1956 on the village common of New Salem.^[6][7][8] The story reflected on the plaque has been handed down for generations beginning with an early history in 1841,^[5][9] and was included in the publication of the New Salem Sesquicentennial Committee in 1904.^[10] The inscription on the plaque reads:

The New Salem Bicentennial Commission and town historian later speculated that this event might have occurred earlier, at the time of the Powder Alarm during 1774.^[11] The Powder Alarm was a precursor to the events at Lexington and Concord.

Battle of Bunker Hill[link]

As the war began, William Stacy served as major in Colonel Benjamin Woodbridge's regiment of Minutemen, which was organized into Woodbridge's (25th) Regiment.^[4] During the Siege of Boston, Woodbridge's regiment was based at Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, and participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first large-scale battle of the war.^[12] An orderly book shows that on June 13, 1775, several days before the battle, Major Stacy was officer of the night guard, while Colonel William Prescott, who would be the primary leader of patriot forces during the battle, was officer of the day.^[13] Stacy was recommended for commission on June 16, the day before the battle.^[4] On June 17, 1775, Woodbridge's regiment of 300 soldiers arrived at Bunker Hill and took up positions immediately prior to the battle,^[12] and parts of the regiment engaged. A portion of Woodbridge's regiment joined Colonel Prescott's regiment at the redoubt and breastwork on the hill, and a company from Woodbridge's regiment deployed on the right flank.^[14]

Battle of Bunker Hill

The defenders on the right flank fought valiantly from behind what cover they could find.^[15] The men at the redoubt and breastwork fought until they had no more bullets, finally fighting with the butts of their guns, rocks, and their bare hands.^[16] Woodbridge's regiment "was not commissioned, and there are few details of it, or of its officers, in the accounts of the battle."^[17] Stacy's disposition is unknown. He later signed an affidavit regarding the guns of a fellow patriot who was killed in action at Bunker Hill.^[18] Sergeant Benjamin Haskell (Haskall), also of New Salem and also a co-signer of that same affidavit, was reportedly in the center of the action near General Joseph Warren when Warren was killed during the battle.^[10] The New Salem Sesquicentennial Committee paid homage to Stacy, Haskell, and others of that village, proclaiming:

And in those days of darkness and disaster, which, as they come to all nations, will surely again come to us, he will tell us of another Jeremiah Meacham, of more Jeremiah Ballards, of another Benjamin Haskell, of another William Stacy...^[19]

Cherry Valley massacre, and prisoner of war[link]

Stacy served as lieutenant colonel in Colonel Ichabod Alden's 7th Massachusetts Regiment during 1777 and 1778.^[20] The regiment was sent to Cherry Valley, New York to protect the local population from Loyalists and American Indians. The Loyalists were organized as Butler's Rangers, a Loyalist militia in the British Army, led by Colonel John Butler and his son, Captain Walter Butler. The Loyalists operated together with American Indians, including some who were under the leadership of Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader also known as Thayendanegea.^[21]

Cherry Valley massacre, the fate of Jane Wells, one of thirty non-combatants killed during the massacre.

While serving with Colonel Alden at Cherry Valley during October 1778, William Stacy was transferred to the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,^[22] though remaining with Colonel Alden. During that time period, Lieutenant William McKendry, a quartermaster in Colonel Alden's regiment, kept a journal with firsthand accounts of the actions at Cherry Valley. One of his lighter notes concerning Colonel Stacy was a journal entry for October 6, 1778: "Col. Stacy and Capt. Ballard had a horse race. Col. Stacy won the bet."^[23] However, one month later, Cherry Valley experienced the ravages of war.

On November 11, 1778 a mixed force of Loyalists, British soldiers, Mohawk and Seneca under the command of Walter Butler descended on Cherry Valley.^[24][25] Colonel Alden had been warned of their approach, but had dismissed the warnings. He and his command staff, including Stacy, were stationed in a house some 400 yards (370 m) from the fort.^[26] McKendry described the attack in his journal: "Immediately came on 442 Indians from the Five Nations, 200 Tories under the command of one Col. Butler and Capt. Brant; attacked headquarters; killed Col. Alden; took Col. Stacy prisoner; attacked Fort Alden; after three hours retreated without success of taking the fort."^[27][28] McKendry identified the fatalities of the massacre as Colonel Alden, thirteen other soldiers, and thirty civilian inhabitants. It became known as the Cherry Valley massacre and noted as one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the Revolution.^[29] Three months later, in his journal entry for February 12, 1779, McKendry describes receiving a report from an Indian of William Stacy in captivity; Stacy was apparently concerned to reassure his fellow soldiers: “the last he knew of Col. Stacy he was well and in good spirits, and told him not to mind it for it was only the fortune of war.”^[30]

Several accounts indicate that during the Cherry Valley massacre or thereafter, Colonel Stacy was stripped naked and tied to a stake, and was about to be tortured and killed, but was spared by Joseph Brant.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]} William Stacy was a Freemason; Joseph Brant was an educated American Indian, and had also become a Freemason. It is reported that Stacy made an appeal as one Freemason to another, thus saving his life. Colonel Stacy was subsequently taken to Fort Niagara, the Loyalist base in New York and held prisoner under Colonel Butler during the summer of 1779.^[37] At Fort Niagara, Molly Brant, the sister of Joseph Brant, was hostile toward Stacy, and wanted Colonel Butler to return custody of Stacy to the Indians. She proclaimed dreams of her and the Indians using Stacy's head in an Indian football game. Colonel Butler placated Molly Brant with rum and protected his prisoner.^[37] Subsequently, from late-1779 through mid-1782, Colonel Stacy was held prisoner at Fort Chambly near Montreal.^[38]

Fort Chambly in Quebec

As a prisoner-of-war, Colonel Stacy was the subject of high level correspondence and actions of General George Washington and other leaders of the Continental Army. During April 1780, General Lafayette, who fought with the Americans during the Revolution, hand-carried a letter from General William Heath to General Washington, describing a reported Loyalist and British strategy concerning Stacy. The strategy was to continue holding Colonel Stacy as a prisoner-of-war, and to use Stacy in a prisoner exchange, should Colonel Butler or another ranking Loyalist officer, Sir John Johnson, be captured by the Continental Army.^[39] During September 1780, General Washington attempted to orchestrate a prisoner exchange for Colonel Stacy,^[40] but was unsuccessful. On November 1, 1781, the General Assembly of Massachusetts passed a Resolve urging Governor John Hancock to encourage General Heath to pursue a prisoner exchange for Stacy.^[41]

Colonel Stacy was not released from captivity until the end of the war, during August 1782.^[38][42] General Washington reportedly gave Stacy a gold snuff box as a personal memento after the war.^[43] William Stacy's nephew, Nathaniel Stacy, writes that his first memory of childhood was the return of Col. William Stacy to New Salem after the war.^[44]

Marietta and the Ohio Country[link]

During early 1788,^[45][46][47] at about 54 years of age, William Stacy joined with other Revolutionary War officers as a pioneer to the Ohio Country, and was involved in establishing Marietta, Ohio at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. Colonel Stacy joined this venture as a shareholder in the Ohio Company of Associates,^[48][49] which was formed and led by Gen. Rufus Putnam and Gen. Benjamin Tupper. General Lafayette visited Marietta years later and described these pioneers and former officers: "They were the bravest of brave. Better men never lived."^[50] George Washington commented "I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."^[51] Marietta is located in the county of Ohio bearing Washington's name.

During the settlement of the Ohio Country, two of Colonel Stacy's sons were with a small group of pioneers attempting to establish a settlement on some good potential farmland known as Big Bottom, upriver from Marietta on the Muskingum River. Colonel Stacy ice skated 30 miles (48 km) up the frozen river in late December 1790 and warned his sons about the danger of a possible Indian attack. His concerns were realized several days later on January 2, 1791 with the occurrence of the Big Bottom massacre, and the beginning of the Northwest Indian War. Twelve people were killed in the attack, including Stacy's son John. His son Philemon was taken captive and died later.^{[52][53][54][55][56]}

William Stacy was a prominent and active member of the pioneer settlement of Marietta. He superintended the construction of a stockade known as Picketed Point to protect the settlers from Indians,^[57] he was an officer in the militia, and he was an officer on the first board of police.^[58] Additionally, he served as an officer of the township of Marietta, and he owned one of two hand mills in the settlement.^[59][60] William Stacy was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati and an original member of the American Union Lodge No. 1 (Freemasons) at Marietta;^[61][62] the name of this lodge was reportedly suggested by Benjamin Franklin, and the seal engraved by Paul Revere.^[63] Stacy was honored with the position of foreman of the first Grand Jury in the Northwest Territory. This was an important event, as this court was the first establishment of civil and criminal law in the pioneer country.^[64]

William Stacy lost his wife Sarah to smallpox during March 1790 after 36 years of marriage. He subsequently married Hannah Sheffield during July of that year. "A man highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities, and honored for his services and sufferings in the cause of freedom,"^[65] William Stacy died in Marietta in 1802 at 68 years of age. He was buried in Marietta at Mound Cemetery, the site of an ancient American Indian burial mound. Colonel Stacy has good company in his final resting place; Mound Cemetery reportedly contains the largest number of Revolutionary War officers buried in one location.^[66] A new memorial marker was dedicated to William Stacy in 1928 in Mound Cemetery.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1890 edition, Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston (1890) p. 789.
• Andrews, Martin R.: History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois (1902) pp. 879–80.
• Barber, John Warner: Historical Collections, being a General Collection of Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc., relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts, with Geographical Descriptions, Dorr, Howland, & Co., Worcester, Massachusetts (1841) chapter on Franklin County, section on New Salem, pp. 264–65. The 1844 edition of this historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Historical Collections of Massachusetts.
• Barber, John Warner: Historical Collections of the State of New York, containing a General Collection of the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc., relating to its History and Antiquities, with Geographical Descriptions of Every Township in the State, S. Tuttle, New York (1842) pp. 442–43. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Historical Collections of New York.
• Barker, Joseph: Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio (1958) p. 35; original manuscript written late in Joseph Barker's life, prior to his death in 1843.
• Barr, Daniel (2006). Unconquered: the Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-98466-3. OCLC 260132653. 
• Beach, Arthur: A Pioneer College: The Story of Marietta, John F. Cuneo Co., Marietta, Ohio (1935) p. 12.
• Beardsley, Levi: Reminiscences; Personal and Other Incidents; Early Settlement of Otsego County, Charles Vinten, New York (1852) p. 463. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Early Settlement of Otsego County.
• Blake, John Lauris: Anecdotes of the American Revolution, Alexander V. Blake, New York (1845) pp. 200–02.
• Bradford, Alden: History of Massachusetts, From 1764, to July, 1775: When General Washington took Command of the American Army, Richardson and Lord, Boston (1822) Chapter XVI (including the Bunker Hill Battle), pp. 382–83. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at History of Massachusetts.
• Campbell, William W.: Annals of Tryon County; or, the Border Warfare of New-York during the Revolution, J. & J. Harper, New York (1831) pp. 110–11, 182. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Annals of Tryon County.
• Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Seventh Series, Vol. V., Boston (1905) pp. 60, 324. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
• Cruikshank, Ernest: Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara, Tribune Printing House, Welland, Ontario, Canada (1893) p. 58. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Butler’s Rangers.
• Cutler, Julia Perkins: Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, Robert Clarke and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (1890) pp. 23–4, 202–03. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler.
• Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR): American Monthly, Vol. 16, Jan-Jun 1900, R. R. Bowker Co., New York (1900) p. 329 (re/Mound Cemetery).
• Dean, John Ward (Editor): The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1895,Vol XLIX, Boston (1895) in the section entitled ‘Captain William Meacham at Bunker Hill,’ p. 203-04.
• Drake, Francis S.: Memorials of the Society of Cincinnati of Massachusetts, Boston (1873) pp. 465–67. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Memorials of the Society of Cincinnati.
• Edes, Richard S. and Darlington, William M.: Journal and Letters of Col. John May, Robert Clarke and Co, Cincinnati, Ohio (1873), pp. 70–1. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Journal and Letters of Col. John May.
• Frothingham, Jr., Richard: History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, Second Edition, published by Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston (1851) Chapters V and VII, regarding the Bunker Hill Battle, p. 136 (re/Woodbridge’s regiment) and p. 183 (re/Stacy). This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Siege of Boston.
• Frothingham, Jr., Richard: The Battle-Field of Bunker Hill, a paper communicated to the Massachusetts Historical Society, June 10, 1875, Boston (1876) in a section regarding ‘Extracts from an Orderly Book,’ pp. 38–9. This historical paper is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Battle Field of Bunker Hill.
• Graymont, Barbara (1972). The Iroquois in the American Revolution. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0083-6. 
• Harvey, Arthur: Transactions of the Canadian Institute, Vol. IV 1892–93, Copp, Clark Company, Toronto (1895) pp. 288, 291. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Transactions of the Canadian Institute.
• Heitman, Francis B.: Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, Rare Book Shop Publishing Co., Washington, D.C. (1914) pp. 36–38, 514. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Officers of the Continental Army.
• Hildreth, S. P.: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, H. W. Derby and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (1852) pp. 401–7.
• Hildreth, S. P.: Pioneer History: Being an Account of the First Examinations of the Ohio Valley, and the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory, H. W. Derby and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (1848) pp. 226, 233, 273, 326–27, 333–34, 432–34, 439. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory.
• History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Vol. II, Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1879) chapter on New Salem, section on Revolutionary Reminiscences, p. 668. (This book erroneously reports that Col. Stacy was killed by Indians near Marietta, Ohio; it was actually Col. Stacy’s son John who was killed by Indians at Big Bottom near Marietta.)
• Holland, Josiah Gilbert: History of Western Massachusetts, the Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire, Vol. I-Parts I and II, Samuel Bowles and Company, Springfield, Massachusetts (1855) Chapter XV, p. 214. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at History of Western Massachusetts.
• Hulbert, Archer Butler: The Records of the Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company, Volume I, Marietta Historical Commission, Marietta, Ohio (1917) pp. xliv, cxxxi, 117, 131. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Ohio Company, Volume I.
• Hulbert, Archer Butler: The Records of the Original Proceedings of the Ohio Company, Volume II, Marietta Historical Commission, Marietta, Ohio (1917) pp. 2, 50, 56, 147, 202, 241. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Ohio Company, Volume II.
• Hunting, Beatrice Fay: “Plaque Honoring William Stacy to be Uncovered Tomorrow at New Salem”, Enterprise and Journal newspaper, Orange, Massachusetts (October 4, 1956).
• Hunting, Beatrice Fay: “Donor Attends Unveiling of Stacy Plaque at New Salem”, Enterprise and Journal newspaper, Orange, Massachusetts (October 11, 1956).
• Kelsay, Isabel Thompson (1986). Joseph Brant, 1743–1807, Man of Two Worlds. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0208-8. OCLC 13823422. 
• Ketchum, Richard M.: Decisive Day, the Battle for Bunker Hill, Henry Holt and Company, Owl Books Edition, New York (1999). ISBN 0-8050-6099-5
• Ketchum, William: An Authentic and Comprehensive History of Buffalo, with some account of Its Early Inhabitants both Savage and Civilized, Rockwell, Baker, and Hill, Buffalo, New York (1864) p. 322. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at History of Buffalo.
• Lane, Eula Rogers: Ode to the Big Bottom Massacre, Richardson Printing, Marietta, Ohio (1975).
• Lemonds, Leo L.: Col. William Stacy – Revolutionary War Hero, Cornhusker Press, Hastings, Nebraska (1993). ISBN 0-933909-09-8
• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Vol 14, online database, The Generations Network Inc., Provo, Utah (1998); original data from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Vol. 14, Wright and Potter Printing Co., Boston (1896), pp. 796 (William Stacey), 804-5 (William Stacy).
• McHenry, Chris: Rebel Prisoners at Quebec 1778-1783, Being a List of American Prisoners Held by the British during the Revolutionary War, Lawrenceburg, Indiana (1981).
• Moore, C.: The Masonic Review, Volume XI, C. Moore, Cincinnati, Ohio (1854) pp. 306–07.
• Moore, Frank: Diary of the American Revolution from Newspapers and Original Documents, Vol II, Charles Scribner, New York (1860), pp. 104–05. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at American Revolution from Original Documents.
• Murray, Stuart A. P.: Smithsonian Q & A: The American Revolution, HarperCollins Publishers by Hydra Publishing, New York (2006) p. 64.
• New Salem Sesqui-Centennial and History of the Town 1903, Athol, Massachusetts (1904) pp. 21, 49. (This book erroneously reports that Col. Stacy was killed by Indians near Marietta, Ohio; it was actually Col. Stacy’s son John who was killed by Indians at Big Bottom near Marietta.) This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at New Salem Sesquicentennial.
• Pritchard, Joan: “Area man discovers long roots”, Marietta A.M. newspaper, Parkersburg, West Virginia (July 24, 1994) p. 1., including article text, photo, and photo caption.
• Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, Vol. IV, James B. Lyon, Albany, New York (1900) pp. 286, 292–93. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Public Papers of George Clinton.
• Sparks, Jared: The Writings of George Washington, Vol. VII, Harper and Brothers, New York (1847) p. 211. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at George Washington Vol VII.
• Sparks, Jared: The Writings of George Washington, Vol. IX, Harper and Brothers, New York (1847) p. 385. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at George Washington Vol. IX.
• Stacy, Nathaniel: Memoirs of the Life of Nathaniel Stacy, Abner Vedder, Columbus, Pennsylvania (1850) pp. 24, 34.
• Stone, William L.: Life of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) including the Border Wars of the American Revolution, J. Munsell, Albany, New York (1865) pp. 372, 374, 386–87. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Life of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea).
• Summers, Thomas J.: History of Marietta, The Leader Publishing Co., Marietta, Ohio (1903) pp. 81, 100–02, 294–95. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at History of Marietta.
• Swett, S.: History of Bunker Hill Battle, With a Plan, Second Edition, Munroe and Francis, Boston (1826) ‘Preliminary Chapter’ p. 5 (re/Stacy), and chapter ‘The Battle’ p. 30 (re/Woodbridge’s regiment). This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at History of Bunker Hill Battle.
• Young, Edward J.: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855–1886, University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1886) section entitled Journal of William McKendry, pp. 436–78. This historical book is available online via the Google Books Library Project at Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
• Zimmer, Louise: “Colonel Stacy defies odds of survival”, Marietta Times newspaper, Marietta, Ohio (March 21, 1994) p. B5.
• Zimmer, Louise: More True Stories from Pioneer Valley, published by Sugden Book Store, Marietta, Ohio (1993) chapter 10 entitled Massacre at Big Bottom, pp. 92–101.
• Zimmer, Louise: True Stories of Pioneer Times, published by Broughton Foods company, Marietta, Ohio (1987) chapter 4 entitled The First Families p. 18.

External links[link]

• William Stacy monument Smithsonian American Art Museum, Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture
• William Stacy biographic sketch Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, in collaboration with the New England Historic Genealogical Society

William Shakespeare
The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born	Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died	23 April 1616 (aged 52) Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Occupation	Playwright, poet, actor
Period	English Renaissance
Spouse(s)	Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616) «start: (1582)–end+1: (1617)»"Marriage: Anne Hathaway to William Shakespeare" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/William_Shakespeare)
Children	Susanna Hall Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney
Relative(s)	John Shakespeare (father) Mary Shakespeare (mother)
Signature

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)^{[nb 1]} was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.^[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".^{[2][nb 2]} His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,^{[nb 3]} 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.^[3]

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.^[4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.^{[5][nb 4]} His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".^[6] In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Life[link]

Early life[link]

William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer.^[7] He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day.^[8] This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616.^[9] He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.^[10]

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford,^[11] a free school chartered in 1553,^[12] about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the grammar curriculum was standardised by royal decree throughout England,^[13] and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar based upon Latin classical authors.^[14]

John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence 27 November 1582. The next day two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage.^[15] The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times,^[16] and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583.^[17] Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585.^[18] Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.^[19]

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592, and scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".^[20] Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare’s first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.^[21] Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.^[22] John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.^[23] Some 20th-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.^[24] Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.^[25]

London and theatrical career[link]

It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.^[27] He was well enough known in London by then to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit:

...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.^[28]

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words,^[29] but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself (the "university wits").^[30] The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene's target. Here Johannes Factotum—"Jack of all trades"— means a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".^[29][31]

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare’s career in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks.^[32] From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed by only the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London.^[33] After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new king, James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.^[34]

In 1599, a partnership of company members built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they called the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man.^[35] In 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, he invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.^[36]

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions from 1594. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages.^[37] Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour (1598) and Sejanus His Fall (1603).^[38] The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson’s Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end.^[39] The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after Volpone, although we cannot know for certain which roles he played.^[40] In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles.^[41] In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father.^[42] Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It and the Chorus in Henry V,^[43] though scholars doubt the sources of the information.^[44]

Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford during his career. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames.^[45] He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there.^[46] By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There he rented rooms from a French Huguenot named Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of ladies' wigs and other headgear.^[47]

Later years and death[link]

Rowe was the first biographer to pass down the tradition that Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death;^[48] but retirement from all work was uncommon at that time,^[49] and Shakespeare continued to visit London.^[48] In 1612 he was called as a witness in a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary.^[50] In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory;^[51] and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall.^[52]

Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.

After 1606–1607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613.^[53] His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher,^[54] who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King’s Men.^[55]

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616^[56] and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607,^[57] and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare’s death.^[58]

In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna.^[59] The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body".^[60] The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying.^[61] The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare’s direct line.^[62] Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically.^[63] He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation.^[64] Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.^[65]

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.^[66] The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:^[67]

Shakespeare's grave.

<poem>Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare. Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.^[68] </poem> (Modern spelling: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, | To dig the dust enclosed here. | Blessed be the man that spares these stones, | And cursed be he that moves my bones.)

Sometime before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil.^[69] In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.^[70]

Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays[link]

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, and critics agree that Shakespeare did the same, mostly early and late in his career.^[71] Some attributions, such as Titus Andronicus and the early history plays, remain controversial, while The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost Cardenio have well-attested contemporary documentation. Textual evidence also supports the view that several of the plays were revised by other writers after their original composition.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI, written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date, however,^[72] and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also belong to Shakespeare’s earliest period.^[73] His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,^[74] dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty.^[75] The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca.^[76] The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story.^[77] Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which two friends appear to approve of rape,^[78] the Shrew's story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics and directors.^[79]

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. By William Blake, c. 1786. Tate Britain.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies.^[80] A Midsummer Night's Dream is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes.^[81] Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences.^[82] The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing,^[83] the charming rural setting of As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies.^[84] After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work.^[85] This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death;^[86] and Julius Caesar—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives—which introduced a new kind of drama.^[87] According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".^[88]

Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost of Hamlet's Father. Henry Fuseli, 1780–5. Kunsthaus Zürich.

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays" Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and All's Well That Ends Well and a number of his best known tragedies.^[89] Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, Hamlet, has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins "To be or not to be; that is the question".^[90] Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement.^[91] The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.^[92] In Othello, the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him.^[93] In King Lear, the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty".^[94] In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies,^[95] uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne, until their own guilt destroys them in turn.^[96] In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.^[97]

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.^[98] Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.^[99] Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.^[100]

Performances[link]

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of Titus Andronicus reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes.^[101] After the plagues of 1592–3, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames.^[102] Londoners flocked there to see the first part of Henry IV, Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest...and you scarce shall have a room".^[103] When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark.^[104] The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with Julius Caesar one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.^[105]

The reconstructed Globe Theatre, London.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604 and 31 October 1605, including two performances of The Merchant of Venice.^[106] After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer.^[107] The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In Cymbeline, for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."^[108]

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear.^[109] The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in Romeo and Juliet and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, among other characters.^[110] He was replaced around the turn of the 16th century by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It and the fool in King Lear.^[111] In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that Henry VIII "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony".^[112] On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.^[112]

Textual sources[link]

Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout.

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time.^[113] Many of the plays had already appeared in quarto versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves.^[114] No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies".^[115] Alfred Pollard termed some of them "bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory.^[116] Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers.^[117] In some cases, for example Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida and Othello, Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern additions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto, that the Oxford Shakespeare prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.^[118]

Poems[link]

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin.^[119] Influenced by Ovid's Metamorphoses,^[120] the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust.^[121] Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lover's Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects.^[122] The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chester's 1601 Love's Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.^[123]

Sonnets[link]

Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets.

Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.^[124] Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends".^[125] Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence.^[126] He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart".^[127]

The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication.^[129] Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.^[130]

Style[link]

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama.^[131] The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in The Two Gentlemen of Verona has been described as stilted.^[132]

Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of Richard III has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard’s vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays.^[133] No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with Romeo and Juliet perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles.^[134] By the time of Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night's Dream in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony.^[135] Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as Julius Caesar and Hamlet. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:^[136]

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting

That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—

And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well...

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2, 4–8^[136]

After Hamlet, Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical".^[137] In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length.^[138] In Macbeth, for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "...pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense.^[138] The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.^[139]

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre.^[140] Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed.^[141] He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama.^[142] As Shakespeare’s mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.^[143]

Influence[link]

Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head. By Henry Fuseli, 1793–94. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington.

Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre.^[144] Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.^[145] Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds.^[146] His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."^[147]

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick is a classic tragic hero, inspired by King Lear.^[148] Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works. These include two operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Otello and Falstaff, whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays.^[149] Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated Macbeth into German.^[150] The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.^[151]

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now,^[152] and his use of language helped shape modern English.^[153] Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the English Language, the first serious work of its type.^[154] Expressions such as "with bated breath" (Merchant of Venice) and "a foregone conclusion" (Othello) have found their way into everyday English speech.^[155]

Critical reputation[link]

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received his share of praise.^[157] In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy.^[158] And the authors of the Parnassus plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower and Spenser.^[159] In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art".

A recently garlanded statue of William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago, typical of many created in the 19th and early 20th century.

Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson.^[160] Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare".^[161] For several decades, Rymer's view held sway; but during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation.^[162] By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet.^[163] In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal and Victor Hugo.^[164]